Grand jury recommends more planning go into city bike lanes
Titled "The Proliferation of Bike Lanes: Whose Road Is It?" the report issued Tuesday looks at Bakersfield's efforts to install more bike lines in recent years.
"Initially funded by a federal grant for pollution reduction, bike lanes were later justified by safety improvements and reduced road maintenance costs," the report said. "However, concerns arose about biased urban planning, questionable pollution benefits and lack of prior bicycle traffic data."
The grand jury wrote that the amount of pollution reduced by converting car users to bike riders was negligible, and that weather trends in the Central Valley don't support a transition to cycling.
But the report also found the narrowing of automobile lanes to accommodate bicycle lanes often has a positive impact of tending to compel automobile drivers to reduce their speeds.
"Motor vehicle vs. bicycle accidents are reduced by roughly 53% and injuries are reduced by approximately 40-50%, when bike lanes are installed on arterial roadways," the report said.
It's that finding that Ward 4 City Councilman Bob Smith, a vocal cycling advocate, found most important.
"I was shocked that they would state and find that bike lanes do reduce accidents and still recommend against them," Smith told The Californian.
The report doesn't recommend against the installation of bike lanes, but it does question their usefulness. The report specifically notes the city's proposal to install bike lanes on a portion of H Street would reduce the road to one lane of traffic in each direction.
"There are no practical alternatives for relocating traffic from H Street," one of the report's findings said.
"Chester Avenue is too congested to move traffic to that street; Union Avenue and Oak Street are too far from H Street to be viable options," the grand jury report stated.
The report faults the city for not conducting bicycle traffic counts prior to installing some bike lanes.
According to the report, the consulting firm hired to draft a bicycle and pedestrian safety plan expresses a predetermined goal of moving many people from cars to bicycles.
The report doesn't name the consulting firm or the year of the plan, but the city did publish a Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Plan in 2020, authored by the nationwide firm Alta Consulting + Design.
The city of Bakersfield did not comment, saying only that a response would be provided for City Council approval within the 90-day timeline required by the grand jury.
Smith said the grand jury report's apparent de-emphasis on the stated safety benefits of bike lanes was questionable.
"What is the cost of the injuries and the lives lost?" Smith said. "Bike lanes do make it safer, where is the cost/benefit add up for that?"
Traffic safety is an ongoing issue for the city, and Bakersfield regularly ranks among the most dangerous cities for pedestrians and cyclists. Residents appear regularly at City Council meetings to ask city leaders to do more to address road safety.
Dozens of residents showed up at a council meeting in November following the death of a 13-year-old boy who was riding his bike, pleading for council members to take action. At the council's last meeting on May 14, two mothers who had both lost children to car accidents again asked members to take action to make city streets safer, particularly around schools.
"It's all about safety to me," Smith said. "They say narrow lanes do slow traffic; that's what I'm all about."
The report makes three recommendations with a required response from the city within 90 days, as well as requests a response from the Department of Public Works within 60 days.
Recommendations made in the report are:
• By July 1, the city should consider revising its Request for Proposal material to better identify potential conflicts or biases of proposals.
• Starting Sept. 1, car and bike traffic counts should be conducted prior to installation of new bicycle lanes on existing roadways.
• Also starting Sept. 1, a cost/benefit model should be developed prior to the installation of any bicycle lane.
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