Back in February, I noted the 52nd Street (and 46th Street) bike lanes. After finally riding down the lane yesterday, I will give it a partial thumbs-up. Having ridden down 52nd Street before the lane was created, I certainly did feel safer with the lane than without it. My largest complaint comes with the west-bound lane at the S-curve that suddenly ends without any signs or other indicators. I did not ride the lane all of the way to Keystone, so I’m not sure of how it ends towards that massive car-based avenue. All-in-all, though, the lane is a nice gesture, and a good use of the street. I just hope they can deal with the problem at the S-curve.
I haven’t heard any updates of the proposed bike lanes on Michigan and New York Streets. If you’re familiar with any progress there, please mention it in the comments.
I wish they would start on the NY and Michigan lanes as those are the streets I commute on for work. The streets in Indy are so wide that it would be wonderful to see more bike lanes throughout the city.
The guy at the Indy Cycle Specialists bike shop (owner I think) told me a couple weeks ago that the NY/MI lanes are delayed because someone is trying to not do them (INDOT?) or at least delay as long as possible. That bike shop would be the folks to talk to on this subject!
Thanks Amy.
It is utterly absurd how long it is taking to do the fairly straight-forward job of striping NY and Mich for bike lanes. As a daily commuter on those streets, I find them fairly safe as a commuting route, but feel like the bike lanes will act as a constant visual reminder to motorists that bicyclists could be present. So where is the money that was supposedly set aside for this job?
I heard a rumor somewhere online that they would be delayed until 2009. When I went to the open house back in March, they said they would be underway by late summer. I may try to contact the DPW engineer in charge.
At that open house, they had detailed block-by-block drawings of the lanes and how they would interact with bus stops, intersections, and the like. They seem to have spent some decent money on it already.
Here’s a link to a DPW document about the project. The prject manager’s name is Andy Lutz. It indicates that it’s 80 percent funded by a federal grant, which makes it hard to believe they would walk away, but who knows. I suppose it could be a budget casualty. Stuff like this and parks and the arts seem like cuts that may provide a short term boost, but the downturn in quality of life
http://www.indygov.org/NR/rdonlyres/71AC886C-5209-4E78-BA54-29D28463DA5B/0/BikeLane1.pdf
It would be interesting to hear the scoop on this. I hope the mayor does not ignore the very things that make Indianapolis livable.
The whole thing is estimated to cost $120k, $24k by the city.
If the rumors are true and this was a budget casualty to save $24k, Ballard is a goddamn idiot.
Per DPW, the bid date is September 11, and they expect construction to begin in late September or early October. Funding is in place and not an issue.
That’s good news John.