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East Side Architectural Review Board unanimously approves design for 6-story, 100-unit Greenwich Park Apartments
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East Side Architectural Review Board unanimously approves design for 6-story, 100-unit Greenwich Park Apartments Back to the full article.
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I.E. Milwaukee St: “There will not be striped bike lanes on the reconstructed N. Milwaukee St. If there isn’t room for a striped bike lane, why do they think there is room for bikes?
I.E. Greenwich Park: Is there replacement parking for the lots being built on?? I lived on that corner 40 years ago and there wasn’t enough parking then…
@Ed Yeah I’m still following up on Milwaukee St. as it seems to me the median could have been made smaller to accommodate bike lanes. Oh and it is just a guess at this time is the one-lane in each direction will be like 15 feet wide (a big lane), but not quite big enough to “technically” have the bike lane…
As far as parking goes, the city lot is actually never full during the day, and the US Bank lot will continue to exist (slightly less number of slots) as metered spaces, just covered by the building. Additionally, 10 new on-street spots will be created and something I hadn’t mentioned was that part of the project will be new signage for the massive parking garage (which is never full) just across the street letting people know that they can park there.
That said I’m glad to see that a 1 to 1 replacement of parking isn’t being required on this project as that has blocked development (for example in Bay View twice now) and new density should win out over parking anyhow.
@Dave: It has to take some pretty unimaginative engineers to not find space for both a boulevard median and bike lanes on what’s currently a four lane + parking road. This is a pretty important bike route into downtown.
It’d be great if UrbanMke could share some info about who bikers can contact at the city to make sure bike lanes are included in this project.
@Sam I’m a daily bike rider so I understand the complaint, but after going round and round on this I guess I understand it. Here is what I got from DPW:
Once the median is constructed on N. Milwaukee St. there will be 23 feet
(on both sides of the median) from the face of the curb along the side
of the street and the face of the curb along the median. As a part of
this width, 1 foot along the median is considered shy distance that is
not really drivable space, and 8 feet along the outside curb will be for
parking, leaving 14 feet for travel space. To provide for a bike lane
and a motor vehicle lane, there should be 16 feet of travel space: a
minimum of 5 feet for the bicycle lane (prefer 6 feet) and a minimum of
11 feet for the motor vehicle travel lane.
While the street width does not accommodate a bike lane, DPW will be
installing Shared Lane Markings (or Sharrows as some refer to them) to
not only reinforce the legitimacy and likelihood of bicycle traffic on
Milwaukee St. but also to recommend proper bicyclist positioning outside
of the parked car door zone. Sharrows are becoming more common practice
in these kinds of situations.
Since we’re on the topic of road construction & bike lanes. What’s the deal after the repaving project on East Michigan Avenue?
This was formerly 4 travel lanes & 2 parking lanes, after the repaving it’s been restriped as 4 travel lanes, zero parking lanes & added turn lanes. This street is easily the width of Mason street or more, they could keep the turning lanes, remove a travel lane each way & have plenty of room for parking/bike lanes.
Anyone hear anything on what’s going on with that? I see the traffic daily & it’s not congested except when people want to turn. The other problem is accidents from people going too fast, I’m guessing reducing lanes would get people to actually drive the speed limit. Also, adding bike lanes would make this a comfortable way to bisect Downtown E-W, without so many buses to worry about.
@Dave: I guess sharrows are better than nothing but they’re definitely no bike lane. The main issue I have with them is that, in my experience, they don’t encourage people to ride in the street like bike lanes do. Did the DPW give a reason why the median couldn’t be narrowed 2-4ft to accomodate a proper bike lane?
@Sam I originally had the same thought. Just make a smaller median. But I believe the idea is the median will break to allow for turning movements and it will be wide enough such that a car will pull into this space… At least that’s how I think it will come out. DPW did say that Jefferson St. will be looked at for bike lanes.