See pics and more at :.
here's another illustration — BL is narrow. Only about 3' clear space (BL symbol is 40", as you can see it overhangs well into the gutter) pic.twitter.com/BXwrSYm2Zj
— Az Bikelaw (@azbikelaw) October 24, 2022
Project page ADOT Central District. Ribbon Cutting Saturday, November 5th @ 8am, see the flyer on the project page.
This is a somewhat odd street, in that this stretch which is exactly 1 mile, is within the Town of Guadalupe, and functions basically as the town’s main street, and the traffic is pretty calm and is just one lane in each direction. Whereas immediately north and south of here, the same street (Priest Drive, both in the City of Tempe) is a horrible, very wide, very fast arterial street.
The road in the project area is one lane in each direction, with a center lane for left turns, with a limited number of right-turn only lanes; one traffic light, and a number of all-way stops. A BL was added in both directions. A BL stripe was added (it didn’t used to to have any bike markings.
A quick check of crash history shows only 3 reported crashes (2009 – 2021), all with minor or no injury. (fun fact, the Town does not have a police force, they contract with MCSO to provide service).
I do really like the elevated crosswalk adjacent to Frank Elementary School; that plus the numerous 4-way stops keeps traffic relatively calm. The project overall could have benefited from more elevated xwalks, money?
The BL is relatively narrow, this isn’t necessarily terrible, because the street is a relatively low-speed affair (though that begs the question of the usefullness of a bike lane here).E.g. pic above showing a BL too narrow to fit a 40″ symbol in the usable space)
In areas with on-street parking, it looks like the BL is just barely wide enough to be mostly out of the door-z0ne, and that’s if the vehicles are parked AT the curb; so that’s somewhat unrealistic.
On second look, areas with parking not particularly problematic. Here's a newer pic, showing some actual parked vehicles. they just added the parking guidelines… Bike lane next to parking is generally always going to be at best troublesome pic.twitter.com/dj90203nDN
— Az Bikelaw (@azbikelaw) October 24, 2022
The seam between the asphalt and concrete gutter is often uneven – except when it is new. Over time the expansion and contraction of the different surfaces will create a seam high enough to catch your wheel. If you snag this seam, you will most likely fall to the left into the path of overtaking vehicles.
They always seem to design these bike lane to be car friendly. Their first priority isn’t the safety of the bicyclists but don’t piss off the motorist.