Royal Oak Rejects Bike Lanes — For Now

ROYAL OAK, MI — Officials in Royal Oak are abandoning an idea that would have added a bicycle lane to Main Street, one of the area’s most traveled roadways, due to a backlash from local business and community leaders

“We shot from the hip and said, ‘Let’s try Main Street,’ and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot,” Royal Oak Mayor Jim Ellison told The Daily Tribune. “I don’t think Main Street is where we want to have bike lan

Suggesting the community needed a “road diet” — a popular term used to describe the elimination of a lane of traffic or a reconfiguration of lanes — Ellison proposed creating bike lanes on Main Street by narrowing existing traffic lanes.

Main Street is the most heavily traveled thoroughfare in Royal Oak, with counts as high as 20,000 motorists per day, but it doesn’t see enough traffic to warrant road diet.

In fact, road diets, which are designed to reduce motorized traffic, are usually more suitable for traffic arteries with counts up to 25,000 vehicles per day.

The idea of bike lanes throughout the city was widely supported by many on the city commission, most didn’t view Main Street as a viable location for those lanes.

“I think we need them ... I just don’t think we need them on Main Street,” City Commissioner Patricia Paruch said.

City Commissioner Mike Fournier, who supports the use of bicycle lanes on Main Street, pointed to the successful use of these lanes on Fourth Street, which by comparison is far less congested.

“We shouldn’t give up on this issue,” Fournier said.

City officials plan to look at other less congested roads in the city to incorporate bike lanes, and a full study conducted on the issue in 2012 will be revisited and updated, as a result.

City Commissioner Dave Poulton said he and in Royal Oak want to see a greater effort to incorporate bike lanes.

“The city is years, maybe decades, behind,” he said. “I think soon we’re going to have bike lanes we should have had a long time ago.”

» For more on this story, go to The Daily Tribune.

Image credit: Sharon Mollerus via Flickr / Creative Commons