Any progress on this? I've forwarded the issue to the Mayor of Lansing, who now has a watch area here.

Well, there is a bike lane on the East side of the tracks on both North and south sides. West of the tracks there aren't any bike lane markings (which is what was asked about in orig. post). There is room for them for about 30 yards west of the track on each side of the road. At that point the outer lanes narrow to a normal width not allowing for bike lanes. In fact, that's even before reaching Beech St. I for one wouldn't want a bike lane in tight traffic.

What's the policy with bikes on sidewalks within Lansing? Besides that, what's the policy for bike traffic in this section before the River Trail? Are bikers expected to cycle within traffic lanes?

BTW: The River Trail has a post with markings at the entrance by the SE corner of the Kalamazoo St bridge.

Mark: a side note: There's no position change in Mayor of Lansing now the elections are over. I trust the Mayor has not lessened his interest in the issue at this time. ;)

It really is unfortunate that the bike lanes disappears just a few blocks from the downtown commercial district. This stretch of road all the way over the Kalamazoo Street bridge to Washington St. could be an excellent candidate for sharrows (shared lane markings) if there is not enough road width to install bike lanes. Let's help guide people to our downtown. You'll find more info on sharrows here:
http://www.lmb.org/index.php/Advocacy-Toolkit/sharrows.html

A nice quick educational video on sharrows:

The bike lane will be extended to Larch Street with the reconstruction of Kalamazoo from Pennsylvania to Larch this year (2011). West of Larch, bicycle traffic will need to utilize the traffic lanes.

Andy Kilpatrick
Transportation Engineer