How far along Linden and Turner Streets will bike lanes extend? On Turner, it will extend 4th to 22d Streets. On Linden, it will go from 10th to 18th. Since there are no plans to eliminate parking, this means that traffic will be reduced to a single lane in those areas.
John Sharpe, an LSI employee and cycling advocate, has details largely unknown to the public. He had them forwarded to Scott Armstrong.
- No parking removal is proposed. At certain intersections, parking might be pulled back a bit away from the corners to improve pedestrian visibility, safety, and traffic flow for turning vehicles; parking implications would be minor (or none).
- Conversion of a travel lane to the buffered bike lane is proposed for Turner from 4th to 22nd and on Linden from 10th to 18th.
- The proposed traffic capacity of Turner and Linden would meet or exceed peak traffic volumes.
- School loading zones: Central - all loading activity moved off of Turner (as proposed in the Safe Routes to School plan); McKinley - School zone on Turner next to the school would be reserved for bus activity only, with parent pick-up/drop-off moved off-street, bus zone
would be expanded (per the Safe Routes to School plan); Allen high school - the design team has not looked at this in detail yet, but the existing school curb zone could be expanded.
Greg Weitzel is planning for another COC committee meeting. Watch for his email invitation and please try to attend so that the design team can share the latest proposed plan with you.
5 comments:
Insidious.
Maybe he asked...
Bernie,
In Allentown the employment of common sense may put one at odds with the Pawlowski Administration. So it is with the proposal to put bike lanes on the downtown through streets of Linden and Turner. People who don't actually live on the affected streets have concluded that the greater good is served by using federal grant money on a project no one in the area wants. The fact that the already tenuous existence of the residents of Turner and Linden may be further stressed by their plans is apparently outweighed by the nobility of their motive. While residents merely want to park and unload groceries they want to change/save the world.
If the plan as it now stands (I think) to reduce traffic to a single lane goes forward it will be difficult indeed to drive or park on these important streets. Let me explain it this way for the professionals so that they may understand. Presently when a resident sees an available parking spot they slow down and put on their turn signal to indicate to the oncoming motorists their intention to back into the space. They then come to stop and back into the space. With the current “Two Lane” one way system the oncoming motorist may safely proceed around the parking vehicle by using the other lane. With this “Two Lane” method serious traffic back-ups are prevented. If traffic is reduced to a single lane simple deduction indicates backups and delays will commonly occur because the option to “go around” has been eliminated. In other words, driving and parking in the downtown will become even more of a nightmare than it currently is.
Of course it may be that our betters understand this perfectly well and the nightmare scenario is exactly what they seek with this bike path design. Soon the unwashed masses will see the futility of cars in the new Allentown. Row home dwellers will abandon their vehicles and discover they can bicycle to work in Macungie, peddle their children to various destinations and bring home the groceries on the back rack and handle bar basket of the two-wheeler. Given time Allentown will resemble old news reel footage of China with nothing but bikes clogging the thoroughfares of paradise.
It is difficult for us residents to see this proposal any other way. Are the professional so foolish that they don’t understand the inconvenience this bike path plan will impose on the residents of the affected streets or are they after a larger goal of forcing their “change” on us? Either way, we don’t like it and one thing’s for sure, none of them live here.
Scott Armstrong
Bernie -
If I understand this correctly, they will lose a car lane (that is currently heavily used) for a bike lane that will likely be sparsely used - and maybe not at all during the winter months.
Who dreams this stuff up?
Also, in none of the design examples do I see what actually exists on Allentown streets - numerous double parked cars. Maybe the planners should get out of the office and take a ride through Realityville.
Don't Lanta buses us Turner and Linden?
When did mayor Bloomberg move to Allentown? What's next for us: no salt in the city?
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