Residential College senior Rob Linn and his bicycle – a 1971 Fuji Special Road Racer – have a love-hate relationship. Since coming to the University, Linn, an avid cyclist, has been involved in two serious accidents with cars while riding his bike, first on Washington Street and then on Division Street.
“I broke two ribs in one, and dislocated my shoulder in the other,” he said. “Neither would have happened if we had bike lanes.”
The city may soon become a little safer for cyclists like Linn. The Ann Arbor City Council will vote Monday on a plan to add bicycle paths to Fifth Avenue and Division Street, the main roads running north and south downtown.
The bike paths are part of the 2007 Non-Motorized Transportation Plan, which aims to make Ann Arbor safer and more practical for cyclists and pedestrians.
“We hope to become one of the premier bicycle communities in the U.S.,” said Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, who rides his bike down Fifth Avenue on his way to work every day. The city has 21.1 miles of bike lanes, and aims to have 38 miles by the end of the year. Hieftje said that a plan to quadruple the amount of bicycle paths in the city in five years is “well underway.”
Designers of the project, representatives from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority and about 30 city residents met at City Council chambers Wednesday to discuss the plan. There, City Councilmember Ronald Suarez (D-Ward 1) said he was confident it would be approved.
Suarez said he enjoys riding his bike to work every day, especially since having his car stolen last month in Detroit. He said he supports bike lanes in general, but especially on Fifth Avenue and Division Street. Residents at the meeting repeatedly called those two streets “freeways” because of heavy traffic.
To make room for the bike lanes, the stretch of Division Street between Madison Street and William Street will be reduced from three lanes of traffic to two. Fifth Avenue between William Street and Kingsley Street will also change from three to two lanes.
Residents at Wednesday’s meeting said they were mostly interested in how the plan would improve traffic safety. Ann Arbor resident Brad Battey said crossing some streets meant “taking your life into your own hands.”
Representatives from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum were also concerned about safety. They urged developers to accommodate the school buses that frequently bring elementary school children to the museum, which is located on Ann Street off of Fifth Avenue. Buses usually park where the bike paths would be added. Many said changing the bus parking might force children to walk across the busy street.
Susan Pollay, the executive chair of AADDA, said she wasn’t worried about passing the plan with provisions for the buses at the museum.
Christy Summers, a landscape architect at the firm that designed the plans, agreed. Declining to go into detail, she said the firm has “a few” ideas that will address the museums’ concerns while keeping the premise of the project intact.
“I’m hearing tonight a lot of support for alternative plans of transport for downtown, and that’s definitely a high priority on the plan,” she said.