Mayor Taylor and City Council,
I am one of the Safe Routes to School Co Chairs for Laurel Elementary. With
our split campuses, many of our families use Coleman as a route to Lower
and/or Upper Campus. I receive regular emails and calls from parents who
are scared/outraged/bewildered by driver behavior on Coleman. Some in our
school community refuse to bike *to their neighborhood school* because it
is perceived as so unsafe.
The pilot program for the past year has improved the situation greatly.
Please vote to make it permanent.
Additionally, on the August 27 Complete Streets Commision meeting, the
Commision was unanimous in recommending that: 1) bollards protecting the
bike lane at speed humps and crosswalks, 2) disallowing speed cushions into
the bike lane, 3) evaluate narrowing the southbound travel lane to 10 feet
in order to create a bike lane buffer (similar to Middle Ave).
I want to really press into the need for bollards. My personal preference
would be bollards the entire way, protecting both bikes from cars, and also
preventing bikes from drifting into the car lane. Photos presented to the
CSC show car after car parked in the bike lane, with small children
navigating into traffic to go around them. But City Staff have stated that
sweepers cannot get behind them if there is a solid row. I feel like this
is solvable, but until then, having bollards at each crosswalk and
speedhump will at a minimum prevent cars from swerving into the bike lane.
Having bollards protect bike lanes throughout the city is feeling more and
more necessary to keep all road users safe.
A final thought: Maybe the deeper question is who our streets are built
for. When we design only for cars, we quietly decide that anyone who cant
afford one or is not old enough to drive one, matters less. A protected
lane is what lets a 3rd grader ride to school safely. That seems worth
keeping.
Thank you,
Meredith Bergin Bailey
Writing as a private citizen
