At this point, bike lanes are imminent on much of Roosevelt Way Northeast as it makes its way through Maple Leaf, but the plan is on hold for now from Northeast 75th Street to Northeast 85th Street.
The majority of the project, which aims to add bike lanes to the uphill portions of Roosevelt and shared car-bike lanes in the downhill portions from Northeast 75th to Northeast 115th streets, is slated to take place later this year.
However, adding the bike lanes and “sharrows” to the narrower portion of the road from Northeast 75th to 85th streets would require taking away parking on the west side of the street, and it looks like that part of the proposal is on hold until at least 2011. (Read more about the project on our earlier post.)
From the Seattle Department of Transportation:
In order to conduct additional traffic and parking analysis over the fall and winter months, SDOT is postponing implementation of the plan between NE 75th Street and NE 85th Street until 2011. We anticipate the 15th Avenue Bridge will reopen by that time and traffic on Roosevelt will normalize. We will return to the community in early 2011 with an updated proposal.
The department said it received more than 100 comments on the project, which in addition to residents lamenting the loss of parking from Northeast 85th to 75th streets, also included concerns about transit losing its extra southbound lane where parking now is prohibited just during the morning commute.
But commenters also spoke in favor of additional bicycle facilities, more marked crosswalks and traffic calming, including a request from the Maple Leaf Community Council for additional crosswalks at the intersections of Northeast 92nd Street, Northeast 91st Street, Northeast 89th Street, Northeast 94th Street and Northeast 97th Street. The project already includes the addition of a marked crosswalk at Northeast 90th Street.
What do you think about the plan to now add the bike lane and sharrows only from Northeast 85th to 115th streets?
ML resident, if you are so worried about skinny lanes and doorings, then why don’t you want a bike lane adjactent to the curb, rather than having bicyclists be in the middle of motor vehicle traffic?
The “pause” is to give SDOT time to properly review the impact of buses and headway times. While it is easy to take away lanes that buses and commuters use everyday, it should not be done without adequate review of the impacts.
The “road diet” in other areas will result in slower buses, more pollution from idling cars and buses, and basically frustrated motorists, not to mention the potential for more injuries to bicyclists who “assumed the bike lane was safe” when in fact it places them into the one place they should not ride: the door zone.
The fact that more than 100 (actually many more) people raised concerns within a single week of being notified of the proposal is pretty amazing. In talking with scores of residents I did manage to find ONE person who was for taking away the commuter lane and right turn options for southbounders. In his words “Yeah, it’ll make the congestion so bad, I’ll be able to scoot by on my bike even more safely since they’ll all be stuck in gridlock.” Hmmm…an honest biker.
This plan is not just about taking away parking, it is also about taking away a lane of travel during the peak morning commute and the ability to turn right onto 80th and 75th to go North or South on the freeway. That is the issue the MLCC raised with SDOT and why they have agreed that a more complete study be done on the impacts before any lane removal occurs.
As a person who bikes this route every day, I’m in favor of the bike lane on the northbound lane from 75th to 85th, and beyond. I ride Roosevelt or 11th ave from Northgate to the U-bridge. This 10 block section is actually part of the skinniest part, and quite frankly it is extremely tight and scary when a bus and other cars try to pass you along this 10 block section. The rest of the road is more spread out. And as somebody who bikes this everyday, I have never seen the road from 75th to 85th more then maybe 50% full of parked cars. It’s usually less. So i believe that a lot of the concern is unfounded. Most of the businesses are northbound of 85th. South of 85th is mostly residential.
sorry but taking away parking in roosevelt – especially on the roosevelt way is just beyond stupid. not only do you have businesses suffering because customers can’t park close by but for business owners who can’t even use the load zones to bring in supplies because they are for trucks only. what are they thinking?
The city also had favorable response to removing the parking between 75th & 85th, at least from this voter and long time homeowner. The Seattle process in action, fine, by next year the road diets along the rest of the route and elsewhere in the city will have been shown to be a good thing, which comes to those that wait.
Now, how about 5% of the road budget for sidewalks?