Protecting bikes in downtown Seattle means losing lanes or parking
Dec 3, 2013, 11:05 AM | Updated: Dec 4, 2013, 9:34 am
Seattle drivers could be losing a traffic lane or street parking downtown as the city looks to expand the bike lanes, thereby creating dedicated and protected bike lanes known as “cycle tracks.”
Seattle has earmarked a million dollars to expand the protected bike lane system, and the city is thinking about adding one of those lanes to either 2nd or 4th Avenues.
To make room for this protected bike lane, one of those major commuter streets in and out of the city would likely lose a lane of traffic or lose street parking.
“It could be a travel lane that’s impacted or it could be that the parking is removed, so we have to look at the capacity of the roadway, take a look at how it really functions and make a really careful decision on how that reconfiguration occurs,” said Seattle Traffic Engineer Dongho Chang.
It’s far from a done deal and the public would be consulted before a protected bike lane would be added to one of those streets. But what is a protected bike lane, and how is it different from the bike lanes currently on 2nd and 4th?
Cycle tracks are full traffic lanes that are set aside from vehicle traffic and protected from cars by barriers.
“There might be a lane of parked cars that separate the travel lane and the bicycle facility,” Chang said. “It could be curbing, or it could be striping with some posts.”
Seattle has three of these protected bike lanes right now. Drivers and parkers had trouble with one on Broadway in the Capitol Hill neighborhood because parking was pushed away from the curb into an old traffic lane. Those parked cars now protect the bike riders.
“It just makes it a lot more comfortable for bicycle riders, who are not as comfortable riding on streets with higher speed and higher volume traffic,” Change said.
Protected bike lanes are used quite extensively in Europe. They are popular in New York and Portland started installing them about four years ago.
Diane Dulken, with Portland’s Bureau of Transportation, said they work.
“They add increased comfort and safety for people who are riding bicycles,” she said. “And we’ve seen an increase ridership once we’ve installed them.”
If 2nd or 4th Avenues are chosen for a cycle track, the lane could be up and running in 2015.
The money to pay for these extra bicycle amenities comes from your property taxes.
