OPEN CITY
Bike Lane When a bike lane “popped-up” on Lincoln Avenue in May for a one-month city pilot program, residents on social media weighed in. “I’ve lived on Lincoln Avenue for 17 years and work downtown, riding a bike daily, so this impacts me in every way. While I appreciate the intention, it brings real concerns into focus: The Lincoln Ave/Mt Pisgah corridors should be rezoned for resident-only parking, it’s overused by visitors and workers; the bike path layout poses a safety hazard for cyclists, drivers coming out of the Library and off Carmel are making quick right turns and are not seeing the cyclists. I was nearly hit a couple of times in the short time the path was open.” “This really backs up traffic during afternoon commute. Cars cannot enter the right turn lane onto Broadway, safely, past the bike line.” “It's a great way of connecting the Iron Horse trail to downtown, especially for bikers. Change always creates new challenges, until we learn our way around it.” “I'm a senior pedestrian living in an apartment complex on Carmel Dr. walking several days a week to the library, downtown, or Safeway. There are very few bicyclists using 2-lane Lincoln so I was surprised to suddenly have a wide bike lane. To top it all, presently there are no cement sidewalks for pedestrians to avoid drivers on the corner of Lincoln and Carmel. Isn't it the city's responsibility to construct cement sidewalks for foot traffic?” “I use this route all the time and I think it's a great idea. Separate bike lanes are safer for both drivers and cyclists.” “As a cyclist this design is SO dangerous. First, you’ve put bicyclists into a narrow corridor between pylons, curbs, parked cars, and driveways. The single biggest killer of cyclists are right turn drivers. With this bike lane, bicyclists are in contention with right turners and cars pulling out of the library. This is a residential area, on a hill. In all my years biking on Lincoln, I’ve never seen a need to segregate cyclists from other road users. If you need to do it, do it through Civic Park. Put a traffic light in front of the Fire Station and a bike lane down Civic.”
Talk to us 12
walnut creek / summer 2019
