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Bikes and Railroad Crossings Save Email Print
Harrisonburg, Va.
Posted: 6:33 PM May 15, 2008
Last Updated: 3:59 PM May 16, 2008
Reporter: Kelly Creswell
Email Address: kcreswell@whsv.com

A | A | A

With such high gas prices, many people are resorting to other types of transportation, such as riding bikes. However, there are some dangerous spots that are curbing cyclist's abilities to ride safely.

In a few places in Harrisonburg, the railroad tracks run diagonally making it hazardous for cyclists to cross.

"I have tried to do it on that one," says Amanda Creedon, who rides her bike around Harrisonburg. "That was the first one I actually fell off and decided I was going to use the sidewalk."

Railroad tracks on Country Club Road and South Main Street run diagonal and they can cause a real problem for cyclists. Some of the railroad crossings in town are so dangerous for cyclists that signs were put up around town to warn them about the tracks.

Thomas Jenkins is a board member of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition and he says if you don't cross the tracks perpendicularly, two things could happen.

"You do not have the ability to cross the tracks at a perpendicular angle, unless you take up two lanes of traffic," says Thomas Jenkins. "Which on Country Club requires you to take up both lanes, one going the opposite way."

The other thing that you may have to do is get off your bike and walk with barely any shoulder on the side of the road. Jenkins says the coalition is collecting data and says there's been hundreds of cyclists over the past couple of decades who have fallen at these locations. He wants the city to do something about it before more cyclists get hurt.

"I think the bicycle community is kind of fed up with the number of accidents and it's discouraging people from riding bikes when we want to be encouraging them to," says Jenkins.

Jenkins says he's not asking to have the tracks completely relocated from the road, but he would like to see a path around to make it safer for bicyclists. Norfolk Southern does all of the maintenance to the city's railroad tracks, and a company spokesperson says the city hasn't yet contacted Norfolk Southern about doing anything to these particular railroad tracks.

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Posted by: Denise Location: Broadway on May 19, 2008 at 05:53 PM
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue. Many in the bicycling community either have been hurt themselves or know someone who has been hurt on one of these two tracks. Until a solution is found, more cyclists will be injured.

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