That's the giant bike trail that will eventually run from downtown Kansas City to downtown St. Louis. The map above shows a bike trail around Creve Coeur Lake and a little spur heading off south. That'll eventually be this,
This is the Centennial Greenway, and which is supposed to connect Creve Coeur Lake to Forest Park. From there the Chouteau Greenway should take people to downtown St. Louis.
This is all well and nice, but it leaves out the giant fact that the St. Louis region has two downtowns. Looking over the final plan for the Centennial Greenway the flaw is obvious. Downtown Clayton isn't given its due. It and Shaw Park are on a side trail off the main stem. Ruth Park and Heman Park are both lovely, but they're not the same as the economic powerhouse that is Clayton.
It wouldn't be hard to reorient the greenway through Clayton to Wash U to the park. In fact, it would only be a short jaunt along Forsyth. The rest of the greenway is fine, but it just lacks a small portion along Forsyth. It doesn't need to be a designated bikes-only area, a Bike St. Louis corridor would do. I've added it here.
Downtown Clayton is working on putting together its master plan. Reading through their many pdfs, it is hard to find that much mention of bikes or greenways. They recognize the Forsyth MetroLink station as an important gateway and recognize Forsyth Blvd itself as the 'Central Downtown Connection,'
Forsyth Blvd, with its wonderful Shaw Park connection, is central to the master plan's pedestrian oriented theme. They want to make it human-scale with plazas and wayfinding kiosks. Everything between Shaw Park and Forsyth Station seem due for an upgrade.
Why, oh why, does the Centennial Greenway and Bike St. Louis seem to want people to bike down Jackson Road to Wydown? How can you see Clayton's human-scale wonders like that? Clayton's master plan should incorporate bike planning from Shaw Park heading east.
The quiet residential section of Forsyth between Forest Park Parkway and Big Bend is only 0.7 miles.
Then it's Wash U until Lagoon Drive in Forest Park.
It's silly to bike from Jackson to Wydown, when a direct path between the two parks is so much better.
Clayton's master plan is pretty great. It seems to encourage the growth of dense urban village tied to transit and walkability, but has failed to include really obvious plans for bikes. All along the Katy Trail, bike-oriented-development has become profitable. Downtown St. Louis needs a bike station, and so does Clayton. The central corridor needs good connections and good planning.
If you read this and agree that Forsyth should be a major bike corridor, do get yourself to Clayton City Hall's Council Chambers on Monday, June 21st, from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm for the Sasaki Downtown Master Plan Presentation. It's never too late to push a common sense agenda.
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