“I think that one is just goofy,” said Boyd, who relies on his bike and sometimes a bus to get around town.
While the intersection isn't easy to cross, Boyd said he yields to larger vehicles while he bikes and the strategy seems to work.
These days, more and more people in Missoula are biking. While no one can offer an official count, downtown bike racks are full, bike shops are busier than ever, and Missoulians are holding more and more conversations about bike safety.
The death of a cyclist last October ignited the discussion, and two other deaths this year fueled it. Since then, bicycle advocates confronted the Missoula City Council with requests to make cycling safer and writers sent a storm of e-mails to a councilman's listserv. The city held a forum on bike safety and then City Club Missoula hosted one on the future of cycling. An advocacy group called the Bike/Walk Alliance for Missoula is forming, too.
Among cyclists, momentum is building. Bikers want more lanes and routes created and old, faded ones freshened up. They want more infrastructure, in a word, and with more and more bikers taking to the streets, they want it soon.
“We're at a critical point right now,” said Evan Holmstrom, a cyclist who teaches bike classes at Free Cycles Missoula.
Their fervor to push for a complete system hasn't caught fire at City Hall, though. When talking about the bike system, city officials point to past successes - of which there are many. They do not, however, offer a crisp vision for the future of cycling in Missoula.
Missoula has a plan for transit on hand and, of course, a plan for the future of West Broadway, but it lacks a comprehensive plan for the bicycle network. While the city supports increasing the number of trips folks take without a car - and the number of walkers and riders in town - it has not set specific benchmarks.
“Why don't I suggest this as a goal: more,” said Mayor John Engen.
Some cities that have made bicycle travel a priority do regular bike counts. Missoula does not.
While the demand for infrastructure from cyclists is growing louder, the city's bicycle pedestrian program coordinator isn't convinced it is necessary.
“Definitely, infrastructure is important. But it's not critical,” said Phil Smith, Missoula's bicycle pedestrian coordinator.
To cyclists, the comment doesn't sound like an unequivocal commitment.
“That sounds like typical government for you,” said Dru Dixon, a cyclist who doesn't own a car.
Folks on all sides of the equation say political will plays a role - but money does, too. It isn't just a matter of allocating funds, either. It's a matter of accounting for the resources spent.
Bicycle advocates say knowing how much money goes to bike programs is one of the first steps toward a good system. Neither the city nor the state counts the amount of money going into bicycle or nonmotorized projects, though.
“I've requested multiple times a real budget of what we're spending on biking and walking,” said Jim Sayer, a bicycle advocate who directs Adventure Cycling, a Missoula-based nonprofit dedicated to bicycle travel.
He knows how much Boulder, Colo., spends, but he doesn't know how much Missoula spends. And Sayer believes he should because cities that consider walking and biking priorities know their budgets.
“First, they get a grip on what they're spending and how they're spending it. Second, they invest to create or complete systems,” he said.
City officials say counting the costs isn't a straightforward proposition.
Much of the money spent on sweeping streets and filling potholes, for example, benefits cyclists, said chief administrative officer Bruce Bender, a bicycle commuter himself. The city doesn't break down that cost and tag a portion as bike maintenance money.
However, Bender estimated the city has spent millions on infrastructure. Road improvements often bring new bike lanes. Several other new - and costly - structures serve walkers and bikers, too.
The California Street bicycle and pedestrian bridge and Northside railroad overpass went up a few years ago; the Madison Street underpass was a more recent addition. A tunnel under Orange Street serves walkers and cyclists, too. Those improvements aren't cheap, as records show the Northside and California bridges alone cost some $2.5 million.
Money Missoula receives to improve air quality went into those structures, but the bike system isn't getting quite as much these days. These days, air quality money is going more toward the bus system - and those investments are paying off.
Ridership on Mountain Line increased an estimated
8 percent last year, and it's only going up, said Steve Earle, general manager.
“We're on track right now to break our all-time record for fiscal year 2007,” Earle said.
A general transportation plan calls for bicycle infrastructure, too, and the city is building it, Earle said. Often, though, bikeway improvements are tied to road improvements, which “seem to take forever to do.” Overall, he agreed the bike program wasn't moving ahead as quickly as transit.
“They might not quite have the same resources available to them as we do,” Earle said.
The city has put effort and money into education, though. Bicycle ambassadors talk with cyclists about the rules of the road, and Missoula in Motion encourages people not to hop in a car every time they need to get somewhere.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Stacy Rye said she supports Missoula in Motion, but city support for those programs needs to be coupled with a commitment to infrastructure. Rye said it's time for the community to unite around “some pretty simple no-brainers,” like the need for bike lanes.
Many community members say education and outreach are valuable, but Missoulians have come to understand the ethic of driving less. Now they need a working system, and according to many, Missoula is behind.
“Now the infrastructure needs to catch up,” said Bob Giordano, executive director of the Missoula Institute for Sustainable Transportation.
“I think we need to catch up in some ways,” said Rye.
“You guys are playing catch-up,” said Sue Knaup, with the Thunderhead Alliance, a national coalition of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations.
The rate of expansion doesn't seem to be happening quickly, though. Maybe six years ago, the city counted some 18 miles of bike lanes and routes, bicycle pedestrian coordinator Smith said. He touts the current count - up to 26 or 27 miles - but it's a little more than a mile a year of growth. The city is growing to the west, but there's no schedule to expand the system in that direction, either.
Bender said Missoula has built bike infrastructure that is simple to install. Gaps exist because the city runs up against limitations imposed by the Montana Department of Transportation, according to Bender and Smith.
Smith said the city has a list of bike projects that need to be completed, but developing a plan with set goals and timelines “wouldn't do any good.”
“We can't forecast when the state is going to say OK,” Smith said.
Despite weaknesses in the network, observers say bike counts are up, and gas prices are driving much of the change. Last week, The Bike Doctor was inundated with customers.
“People are starting to ride bikes a lot more - especially with the high price of gas,” said the shop's Andy Frank.
When prices spiked in 2006, Montanans drove less on the weekends, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.
“It was a pretty obvious correlation,” said the DOT's Becky Duke.
A trend of rising vehicle counts at many Missoula intersections reversed in 2006 for the first time in years, said Michael Kress, transportation planner with the Office of Planning and Grants.
He said several areas showed decreases and attributed the dips in large part to gas prices. However, some significant drops in the university district also could be due to the Park-N-Ride shuttle service.
Advocates say it's those kind of investments that make a difference. Cities like Madison, Wis., Davis, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. invested heavily in infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians.
“That's where you find the big number of bicyclists, and I don't think it's a coincidence,” said Knaup, with the national coalition.
And that's where you find blueprints for strong bike programs, too. Boulder, for example, faces many of the same challenges Missoula does. Concerns over the environment, air quality and congestion led officials to set clear goals for decreasing the number of miles folks traveled alone in a car.
“There was a realization that in order to do that, we needed to increase the transportation choices,” said Martha Roskowski, the program manager for Go Boulder, or Great Options in Transportation.
Boulder started putting money into making major corridors friendly for all users - including bikers, walkers and drivers - instead of expanding roadways. Now, 95 percent of arterial streets have bike facilities, according to Roskowski. With about the same square mileage as Missoula, the city of Boulder counts 192 miles of on-street bike lanes.
She said the expansions required considerable negotiation with Colorado's Department of Transportation.
“We do that all the time here. A lot of our major arterials are on state highways. And so we put forward a plan, and they say, ‘No, you can't do that.' And we say, ‘Well, but it's what we want to do,' ” she said.
Roskowski said engineers help the city navigate past state agency barriers. For example, they can provide accident data that show 11-foot traffic lanes aren't more dangerous than 12-foot traffic lanes, and they can show the state that recommended plans aren't traffic hazards.
The task of creating systems that work for all users is becoming institutionalized in Boulder, according to Roskowski.
“That's the engineering job here. You figure out how to make it work for all modes,” Roskowski said.
Boulder's much-lauded infrastructure hasn't come easily, though. It's been 20 years in the making and it's been contentious, too.
“Good advocates can make a difference. Good engineers make a difference. But you really need the people at the top saying, ‘Yeah, this is good. Let's head in this direction,' ” she said.
Several Missoula City Council members have been pushing on that front and want more money to go toward the bike system.
“The strategic plan says things like, ‘We value other forms of transportation.' And so that in my mind needs to inform the budget,” Ward 3's Rye said.
Officials say the city of Missoula is doing its best with the resources on hand. Smith requested $30,000 for one project, but it isn't recommended for funding this year. That kind of money won't build much in the way of bike lanes, anyway, according to Bender.
“While far from perfect and far from complete, we've tried to get something on the ground that works for folks,” Engen said.
And it often does work. Boyd, who encounters trouble while traveling Van Buren, said he can get across Missoula on a bike in just 15 or 20 minutes, and he likes that. Even with its flaws, Holmstrom, of Free Cycles, praised the city for having bike lanes and routes.
“I still appreciate the existence of a bike system,” he said.
Giordano said he hopes the discussion about an updated transportation plan will focus more attention on the bike system, and Engen said he expects the new plan will have some meat on its bones.
But the question of commitment remains. Dixon, the government skeptic, said city officials could find money for infrastructure if they wanted to.
“That's where the rubber hits the road - that's where the bike tire hits the road,” Rye said.
Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at Keila.Szpaller@missoulian.com
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