Journey to Costco

I don't bike to Costco often, mostly due to laziness and because my BoB trailer isn't big enough for most Costco-sized trips. But occasionally if I need a few small items like this here iPaddy thing I'm typing on, I bike there. The trip illustrates some of the little difficulties or inconveniences of getting around a city like Spokane by bike.  You have to plan and think about just which way you want to take, more so than driving in a car.

Costco is only about 4 miles away and the route I took this time back in September started easy enough: head north on A Street to Rowan Ave. There's a roundabout at A and Wellesley to navigate, then A Street north up to Rowan is a 2-lane street with a yellow stripe down the middle.  Right on Rowan and the new bike lane. Mmmm, fresh pavement!

And then at Monroe Street there's that sign that's all too common: Bike Lane Ends. No real big deal though, because after Monroe, Rowan isn't a real busy street.

I continued on and turned left/North onto Wall Street, which is a bike route.

Well, even though it's a bit narrow of a street for a bike route, the southbound lane is wider for bikes.  Heading north there's not a whole lot of room, but I've never had any trouble with the motorized folks.  Another option is to take one of the parallel streets one block over that are quieter.

Next intersection to cross is busy 5-lane Francis Ave. If there's a line of stopped traffic at the light, options are to take the lane, filter up if you're adventurous, (lots of vehicles turning right on the red light) or use the sidewalk and crosswalk.  I usually get behind a vehicle.

Well look what's after the intersection - another bike lane!

Which goes for mile or so, and ends (surprise!) at the convergence of Wall Street and Monroe:

We're almost there!  Wall Street is a sometimes busy 4-lane and I'm tempted to hop on the sidewalk but I stick to the street.  It's not so busy that vehicles coming up behind you in the right lane can't move easily around you into the left lane.

At the bottom of the hill it's a right turn onto W Cascade Way and another bike lane pops up!

Which lasts until the turn into the access to Costco's parking lot, because we can't make it easy for bikes to cross Division.

Gotta be careful around all those Costco shoppers driving around intent on getting the closest spot to the door.  I made my way safely to the bike rack snuck in between a display car, pillar, and shopping carts. Locked it up and left plenty of room for other bikers.

Route finding through a mixture of busy streets, quiet residential streets, bike lanes that pop up and then end suddenly - that's biking in Spokane.