I am the Area Work Incentive Coordinator for Area 2 of the Kansas City
Region and am stationed in the Denny Federal Building in Downtown Lincoln.
I cross at 'O' and Cetennial Mall many times a day. This crossing is too
short. I have tried other city contacts to no avail. Many individuals cannot
cross at break neck speed due to impairments or age. I barely make it across
unless I am practically running. Two weeks ago an elderly gentleman with a
crutch tried to make it from north to south across 'O'. He made it half way
before the light changed. The traffic did not wait for him. He was stuck in
the middle of 'O' at 3:30 in the afternoon till the light changed again and he
could finish crossing. Traffic runs the yellows and reds and has no courtesy.
Please can you do anything the lengthen the walk light time north and south at
the intersection of 'O' and Centennial Mall. I see this is one of your items
on your questionnaire so it was evidently an issue throughout your studies.
Susan Lewis
We are long-time bike commuters and are trying to continue that lifestyle
from where we now live north of Raymond. We also know several other people in
our immediate neighborhood who used to commute by bike or would like to
commute by bike, but consider it too dangerous. PLEASE! As county roads are
improved, paved, and upgraded consider alternative transportation! Even a
narrow shoulder would allow commuter biking on North 14th Street, North 70th,
Waverly Road, Highway 79 just to name a few. I am hoping that the current
road construction on North 14th street includes a shoulder and/or bike lane.
Marilyn Tabor
I recently fielded an idea from a customer (Kevin Harvey). He says, Bicycles, under the
Lincoln code are considered vehicles and must obey all the laws as cars are
required. So be it, I suggest we expand those laws to the sidewalks for
bicycles to SAFELY ride on and promote responsible riding along with
responsible driving.
Not just OUTLAWING another multi-beneficial mode of transport.
Note: He is referring to the downtown sidewalk ban. This was established to
protect pedestrians coming out of local businesses. Most sidewalks are wide
enough, that a lane might be designated for cyclists, where they will not
interfere with walkers or people entering and leaving doorways, alleys and blind
corners. Just a thought.
Rich Rodenburg
I wanted to make some bicycling-related comments for your committee's consideration. I noted
that your last meeting produced the following list of bicycling-related "problems" or "concerns"
for Lincoln:
Bicycle safety downtown
Lack of respect for (pedestrians and) bicyclists.
No bike racks on city busses.
Trail connections are lacking; there are not reasonable street routes to connect local trails.
Trails appear to be for recreational use only.
Security concerns were expressed about trails -- don't like trails "back in the bushes."
There is a lack of long term funding for trails other than vehicle tax dollars.
There aren't bike trails going downtown.
No bike lockers.
The city is not adequately promoting the use of alternative transportation. (This comment
was not solely bicycle-related, but it is very relevant to bicycling. The allegation is that
the city doesn't adequately promote public transportation; it doesn't adequately promote
walking and it doesn't adequately promote bicycling. I'm not sure that this is completely
relevant with regard to the busses, but I think that it is certainly relevant with regard to
walking and bicycling.)
Safety, education & attitudes were listed, but almost nothing was said to really flesh out
what this was really supposed to mean.
I would like to comment on these using the numbering in the above list.
I'm not against responsible ideas to improve cyclist safety, but I feel that this concern also
demonstrates a lack of experience with riding downtown. I ride on downtown streets on
most days of the year, and I don't find it to be particularly hazardous. I have been
informed by a friend of mine that examined bicycling accidents in 2002 that there were
10 bicycle-related accidents downtown. Of these, 8 involved bicyclists on sidewalks
(which indicates a lack of cycling know-how and it is also against city ordinance) and the
other 2 accidents involved bicyclists in improper positions in turning lanes. So the record
hardly supports that downtown Lincoln is unsafe for bicyclists. Yes, there is room for
improvement, but I think that your group makes a mistake if it starts with the premise that
riding in downtown Lincoln (on the streets) is inherently unsafe.
Every bicyclist with lots of miles ridden can tell you tales of motorists that were "jerks"
(my term for them). But I would definitely disagree with the characterization that lack of
respect of bicyclists by motorists is a characteristic found by anything more than a very
small minority of the motorists in Lincoln. In all honesty, I have witnessed poor riding
behavior by cyclists around automobiles much more frequently than I have witnessed
poor behavior by motorists around bicyclists.
I definitely agree with this suggestion. I think that bike racks on city busses, in
combination with active pursuit of other ideas, will help increase cycling as well as
ridership on busses.
I strongly support extensions of Lincoln's greenway-like trail system. Some of these
paths are simply wonderful -- they are a real asset to the community that improve
property values and community life. But I want to put this in perspective: there are a lot
of reasons beyond transportation utility to support development of greenway-like trails.
But let's not go too far -- these trails are not and should not be the only safe way that
pedestrians and bicyclists can get around town.
I think that my views of trails are captured pretty well in my comments in response to
item (4). I think that there are lots of reasons to have trails other than for transportation.
But my observation of many of the same cyclists on the trails around the same times of
the day leads me to believe that the trails are used by plenty of commuters as part of their
routes. I know that I use a trail part of the way on my commute to work.
I seriously question how relevant this concern is for persons using trails for transportation
purposes. A person taking a stroll at 9:00 p.m. may think of this, but I don't think that it
is probably much of a concern for someone that is commuting. I know that I would
disagree with those that don't want trails "back in the bushes." I definitely appreciate
greenway-type trails. I'd like as many of them as possible "back in the bushes."
I don't know if this comment came from a person following Congressional TE debate, and
I also wasn't really sure what the point of the comment was, but it is clearly easier from a
funding standpoint to develop good bicycle facilities when areas are first being developed
than to go in after the fact. I would certainly like Lincoln to pursue a strategy of
coordinated planning for greenway type developments, including multi-use paths, with
all new areas of development. The tougher thing, as many have referenced, is finding
ways to tie things together in the areas of the city that have already been developed. And,
back to the point, if something needs to be done to assure funding, then I certainly support
exploring that.
I'd like to see a few improvements here, too, but I am also aware of a few very substantial
projects already in the works to improve trails near the downtown area. The Antelope
Valley project is obviously the biggest one, but there are also some improvements
planned coming in from the SW of the downtown area. In large part, however, when I
see suggestions of this nature without any mention of bike lanes and without any mention
of cyclist education, I come back to the point that the group and the city is a little too
trails-centric in its consideration of bicycling as a means of transportation.
Bike lockers would be a real plus. I ride a nice bicycle to work, but that is only because I
have a place inside my office area where I can store my bicycle. There are errands that I
simply wouldn't run with my bicycle because I don't like the thought of leaving it chained
up to an outdoor bicycle rack. I lost the key to a U-Lock once and used a battery powered
tool to cut the shackle. It demonstrated for me that locking a bike to a rack just isn't very
secure. Bike lockers would be a real plus, but it would also be advantageous if employers
attempted to provide inside parking for employees' bicycles in places where no one other
than other employees have access.
I felt like hugging the person that said this, even though it wasn't just a bicycling-specific
comment and even though it didn't get into details. I feel that this is an important part of
promoting bicycling especially, although it probably also has application for other modes
of alternate transportation.
This is a statement that needs to be fleshed out.
In terms of "goals" or "opportunities," the only thing that I noted was a desire that local multi-use
trails connect with each other. That was it.
In terms of suggestions for your committee, my overarching bicycling-related suggestion would
be to look to ways that you can get more people riding bicycles for transportation (which will
necessarily involve getting more people to ride bicycles for recreation as well). Improvements to
the existing trails system would certainly be a large part of this. When the city expands, plans
should be in place for greenway-type multi-use trails within every section and with connections
between them. This is much more than a transportation suggestion, however -- it is a "quality of
life" suggestion. I don't think that we could justify multi-use paths merely for their bicycle
transportation value. Rather, they enrich the lives of the people in the area and this "enrichment"
is reflected in higher property values.
Not all bicycling transportation can be done on multi-use trails and/or on very low volume
residential streets. People that work downtown will need to ride a bicycle downtown and people
that work in many other locations will need to be able to follow much the same route as some of
our arterial streets. This brings me to the subject of bike lanes or at least streets that are
specifically designed with bicycling in mind. I'm really not completely sold on bike lanes,
because they can cause problems as well as solve them, but I believe that at least a few bike lanes
around town would go a long ways towards changing the mindset of local bicyclists that they
need to stay on trails. I believe that this mindset is to blame for the
excessive amount of sidewalk riding that we see in this community.
On the subject of reducing the amount of sidewalk riding, which I believe should be primarily
addressed through education of some sort, I believe that we need to be careful as we plan our
multi-use trail system around the city. Some of the city's trails are very desirable as a means of
bicycling transportation because they aren't what I call "glorified sidewalks." Rather, they are
paved trails through greenway areas that offer the user the opportunity to ride a longer distance
without as many street intersections to contend with. The Rock Island Trail lets me go almost 3
miles from Essex Street in Southwood to 27th and Capitol Parkway with only three street
intersections in-between. That is wonderful when it can be provided. What I feel much less
enthusiastic about, however, are "trails" that are nothing more than glorified sidewalks. Look at
the "trail" running along Superior Street or the "trail" running along Old Cheney. These are just
wide sidewalks, and they involve accident hazards at intersections that are
higher than those faced by bicyclists riding down the street. They certainly don't provide the
strong "quality of life" improvements that a greenway-type multi-use path does, which means
that they have got to be justified because they provide a safer connection than can be provided in
some other fashion. I bring this up because I don't believe that this is an approach to be followed
for a number of possible situations, especially when there are a lot of intersecting streets.
I think that bike lanes would be safer than "glorified sidewalks" when there are a lot of
intersecting streets, because most of the bicycle accidents occurring in the city of Lincoln occur
when a person riding on the sidewalk crosses or enters the street. They don't occur to people that
are riding in the street.
Other more bite-size suggestions that I have for you include:
(a) There are state and local traffic laws related to bicycling that could be fixed up somewhat.
I don't see this as a high priority for your group, but I mention it for sake of completeness.
(b) It is has already been mentioned that it is important to promote bicycling and to educate
bicyclists. Just look at all of the people riding on sidewalks. While a need for education
applies for all age groups, I think that a special effort needs to be made with regard to our
junior high and high school age youth. There is a crushing tendency for young teens to
view bicycles as toys that they outgrow, even prior to getting their drivers license, and
certainly aren't something that they would be caught doing after they get their drivers
license. I don't have a full understanding of teen psychology (does anyone?), but I think
that these youth view bicycles as toys because that is the way that almost everyone else
treats them. I think that a concerted effort involving both parents but especially the
schools (that do extremely little in this area right now) needs to be made so that young
people don't completely stop riding bicycles when they hit their mid-teens.
(c) For the various section roads around Lincoln, that start as county gravel roads, then get
paved and then get widened, I suggest that a modest shoulder be placed on all of these as
soon as they are paved. Check out Pine Lake Road between 40th and 56th for a good
example of what I'm talking about. Hard core bicyclists head out of town and ride on the
8-foot shoulders on Highway 77, Highway 34 and Highway 2. These highways probably
fall outside the scope of your study, but it would also be helpful if the paved roads near
the periphery of Lincoln had modest shoulders, both for purposes of general vehicular
safety as well as a plus for cyclists. These would allow cyclists to get to areas where
plenty of people already live, but that simply aren't as built up and may not be entirely
within the city limits yet.
I wish you luck. You have a tough task ahead of you.
Multi-Modal Transportation Study