Re: Lost your home? Car? Everything? Thank a bicyclist and the California road diet.

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> writes:

On 1/14/2025 1:33 PM, Radey Shouman wrote:

 There are some of those in the US as well.  Here's a story on the
history of an ordinarily mysterious one, which I found entertaining:
https://tylervigen.com/the-mystery-of-the-bloomfield-bridge

>
We had something very similar in our area. Until about ten years ago,
thee was a bridge crossing I-680 at Donald Ave.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Si35exuT7VhwnVLc6
>
Apparently what is now Stambaugh Charter School on the map was once
Stambaugh public school. The bridge over 680 was to allow students
east of 680 to walk to the school. But ODOT tore the bridge down, I
suppose because they felt the (minimal?) maintenance expense wasn't
justified by the pedestrian or bicycle traffic.
>
I used that bridge on a club ride that I led long ago, one I called
the Freeway Bridge Ride. We started at my area, south of Youngstown,
and rode a route the crossed every bridge over the freeway out to
where 680 left the city limits.
>
The idea came to me that freeways and surface streets are often
parallel universes. When you're driving a city freeway, it's easy to
lose track of which surface streets cross the freeway, or what
neighborhoods you're passing through. It was an interesting ride.

Some highway overpasses I see are marked with the road or path on them,
which is interesting and sometimes useful, but apparently not required.

On the other hand, I have sometimes looked over the rail on a highway
overpass to read the signs and figure out where the devil I am, at least
approximately.

Paddling a canoe often gives the same feeling -- landmarks and bridges
look much different from the water, and often some place is easily
visible but just not accessible at all.

--