View Larger Ma One of my favorite things to do to people who are new to Ithaca is drive them down
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View Larger Map">Cascadilla Park Road and watch them freak out. There’s no reason to take the side-street unless you live on it. But it’s such a weird experience that I’d recommend all Ithacans try it at least once.
Starting just off Stewart Avenue, the road switch-backs down the north side of the Cascadilla Creek Gorge to University Avenue near Linn Street. It’s a public road, owned and maintained by the City of Ithaca , and it’s absolutely terrifying to drive.
First, there’s the creepiness factor. The only way to get to Cascadilla Park Road is through the Ithaca City Cemetery on Dewitt Place. It’s beautiful as cemeteries go, but still full of dead people.
Second, as Dewitt Place abruptly ends, it confronts drivers with an unnecessary stop sign, as the only direction in which pavement continues is right and down. Short of attempting an eleven-point turn, there’s no way to escape the narrow passage. You have to ride it out. This is the point at which—realizing that they have no control over their situation—most passengers start to sweat.
Third, there’s the potential for totalling your car and yourself. Cascadilla Park Road is a two-way street, but in most places there is barely enough room for one car to get through, let alone two. The road doubles back on itself several times. So unless you want to end up in someone’s living room, your top speed has to stay around 15 mph. I think perhaps this is a safety precaution the road’s designers built in. Instead of making the road wider in hope of preventing collisions, they seem to have accepted that crashes would happen, and then worked to ensure that none of them would happen at speeds faster than that of a riding lawnmower.
Still, it’s thoroughly frightening to come around one of the narrow corners and see your own car reflected in the windows of a house built too close to the road. By the time I get to University Avenue and the end of the road, my passengers have usually embraced the road’s rollercoaster appeal. They say, “Let’s go again.”
— Ian Holliday