The Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation, CART, brings us news that a new bike lane is planned for a stretch of Poplar Level Road between Eastern Parkway and the Watterson Expressway after a study demonstrated the site would serve the most cyclists for the lowest cost.
Here’s some info from CART:
The plan calls for a “lane diet.” The road is currently 5 lanes, with a 12-foot inner travel lane and a 14-foot outer travel lane. KYTC will modify the inner lane to 10 feet, and the outer lane to 16 feet. Then Louisville will subdivide the 16 feet into two lanes: an 11-foot lane and a 5-foot lane marked for the exclusive use of bicycles.
The speed limit on the road is 45 mph—a rarity these days within 264—and there are not as many driveways and intersections as some roads, thus decreasing dangerous crossing conflicts that plague bike lane safety. Furthermore, bike lanes are also planned on Eastern Parkway, which would tie even more destinations together.
Just as soon as they erase the lane striping they just did, and put in the lane striping they thought they ordered. 😛
@Dave Morse –
I wondered why they striped the newly-paved road if they were planning a bike lane (which is why I figured they really weren’t planning a bike lane). I’m glad to know it’s in progress.
They just did a complete resurfacing of the road this summer. They’ll have to take out the raised median they just redid, repaint the roads they just painted… seems like pretty disastrous planning to add a bike lane right after you just redid the road without a bike lane, but then again that’s the kind of planning we’ve come to expect. I do see a lot of bikes on the Poplar Level sidewalks… of course we know many of that crowd wouldn’t even use a bike lane (or go in the right direction on it) were one provided.
Also I don’t think the speed limit is ever 35 mph inside I-264 on Poplar Level.
@Bill – Oops, I meant that the speed limit isn’t over 35 inside I-264.
Hey, the bike lane is already there. What the hell? Pretty sure it wasn’t there yesterday. Runs at least from the Kroger’s near 264 to Audubon Parkway.
Bill, I drive Poplar Level twice a day to and from work and I don’t think the bike lane was there yesterday. I did notice it this morning though. At least I assume it’s the bike lane, although it doesn’t look much wider than the shoulder area next to the curb that was there originally (as in the above photo). But maybe they’ve done more to it since this morning. I’ll be checking it out on my way home tonight. I assumed it would be a bit wider and more obvious than what I saw this morning, but a narrow bike lane is better than none, I guess. Maybe now drivers will slow down a bit and actually drive the speed limit.
Yeah I didn’t see the stencils actually labeling it as a bike lane, but the lines look like one. I have pictures if there’s some way to upload them here.