This one from the DOH is interesting.  If they are so concerned about the speed up the boulevard why don't they lower the regulatory posting to 25 mph during the MUB project (or longer) rather than to recommend installing signage that makes bicyclists appear as though they are a gaggle of ducklings that require protection .. and according to an earlier posting, even if they do approve the climbing lane, they won't finance or maintain the project anyways.  Are they going to annex the shoulder to the City?  I doubt it.  On top of it, these so call experts know absolutely nothing about the nature of cyclists who will be using this detour.  I really can't see cyclists riding down the proposed climbing lane of a two way highway as being a common occurrence .. really I can't!  However, I have seen cars go the wrong way on badly marked one way roads around Morgantown fairly often.  I find the third recommendation especially profound, but I would like to avoid this recommendation in this particular application at all costs simply because it appears to me that DOH's goal is to keep us off the roads at all costs while do everything they can to continue to enable the flow and resulting congestion of "very heavy vehicular traffic".

-Jonathan

Frank Gmeindl wrote:
RE: Morgantown Bicycle Lane

Bicycle Board Members,

 

It keeps coming.  Comments?

 

Frank

Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles

 

 

 

From: Bill Austin [mailto:baustin@moncpc.org]
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 2:46 PM
To: 'Frank Gmeindl'; 'Damien Davis'; 'Terry Hough'
Subject: FW: Morgantown Bicycle Lane

 

Frank, Damien, and Terry,

 

Please see the e-mail below. This appears to be the starting point from DOH.  We will need to discuss these issues at the TTAC meeting.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Bill Austin, AICP

Executive Director

Morgantown Monongalia MPO

180 Hart Field Road

Morgantown, WVA  26508

304-291-9571

304-692-7225 Mobile

 

 

 

From: Lewis, Ray C [mailto:Ray.C.Lewis@wv.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 2:38 PM
To: Hudson, Jim E; Robinson, Bill C
Cc: Keller, Perry J; Warner, Richard L; Shoukry, Fouad N; Bill Austin
Subject: RE: Morgantown Bicycle Lane

 

We have reviewed the various documents, drawings, and other materials generated as a result of this proposal. 

We are  reluctant to approve the proposed “bicycle climbing lane”.   While it may be somewhat useful to give cyclists a defined space when climbing most of the grade, the location and the surrounding traffic and environment make this facility highly undesirable.  The  posted speed limit on Monongahela Boulevard is 45 mph; this  traffic operating speeds throughout most  of the day are consistent with the regulatory posting.  The termination of the climbing lane requires that the cyclists who are bound for the Evansdale Campus must share the right-turn lane with very heavy vehicular traffic.  Cyclists desiring to continue north will  be operating at single-digit speeds and will be forced to merge left into a high speed, heavy traffic stream.  Finally, the bicycle lane in question has no logically-defined origin, and does not provide satisfactory access to the Evansdale Campus.

Since this is a bicycle facility that is shared with the shoulder, the bicycle traffic in the climbing lane must move in the same direction as the highway traffic.  There is no provision for a bike lane in the opposite direction.  This is likely to lead to bicyclists trying to ride downhill in the climbing lane.  If so, the potential exists for head-on collisions between bicyclists, which are often severe or fatal; or to cyclists riding downhill being  forced into oncoming motor vehicle traffic.  Any action taken to provide a northbound bicycle lane must be matched by compatible actions on the southbound side.

After considering the matter further, we suggest that there are three alternatives open to the City of Morgantown and/or the WVDOH:

·       Do nothing

·       Warn motorists of the potential for bicycles to be present by installing assemblies consisting of black on yellow, diamond-shaped bicycle symbol(W11-1) signs accompanied by distance plaques with the  wording, NEXT __ MI W7-3A).   If the City and the MPO accept this alternative, we will place these sign assemblies at ¼ mile increments for both directions of traffic between 8th Street and Patteson Drive, at our expense.

·       The third alternative is for the City and the MPO to design and construct a separate shared-use path from the presently-proposed ending point of the bicycle climbing lane  to an appropriate junction with Evansdale Drive or some other roadway in the vicinity of the Creative Arts Center, along with developing a compatible southbound bicycle lane on the west side of Monongahela Boulevard.

These are “broad-brush” proposals, which are meant as discussion-starters at Tuesday’s TTAC meeting.  We will be happy to work with any and all parties as necessary. 

If I may be of further assistance, please contact me.

Ray Lewis

Staff Engineer -- Traffic Research

     and Special Projects

WVDOT, Division of Highways

1900 Kanawha Blvd. East

Charleston, WV  25305

Telephone:  (304) 558-9451

Fax:  (304) 558-1209

e-Mail:  ray.C.lewis@wv.gov

_____________________________________________
From: Hudson, Jim E
Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2010 8:54 AM
To: Robinson, Bill C
Cc: Keller, Perry J; Warner, Richard L; Lewis, Ray C; Shoukry, Fouad N; 'Bill Austin'
Subject: Morgantown Bicycle Lane

Bill

After much thought on the Morgantown Bike Lane issue I think our signage should remain consistent with our signage on other limited access highways.  Therefore I propose we limit our signage and roadway markings to those found along Route 50, Route 33, and the East Beckley By-Pass among other places.  These signs should be placed on both sides of Monongahela Boulevard and other locations where high-speed and/or high-density traffic and adequate shoulders indicate it is necessary.

While I understand the desire for a “climbing” lane for bicycles, I do not accept the idea that average bicyclists (Class B) can safely maintain the speed of 45 to 50 mph required to keep up with traffic on the downhill side of the road.  Bicyclists who want to ride on the road where the signs I propose have been posted are in the same category as those semi drivers who want to drive in the left lane where signage prohibiting trucks in the left lane have been installed.

A photograph of the signage used in these locations is attached to this email.

 << OLE Object: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) >>

Jim Hudson

Community Development Specialist

Building 5, Room 863

1900 Kanawha Blvd. E.

Charleston, WV 25305-0430

(304) 558-9613

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