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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 10/4/2022 - Memorandum From Aaron Iverson And Cortney Geary Re: E. Pitkin Stret Advisory Bike Lanes FC Moves 281 North College Avenue P.O. Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580 970.224.6058 970.224.6057 - fax fcgov.com/fcmoves Planning, Development & Transportation DATE: September 12, 2022 TO: Mayor Arndt and Councilmembers THRU: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager Tyler Marr, Interim Deputy City Manager Caryn Champine, PDT Director Dean Klingner, PDT Deputy Director FROM: Aaron Iverson, FC Moves, Senior Manager Cortney Geary, FC Moves, Active Modes Manager RE: E. Pitkin St. Advisory Bike Lanes Purpose This memo is intended to inform City Council of the upcoming installation of advisory bike lanes on East Pitkin Street from Remington Street to Smith Street. Advisory bike lanes are a new type of bicycle facility for Fort Collins so councilmembers may hear feedback from their constituents about the project. This memo provides an overview of the project background, goals, advisory bike lanes, public outreach, and project evaluation. Project Background The restriping of East Pitkin Street is a joint project between the City’s FC Moves, Traffic Operations, Streets, and Utilities departments. The City originally anticipated repaving East Pitkin in Spring 2022, but utilities improvements were delayed due to supply chain issues, material backlogs, and weather. Restriping of East Pitkin is planned for October 2022. Advisory bike lanes were selected as the design for this stretch of East Pitkin from Remington to Smith based on its low-speed, low-volume traffic, bicycle volumes, and limited pavement width. East Pitkin is a key corridor in the City’s low-stress bicycle network. It is part of the larger Pitkin Bikeway which spans 4+ miles east to west through Colorado State University (CSU). The corridor is a primary connection between higher density housing and the CSU Campus. The City has received community feedback that East Pitkin is currently not comfortable for people on bikes because of the narrow bike lanes. East Pitkin is also identified as a key corridor in the City’s low- stress bicycle network in the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan. Existing right-of-way is constrained and prevents the City from including both standard-width bike lanes (6 ft as defined by 2014 Bicycle Plan) and two-way vehicular travel lanes. The 2014 Bicycle Master Plan recommended monitoring best practices and considering innovative approaches to infrastructure design such as advisory bike lanes. Goals Improve comfort for active modes users – The roadway redesign will provide more space for people on bikes and e-scooters and increase the buffer between pedestrians and vehicular traffic. Reduce travel speeds – While the posted speed limit is 25 mph, the 85 th percentile speed is 30.7 mph. The roadway redesign is intended to slow vehicular traffic thereby improving safety for all road users. Advisory Bike Lanes Advisory bike lanes originated in the Netherlands and have been installed in various locations in the US. The concept utilizes street space differently than typical but they function well on low- speed, low-traffic roads around the world. A street with advisory bike lanes provides for two-way motor vehicle and non-motorized traffic using a center lane with advisory lanes on either peripheral side of the roadway. The center lane is dedicated to, and shared by, motorists traveling in both directions and bicyclists have right-of-way in the advisory bike lanes, although motorists may utilize the advisory lanes to pass non-motorized traffic after yielding to nonmotorized traffic. More resources about advisory bike lanes are available on the project website at fcgov.com/Pitkin including a video developed by FCTV. Sandwich board developed by CPIO for pop-up educational activities A case study of advisory bike lane installations in North America is available at https://altago.com/wp-content/uploads/Advisory-Bike-Lanes-In-North-America_Alta-Planning- Design-White-Paper.pdf They have been installed in Colorado in Windsor on Walnut St. and Boulder on Harvard Ln. San Diego recently installed an advisory bike lane on Mira Mesa Blvd. Mira Mesa Blvd. is an arterial road that connects directly to I-15 and has average daily traffic (ADT) of 6,000, whereas East Pitkin is a collector road with restricted vehicular access through the CSU campus and ADT of 1,486. The maximum preferred ADT for a road with advisory bike lanes is 2,500. An ADT of 6,000 is on the upper end of potential volumes where advisory bike lanes may be applicable based on the FHWA Small Town and Rural Multimodal Network guidance. Advisory bike lanes are not currently included in the Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reviews requests to experiment with traffic control devices that are not included in the MUTCD. On September 20, 2021, the City was granted approval from FHWA to experiment with advisory bike lanes on E. Pitkin St. from Remington St. to Smith St. Public Outreach FC Moves has been raising awareness about the E. Pitkin St. advisory bike lanes using the following outreach strategies in coordination with the Utilities and Streets departments: • public website available at fcgov.com/Pitkin, • presentations, • neighborhood meetings, • postcard mailers, • pop-up educational event, • press release, • Momentum e-newsletter, • stakeholder meetings, • e-mail updates, and • videos. Additional public outreach is planned leading up to and following the advisory bike lane installation including a neighborhood meeting on September 12th, press release, distribution of flyers, pop-up educational event, stakeholder meetings, and a Lesher Middle School bike ride. Project Evaluation Since advisory bike lanes are a new type of facility for Fort Collins, and evaluation is a requirement of FHWA’s experimentation process, staff will be evaluating the project closely. A before study was conducted including volume counts, speed studies, video observation, crash data analysis, and a community survey. The full before study report is available on the project website at fcgov.com/Pitkin. After studies will be conducted one month, six months, twelve months, and two years after installation, and progress reports will be submitted to FHWA semi- annually and posted to the project website.