Recently I posted a blog about GNV’s one-way pair street designs on NW 17th and 18th streets just north of University Ave.
On NW 17th cars move north in a single lane, with protected bike lanes on both sides to separate the cars from cyclists and pedestrians. On 18th, traffic moves south, again in a single lane.
In that blog, I opined that GVN’s “Traffic calming 101” design on those streets seems more bike-ped friendly – which is to say safer for people not inside cars – than what UF has laid out on adjoining Buckman (where a student was recently hit by a truck) and Fletcher drives,
It is worth noting that GNV has recently added another one-way pair of streets adjacent to campus. Now, NW 12th and 13th streets, just east of UF, also feature single-lane, one-way car traffic as well as protected bike lanes.
As a rule I am not a fan of one-way streets. In too many cities – downtown Lakeland being a great example – one way streets are basically designed to move cars faster at the expense of bike-ped safety.
I am prepared to make an exception in GNV’s latest examples.
For years many motorists, impatient with traffic on south 13th Street, would use 12th as a convenient bypass. And if the intent was to make up time by avoiding 13th, chances are drivers were going faster on 12th than safety might dictate.
Now 12th has been reduced to a single, narrow lane of traffic heading south and a protected bike lane heading north.
Tenth St. is the same, except that traffic moves north in a single lane while the protected bike lane goes south.
These newest one-way pair streets stretch from University to NW 8th avenues.
In addition to protected bike lanes, large white “sharrows” on both streets notify motorists that cyclists, scooter riders and such are also free to use the traffic lane. That’s a further inducement to slow cars on those narrow streets.
Having ridden my bike numerous times back and forth on 12th and 10th streets I am prepared to say that both streets have been car-calmed for the better.
Like 17th and 18th, 12th and 10th streets run through perhaps the most student-intensive (which is to say the most bike-ped intensive) neighborhoods in GNV.
Interesting difference between the one-way pairs north of campus and those on the east.
On NW 17th and 18th streets, bike lanes are protected against traffic by low, modular, rubberized “zippers.” On 12th and 10th, however, the lanes are protected by…parked cars.
Not sure how I feel about this.
On the one hand, using a lot of parked cars to protect cyclists and pedestrians has the benefit of adding a lot more on-street parking, which residents surely must appreciate.
But on the negative side of the ledger, it also makes cyclists more vulnerable to being “doored” if an inattentive driver or passenger climbs out without checking to see if anybody’s coming.
Having said that, let me say this…
…with the growing popularity of e-bikes, e-scooters and other “micro-mobility” vehicles, students and non-students alike are taking to GNV streets in greater numbers than ever before.
So far as I am concerned, anything GNV can do to SLOW THE CARS is a plus for bike-ped safety.
And GNV’s newest one-way pair designs seem to accomplish that goal.
I’m Ron Cunningham and I approve of this message.
FreeGNV 