BIKE: note on exit of Austin State Hospital

[Lane S. Wimberley]

Adding to the minutia...

I don't mind crossing Medical Arts at 40th at all when heading east.
North- and south-bound traffic has a stop sign, and I never have any
problems, even when I have my two kids, who are a little pokey on
their small frames.

West out of CM, I cross Lamar at the light, past Easy's and Long John
Silver's on 40th to the stop, then turn right on Marathon, which seems
to usually have very light traffic.  From there, Bob's yer uncle --
the streets of Rosedale are mostly a very interconnected grid, so you
can meander or jig-jag to your heart's content on neighborhood streets
that typically have light traffic that is fairly slow and tolerant.
If I'm ultimately heading north, I try to maintain the ridge of the
hill so as to minimize uphill stretches.

The one potentially nasty bit if you're ultimately heading north is
getting across 45th.  This is just a piece-of-dreck of a street.  Four
lanes of heavy traffic.  Breaks sometimes seem improbable, but they do
happen, so safe crossing is possible.  When I'm with my kids, I
typically wait for an opportunity (a big gap) and then enter the
intersection before my kids.  I slow in the intersection, standing on
my pedals to make myself as big-looking an obstacle as I can (feel
like a cat turning sideways and arching its back in a confrontation),
looking left and right to guage on-coming car traffic, while I wave my
kids through.  Once they're ahead of me, I zip on through.  This
technique has proven very successful thus far, with cars slowing and
displaying surprising patience.  There is, of course, the danger that
someone might be in a really bad mood, or not paying attention, but
then, as cyclists, we routinely face those odds.

45th is a drag regardless of whether you cross at the stop sign at
SCB, or if you try to cross on one of the neighborhood streets.  But,
I have found that, sometimes, it's actually slightly more pleasant and
straight-forward to head north on Marathon for a fair bit, trying to
enter Medical Arts northbound as north as possible just prior to
45th.  Then, I hang a left with traffic at the light at 45th, and then
an immediate right onto (can't remember the name of the first
neighborhood street).  Works pretty well and surprisingly low stress,
although I usually feel compelled to haul ass during this maneuver.

As always, YMMV.

-Lane

Mike Librik or Amy Babich writes:
> Patrick Goetz wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, Mike Librik or Amy Babich wrote:
> > > As some of you may know, there is a good east-west connection through
> > > Austin State Hospital and Central Market, via a gate between the ASH
> > > grounds the CM loading dock. CM parking lot can be hairy sometimes. This
> > > is a direct path from Hyde Park to the south end of Shoal Creek Blvd.
> > >
> >
> > I've looked for this gate a couple of times from the CM parking lot side
> > and not been able to find it (maybe I need glasses again).  Next time I'll
> > try coming from the ASH side and see if I can locate it.
> 
> Coming from Hyde Park, go straight back through ASH until you are opposite of
> the fenced in generator house (just before the bend in the road). It is right
> where the brick wall becomes chainlink fence.
> 
> Coming from CM, go to the north end of the parking lot and go into the loading
> docks. Just as the narrow access corridor opens into the wide loading dock,
> look for picnic table smoking area. The gate is shut during some weekend hours
> and likely after dark.
> 
> > Question:  How is this a direct path to the south end of SCB?  What do you
> > do once you get through the CM parking lot?
> 
> I'd encourage riders to not use the direct path sidewalk going from the
> intersection of 40th and Marathon (to the east) and 40th and Medical Parkway
> (to the west). I used to use the north side of the gas station parking lot
> just to the north of the sidewalk. However, busy conditions in that parking
> lot, particularly cars backing downhill into my path of travel, and
> unpredictable, chaotic driving encountered when waiting to make the left turn
> from out of the parking lot, have convinced me to avoid it. I prefer not to
> cross the far south end of that lot, since it sends me out the exit in a
> contraflow direction right at the intersection.
> 
> I go up to the "Quik Print" parking lot, who has a sign specifically
> forbidding cut through traffic, and I cut through there. Of course I give any
> pedestrians a wide berth, stopping fully for them if necessary for their
> feeling of well-being, and I make a point of yielding to traffic there for
> more legitimate reasons than I. Thus I jog left on Medical Parkway, which
> isn't too bad since I'm going downhill, and make an easy right onto 40th.
> 
> Coming back, I typically cross Medical Parkway at 42nd. This adds even more
> distance, but it is harder to retrace the above path since it involves going
> uphill on Medical Parkway.
> 
> The reason I specifically avoid the sidewalk connection is that it dumps one
> out directly into the middle of an intersection. Both 40th/Marathon and
> 40th/Med Parkway are 3-way stops for cars, and that sidewalk doesn't figure
> much into motorists' considerations, if they are aware of the sidewalk at all.
> 
> As a general rule, I say that entering intersections from sidewalks is a bad
> idea. While I'll use the sidewalk in some circumstances, I tend to get back
> into the street to make my approach to the intersection. The few times I've
> tried the sidewalk link along 40th at Medical Parkway, I've found that coming
> to a stop and waiting doesn't cause drivers to come to a stop and give me a
> turn. OTOH, when stopped at a stop line in the center of a traffic lane, they
> do stop, fully, and I can cross the intersection with greater safety and
> dignity.
> 



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Lane Wimberley             8303 N. MoPac, Suite A-300  Austin, TX 78759
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