What Makes a Good Cycling Route?

If you've been reading this blog recently (thank you for visiting), you'll know I've been working on a Safety Quiz. The "It Depends" answer I got from an 11-year-old has sent ripples across the quiet pond of my thinking. How do experienced cyclists best summarize their criteria for choosing a good route is the latest quiz question.

In earlier questions, I was looking for fun, thought-provoking answers, and silliness factored into a lot of these answers. Here, I'm interested to know what other cyclists value when choosing one route over another.

Just to seed the idea garden, I've got an ironic story to share.

Last Spring, I had inadvertently posted about one of the divides between cars and cyclists that seems to be in need of repair. The post was about a Tree that Babe Ruth put a baseball in, but I came across the tree during a search for bicycle access to the 650 Ponce shopping center.

In the early 90's, before the shopping center was developed as it stands today, there were multiple ways to get in and out of the parking lot. This was particularly attractive to me because I could cross from my house in Virginia-Highland over to Midtown without having to use either Monroe/10th Street or even busier Ponce de Leon. When plans for the development included a Borders, Staples, Home Depot, and other large stores, the neighborhood asked that traffic be forced to use Ponce de Leon alone. It is now impossible to get to these stores by foot or bicycle without approaching along Ponce. Out of a fear of excessive automobile traffic, the automobile traffic is encouraged.

Even more irony: the BeltLine -- Atlanta's planned pedestrian and transit corridor -- runs directly behind the shopping center and crosses my former cut-through. We'll see if the blocked entrance is opened back up.

So, when thinking about good routes and why it's hard to find those that go where we want, just remember we can sometimes be our own worst enemy.

Let me know what makes a good route for you.

Tree that Babe Ruth put a baseball in

Yesterday I ran an errand on my way home from work. Looking for better bike access to the shopping center, I wound my way along the tracks behind the shopping center, and came across the Center-Field Magnolia.

The story behind this tree concerns the Atlanta Crackers, their ballpark, and the only ground rule in baseball history that included a tree in center field.

The shopping center has been built on the grounds of Atlanta's old Ponce de Leon Park, home of the Atlanta Crackers. The stands were taken down when Atlanta built Fulton County Stadium as part of bringing the Braves to Atlanta and now we have a shopping center.

While searching for a photo of the tree sitting in center-field, I came across the blog of another local who has run across the tree.

I also came across this aerial photo probably taken around 1960. This photo shows the ballpark's orientation relative to the large building now used as City Hall East, and also known as the old Sears Building. The magnolia is probably the tree that can barely be seen at the lower right corner.

One of the merchants in the shopping center has placed this plaque at the base of the tree. It doesn't mention Babe Ruth, but this article does.