CarFreeBNA: Day 2

Today's fun started out eastward on the Music City Bikeway with Nashville B-cycle. How could I not stop on the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge and take an obligatory B-cycle skyline picture?

From the other side of the bridge the Cumberland River and the building wherein I'm staying.

The Music City Bikeway is 26-ish miles long from start to finish. Downtown is roughly the half-way point. Going east it follows the Cumberland River out of town until it follows the Stone River. Not coincidentally it switches to the Stone River in what is called the Two Rivers area.

Very early on I found myself on Davidson Street with a shiny brand new protected bike lane. This road leads to LP Field - home of the NFL Titans. The east bound lanes are being converted from right to left to an 8'-10' bike lane, 2'-3' buffer w/ bollards, 10' for parking and 10' for driving. It wouldn't surprise me if the bike lane will be two-way, but I saw no markings indicating that.

I know the rest of the details because there were signs that even drivers might be able to understand.

Freedom of expression!

Much of the trip featured multi-use path with heavy tree cover. At 95-degrees the shady parts were quite welcome.

This rather substantial bridge crosses the Cumberland River.

Apparently the 2007 Mayor of Nashville's vision and leadership were key factors in the bridge's creation. I think a marker like this would look great on a bridge crossing I-229 in south Sioux Falls.

14-miles later I and my 40lb 3 speed B-cycle found the J. Percy Priest Dam. That water looked positively glorious to me. After refraining from jumping in I turned around and headed back from whence I came.

Did Nashville mention they were a League of American Bicyclist's Bicycle Friendly Community? In 2012 they received the bronze designation. Sioux Falls got bronze a few years ahead of Nashville. From what I'm seeing Nashville will advance to gold or better more quickly.

Because of a steep drop to the river and proximity to residences one section of the Stone River Greenway is boardwalk built out over the river. That's a nice interesting feature.

The Cumberland River.

A cycletrack! This is incorporated into the sidewalk outside the Ascend Amphitheater. I didn't look at it too critically but I suspect the transitions at the beginning and end into traffic are problematic.

At night the cycletrack is separated from pedestrians with purple lighting every 20'. I tried hard to show that feature with this photo.

After the bike ride I walked the 3 mile round trip from my lodging to the Polk Auditorium in the Tennessee Performing Arts Center where the showcase began. On the way I stopped off at Jack's BBQ for ribs - no photos, sorry. Picture a plate of ribs.

Here's a picture from the back row of tonight's single showcase. The Next Generation Leahy's are a family of very talented instrumentalists, singers and tap dancers. Very nice! I'm a sucker for tap dancing four-year-old kids.


Eric Church was performing outdoors tonight. After I put the chaos and noise of Broadway behind me the second half of my walk was accompanied by his live music. A very nice ending, really.