Bike Lanes For Center Street? ( 8. June 2007, 08:06 by Derek Young) ~ Cyclists Rise!
The City of Tacoma is sooo close to done on the improvements to Center Street between Cedar and Wilkeson. Still, the street isn’t striped yet and the city’s staff is currently reviewing a proposal sent to City Council to include bike lanes on both sides of the street. The pocket lane (the turn lane in the middle), would be removed except at intersections to provide room for the bike lanes. The question to you…
Do you want bike lanes? We want bike lanes.
There will be a meeting on June 20th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm for the various stakeholders to discuss the proposal with City staff.
Details
Tacoma Municipal Building North
733 Market Street, Room 16
June 20th, 2007 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Commenting Is Closed
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Interesting…for this location specifically, two things come to mind…
1) Will they long-term connect the lanes to downtown? Because the stretch in question is pretty short. I’m hoping this is part of a bigger vision.
2) This is pretty close to the proposed Water Ditch Trail. If the city doesn’t spend money on this, can the money they’re not spending be set aside for that effort?
1 | Posted by jamie from thriceallamerican | Jun 8, 08:34 AM
I love bike lanes. This would be a fantastic precedent for Tacoma. Could 6th Ave be next? How do we get these things in front of the council? Can I help? -Kristina
2 | Posted by KLW | Jun 8, 09:03 AM
i live in university place, and typically take regents blvd/center st into downtown because the traffic isn’t nearly as bad as 19th st. i think adding a bike lane to center st is a grand idea for a number of reasons: less traffic, quick route into downtown from the west side of town, helps tacoma become more biker-friendly, and it will help commuters save money at the pump.
4 | Posted by comment | Jun 8, 09:51 AM
While I’m encouraged that the topic of bicycle lanes has surfaced PRIOR to completion of this project, it’s disappointing to see that it is an apparent afterthought—clearly not part of the original plan. Perhaps more disappointing, as evidenced by this ad hoc meeting to discuss a finite segment of bicycle lanes, is the lack of a comprehensive vision for a more bicycle friendly Tacoma.
It would be my hope that our friends at Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club would take the lead on advocacy issues, though a quick peak at the advocacy page doesn’t look too encouraging.
I digress. Certainly, in isolation, this particular stretch of road seems to make sense for adding lanes. However, lots of ideas in isolation seem like a good idea, or “a step in the right direction”... I chuckle every time I ride the “four blocks o’ bike lanes” between N 21st and N 26th on Alder. That seemed like a good idea to someone, one upon a time.
My own conclusion is that “we” can no longer wait for “them” to develop a plan. Rather than simply waiting and hoping and wishing we were more like Portland, OR or Davis, CA (and complaining that we’re not) it’s time to become more engaged in the process. I’ll be at the meeting at the 20th to support this proposal in general, and will hope to see others (many others) there as well.
Thanks for the heads up on this meeting!
5 | Posted by Rick | Jun 8, 12:30 PM
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