The Port Alden City Council voted 5-2 Monday to set aside $2.3 million for protected bike lanes along Harbor Avenue, fulfilling a promise made after a cyclist was struck by a delivery van near the ferry terminal last October. The lanes will run 1.4 miles from the terminal to the intersection with Cedar Street, separated from traffic by a raised curb rather than paint.
The crash that prompted the project injured 34-year-old commuter Daniel Wren, who was riding to the 7 a.m. ferry when the van turned across the shoulder he was using. Wren spent six weeks recovering from a broken collarbone and pelvis and has attended nearly every council meeting since, asking for a physical barrier rather than another repainted line.
"I'm glad it's happening, but I wish it hadn't taken someone getting hurt to get here," Wren said after Monday's vote. "That road has needed this for fifteen years."
Design details
City engineer Fatima Cho said the design calls for a six-foot lane on each side of Harbor Avenue, buffered by a raised concrete curb and set back from parked cars to reduce the risk of a driver opening a door into traffic. Left-turn pockets will be added at three intersections where crash data showed the most conflicts between cars and cyclists.
The project will eliminate roughly forty on-street parking spaces between the terminal and Cedar Street, a point that drew objections from several shop owners during public comment. Council member Hector Ruiz, one of the two no votes, said he supported the bike lanes but wanted the parking loss studied further before construction begins.
Cho said her office will put the project out to bid this winter, with construction starting in spring and running through the summer. The city plans to keep at least one traffic lane open in each direction throughout the work, though Harbor Avenue will likely narrow to a single lane in each direction near the ferry terminal for about six weeks.
