This will be a blog about bikes and the need for proper places to ride. It’s not about New Orleans, rebuilding, broken levees, crumbling infrastructure, music, Mardi Gras, weather, neighborhoods, or anything else. It’s just going to be a rant about biking conditions in this town. As I was riding to work today, my knees felt like they were going to snap as I bumped over the uneven asphalt on St. Charles. It really, really hurts some days. I wonder what it would feel like to bike around a town with maintained streets. As I approached campus, the St. Charles construction blocked off the bulk of the lane. I tried taking the sidewalk, but that’s where pedestrians belong, you know. The sidewalk I was on was also not friendly to the bicyclist–no curb cut. I ended up getting off my bike and then driving in the blocked-off portion of the lane. But that meant cutting across in front of traffic to make what should be an easy right turn into campus. Take a side street, you say. Sure, I could do that, but the potholes, ridges, ripples, old streetcar tracks, and narrow shoulders make side streets unappealing options too. I snapped a picture of this sign, telling me to dismount, as I was trying to leave campus. Argh. Frustrating. Why does this place, where it should be so easy to ride a bike, make it so hard sometimes? I know, I know, there are lots of hidden routes. I know all about Chestnut and Coliseum, Hampson, Wisner Blvd. and City Park, etc. etc. etc. But today I was just frustrated. Ok, rant over. I shall return to our regularly scheduled chipper programming tomorrow.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 
St. Charles is really bad right now with all the construction. I was weaving in and out of the traffic cones myself today, but there’s a silver lining to this cloud. When it’s all done, there will be a bike lane between the traffic and parked cars. OK, well maybe a door-opening lane, but at least it will be marked as a bike lane!
Now *that’s* good news!
just moved to the marigny, work on the tulane campus; wondering if you can recommend a route? just getting my bike legs back after several years of slackin’. was thinking about taking Freret from above Lee Circle; but haven’t tried it yet…
Hi, B. I like to avoid the death trap that is the Lee Circle streetcar track and go up Baronne, but I’m usually coming back from the Treme. I also like Decatur to Magazine and then up Louisiana to St. Charles. St. Charles has a wide shoulder, so I find it the easiest way to get Uptown to Tulane…Soon, NOLA Cycle will hopefully have their bike map out. See you on the streets!
What annoys me is that after months it seems like all they’ve done is dig up half of McAllister… unfortunately Tulane is nothing like trincoll, and that’s a shame.
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Prytania is great, (just south of St. Charles) starting just a couple blocks on the uptown side of Lee circle all the way to Joseph St. at which point you’re almost to Audubon Park. I commute daily from the park area to the CBD and wouldn’t consider another route, it’s really smooth. Good luck.