Plan For Main Street Bike Lanes Heads To City Council

BELLEVUE, WA — After a brief impasse, the Bellevue Transportation Commission has come to an agreement about a plan for bike lanes along Main Street. Next, the plan will head to City Council for potential approval.

At a meeting in early July, the commission considered three bike lane options for Main Street between 108th Avenue and Bellevue Way. City planners asked the commission to endorse just one of those, called option 2.1.

The commission deadlocked on a vote that night, but came back to the table on the Monday and selected option 2.1.

Option 2.1 features unprotected bike lanes near 108th Avenue Southeast. The lane along the south side of Main Street would run between eastbound traffic and a right turn lane for cars that heads south down 108th. This options does include buffered bike lanes — seen as safer for bicyclists — between 107th and Bellevue Way.

The other two proposals before the commission would've created bike lanes separate from traffic all the way between Bellevue Way and 108th with no turn lane for cars. But city transportation planners urged the commission to pick option 2.1 because it was seen as the easiest to build — and it was also designed with input from downtown businesses and local residents.