Lyndon's Want for Bike Lanes

Details

Created on Thursday, 16 April 2015 15:44

Written by Katrina Floranza

LYNDON- Currently, the Vermont Agency of Transportation is working on improving the roads on U.S. Route 5 in Lyndonville, but residents believe the roadway could use more than just the proposed sidewalks and paving.

The goal of the project by VTrans is to improve U.S. Route 5, while also making the town of Lyndon more appealing. Residents believe that this project can make the town appealing to not only motorists and pedestrians, but also to cyclists, by incorporating a bike lane.

"We want to create a different structure downtown, where we have more one-way streets where bicycles and cars can co-exist. Right now, there's no room for a bike lane of any kind," says Lyndon Area Chamber of Commerce Director Mary Marceau.

Residents of Lyndon are hoping that this project will change that.

"What will happen for the Route 5 construction is they will have a two-way turning lane in the center and a sidewalk construction, so it will be wider. That's really going to work with us for what we're thinking, because that should give room for a bike lane and I don't believe there's a specific bike lane in the proposal. So, it's something we want to make sure that they will be looking at," Marceau explains.

"There's not a lot of room, it's not safe in a lot of areas. We're trying to make it a safety issue, a healthy issue, and create a community that a lot of people want to be in," Marceau says.

A bike lane would not only enhance the benefit and safety of cyclists, but also enhance the development of the town with the new bike culture. Lyndon isn't the only town that wants to implement bike lanes, "Local municipalities are starting to see them pop up more and more," says Lieutenant Garry Scott of the Traffic Operations Unit.

VTrans' Bicycle & Pedestrian Program offers a funding program to municipalities in which they can apply to if they would like to work on projects in their own area, such as sidewalk projects, paths, or even bike lanes. Jon Kaplan, Director of the Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, displays that more and more municipalities are also trying to develop with the bike culture, "We always have more requests than we can fund each year," Kaplan says, "So far, we've got to be in the hundreds of projects that have [already] been funded."

"I've seen the history of Lyndonville over the past 41 years and I've seen a lot of other communities that have bike paths, bike lanes, heavy commuter traffic and just have a bike-friendly atmosphere," says Carrie Tomczyck, owner of Village Sports Shop, "I think as a biker when you're riding through town and if you see a bike lane, you can just relax a little bit. You know, 'this is where I'm supposed to be, people are going to be looking out for me a bit more, it's okay for me to be on this road.' People just feel a little bit more safe."
Bike lanes do provide a feeling of safety, but it is difficult to determine whether or not a bike lane prevents a crash.

"You can't necessarily say 'this crash happened because there wasn't a bike lane there.' What we can say is that based on national data, by having the bike lane the likelihood of a crash goes down," Kaplan says.

Earlier this week, 55-year-old Kelly Boe of Middlebury was riding his bicycle in Weybridge when he was struck by 27-year-old Nathan Dearing and killed. This was the first bicycle fatality in four years. Dearing is currently being charged with driving with a suspended license and driving under the influence with death resulting.

"We have fewer than 200 crashes a year involving motor vehicles and bicycles," adds Lieutenant Garry Scott.

Though the number of crashes are low in Vermont, that does not mean that there aren't incidents happening between motorists and cyclists. "They don't account for motor vehicle incidents, or assaults, or road rage. Bicyclists, they may not have crashed, but the bicyclists and motorists start to yell at each other, they stop, get out of the car and have confrontations. That's not counted for in a crash statistic, but that's assault," explains Lieutenant Garry Scott.

While bicycling is becoming a favorite past time, having already 197 protected bike lanes incorporated across the country, there can be some downfalls to incorporating bike lanes in certain states, one being the state of Vermont.

"The majority of Vermont roads are dirt, so, say if we enact a state law that we need to give cyclists 3 feet of space, we wouldn't be able to enforce that statewide. What is good for one municipality may not be good statewide," Lieutenant Garry Scott adds.

Lieutenant Garry Scott also talks about how short of a bicycle season Vermont has and how that adds to the problem, "It's a part of a problem where motorists aren't familiar with seeing bicyclists on the road, coming upon them creates confusion. The long term solution is education. How do we reach the motorist and let them know what they should expect when coming upon a bicyclist, what the bicyclist should be doing, how do we reach them? So, the education there [needs to be] between the motorist, bicyclist and law enforcement."