Did Seattle rush the new, ‘safer’ bike lane on Second Avenue?

This week’s accident in the new protected bike lane on Second Avenue in downtown Seattle is raising questions about whether the city did enough research on the potential dangers of mixing cars and bikes before installing the lane.

A bicyclist and car collided Wednesday when the car crossed the protected bike lane to enter a parking garage between Union and Pike.

Looking at the area on Second Avenue, as someone who isn’t a traffic engineer, it appears that allowing cars to cross the bike lane to get into a garage was unnecessarily risky.

But Rick Sheridan with the Seattle Department of Transportation said there was a special emphasis put on the three spots where parking garages or lots invite cars to cross the lane.

“We spent four months having conversations with adjacent properties, like these garages, and working through design issues internally,” Sheridan said. “We worked aggressively to install this bike facility, but it was certainly not a rush job. It was a job that was thorough and meticulous.”

Sheridan said green pavement markings were put on the road to make bicyclists and drivers aware that those spots are areas where cars and bikes will mix, the green paint on the ground doesn’t necessarily make things clearer.

Sheridan defends the bike lane, saying it has made Second Avenue safer for all. “Second Avenue is a safer roadway for everyone, based on these changes. It’s safer for cyclists. It’s safer for motor vehicle operators to drive.”

That’s not the feeling of many people who drive or bike on Second Avenue. Read the comment sections on any story about this bike lane. Even seasoned bicyclists say they don’t feel safe using this lane. Drivers are still confused by the rules, the traffic lights and parking.

Another issue for this bike lane and the three spots where cars need to cross it to enter parking lots or garages is bicycle speed.

Drivers can anticipate pedestrians on the sidewalks. They’re going slow, but they can’t anticipate bikes going 25 miles an hour.

“We are concerned about cyclists’ speeds,” Sheridan said. “It’s something that we’re going to be observing over the next several days to see whether this modification could be augmented with additional signage or striping to help address any sort of aggressive speeding by cyclists.”

After this week’s crash, the city removed about 60 feet of parking to give drivers and unobstructed view of the bike lane near the parking garage where the accident happened.

Sheridan said the city will continue to tweak the bike lane to make it safer and more user-friendly.

“Delaying the installation of this bike lane in order to find the perfect solution would delay our ability to make Second Avenue safer for everyone,” he said. “We want to move quickly. We want to be judicious on how we install a project like this, but there’s always room for us to tweak and enhance its performance.”

But some critics say the city shouldn’t be risking bike and driver safety while figuring it all out.