FLCC> Talking points for Common Council meeting

[William Lodico]

Kent Johnson wrote:

> * * *
>
> The $50,000 (if approved) should be enough to implement both the  
> uphill bike lane on E. State St.
>
> * * *


Kent,

As just about everyone on the Finger Lakes Cycling List serve knows,  
I'm the regional anti-bike-lane cycling advocate.  I suppose bike  
lanes can be done right, but I've never seen them done right.

I won't be at the Common Council meeting.  Although I'm a native  
Ithacan, I now live in Elmira; and I focus my bike advocacy energies  
on Chemung County.  I'm pushing close to 100,000 miles bicycling on  
roads, so I think I can lay claim to some experience and expertise on  
the subject at hand.   I range far and wide,  and I spend a fair bit  
of both driving and cycling time in the Ithaca area.  I have ridden  
my bike up State Street several times.

If the up hill State Street bike lane goes in, I will be out with  
camera and tape measure, hoping to add to my "bad bike lanes"  
collection.

It's important to have some really grotesque examples of bad bike  
lanes to point to when public officials propose them.  It's nice when  
these bad bike lanes are not in my own county, so that when I point  
out all the things wrong with them I'm not hurting the feelings of  
the people who put them in.

Here are some of the things I'll be looking for:

1.  Is the bike lane too narrow?

Does it allow at least the three or four feet of clearance (as  
suggested in NYSDOT's Share the Road pamphlet) between the bike wheel  
and the curb, or any intrusive grates, manhole covers, etc., and  
perhaps yet more space on steep climbs where cyclists will tend to  
wobble back and forth going up hill?

How about telephone poles, signs, and other hazards that create a  
risk of collision for the cyclist's upper body?  Remember, the  
cyclist's right shoulder and elbow track a path extending about a  
foot to the right of the wheel?  Are you allowing a couple feet of  
clearance between the cyclists upper body and any such vertical "air  
space" hazards?  Or is the cyclist expected to "thread the needle"  
between poles, signs, mailboxes and the traffic coming behind him on  
the left?

Assuming the cyclist is tracking within the bike lane his three or  
four feet from the curb, and a passing vehicle is tracking to the  
left of the bike lane, where (by virtue of the lane) motorist is  
assured assured that the road will be free of bikes, how close to the  
cyclist will the vehicle pass?  My calculations show that vehicle may  
very likely not pass the cyclist at all, but instead collide with  
him, since if the cyclist is tracking within the bike lane, his left  
arm, shoulder, leg, and handlebar, could be to the left the bike lane  
marker, intruding into the air space the motorist thinks should be his.

Is the bike lane going to be wide enough to allow stronger cyclists  
to pass slower cyclists on this uphill?  Or are the stronger cyclists  
just going to have to get out in traffic and force the issue of their  
right to be in the traffic lane, at considerable risk to life and  
limb at the hands of motorists who expect/insist he be in the bike lane?

If the bike lane goes by a parking lane, is there space to allow  
cyclists to ride sufficiently to the left to avoid opening car doors  
without coming unsafely close to, or actually intruding into, the  
traffic lane?

In the likely event that the up hill cyclist encounters a cyclist  
speeding downhill in the bike lane, going the wrong way on the left  
side of the street, is there enough room in the bike lane to allow  
the up hill cyclist to avoid the possibility of collision with this  
law-breaker without having to intrude into the supposedly-closed-to- 
cyclists traffic lane?

Clearly the four foot standard can't meet these safety concerns.  Is  
there in fact sufficient room to put in a bike lane that would  
actually be wide enough to meet them?  If there isn't enough room,  
shouldn't the idea of a bike lane be abandoned and other alternatives  
such as improved signage and law enforcement be pursued instead?

2.  Does the bike lane make it more difficult for cyclists to make  
turns?   There are lots of opportunities for left turns uphill of  
State Street.   Is the bike lane going to make this any easier?  Or  
is it going to make it a whole lot harder?  What kind of signage is  
posted letting motorists, and cyclists, know how to manage cyclist's  
uphill left turns?

3.  Hazards and maintenance?  After the paint is down, what kind of  
funding is actually going to be committed to keeping the bike lane  
free of glass, gravel, sand, cinders and other debris?  What  
commitment is going to be made to prioritizing repair of cracks and  
holes?  What commitment is going to be made to keeping the bike lane  
clear of parked or standing cars or trucks?   Of cyclists racing  
DOWNHILL on the wrong side of the street in the bike lane? You've got  
sidewalks on State Street, so maybe you don't have to worry about  
pedestrians, including those walking dogs, in the bike lane;  or  
maybe you do?

Here in Chemung County we have three bike lanes.  They are all  
unmitigated disasters.   Luckily two are very short and nobody pays  
much attention to them.  The other longer one, for most of the year,  
is so heavily overgrown by vegetation that it's hard to even begin to  
consider it a bike lane.

Tompkins County's batting average is not much better.  I'm very  
nearly 100% sure that a State Street bike lane will not improve it.

Bill Lodico





>
> Kent Johnson
> Transportation Engineering Technician
> Office of the City Engineer
> City of Ithaca
> 108 E. Green St.
> Ithaca, New York 14850
> (607) 274-6528, (607) 327-0316 (cell)
> kjohnson at cityofithaca.org
>