Plans for Milton Ave. Bike Boulevard Released; Plans Include Bike Box at North Broadway

If Mayor Coleman has his way, we'll be in the League of American Bicyclists' Bike-Friendly Communities list sooner rather than later. Check out the plans for the Milton Ave. Bike Boulevard (the effort to fill in the gap between Clinton-Como Park and Northmoor Park in Clintonville (as Reported by ThisWeek: Clintonville):
City unveils plan for Milton Avenue bike route
Wednesday, August 6, 2008 2:42 PM
By JENNIFER NESBITT
ThisWeek Staff Writer


The city of Columbus will convert Milton Avenue into a bike boulevard this fall, resurfacing the road and adding road markings and signage alerting motorists to the presence of cyclists.

The conversion of the .8-mile stretch of roadway will serve as a connector between sections of the Olentangy bike trail in Clinton-Como and Northmoor parks and is part of the city's overall Bicentennial Bikeways Plan.

Milton Avenue will remain open to motorists, but the portion of the road between East North Broadway and Riverside Drive is being redesigned with bicyclists in mind, said Mary Carran Webster, Columbus public works assistant director.

"It's designed to give priority to cyclists and alert motorists that they're there," Webster said.

To achieve that goal, the road will be signed as a shared route for motorists and bicyclists, and pavement marking depicting bicyclists will be added.

At the corner of East North Broadway, Webster said the city will add a "bike box," a marked box in which bicyclists can pull in front of car traffic to wait to cross the street.

That will give bicyclists a chance to cross East North Broadway ahead of cars that are turning right and will make them more visible to motorists, Webster said.

Webster said there is not a timeline for completing the bike boulevard, but she said the first step is the resurfacing of the road, which is scheduled to happen this fall, with the exception of the portion of the road between Kenworth and North Broadway.

That section of the road will be torn up in the spring as the public utilities department does some work on the water lines there, Webster said. When that work is done, public utilities will resurface that portion of the road. That is scheduled to happen in 2009, and the work will blend into the initial resurfacing work, Webster said.

The money for the signing and pavement markings of the bike boulevard already has been allocated, and will cost the city $25,000, Webster said.

The cost of resurfacing that stretch of Milton Avenue was included in a multimillion citywide paving package.
The bike box is the perfect idea for that area - bikes are often shoved out of the way there and need some extra help. All in all, I can't WAIT to see this get done!

People, not speed.

Comments

  1. That's great! But what about High Street? That's still where a lot of us are riding because the Olentangy path is out of our way...

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  2. Agreed. All the major arteries need to be made safe for cyclists, and that includes High Street especially.

    The Bicentennial Bicycle Plan addresses High Street in section 5.8, a Share-The-Road campaign, and some studies to be done on creating High Street bike lanes (particularly around the campus area) and bike/bus lanes (between Spring Street and Broad Street).

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