Biking in St. Louis - anyone have experience?
Anyone have any experience biking in St. Louis? My girlfriend is temporarily relocating there and we are both curious about the biking situation.
My guess is it is not as good a city for cycling as Chicago but that it is doable if one is willing to put the time into figuring out the best routes, avoiding big arterials, etc. But I really have no idea; any advice would be appreciated.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on
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I have no concrete recommendations, but just for grins, I visited St. Louis on Google Maps. I rather arbitrarily asked how to get from Brentwood to St. Louis by bike. It gave me a few alternatives, but didn't produce any green lines, which I thought odd. Am I just spoiled by riding in the Chicago area?
(Edit: There is a button somewhere that allows you to "show bike paths". I found it, clicked it. Then that temporary display disappeared. I have no idea how to get it back.)
I did find this page: http://www.mv24.org/trails.html which looks like it might contain some useful info.
Best of luck...
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Permalink Reply by Tom Z on
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Visiting St. Louis... I can tell you drivers can be very unpredictable. They will stop for no reason on expressway ramps, I know this doesn't apply to bicycles, but it shows the mentality of driving.
I guess just be aware it is a different animal driving out there, so that also translates to riding a bike on the street. Also, I saw very few bicycles on the street, so they may not be as used to riding with bicycle traffic adding to more confusion on their part.
Be careful. I would say, try searching for similar sites to thechainlink in st. louis. This may give you the best answers.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Rogers on
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It's been a few years since I've lived in St. Louis, but I am from there and can at least give you some idea of the mentality out that way. If you're in the city, the actual downtown area, U-City, Forest Park, Tower Grove, Soulard, etc you'll mostly be okay. You'll be lonely, but you'll be okay.
Other than that, St. Louis suffers greatly from urban sprawl. Getting anywhere without the use of a car is nearly impossible, as you'll need highways to get just about anywhere. I mostly lived out in the burbs growing up, but did live in South St. Louis before making the move to Chicago. I loved the area, mostly.
That said, everything feels so damn far away in that area. Bike paths are largely non-existent, lots of pockets of the city are deserted, and like I said, the highway is king. It can make getting around by bike quite a chore. Then you top it off with the fact that many people in Missouri consider hitting a cyclist or otherwise harming a cyclist a reason to be awarded a medal. Like I said, in the city, probably not too much of an issue. Head out to some burbs though, especially some of the ritzier places, and you'll find that people really, really dislike cyclists.
Finally, I'll close on this... Taxis aren't very prevalent in Missouri as everything is so insanely spread out. Everything seems to be a 30 minute car ride away invariably. As a result, it's common to hear in any given office in St. Louis someone, or multiple people, bragging about how they managed to get home completely drunk. It's celebrated as a rite of passage, something to high five over, and it doesn't seem to be a gender or demographic thing. Some people even look to their DUIs as badges of honor, I kid you not. So be careful at night, especially around bars.
(one minor note, St. Louis is really trying to get a proper tech scene going, so they're making some things better, but there's still miles to go. Public transportation is a sham, bike lanes are few and far between, and living downtown is kinda awful due to the odd hours)
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Tried but no luck--that's why I posted here. ;)
Tom Z said:I would say, try searching for similar sites to thechainlink in st. louis. This may give you the best answers.
Mark, thanks for your thoughts. That drunk driving thing is terrifying.
Mark Rogers said:Finally, I'll close on this... Taxis aren't very prevalent in Missouri as everything is so insanely spread out. Everything seems to be a 30 minute car ride away invariably. As a result, it's common to hear in any given office in St. Louis someone, or multiple people, bragging about how they managed to get home completely drunk. It's celebrated as a rite of passage, something to high five over, and it doesn't seem to be a gender or demographic thing. Some people even look to their DUIs as badges of honor, I kid you not. So be careful at night, especially around bars.(one minor note, St. Louis is really trying to get a proper tech scene going, so they're making some things better, but there's still miles to go. Public transportation is a sham, bike lanes are few and far between, and living downtown is kinda awful due to the odd hours)
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I have lived in St Louis for nearly 8 years and bike frequently in the city mostly, where it is flat, traffic is low, and the street grid is great for cycling. It is easy to get around the city, distances are < 10 miles making it great to ride between meetings or points of interest. There are many neighborhoods that have rather nice bike racks that you can secure your bike to too.
We have a great trail network that you can glean from Google Maps, or from here:
http://mobikefed.org/content/missouri-bicycle-trails-and-trail-maps
Bikes are allowed on our Metro trains, and some bus lines too. You can also bring your bike on the Amtrak from Chicago.
Once you leave the city limits, it gets hillier, the traffic increases and road network varies depending on where you want to go. If you have to cross the Missouri or Miss. rivers, you have some bridges that have bike lanes (see Google).
There is also Trailnet, which has organized group rides and other cycling events.
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"St. Louis" is not a precise enough specification to make an assessment and answer your question. Like many places, the bike-ability is a function of the location, the rider's abilities, and the rider's willingness to be a part of auto traffic as opposed to being on a segregated path.
St. Louis is not Chicago; some may view that as a failure, but others as a feature. The amount of congestion is small.in comparison to Chicago.
If she is living and working in the city, the biking situation is pretty reasonable. If she's living in the suburbs then...it just depends.
I would recommend asking more specific questions at a place like stlbiking.com's forums and also looking at Strava heatmaps for the area. Strava in particular will give you an idea where people ride regularly.
As far as google maps not providing "green lines", I have no explanation, because I just did the same directions search and it showed me several. If you were expecting a single green line path that would connect you from Brentwood to the city, then you will be disappointed, because that does not exist. But as a longtime resident and cyclist, I can assure you that except in the far-flung exurbs, there is always a nice route between point A and point B, though it's rarely flat. And as far as drivers go, I've had far more problems with drivers in suburbs than in the city.
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Super encouraging to hear. Thanks very much!
David Strom said:I have lived in St Louis for nearly 8 years and bike frequently in the city mostly, where it is flat, traffic is low, and the street grid is great for cycling. It is easy to get around the city, distances are < 10 miles making it great to ride between meetings or points of interest. There are many neighborhoods that have rather nice bike racks that you can secure your bike to too.
We have a great trail network that you can glean from Google Maps, or from here:
http://mobikefed.org/content/missouri-bicycle-trails-and-trail-maps
Bikes are allowed on our Metro trains, and some bus lines too. You can also bring your bike on the Amtrak from Chicago.
Once you leave the city limits, it gets hillier, the traffic increases and road network varies depending on where you want to go. If you have to cross the Missouri or Miss. rivers, you have some bridges that have bike lanes (see Google).
There is also Trailnet, which has organized group rides and other cycling events.
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I second Chris Cleeland's comments and would add that some parts of the metro area are really bike friendly, e.g. my home town of Ferguson, North St. Louis County.
In 2012 it repealed "Far To the Right" language in its local ordinance, copied from Missouri state law, and replaced it with language specifically allowing a bicyclist to control the lane. I've posted about it on my blog, e.g. 2012-12-03 P-D: “Ferguson street signs mark safety advance for bicyclists” at http://tinyurl.com/cjlu2tc.
There’s also an edited 8 min. video I shot, cycling from my home to the Ferguson Bicycle Shop with owner Gerry Noll following on his bike. It’s on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/93042959.
If you want to take a course to polish your local bicycling skills I strongly recommend CyclingSavvy St. Louis (information at http://cyclingsavvy.org/2014/03/metro-st-louis-spring-2014-workshops/).
Chris Cleeland said:"St. Louis" is not a precise enough specification to make an assessment and answer your question. Like many places, the bike-ability is a function of the location, the rider's abilities, and the rider's willingness to be a part of auto traffic as opposed to being on a segregated path.
St. Louis is not Chicago; some may view that as a failure, but others as a feature. The amount of congestion is small.in comparison to Chicago.
If she is living and working in the city, the biking situation is pretty reasonable. If she's living in the suburbs then...it just depends.
I would recommend asking more specific questions at a place like stlbiking.com's forums and also looking at Strava heatmaps for the area. Strava in particular will give you an idea where people ride regularly.
As far as google maps not providing "green lines", I have no explanation, because I just did the same directions search and it showed me several. If you were expecting a single green line path that would connect you from Brentwood to the city, then you will be disappointed, because that does not exist. But as a longtime resident and cyclist, I can assure you that except in the far-flung exurbs, there is always a nice route between point A and point B, though it's rarely flat. And as far as drivers go, I've had far more problems with drivers in suburbs than in the city.
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Very cool! :)
Martin Pion said:I second Chris Cleeland's comments and would add that some parts of the metro area are really bike friendly, e.g. my home town of Ferguson, North St. Louis County.
In 2012 it repealed "Far To the Right" language in its local ordinance, copied from Missouri state law, and replaced it with language specifically allowing a bicyclist to control the lane. I've posted about it on my blog, e.g. 2012-12-03 P-D: “Ferguson street signs mark safety advance for bicyclists” at http://tinyurl.com/cjlu2tc.
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Hi Alex, To get a feel for what it's like biking in Ferguson please view an 8 min. video I posted, shot with forward-and-backward helmet mounted cameras, as I biked from my home to the Ferguson Bicycle Shop, with owner Gerry Noll following. It's called "BICYCLING made SIMPLE" at https://vimeo.com/93042959.
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