The City's Experimental Bike Lane
Walla Walla tests a new $140 wooden bicycle path on Alder Street to solve the issue of rough cinder trails.
Bicycle Commissioner Peck is receiving much favorable comment on the stretch of plank path recently constructed in Alder street between Crescent and Park streets. Wheelmen are requested to give the new path a thorough test, as plank may be used extensively hereafter in the construction of new paths if wheelmen seem satisfied with that material. The stretch is 465 feet in length, five feet wide and constructed of two by six planks. The entire cost was approximately $140. The commissioner will make an effort to secure the street department's consent for goal sprinklers to water those paths constructed of cinders every morning. It is thought that by a sprinkling every day the cinders will pack better and the wavy ridges which nearly jars bicyclists' teeth loose will disappear.
“It is thought that by a sprinkling every day the cinders will pack better and the wavy ridges which nearly jars bicyclists' teeth loose will disappear.”
This reflects the early 20th-century 'Good Roads Movement,' where cyclists pushed for infrastructure investments that would later pave the way for automobiles. Today's debates over modern bike lane placement and materials in Walla Walla echo these 1903 experiments.
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