ACHD planners said: Let’s widen Fairview and put in a bike lane. Here’s what happened
The Ada County Highway District wants to widen Fairview Avenue in Meridian, but there’s a problem: What should it do about bike lanes?
Fairview is a busy street, and bicyclists don’t like to use it. ACHD’s staff is proposing to widen Fairview for one mile between Locust Grove and Eagle roads to three lanes in each direction with a center turn lane. The project would have painted bike lanes, improved pedestrian ramps and U-turns at intersections with signals. The project is estimated to cost $8.75 million.
Some initial comments from the public favor bike lanes but not the usual so-called buffered lane, which is separated from vehicle traffic only by a line painted on the pavement. As any urban bicyclist knows, that’s little protection.
The idea was risky enough to cause ACHD commissioners to call for changes during a work session Wednesday.
Commissioner Sara Baker said she doubted that cyclists would want to ride on a seven-lane road any more than they want to ride on the five lanes there now.
“It’s a principal arterial. We should not be encouraging people to use bike lanes on Fairview Avenue,” Baker said. “We had our budget meeting last week or two weeks ago, and we learned ... that people want a low-stress bike network.”
She suggested encouraging people to ride instead half a mile south on the parallel Pine Avenue, which has half the average daily traffic.
Commission President Mary May said painted bike lanes would not meet safety requirements for cyclists.
“That is such a busy, heavily traveled street, so I would like to see us explore additional options,” May said.
Commissioner Rebecca Arnold suggested raised dividers to protect cyclists from vehicle traffic. Another option, she said, is a multi-use pathway, which is a 10- to 12-foot-wide sidewalk that both cyclists and pedestrians can use.
Commissioner Kent Goldthorpe liked the pathway idea.
“In the six years that I’ve sat on the commission, I have yet to see any real success in what we do with bicycle lanes inspiring people to toss their cars and get on bikes,” Goldthorpe said.
He suggested using pathways as a “primary fix” and recommended buying the land needed for them.
ACHD does not know how many cyclists drive through the area, Brian McCarthy, project manager, told the commission. Fairview averages about 30,000 daily vehicle trips, he said,
A second concern: business access
There were also concerns about what the project would do to business access.
To reduce accidents in that stretch of road, the district staff proposed channelized turn lanes, concrete barriers that force drivers who want to turn into a lane separated from other traffic.
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But Commissioner Jim Hansen worried that the channelized lanes would cut down on business access.
“There’s an economic consequence of that,” he said.
He asked his colleagues to consider whether the seven-lane plan would be worth it. He encouraged his fellow commissioners to consider the impacts of the road over the next 50 or 100 years.
“This is a major, major build,” he said. “It’s going to be there for many generations, so let’s do this right. We don’t have to rush.”
Commissioners asked McCarthy and other ACHD staff members to consider their suggestions and return with a new plan.
The original estimated completion date was scheduled to be September 2023. David Wallace, deputy director of plans and projects, told commissioners that the staff would propose a new timeline when it presents the revision.
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