Three projects to improve pedestrian access to Cascades Park

As there’s some discussion about improving Cascades Park for walking and biking, it’s useful to ask: What’s within a 10-minute walk from it? Ten to Fifteen minutes is a comfortable distance that people are willing to walk to get to services.

Here’s a visualization of places within a 10-minute walk from the playground– the most popular destination there:

Here’s a visualization of places within a 10-minute walk from the playground– the most popular destination there:

Some recommend that parks be even closer to attract walkers– .25 miles

The shape isn’t perfectly accurate– there’s not actually direct access from Walnut Street, but it serves to illustrate: You could walk for 10 minutes away from the playground and not reach any housing. Here’s the closest housing I could find, an apartment that’s an 18 minute walk away from the playground.

If the City of Bloomington wants Cascades Park to be a park that we walk to, and not a park that we drive ours cars to walk at, then access pedestrian needs to be improved.

Here are three projects that could improve pedestrian access to Cascades Parks for its neighbors.

Connect with Kinser Pike

There’s not a great route for high-schoolers biking or e-biking to Bloomington High School North from the east side. A connection through Cascades Park to Kinser Pike could be low stress. After crossing Kinser, there’s a connection to the high school through the neighborhood. This a practical connection that could improve cycling safety as well as access to more park neighbors off Kinser Pike. The new waterfall trail could be extended for this, or there old road that parallels that trail that could also be used. Here’s an example connection to the high school following this route. My family has tested this connection on trips to the high school and it was the lowest stress alternative for us.

If a trailhead were added by the skatepark, here’s an approximation of the houses that would be within a 10-minute walk from it: This covers nearly all of the Cascades neighborhood and some of Fritz Terrace:

Connect with Blue Ridge

The entrance to the Blue Ridge neighborhood is directly above the Cascades playground. Even a switchback trail up the steep hill would put some Blue Ridge neighbors within less a half-mile walk from the playground. Here’s what it might look like:

If there was a trailhead by the Visitor’s Center on Walnut, here’s an approximation of the houses in Blue Ridge that would be within a 10-minute walk from the trailhead:

That’s a lot of Blue Ridge!

A Mistake ‘n Shake?

If the City wants people to walk from further south to Cascades Park, is it too much to ask to fix the one-store gap in the sidewalk network in front of Steak N’ Shake?

If I had a dollar to improve connectivity

Being able to the park next door is great, but Bloomington also has other disconnects in our street grid, cutting off residents from essential services that are nearby. Here’s the Arlington Mobile Park, which is a short quarter mile from a grocery store, but due to a disconnected grid, a walking trip there is 1.25 miles– 5 times longer than the direct distance!

Here’s a screenshot from the 2019 Transportation Plan which includes a proposed fix for Arlington Mobile Park in the form of the multi-use trail, but the project is not on the “high priority” list, so it may not be completed for years unless priorities change.

Conclusion

Cascades Park ranks as perhaps the least accessible park by foot to neighbors to any park in Bloomington. To further the city's climate goals by shifting transportation modes, pedestrian access to Cascades Park could be improved to further that goal.

But given limited dollars to spend on improved connectivity in the city, let's first connect more residents with shorter walking trips to essential services where fixable barriers and between housing destinations exist.