Description
The Kalamazoo St. bike lane is full of gravel, glass and broken car parts ever since the snow melt. I imagine the rest of Lansing's bike lanes are in a similar state. Scheduling bike lane sweepings immediately following the last snow melt will improve safety and encourage more bicycle commuting.
8 Comments
Erica Balk (Guest)
The City will begin street sweeping operations in the coming week. We will begin with Trunklines and major streets. Kalamazoo is a major street and will be addressed within the first round. Sweeping is done geographically, meaning that we start in the downtown area and then move out from there. This is an effort to maximize efficiency and production. With limited resources it would be ineffective to do isolated areas outside of normal routing. That said, I have informed the supervisor that this area has been brought to our attention, and he will make an effort to see this area completed sooner rather than later. The first round of sweeping is usually completed within a three week time frame.
If you wish to get information on sweeping status, you may contact the Public Service Operations & Maintenance division directly at (517) 483-4161.
John Lindenmayer (Registered User)
Thank you Erica for the quick reply. I understand your comments regarding efficiency, but I would like to highlight that roads with bike lanes should be given top priority similar to trunk lines. These are the trunk lines for bicyclists. Once the snow melts, the high speeds of automobiles actually sweep all the winter dirt and debris directly into the bike lane which is a serious hazard...not to mention it makes for an unpleasant ride. A win win for everyone is to simply move up the sweeping schedule in the future so there is not such a gap between the last snow melt and when the brushes hit the pavement.
Putting priority on maintaining the bike lanes is also in accordance with the guiding principle of Lansing's new Complete Streets ordinance which is to "promote a SAFE network of access for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities..."
http://michigancompletestreets.wordpress.com/resources/lansing-complete-streets-ordinance/
Since it still may be years before we see substantial infrastructure improvements in the form of additional bike lanes, sidewalks, etc, prioritizing bike lane sweepings is an easy opportunity for the City to begin to operate under the Complete Streets mind set.
Thanks again...looking forward to my bike commute next week!
Erica Balk (Guest)
CT Livable Streets Campaign (Registered User)
Mike (Guest)
Michigan Bicyclists (Registered User)
Κλειστό Michigan Bicyclists (Registered User)
Erica Balk (Guest)