Community meeting re: Old North Road
Gary Parker and I attended a community meeting in Sand Springs about the repaving/widening project scheduled for Old North Road this fall.
The short version - the project will begin later this month and is planned to be finished in 8 working days if the weather cooperates. Rather than 2 travel lanes and a bike lane, the project will have 2 14 feet wide lanes with 1 foot of pavement to the right of the fog line. A 14 foot lane is shareable.
The bike lane that was in the original plan was removed due to concerns about maintenance and debris.
This is a good compromise that will benefit both motorists and cyclists.
One last thought. Gary and I drove along the road west to east. It's signed for 40mph, but except for a brief section on one of the hilltops, I never got above 30. The road winds and is quite rough, so 30 mph was a judicious speed. There was some talk at the meeting about reducing the speed limit to 35.
I'll have more on this tomorrow, probably over on the Examiner page.
The short version - the project will begin later this month and is planned to be finished in 8 working days if the weather cooperates. Rather than 2 travel lanes and a bike lane, the project will have 2 14 feet wide lanes with 1 foot of pavement to the right of the fog line. A 14 foot lane is shareable.
The bike lane that was in the original plan was removed due to concerns about maintenance and debris.
This is a good compromise that will benefit both motorists and cyclists.
One last thought. Gary and I drove along the road west to east. It's signed for 40mph, but except for a brief section on one of the hilltops, I never got above 30. The road winds and is quite rough, so 30 mph was a judicious speed. There was some talk at the meeting about reducing the speed limit to 35.
I'll have more on this tomorrow, probably over on the Examiner page.
Labels: bicycling advocacy
posted by Ed W at 8:24 PM
3 Comments:
14 feet is shareable with a Prius, but it's pretty borderline for the neighborhood landscape crew, complete with trailer and some brush sticking out the side. In Texas, 14 feet is the cutoff for the FTR law.
Better would be to move that fog line another foot to the right.
Thanks for the update on this, Ed. I live in Sand Springs, and I am way too uninvolved in what goes on there. Compared to what we have now on Old North, any improvement will be welcome.
When you consider that a cyclist should ride at least 3 feet from the fog line, and motorists are supposed to pass with 3 feet of clearance, then the cyclists occupies 6-7 feet of lane width. Most cars are 7 feet wide. So 14 feet is the minimum sharable lane. Sure, some motor vehicles are wider, but we're discussing a largely rural piece of road that doesn't see much traffic. Gary pointed out that the WNR is held 20 times each year if the weather cooperates, while motorists get a wider lane to use year-round.
I'll have more on this later. Gotta go.
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