Biking in the Quad Cities

The Quad Cities do not put their best foot forward when it comes to biking. I can speak to this from very personal experience, since I bike in the Quad Cities pretty much every day. Here is a picture of one of my bikes at a local park, for proof.

Now it's possible that this is because I use my bike in a way that the Quad Cities are not actually built for: I commute. And that brings us to the first point about biking in the Quad Cities:

1. The Quad Cities assume you are biking for leisure

We actually have a few decent recreational trails in the Quad Cities, most notably in Davenport the Duck Creek Trail. It's a nice ride; the creek is pretty, the path is not that much used so you can bike how you want, and the other trail users are pleasant people. It's shaded most of the way because trees grow along the creekbank, and the parts that sometimes have historically flooded have been re-engineered in recent years. It's a fine trail. I'd recommend it! 

But it's also the only major trail in Davenport, and it doesn't have good connections to other bike trails or bike paths. The idea is that you're supposed to bike to a trailhead (Duck Creek Park, Marquette Park, Garfield Park, etc.) and then ride. The local trail guides confirm this, as does the tourism bureau. We get cyclists on the big trails here, and every so often RAGBRAI comes into town, but that's what biking is assumed to be: not an everyday part of life except as exercise or recreation.

2. The Quad Cities roads are terrible for bikes

This leads to the major problem that I encounter when I use the bike to go to work, or to drop my kids off at daycare (see the kid's seat on the bike above? It gets regular use). The roads in the Quad Cities are, to put it kindly, corrugated like cardboard, from the perspective of a bike. We get regular freeze/thaw cycles here, and that means potholes. Not only that, but when they "fix" the potholes, they do so in a way that works for cars, but is still bad for bikes: they don't make the road smooth at all. Instead, you get a road that has lots (and lots) of little bumps in it; bumps that a car barely notices but that a lighter bike with smaller wheels (compared to a car, at least) notices very much.

Like this (also note the lovely driver who has parked halfway on the sidewalk--not that I'm biking on the sidewalk, since I took this while walking): 

This is especially true if you are biking to a destination, like say a workplace or a school, that gets a lot of car traffic, roughing up the roads.

It is even more true if you have weight on the bike, like say a couple of kids on the back or a load of groceries, because then the bike tire has more pressure on it.

Let's just say I've had more than a few flats, and my bike mechanic actively flinches when he sees the state of my rims.

3. There are other issues as well

I mentioned that the Duck Creek Trail is a fine trail. Well, that relies on it being in operation, and recently they took out a whole stretch of it for sewer work next to the titular Duck Creek. First, that means that the trail, of course, stops.

Then it sends you around to what looks suspiciously like just someone's backyard:

And it ends up asking you to cross a bridge that is clearly signed for pedestrians only, which is somewhat of a concern if you are (as I was) riding a bike:

And let me be clear: this is by far the best-signed and most functional detour I have ever seen in the Quad Cities.

Overall, biking here isn't as terrible as it could be. There are a lot of quiet streets (though few bike lanes). The weather is surprisingly acceptable except when no one wants to go out in any vehicle. And I do manage to mostly commute by bike, including picking up my children and the occasional groceries. But it's not because the Quad Cities want me to be able to do this. It's because I can manage to get around the difficulties and still make it work.