This must be obvious to everyone but me since I don't see a question on this. Our project is adjacent to a well established bike trail that extends for 10 miles or more in both directions. The trail runs through an urban area along a canal. The trail is proximate to numerous uses but there is not one service that is literally on the trail. A bicyclist would have to leave the trail and take a street a short distance to make their way to any service.
So when it comes to "connecting to at least 10 diverse uses", what does that mean? Does that mean a use, like say a restaurant, needs to be literally on the bike trail? Or does it actually mean that you need streets that have appropriate bike paths/lanes in them in addition to your bike trail so that you can connect directly to a service?
It seems like you could have an urban bike trail that encourages bike commuting to work, bike storage and walkable services within proximity to the building and still not get this credit if the trail did not connect to roads with appropriate bike lanes also? Am I interpreting this correctly?
Kimberly Schlaepfer
Sustainability Coordinator LEED AP O+M, BD+C74 thumbs up
March 7, 2016 - 6:40 pm
Hi Michelle,
For your reference, the reference guide defines a "bike network" as the following: any combination of demarcated bike lanes, bike trails, and streets with a maximum speed limit of 25 mph.
If the bike network that connects to your project goes through an urban center, the services do not need to be directly on the bike path as per your definition above, but it should be near enough so that bikers can reach the service on their bike using the bike network as a main "bikeway". My suggestion would be to identify the services and ensure the path to those meets the definitions of a bike network above.
From my project experience, some cities have maps of their bike networks available, that also point out public transit stops within the bike network. It may be worth looking for something similar for your project, and use the proximity to public transit requirement for the bike network, rather than the proximity to services.
It sounds like your bike network should have no problem qualifying, especially if it runs through an urban center! Hope that helps!
Michelle Rosenberger
PartnerArchEcology
519 thumbs up
March 7, 2016 - 6:51 pm
Hi Kimberly,
Thanks for the prompt response. I think we will comply, not because of our bike trail but because of some streets with bike lanes that happen to connect with it. Just a bigger intent jump than I thought going from being able to commute to work by bike to being able to get to services only by bike also.
Just out of curiosity, if I didn't have any connecting streets with bike lanes, but still had a bike trail and tons of proximate services within walking distance of the project. Would I be able to comply with this credit?
Kimberly Schlaepfer
Sustainability Coordinator LEED AP O+M, BD+C74 thumbs up
March 9, 2016 - 6:09 pm
Hi Michelle,
There is no published guidance around this, but my guess would be, if you could demonstrate that the services were near enough to walk (within 0.25 miles) that GBCI would accept this approach. However, that is just speculation, because as I said there is no published guidance on this issue!
Karl Heitman
PresidentHeitman Architects Inc
4 thumbs up
January 7, 2020 - 2:54 pm
Is crossing a four lane highway from on bike path to the next considered as "continuous network"? The intersection has pedestrian crossing.
Thank you for your feedback in advance.