Bike lane still presents dangers
JUNE 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:41 PM
Dave Slomin
I am writing as father of two young boys and as leader of Ridgewood’s Pack 44 Cub Scouts, with responsibility and concern for the safety of 100 boys. As such, I am very troubled by the dangers I see inherent in the design of the new underpass bike lane.
I applaud the Village Council for making changes to correct issues in the plans and process of the Garber and Wilsey Square Underpass Roadwork Project. While I continue to question the overall design and ultimate necessity of this project, I believe that narrowing the median to create a “contingency plan,” whereby the two lost traffic lanes can be restored if traffic problems occur, is important and appreciated. But, unfortunately, we can’t stop there.
The same good leadership that went into correcting the median now needs to be applied to an unfettered look at the safety issues of the bike lane. Your June 6 article (“Vote on changes prompted by protests,” The Ridgewood News, A1) quoted me as saying: “there are some good parts to the project, but the bike lane is not one of them.” A clear explanation of this bike lane’s dangers is important. As an avid cyclist myself, I am all for “bike lanes.” Just not this one. Here’s why:
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what bull shit.
#1 I hope you are referring to the bike lane itself not the valid concerns raised in this article.
This whole project seems to be designed around a $146,000 Federal grant that must include a bike lane. It is a ridiculous waste of other peoples money. Now we are spending $350K of the Village Taxpayers money and $146k of Federal Taxpayers money to create an unusable bike lane and choking a 4 lane road to 2 lanes which will result in all day traffic jams and create a safety issue regarding emergency vehicles.
The Village could have repaved the existing road for $150K.
Just plain wasteful and stupid.
I disagree. Addressing a highly trafficked, poorly designed roadway to make it safer and using a grant to help fund the redesign is a good idea. That roadway is dangerous as a ‘two lane roadway’. It is not safe for cyclists. Cyclists are not elementary school students. My elementary school student would not be allowed to ride that way to town. But I, as a cyclist, would like to be able to traverse the village without taking my life in my hands on that road as it currently stands.
People who see that bike lane as for their young children need to look beyond their noses and understand that there are others out there besides themselves.
The visual improvements that were planned and now seem to be shelved would have made the area much more attractive. Too bad a few loud and shortsighted voices screwed that up.
so only a few shortsighted voices were effected by traffic backed up to midland park , and emergency vehicles delayed or unable to reach there destination in a timely life saving manner …hummm that makes sense like if we build 4 housing projects in the CBD there will be less traffic
I like the term used to describe this project by village officials…’ Traffic calming’. That is an interesting concept and I would suggest needed in The Wood, where SUV’s fly around town ignoring the speed limits and straddling those two lanes at Garber Square so that no reasonable sized car can share the road, this makes it one lane by default.