The following is a picture of the shoulder of Missouri Highway 13 near Lexington (see map), which is a nearly-new, four-lane divided highway connecting Highway 24 to the Ike Skelton Bridge over the Missouri River:

Missouri Highway 13 Shoulder
Missouri Highway 13 Shoulder

I really don’t understand this shoulder. It just makes no sense to me. Where is a cyclist supposed to ride? I’ve marked it up into sections:

  • A – This section, between the white line and the edge of the concrete, is a great surface, smooth and clean. But it’s only about a foot wide. You could ride here, but would likely be blown off the road by passing trucks.

  • B – This section features wide, deep, and continuous rumble strips. You couldn’t ride here for more than a few seconds without serious discomfort, and perhaps damage to the bike.

  • C – This section features comparatively narrow and shallow, but still continuous, rumble strips. You could ride here if you had to, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

  • D – The section between the small rumble strips and the outside edge of the shoulder is the only possible place to ride. In this picture the surface is fairly wide, smooth, and clean, but that’s not always the case. This is the area where road debris such as rocks, sand, wire, glass, and nails tend to accumulate. This area of the shoulder is also the first section to disintegrate and break up into rubble. Along this section of Highway 13 I witnessed all those problems, to varying degrees.

So what’s a cyclist to do? Seems to me it’s either take your chances on the main road, or take your chances on the far section of shoulder. It’s not a great choice.

But what bugs me is that there’s no reason at all for this mess. This new roadway has a beautiful wide shoulder that’s been rendered nearly unrideable by rumble strips. I understand the reason for the rumble strips, but why are there two sets? Wouldn’t one set be enough? And what’s the point of section A? I don’t get it.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) rumble strip guidelines call for a narrow rumble strip located under the edge line, which makes sense. The guidelines came into effect before the roadway was opened for traffic, so why weren’t these guidelines followed here?

Granted, this highway probably doesn’t receive a great deal of bicycle traffic, and the roads that connect to it (Highway 24 and Highways 13 south) are even worse. However, it is part of Adventure Cycling’s Lewis & Clark Trail, as well as being a significant north-south route and one of the few ways to cross the river for many miles in either direction.

MODOT, how can you allow a brand new road to be so screwed up, and why hasn’t it been fixed?