Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Consider Biking announced today that 12 miles of bike lane infrastructure is being prioritized for Downtown, in response to a new national study that reveals that we are the 2nd largest city with no Downtown on-street bike lanes:
My question is... where should they go? High Street? Broad Street? Main Street? Grant?
vestanpance
Harrison West/at work OSU
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get out your popcorn
rory
NW Short North
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How about the Discovery District to Short North bicycle bridge. I had hoped that the rebuilding of the North Fourth Street bridge might mean more pedestrian or bike friendly sidewalk/path but it's still a pain to get Downtown unless you go on High or Cleveland.
And I know that's not what they mean.
swinzo1010
Upper Arlington
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All the major one way streets should get one. Streets like 3rd and 4th can be intimidating with how fast traffic moves and maneuvering around parked cars.
I would like to see Goodale Blvd. get one as well. I think that is outside the boundaries but close enough to downtown for my list!
swinzo1010
Upper Arlington
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As a side note. We should also convert the one way streets to ease traffic.
vestanpance
Harrison West/at work OSU
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futureman
Grandview Heights
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swinzo1010 said:
All the major one way streets should get one. Streets like 3rd and 4th can be intimidating with how fast traffic moves and maneuvering around parked cars.I would like to see Goodale Blvd. get one as well. I think that is outside the boundaries but close enough to downtown for my list!
Doesn't goodale and High St already have "sharrows" ?
dru
IV
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rory said:
How about the Discovery District to Short North bicycle bridge. I had hoped that the rebuilding of the North Fourth Street bridge might mean more pedestrian or bike friendly sidewalk/path but it's still a pain to get Downtown unless you go on High or Cleveland.And I know that's not what they mean.
in spite of it being off-topic - +1
i thought the conversion of that bridge was an excellent opportunity to create better walking and/or biking access to downtown. the new sidewalk looks a little wider and is certainly better than the former one that was largely devoid of curbs and rails. so it is a little better for walking, but there is nothing for bikes (i know this would be harder given 2 right lines merge onto 670E and the left lane turns into the exit for 670W).
but i still think overall it is an opportunity missed for a prominent foot path and/or bikeline connecting a residential neighborhood and downtown, especially if Wagenbrenner continues to develop along 4th from IV - WP.
futureman
Grandview Heights
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Broad could probably be done without major interference to traffic flow, or resistance from businesses - I doubt we really need all 8 lanes for cars.
High St would be harder due to having only 5 lanes, two dedicated bus lanes during rush hour, and wanting to have on street parking at some point. Sharrows might be there to stay ...
Going further out from downtown I'd really like to see something done to 3rd Ave from Olentangy to Northwest Blvd. It's the only viable connector for Grandview/S Arlington to Vic Village/Harrison West/Short North. It already has a lot of cyclists using it, I pass probably dozen or so a day which is due in part to Olentangy bike trail. I'd settle if they just re-stripped the dividers and removed the on street parking from the eastbound traffic and center the divider allowing more space for cyclists going westbound.
Porky
C-Bus' East Side
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swinzo1010 said:
All the major one way streets should get one. Streets like 3rd and 4th can be intimidating with how fast traffic moves and maneuvering around parked cars.
I agree with this.
I also think what is missing is solid east/west route, I'm thinking 5th Ave would be ideal for this, not a lot of traffic, and it covers a lot ground.
NerosNeptune
Goodale Park
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You shouldn't be maneuvering around parked cars. If you are riding correctly, 3rd and 4th are a dream to ride on because people have plenty of lanes to go around you. Although it would still be intimidating to some that they are going so fast in some areas.
I don't think any bike lanes are needed downtown. If all the streets are 25 mph and people ride their bikes correctly, then there is no problem.
Where bike lanes are needed in Columbus is further out from downtown where road conditions can be bad and there are a ton more cars moving a lot faster. Plus, further out from downtown the cars aren't expecting to be integrated with bikes. I used to ride in to downtown from Reynoldsburg and being on Livingston, Main, or Broad out that way were all hell until I got pretty close to downtown.
NerosNeptune
Goodale Park
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Also, I think that building bike lanes then makes people feel like they need to be constricted to roads where bike lanes are. They may think that because the bike lanes stop at a certain distance away from downtown that they aren't supposed to be using their bikes there. When I have ridden a bike in cities with bike lanes, I found myself confused (I was an inexperienced rider at the time) as to what I was supposed to do when it came time to turn, or to deal with cars who are turning.
I have not seen any studies but I would find it interesting to see if bike lanes are actually safer than just integrating bikes with car lanes where people can clearly know that the rules are the same as if they were driving a car (ignoring for now the fact that many don't bother to follow them).
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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NerosNeptune said:
I don't think any bike lanes are needed downtown. If all the streets are 25 mph and people ride their bikes correctly, then there is no problem.
That's a very good point, and one I similarly raised at a recent meeting on biking infrastructure. You can add bike lanes or sharrows, but if Downtown traffic is configured to move at 45 miles per hour (this meeting was at the North Bank Park pavillion, so looking out on Long Street was a prime example of speedy Downtown traffic ) then you'll never achieve a good rate of adoptability if people don't feel safe.
Gay Street is a great Downtown street for biking, and it doesn't need bike lanes. It configured to move slowly and stay safe for bikes, cars and pedestrians alike.
ChrisSunami
King-Lincoln District
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I want to add my vote for a good east-west corridor. There's a great north-south bike trail from 3 creeks park up to 5th along the creek, and another one that runs almost the entire height of the city along the riverfront downtown, but there's no real good way to get from one to the other. There's a bike path that follows 670 part of the way from Nelson going west but it peters out pretty quickly.
If there was a good safe east west corridor I could pick up from here in the KLD I would bike much more often.
lifeontwowheels
Highland West
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NerosNeptune said:
You shouldn't be maneuvering around parked cars. If you are riding correctly, 3rd and 4th are a dream to ride on because people have plenty of lanes to go around you. Although it would still be intimidating to some that they are going so fast in some areas.I don't think any bike lanes are needed downtown. If all the streets are 25 mph and people ride their bikes correctly, then there is no problem.
Where bike lanes are needed in Columbus is further out from downtown where road conditions can be bad and there are a ton more cars moving a lot faster. Plus, further out from downtown the cars aren't expecting to be integrated with bikes. I used to ride in to downtown from Reynoldsburg and being on Livingston, Main, or Broad out that way were all hell until I got pretty close to downtown.
+1
I'll also add that if it's going to be the same designs we've already seen built or have been proposed (70/71 feeders) no thanks. I can get behind bike lanes as they are built in truly world class places. As they are built here they are joke that does nothing for safety.
M.O.
Columbus
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NerosNeptune said:
You shouldn't be maneuvering around parked cars. If you are riding correctly, 3rd and 4th are a dream to ride on because people have plenty of lanes to go around you. Although it would still be intimidating to some that they are going so fast in some areas.I don't think any bike lanes are needed downtown. If all the streets are 25 mph and people ride their bikes correctly, then there is no problem.
Where bike lanes are needed in Columbus is further out from downtown where road conditions can be bad and there are a ton more cars moving a lot faster. Plus, further out from downtown the cars aren't expecting to be integrated with bikes. I used to ride in to downtown from Reynoldsburg and being on Livingston, Main, or Broad out that way were all hell until I got pretty close to downtown.
This.
Cars and bikes seem to be pretty in-tune downtown now that bikes are a regular part of that scene. The worst infrastructure for auto/car interaction is on the narrow, heavily-traveled suburban roads that we keep repaving at farm road widths. Bikes can't travel those roads without creating a major passing hazard.
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