07/14/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilman Murray then asked whether statistics were available with regard to bike accidents on arterial streets with or without bike lanes. Al Williams said there was no definitive case-by-case study. For comparative purposes, he noted the e worst area now is the Coburg Road sidewalk route - bike accidents vs vehicle accidents - taking into consideration that many were not reported. He was not aware of any bike accidents on the Amazon Parkway where bike lanes were striped. He said Pearl and High were being used by bikes now, and he felt if the bike riders considered Mill Street more acceptable they would be using that route. He had no concerns about installing bike lanes on Pearl and High from a safety standpoint; he did express concern about using sidewalks for bikes, considering the experience with the Coburg Road bike route. Councilman Keller asked what the traffic count was on Mill Street, noting about 13,000 cars were traveling on Pearl. He also asked how many parking spaces would be eliminated in this proposal. Al Williams answered that there was no 24-hour count on Mill Street; he would guess from 200 to 1000 a day. He pointed out that Mill intersects two other east/west rOutes (12th and 15th) and there would be a difference of opinion about changing the right-of-way at those intersections. He said there was no total of the spaces that would be taken because in most in- stances they were not marked. Site distance zones had also to be taken into con- sideration, but he thought on the average it would amount to about 10 spaces per block. II-B-2 Mr. Murray moved second by Mr. Keller to deny the appeal with regard to parking removal and installation of bike lanes as proposed on Pearl and High from 11th and 16th to 19th. Mr. Murray said the proposal was in compliance with the Master Bikeway Plan which tit had widespread public support. Present provisions for bikes on these two streets were inadequate, and he felt it was one more way to encourage an alternate method of transportation. Neither was he persuaded that the streets should be used to provide parking space for businesses, although he recognized that some businesses would suffer considerably. He expressed disappointment at the lack of provisions for landscaping and screening in this area, saying it appeared what little vegeta- tion was there would probably be lost in providing adequate parking. He hoped that issue would be more seriously considered at some later date. Councilman Williams noted that in the slides shown he saw no bicycles. Neither had he observed any cars parked on those streets today, he said, and he wondered whether there was more parking space being eliminated to provide more bike space than was really used. He thought it became a matter of tradeoffs and he hesitated to inflict further damage.' Councilman Keller thought it was not the best judgment to put heavy bike traffic and heavy auto traffic on the same street. Also, he thought the parking removal would punish some of the older establishments on Pearl and High. And he didn't like the idea of providing parking at the expense of "tearing up the grass." Councilwoman Shirey recognized the concerns faced by business establishments on the two streets, but she felt the study had not developed any alternative route for the bikes. Alternative methods of transportation carried a high priority with citizens, she said, and this was one instance where implementation of those goals could be initiated. e Mayor Anderson noted conflict of interest because of owning property abutting the route, in the event of a tie vote requiring his vote. Councilmen Bradley and Haws also said they would abstain from voting because of conflict of interest. 7/14/75 - 9 37<0