A scooter has been parked on the sidewalk in front of my house, blocking the sidewalk, and making my yard mowing task more difficult. Another scooter has been left on the sidewalk 2 doors from me, and has been there for a week.
I had an unpleasant near miss biking the small connector trail that Weatherstone down to Highland Ave. At the bottom of the hill, a scooter was on its side, in the middle of the pathway. It was not visible until almost right on top of it, and I came close to wiping out. The city needs to find a solution to scooters that are abandoned haphazardly on sidewalks and bike trails. This is not the first incident I've had, and certainly won't be the last. Eventually someone will get seriously hurt.
Good Morning, I received the following email message from Frances Elizabeth Sheets <fsheets@iu.edu> dated Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 12:11 PM To: "martipa@bloomington.in.gov" <martipa@bloomington.in.gov> "To whom it may concern, Let me get right down to business: 7th street is an absolute fucking nightmare. I grew up in Bloomington, and now live close to downtown as I am a student at IU. This means that I navigate 7th street every single day. Let me tell you - this is not an easy task. I recognize and appreciate the effort that the city has put into the new bike lane running from campus to the B-line. As someone who rides a bike/electric scooter to get around, this bike lane is great. However, the bike lane coupled with the removal of stop signs between Indiana and Walnut has caused more problems than it has solved. Problem number 1: Absolutely no one knows when it is their turn to go. Specifically, when crossing 7th on Grant and Dunn, cars rarely (in my experience) yield to cyclists. This means that I have been inches away from being hit by a car multiple times while using the bike lane. There is no signage instructing cars to yield to those in the bike lane or vice versa. This is an immediate safety issue to me, and one that is relatively unavoidable as 7th street is the road I have to use to get to work, class, and back home every day. Since there is no bike lane on 10th street, using it as an alternate route is not a safer option. Problem number 2: Flow of traffic. Because there are no stop signs on 7th the flow of traffic is constantly a struggle. About half of all drivers stop and attempt to let pedestrians/cyclists/other cars either cross or turn. However, this often only happens in one lane, which means cars are regularly slowing, stopping, and then having to speed back up again because lines of traffic in one direction form very quickly. I experienced this literally five minutes before sitting down to write this email: there was a line of traffic waiting to turn from Grant, multiple cars slowing down traffic attempting to yield to those at the Grant stop sign, and myself and other pedestrians/cyclists trying to cross the road. Again, this is a blatant safety issue. Problem number 3: Visibility. This is more of a potential problem. Young trees have been planted along the median between the bike lane and the road. When these trees reach maturity, they will drastically lower visibility between the bike lane and the road, making the problems mentioned above even more dangerous. Since the stop signs were removed around six months ago, I have witnessed AT LEAST six car crashes on 7th between Grant and Dunn alone. I have also witnessed more drivers than I can count accidentally turning into the bike lane instead of onto the road. Pedestrians also walk in the bike lane frequently, and there was even a city-sponsored run/walk where participants were blocking the entire bike lane in front of the IMU. As someone who has both driven and biked along 7th, the removal of stop signs has not helped at all. If anything, it makes people drive unreasonably fast or unreasonably slow. Everyone I have talked to about this issue has agreed with me, so I know I am not alone in my frustration. Please, PLEASE at the very least put more signage in this area. It is quite dangerous, and as a resident of the city, the new design makes me question whether or not those in charge of city planning have actually ever driven downtown. I apologize if my tone comes off as aggressive, but in the past week alone I have almost been hit by four cars when using the bike lane!!" Thanks, Pat Martin
There is a Bird Scooter partially blocking the sidewalk in front of the PACE bicycle share rack directly across from Bloomington Bagel Company on Dunn Avenue.
Lime scooter parked on sidewalk on Washington east side near 2nd 11:45 am
Improperly parked scooter blocking access for people with disabilities
Worse than a scooter - cannot get by on sidewalk
This image shows a scooter parked in violation of Bloomington's city code at on the southeast corner of 6th and Walnut (39.167492, -86.533461) at 2021-11-20 18:10:51 I believe this infraction is citable and finable under the city's ordinance. If no citation or fine is issued, I would like to be notified within a reasonable time with the specific reasons why the local law will not be enforced in this instance. Thanks.
Scooter Partially blocking sidewalk
Scooter abandoned, right in the middle of the sidewalk