The Roanoke River Greenway runs about 8 miles from Vic Thomas Park to Fallon Park. Along the way it passes six full-service grocery stores with fresh fruit and vegetables. The trip to the grocery store is a great trip for biking. From the greenway, each store is less than a mile away with the furthest away store being the Grandin Co+op.

This post looks at how people get from the Roanoke River Greenway to those Groceries. There are many people who only ride on greenways recreationally. A trip to the grocery store is a great way to get those people to try riding for utility. Whether buying a treat or a meal’s worth, a trip to the grocery store helps a rider understand how to carry things well, how to park, and off-greenway routing.

Map of Roanoke River Greenway with nearby grocery stores

Here are the six grocery stores along the Roanoke River Greenway from left to right:

1. Grandin Co-op: .6 miles away
2. Towers Kroger: .4 miles away
3. Fresh Market: .4 miles away
4. Earthfare: .4 miles away
5. Food Lion: .3 miles away
6. Walmart Neighborhood Market @ Fallon Park: .4 miles away

Ease of Biking

Transition between Roanoke River Greenway and Memorial Drive in Grandin

Overly large roundabout with slip lane and small median island near Food Lion

Wide part of Franklin Ave with “suicide” bike lane

Complicated intersection at Brandon Ave and Main Street in Wasena

Hill up Brandon Ave towards Towers Shopping Center

Crosswalk between Fallon Park and Walmart

Below are the six grocery stores along the Roanoke River Greenway based on how easy and safe they are to ride to, in my opinion (I live in Wasena, so my experience of these trips is from Vic Thomas Park). The image gallery above shows what I consider the worst parts of each ride:

1. Grandin Co-op: It has bike lanes most of the way, but there are issues. The intersection on the east side of the Memorial bridge is awkward and high speed. It is hard to transition from the greenway to the west-bound bike lane that leads to the Grandin Co-op. The bike lane disappears approaching Grandin Road and a rider must merge into a left turn lane and turn left in a shared lane to reach the grocery store.
2. Food Lion: It’s the shortest and if you use sidewalks it’s pretty easy, but the new-ish roundabout with pedestrian crossings was poorly designed for this connection and is out of the way. Taking the shorter route puts you on the widest part of a narrow road that sometimes has speeding issues. The roundabout has a slip lane that widens the road to two lanes for a short section near where a person riding would turn left to go to the grocery store.
3. Earthfare: If it wasn’t for that stupid suicide lane this would be number one. By suicide lane I mean the bike lane striped between a through lane and a long right turn lane on Franklin Road. That intersection and its approaches are a mess. Would be much improved by establishing a connection from the greenway west of Franklin through the old Ramada parking lot. But this is a pretty straight shot with a bike lane and often limited traffic.
4. Towers Kroger: There are bike lanes on Main Street, Franklin Ave, and Brandon Ave, meaning bike lanes are only missing at intersections. Towers can be approached from Wasena Park or River’s Edge Park. For the purposes of ranking, this entry is for the approach from Wasena Park. The intersection at Brandon Ave is a doozy, but surprisingly easy to navigate once you’ve done it a time or two. Heading east is a high speed protected left turn while heading west is an awkward climb in a right turn lane that seemingly always has a green light. The presence of a bike lane to the left of the right turn lane may lead some people to believe that you should be in the bike lane until the right turn, but that sets up a potential conflict point with cars already in the right turn lane. Overhanging trees obscure the light for the right turn lane and the short two lane section approaching Main Street invites cars to try to overtake you and then cut you off, but most cars will stay behind you if you take the right turn lane.
5. Fresh Market: The approach to Towers from Franklin Ave is worse, in my opinion, than the approach from Wasena/Main Street. Approaching from River’s Edge/Franklin Ave there’s a big left turn across four lanes of traffic that leads into a wide road and a long right turn lane. It’s a short section, but it feels really dangerous and exposes you to multiple vehicle threats. The climb to Towers, or return to the greenway from Towers, is on a section of Brandon Ave where the road diet was not continued after the intersection with Colonial, meaning that bike lanes are unmarked and narrow, and there are at minimum four lanes of traffic to navigate. To return to the greenway, there’s a dual left turn lane which creates uncertainty and the potential for conflict.
6. Walmart Neighborhood Market @ Fallon Park: It’s a sidewalk special, but not a bad one. There are no bike facilities, but if you navigate using the sidewalks then it is a pretty straightforward ride. My preference is to ride the sidewalk along the northside of Dale Ave to Vernon St and cross at the light, then it’s just a short section to the parking lot entrance. Going to this grocery store from the greenway doesn’t make a lot of sense for many people due to where the greenway connects to neighborhoods, the Tinker Creek Trail extension may make this more accessible.

Bike Parking

Bike Parking at Grandin Co+op

Bike Parking at Fallon Walmart

Bike Parking at Earthfare

Bike Parking on Kroger side of Towers

Bike Parking at Fresh Market side of Towers

Cart Return at SE Food Lion

Below are the six grocery stores along the Roanoke River Greenway based on the quality and location of their bike parking. The gallery above shows an example of bike parking at each location:

1. Grandin Co-op: Classic staple racks right out front on a large sidewalk with a curb. Some cover provided by trees.
2. Walmart Neighborhood Market @ Fallon Park: Large and well spaced staple racks in front of the store. A little bit far from the entrance, but very good overall.
3. Earthfare: A wave rack right out front on a large curbless sidewalk at parking lot level
4. Towers Kroger: There are two small staple racks located too close to pillars on the Kroger side of Towers. Multiple cart returns and some hand railings provide alternative spots.
5. Fresh Market: There is one small staple rack located so that you must walk through the mall to reach Fresh Market from it. Fewer cart returns and alternative spots.
6. Food Lion: No bike parking, so cart return is the best place to park your bike.

Bonus stores

Downtown Co-op

• Just outside of one mile from downtown
• Some of the best bike parking
• Streets are slow, but there’s no bike infrastructure downtown, greenways kind of disappear, one-way grid is not welcoming from the west

LEAP (Tuesday pop-up market)

• Short and simple ride from greenway to West End Center
• Bike lanes the whole way (kinda), alleyway is nice
• Grab and go makes parking easy (just lean your bike on the wall)

Brambleton Krogers (Gucci @ 4404 and Other @ 3971)

• Gucci is far away and doesn’t offer enough of a reason to go there for the distance
• The closer Kroger isn’t too bad and can be paired with trips to Ace Hardware, no awful intersections since you don’t go past Electric Road

Valley View

• Further away, but the Lick Run Greenway is nice
• Useful for Best Buy and sometimes other stores
• Viable for people who live along the Lick Run Greenway north of Orange Ave

Vinton Kroger

• Hardy Road is awful
• Approaching from 3rd Street/Wyndham Drive is kind of scenic but out of the way and not great
• The bike rack is like a mix between a wave and a staple rack and too close to a column to be used correctly by more than two bikes