Steve Offutt has a great post on CommuterPageBlog about how sometimes developments are built with unnecessary fences that hinder the kind of connectivity that makes walking and biking easy. OK, he didn't mention biking, but it's the same idea.

the end of Forest Drive almost touches the parking lot of the apartment building on Jefferson Street (although it's at a somewhat higher elevation). The building, instead of installing a staircase that would allow neighborhood people to easily walk from the neighborhood to the shops on Jefferson St., including the Giant Food and Starbucks, blocked it with a fence (see two photos). In the same way, the fence prevents residents of the apartment building from being able to walk around the neighborhood, say to walk their dog or just for enjoyment.

There are a couple of areas like this on my commute where a road ends a few tantalizing feet from making a useful connection. In one case I off-road it for it about 20 feet (connecting these two parts of Margo Lane) on a billygoat trail. And as Offutt points out, there are many more.

There are certainly thousands of these small linkages that could be unblocked or created. Each one might open up pedestrian opportunities to a few people or a few score of people. But all multiplied together one could imagine literally thousands of short car trips being eliminated and quality of life for those people improved.

The City of Mount Rainier is working on a Mixed-Use Town Center Development Plan to promote reinvestment and redevelopment opportunities in the older commercial core of Mount Rainer. The area being studied includes 11.5 acres around the Rhode Island Avenue and 34th Street areas, and one thing they want to do is make the area more bicycle-friendly.

After months of community meetings and studies, Washington, D.C.-based consultants Cunningham Quill Architects presented a preliminary "vision plan" to residents on Jan. 12.

The presentation included details on decreasing street parking spaces from 14-feet to standard 8-feet wide spaces and using the extra space for wider sidewalks and commuter bicycles lanes.

Resident Dave MacMillan said he liked the integration of bike and pedestrian culture in the plan, but wanted some measures to discourage additional liquor stores from opening in the city.

I'm not sure the two are related.

The presentations don't have a lot of specifics on bikes, but they show the Bike Station, bike lanes and artistic bike racks. They also have a lot of cool old photos of Mount Rainier during the streetcar days, if you're into such things. I often bike through the area on Rhode Island, and it's not too bad really, but some bike lanes would be nice.