The city board voted 6-0 to remove the majority of the bike lane pilot project's main components during their meeting on Tuesday night.
During the time for public input at the beginning of the meeting, due to the size of the audience, Mayor John Turner asked anyone who was there to address a matter unrelated to the bike lane pilot project to step forward; no one did. Shortly thereafter, the board voted to add a discussion on the matter to the night's agenda.
In preparation for this possibility, City Administrator Phillip Patterson told the board he had a presentation outlining suggestions for possible changes to the project that he and city staff have come up with. After hearing his presentation, the board voted in favor of all proposed changes, which are listed below.
• Remove the pinch point on Harvard Street, west of Oak Hill Street, along with all associated signage.
• Retain the pinch point on Harvard Street, east of Oak Hill Street, removing the metal tanks behind it.
• Remove the pinch point on Elm Street, north of Granite Street, along with all associated signage.
• Remove the pinch point on Jefferson Street, in between South Maple Street and South College Street, along with all associated signage.
• Keep all speed humps in place, removing all signage with the exception of the one in front of the first speed hump on a given street, with one facing in each direction.
• Paint stripes in front of each speed hump to help notify drivers they're approaching them.
• Remove the bollards that are located closest to each of the four corners of the intersection of Jefferson Street and Mount Olive Street to prevent vehicles from running over them.
• Extend and shorten certain sections of the mountable curbs that are located near the intersection of South Maxwell Street and East Main Street.
It should be noted that these suggestions could be subject to change. The reason for keeping the remaining pinch point on Harvard Street is because unlike the others, it is the only one not positioned between two speed humps and city staff felt there should be a traffic calming measure at that location, Patterson said.
To reinforce that claim, he cited data collected from the traffic counters in that area. It indicates that the pinch point is serving its purpose, as the average speed has decreased by five miles per hour, the number of vehicles traveling 30 miles per hour has fallen from 19 to just below six percent and the number of people driving at 35 miles per hour has decreased from three percent to 0.5 percent, Patterson said.
In the event that the board chooses not to keep the pinch point, the city is recommending an additional speed hump be installed in its place, which would cost the city about $2,500. The board approved this project during their Oct. 16 meeting and since that time it has stirred some controversy among the public, and some board members have appeared to grow skeptical of its practicality and long-term viability.
Several residents living near the bike lanes approached the board after Patterson's presentation with mixed opinions on the suggested changes as well as the project as a whole. Jimmy Harris, who lives on South Elm Street, said he has supported the concept of the project since it was introduced, but said he would like to see the city look at replacing the remaining pinch point on Harvard Street with a speed bump.
Another resident of South Elm Street, Kevin Simpson said he's appreciated the degree of responsiveness he's had while communicating with Director Amy Smith and city staff in recent weeks when trying to get more information about the project. He also said that he's very supportive of it, but that he sees benefits in simplifying its design.
Others came forth in full support of the project. One of which was Andre Broquard, who also lives on South Elm Street, who said he'd like to see it stay because it has made it a safer environment for his kids.
"I appreciate the project really as is, I might be a small minority but I appreciate it," Broquard said. "I have kids that are very active in the front yard (and) riding their bikes. I would agree, anecdotally, that it's slowed the traffic down and it has limited the traffic tremendously. It's a win for what the project was designed to do. ... I've talked to other people who said they avoid the area and I say thank you, I appreciate that. I've slowed down, so again, it's contentious maybe, but it's a good thing for our community to encourage people to get out there on their bikes."
A neighbor of Broquard, Ben Brisben, closely echoed Broquard's sentiments and emphasized that the reduction in traffic and speeds has made him and his family feel safer while outside. Another speaker to address the board was Paxton Roberts, executive director of BikeNWA, an organization that played a key role in facilitating the project.
Roberts began by expressing appreciation for the city's efforts to work alongside his organization throughout this process and that he is pleased with the calm manner in which the city and its residents have dealt with the resulting conflict. He went on to say that terminating or interfering with the project this early in the process would have consequences that could undo a lot of what's been accomplished, and urged the board to consider giving him more time.
"I implore you to keep the project," Roberts said. "We've invested countless time, almost $100,000 in consultants and project materials, and for those to be taken out, potentially, at this early stage -- we just officially finished the project on Friday, and so the paint is not even dry yet. ... The whole point of doing it (for) a year is to allow us to get feedback and to think through changes and to test and then to make changes. I just don't feel like a week -- I mean we started building this three weeks ago -- is enough time for that, so I implore you to give us more time.
"In terms of making adjustments, I caution that some of these adjustments could have effects that could compromise the integrity of this project. Our engineer and our project planning team spent a lot of time working with city staff to design this just right to get these things not too far apart, not too close together, so that they slow down traffic but they're not too much of an inconvenience for people living on these streets. I would implore us to table it for a month, two months, whatever that is and give us time for our project team to work more closely with city staff to design these standards."
General News on 12/09/2018