Proposed Road Redesign Would Allow Cars Into Bike Lanes
It’s been proven: micro-mobility infrastructure like bike lanes improves cyclist safety immensely, but what about allowing cars to use such lanes? In Kalamazoo, Michigan, the city is proposing a road redesign that would allow exactly that.
The stretch of road, Winchell Avenue west of Rambling Road, has a double yellow line running down the center of the street in the busy residential area where vehicles “routinely travel the 25 mph road at closer to 30 mph,” Dennis Randolph, a traffic engineer, told MLive.
After Kalamazoo residents lobbied for additional parking on neighborhood streets, the city proposed reducing traffic to one 12-foot wide lane, creating an edge lane road. This configuration extends for half a mile and ends near a large apartment complex.
What is an edge lane road?
Edge lane roads allow two-way motor vehicle use while accommodating cyclists and pedestrians.“The center lane is primarily for motorists traveling in both directions. Cyclists or pedestrians have the right-of-way in the edge lanes, but motorists can use the edge lanes, after yielding to the cyclists or pedestrians, to pass approaching vehicles,” according to Advisory Bike Lanes.
According to Advisory Bike Lanes, such road configurations are extensively used in many countries, including the Netherlands, where biking is a way of life. Though edge lane roads seem contrary to rider safety, these roads have been installed in 11 locations across the U.S. and have reduced crash rates by more than 40 percent. No agency reported cyclist or pedestrian injuries, according to a 2021 Mineta Transportation Institute study.
Randolph thinks the redesign could be a traffic-calming solution.
“These designs force drivers to slow down and actually obey the speed limit. As you know, speeding is a serious problem contributing to many of our crashes each year. This plan does that,” he told MLive.
Randolph may be an outlier because edge lane roads or similar configurations are primarily used in small towns or rural areas, not in a city with more than 70,000 residents, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials and the Yield Roadway - Rural Design Guide. This configuration further heightens safety concerns because this road is near schools, including Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College.
Area residents have called the proposed reconfiguration “dumb and dangerous.” At the same time, the city’s vice mayor, Don Cooney, thinks the city should reconsider the proposal, and “retired Kalamazoo city manager Ken Collard, who is a civil engineer, [called] the plan stupid,” according to WKZO.
The reconfiguration is expected to go into effect in late July or early August, according to Imagine Kalamazoo. The city plans to post signs to direct drivers to use bike lanes when “an oncoming vehicle is coming, to avoid a collision” and “vehicles must yield to the bike, stopping in the vehicle lane if necessary,” according to MLive.
In a motorized-centric environment, this plan leaves bikers and pedestrians at the mercy of drivers—as if vulnerable road users need more risk.
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