Pilot protected bike lanes will be installed on Westnedge Avenue and Park Street from Michigan Avenue to Maple Street starting the week of August 15. The pilot bike lanes will be marked with traffic cones, pavement bike symbols, and temporary signage.
These pilot bike lanes will extend the protected bike lanes installed in July south from where they currently end at Michigan Avenue, connecting the Northside, Downtown, Vine, and Southside neighborhoods. To maintain on-street parking for businesses in the Vine commercial corridor, the bike lane will transition to a shared lane, marked with sharrow, from Dutton Street to Village Street on Westnedge Avenue.
Plastic bollards will also be added to the lanes in the fall where needed based on traffic studies to prevent traffic from entering the bike lanes. The pilot bike lanes will be temporary and will help inform permanent installations on the streets when they are resurfaced and repainted in 2023/2024.
The bike symbols and signage will remain in place through spring 2023. Traffic cones and bollards may remain through the winter if possible with winter maintenance needs. Traffic data and feedback will be collected throughout the pilot so that adjustments can be made if needed before permanent installation.
This work is part of a project launched in 2021 to calm traffic on Westnedge Avenue and Park Street, which focused on slowing vehicle traffic to make the streets safer and more comfortable for all users and better aligning the streets with the adjacent neighborhoods. This work is also part of implementation for the Vine Neighborhood Plan which called for buffered bike lanes on Westnedge Avenue and Park Street.
More information on this project is available at www.imaginekalamazoo.com/projects/westnedgepark
Original source can be found here.
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