“Therefore, we will be striping a fog line on the north side of Center Street (approximately 3 feet from the curb) to help move traffic away from the curb to help provide an area for bicyclists.”

An area for bicyclists full of dirt, sand, broken glass, and garbage? Sweet!

Can’t we turn an abandoned rail line into a bike lane? What about that one that runs through UWT?

South Tacoma Way should have a bike lane within the next three years, so we were told by city staff. Though not perfect, fog lanes supposedly slow trafic and that is better then nothing. It seems to me the city is not opposed to bike lanes, but they are hard to justify if the bike commuter community remains small. Only a handful of bicycle enthusiasts showed up at the meeting regarding striping Center Street. About the same number of business owners along Center Street were present.

I think this points out why our city needs to invest more in developing its non-motorized transportation infrastructure. (Read: hire a full-time coordinator.) Simultaneously, there is discussion of bike lanes on Center Street, bike lanes on South Tacoma Way, and a dedicated bike trail that runs parallel to both roads. It doesn’t take a genius to see that instead of taking a piecemeal approach, we need to look—big-picture—at which areas are already well-served by bike lanes/trails (if indeed there are any) and which are not, and determine how we can design a system of bike lanes that can actually help someone get from point A to point B. And saying that it’s a chicken/egg thing isn’t good enough—people are actually choosing NOT to ride their bikes because of the lack of amenities, and the only way to really increase the number of people commuting by bike is to provide them better routes in all portions of the city.

The proposed Water Ditch Trail will accomplish most of the connection lost by not pursuing Center Street. One of the highlights of the Regional Transportation Investment District Proposal going to the voters this fall will be money to help complete Water Ditch Trail and the connection between Tacoma and Puyallup.

I attended the meeting and actually came away with a very positive feeling. I think they ARE looking at the big picture – that’s why they are not putting lanes in on both Center St. and S Tacoma Way. They are comitted to making it all connect. S. Tacoma Way and the Water Ditch Trail are already a part of that plan. I’m optomistic.

I also felt the business owners at the meeting had a good point. Removing the center turn lanes would actually make it more dangerous for bikes because of the large volume of trucks. Without the turn lane, the trucks stop in the lane of traffic and tempt cars to pass them on the right in the bike lane.

I would encourage more cyclists to join us at the next meeting.

There currently is a prelim plan for a LID on MLK that will have bike lanes from 25th to Division. I am hoping that we can also get the Scott Pierson trail to also connect with this. Spread the word this is a very real possibility

I’m gonna hold my nose and vote for the RTID. I think it’s got more good (including the bike trail, which I didn’t know about till now) than bad in it, and the cross-base now must go through mediation with enviros before it’s built, which should either delay it to death or lead to substantial mitigation.