This level of traffic is not unusual here, and there are other nearby stretches that have similar congestion. The segment of road immediately to the west of this one (where I would have ended up had I turned left at the light at the beginning instead of right) goes past the local high school and middle school and is less than a mile from a major commercial corridor.

This road is a great example of a complete failure by state, county, and municipal government to facilitate any form of travel other than car, and as you can see, it doesn't work very well for travel by car. Part of the challenge is the nearly complete absence of alternative east-west routes (the subdivisions don't connect). It ought to be a prime candidate for a multi-use path that would allow safe cyclist and pedestrian traffic and could connect the nearby Empire State Trail with the restaurants and stores further west, as well as providing safe travel for students and families to and from school and school activities (like sports).

I hope to post a good deal more about it in the coming months.

This particular footage is from January 3, 2025.
https://www.coloniecentralavestudy.org/

The end of the bikeway can be harrowing though, as you can see. There isn’t a proper end: it just dumps you onto the sidewalk (which then leads nowhere, with no cutouts or anything).

This is one of a number of examples throughout the Capital District of bike infrastructure that’s so incomplete that the engineers simply advise cyclists to dismount, as if that was an acceptable expectation. There are numerous cyclists who ride but are not capable of walking. What are they supposed to do in a situation like this?

The end of the bikeway abuts an area that’s been studied by the local MPO for improvement (the bridge over the Hudson needs to be updated or replaced). I submitted a public comment on the project back in January. Hopefully the project sees some major improvements: they’re desperately needed.

While the Empire State Trail consists of more than 700 miles of contiguously marked bike infrastructure, much of it is in disrepair, as you can see from the road surface here. I’ll have more to show of the EST in future videos.

Towards the end of the video, you also get to see one of a number of absolutely awful road-to-trail transitions that my town inflicts on cyclists. I’ll have more of that in the future too.

I touch on how despite casual appearances to the contrary, my suburban neighborhood is incredibly isolated for those on bicycles who aren’t willing to accept a “vehicular cycling” model, and how that fact is ignored by people who like to complain about how bad the traffic is.

I also touch on how isolating the suburbs are socially, making it difficult to find like-minded people even in our own neighborhoods, because we’re always stuck in our cars.

Apologies for the wind noise. I haven't figured out a good way to capture voice audio yet.

It’s possible that the Patroon Creek Greenway project might help with this problem to an extent. It’s also quite disappointing (though not at all surprising) that the massive (for the Capital District) project to redevelop the Tobin’s First Prize Center doesn’t seem to include any work to improve the road. Any residents of the purported 800 new apartment units would need to follow the path I ride in this video to get to the Central Avenue corridor for groceries, shopping, and connections to public transit.

This park has always had drainage issues (possibly due in part to the Town’s penchant for clear-cutting trees and not planting new ones), and after 24 hours of rain, many of them are visible in the video.

I'm still not sure I've given a satisfactory answer. It's a very complex and nuanced question, and it's connected to so many other things.

But it's an answer of sorts. Maybe it can be part of a larger conversation.

(I haven't actually watched it myself, so hopefully I didn't say anything foolish 🙄)

• What are you interested in?
• What are you curious about?
• What do you want to see more of?
• What are you confused about?

Leave questions here or find me on mastodon: @SamUpstate@bluelupine.social

But on a bike...

(I don't know why those last half dozen cars were in such a hurry to pass me ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )