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    Protected Bike Lane Pilot Project Planned for Downtown

    A portion of the East Long Street bike lane will be upgraded from a painted lane into a safer, physically protected one later this spring.

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    The city’s Department of Public Service described the upgrade as a pilot project that could eventually lead to protective elements being added to other lanes around Columbus.

    Last fall, Columbus Underground reported on an ongoing audit of the city’s existing bike lanes – nearly all of which are delineated by nothing more than paint on asphalt – that aimed to identify places where lanes could be made safer by installing physical barriers.

    The results of that audit are now in, and city staff is preparing a report on the findings that will be shared with Toole Design Group, the consultant that has been hired to lead the new Bikeways and Micromobility Plan.

    “The audit has identified approximately 10 miles of roadway with bike lanes that may be feasible for upgrading with some form of physical separation of varying levels of complexity,” said Justin Goodwin, the city’s Transportation Planning Manager.

    On Long Street, that means that concrete blocks or ‘bumpers’ (similar to the type found in parking spaces) will be installed from Grant Avenue to Jefferson Avenue, a stretch of about half a mile. The blocks, along with vertical posts, will be placed within the existing painted buffer zone that separates the bike lane from the adjacent car lanes.

    A bike lane in Cincinnati with concrete blocks and plastic bollards separating it from car traffic – Photo by Brent Warren.

    “We are targeting mid-to-late May [for the installation], but the exact procurement date for the materials is still pending,” said Randy Borntrager, Assistant Director of the Department of Public Service.

    As for the other streets that could see their painted lanes upgraded to protected ones, Brontrager said that the full list is “still a work in progress,” but he said that portions of eight other streets around the city have been identified as “potential candidates:” Third Street/Summit Street, Fourth Street, Spring Street, West Broad Street, Souder Avenue, Schrock Road, Hilliard-Rome Road and Karl Road.

    “Further analysis is still required to determine specific upgrade details, project limits, appropriate materials, design feasibility, cost estimates, project timelines, and project prioritizations,” Borntrager added. “There is much more to come as analysis and near-term recommendations are developed through the Bikeways and Micromobility Plan.”

    The Long Street bike lane currently extends from one end of Downtown to the other – a distance of about a mile-and-a-half – but for much of that stretch, the bike lane runs between a row of on-street parking and car traffic. Along the section selected for the pilot program there is no on-street parking, so the physical barriers will not interfere with parking access.

    Apart from the streets identified in the audit, there are several other projects planned that will bring protected bike lanes to streets that currently don’t have any bike infrastructure at all. Borntrager said that all together, another 10 miles of protected bike lanes are being planned throughout the city, although the projects are each at different stages in the design process and in some cases not scheduled to be constructed for several years.

    Included in that figure are projects like the redesign of Mt. Vernon Avenue on the Near East Side and Livingston Avenue in Driving Park, as well as a plan to add a bike lane to Busch Boulevard between SR-161 and Schrock Road that would be separated from traffic by vertical posts and raised plastic lane dividers known as armadillos.

    Other future projects include new bike lanes on Frebis Avenue (between Parsons Avenue and Alum Creek Drive), and a plan to add bike lanes to West Mound Street (between Central Avenue and South Wayne Avenue).

    Bike Plan, Downtown Transportation Study Both Moving Forward

    Debbie Briner, Public Relations Specialist for the Department of Public Service, said that one of the goals of the new bike plan is to create “a citywide vision for an interconnected network of low-stress bikeways,” while also identifying key projects that could be implemented relatively quickly.

    Community engagement for the plan will start up this summer, so expect news soon on upcoming public meetings and other ways to participate. The planning process is scheduled to wrap up some time in the fall of 2024.

    And there is a second initiative, now underway, that will also play a role in how Downtown streets are configured or otherwise redesigned in the years to come – the Downtown Multimodal Transportation Study kicked off in January and will result in a series of recommendations to be announced this fall.

    “The project is being coordinated with the LinkUs BRT corridor design projects and COTA’s planning efforts for Downtown transit improvements,” said Briner. “The project will also be coordinated with the bikeways planning process as it gets underway.”

    City officials have said that the study will look specifically at several proposals from the new Downtown Strategic Plan, such as dedicated transit lanes on Third Street and two-way protected bike lanes on both Broad Street and Fourth Street.

    For more information on the Downtown Multimodal Transportation Study, see columbus.gov.

    Additional Reading:

    Alum Creek Trail Closure Has Cyclists Scrambling to Find Safe Routes

    City Announces New Bike Plan at Studio 35

    Could the New Downtown Plan Lead to Changes with Downtown Streets?

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    Brent Warren
    Brent Warrenhttps://columbusunderground.com/author/brent-warren
    Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights, lives in the University District and studied City and Regional Planning at OSU.
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