Route D: Hill-to-Hill
People ride along parking-protected bike lanes on West MLK St. Conceptual rendering by Whitham Planning & Design, PLLC.
The Hill-to-Hill Route brings Ithaca’s West Hill neighborhood closer to the rest of the City, traversing through the growing West End to the Downtown core where people can connect to routes that take them to all other neighborhoods in the flats of Ithaca. The route continues up East Hill, bringing downtown and the Cornell campus together (see Route J). The destinations reached by the Hill-to-Hill Route in the core of Ithaca depend mainly on which streets it will travel on. State/MLK Jr. Street has the highest concentration of destinations and is the most direct route between the neighborhoods. Because of the number of places and people it connects, the Hill-to-Hill Route is expected to be a major east-west corridor for people on bikes in Ithaca.
Currently, limited bike infrastructure that exists on this corridor is painted bicycle lanes on the W MLK Jr/State St Bridge from Floral Ave to Brindley St. Bikeshare usage was very high between Downtown and the West End, given the popular eateries, entertainment options, shops and services. Even greater bicycle usage, particularly by people who are currently uncomfortable sharing the road with vehicles, is likely if protected bike lanes are built on State St to realize this corridor.
