The Time Is Now For Delaware’s 1st Protected Bike Lane

The City of Newark has so much going for it these days, including a number of recently received awards, mostly highlighting its vibrant downtown area, and there are many reasons to celebrate. Though not remarkable, back in May Newark also received a repeat honor in the form of “Bronze” status as a “Bicycle Friendly Community” from the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). (It had initially received this status in 2010, and a city/town must reapply every four years.)

As chair of the Newark Bicycle Committee (a partnership of interested cyclists and agencies working to improve bicycling in Newark), I am pleased that the League had told us we were very close to a “Silver” designation, but that we weren’t quite there yet, and encouraged our committee, as applicant on behalf of the City, to reapply sooner than four years from now.

Indeed, LAB President Andy Clarke had punctuated these good vibes at the beginning of May by announcing in Dover that Delaware now ranks #4 nationally among “Bicycle Friendly States.”

During our June committee meeting, we reviewed the busy National Bike Month that had just concluded and all the cool bicycle-related events that had taken place in and around Newark. We then began discussing how to best move Newark forward and win the “Silver” designation from the League that we had just barely missed.

Having had our committee-authored Newark Bicycle Plan approved by Newark City Council back in February, it seemed that we should identify the highest priorities we would advise the City to begin implementing. While not ignoring the “low-hanging fruit” in the bicycle plan, our committee, after intense discussion, unanimously voted to prioritize an ambitious project that would make the greatest positive improvement for cycling in Newark—a two-way protected bike lane (a.k.a. cycle track) on Delaware Avenue running through downtown Newark.

Despite the improvements that have been made in the past 15 months by adding shared-lane markings (“sharrows”) on Main Street and the repaving of South Main with safer bike lanes, there is still no great east-west bikeway through the heart of Newark’s downtown. A growing number of University of Delaware students use the current Delaware Avenue bike lane to ride into campus. But recent DelDOT traffic count data indicate that about 30% of the bike traffic on Delaware Avenue is headed in the “wrong” direction (i.e., east to west, contraflow). For these student cyclists coming to central campus from the east, neither Cleveland Avenue nor Main Street work as bikeways.

For them, and for Newark, the best solution is a two-way protected bike lane on Delaware Avenue.

Recently, I shared our committee’s vision and reasoning for such a project with Newark Mayor Polly Sierer and City Manager Carol Houck, both recreational cyclists. Each was enthusiastic about the possibilities of such a project.

On Monday, August 25, the City Council approved the sending of a letter from the City to Secretary of Transportation Shailen Bhatt expressing its desire to have DelDOT partner with the City on this project. We’ve also talked with University officials and with Bike Delaware, who are supportive of the plan as well.

Mayor Sierer said, “The proposed cycle track for Delaware Avenue in Newark will continue to encourage a healthy and safe environment for our community. This [has the potential to] be an important pilot project for our state and will foster continued collaboration and partnership among the City of Newark, the University of Delaware, DelDOT, Newark Bicycle Committee, and Bike Delaware. I look forward to being a part of the accomplishment of our state’s first cycle track.”

“Bicycling has been a large part of our community for some time,” Houck adds. “It’s only natural that Newark would want to embrace additional improvements, especially a cycle-track option in our downtown that improves biking safety. For these reasons, working with our state’s Department of Transportation and the Newark Bicycle Committee to develop the first cycle track in Delaware is a partnership we are very interested in.”

I hope the receipt of this letter by Secretary Bhatt will signal the beginning of an exciting—and safer—change for Newark cyclists of all ages, whether one is heading to a class, making a shopping trip downtown, or simply passing through our fair city. There’s never been a better time to move forward with such an endeavor, and we are cautiously optimistic that DelDOT will seize this opportunity for leadership. Newark is asking for the state’s first two-way protected bike lane. If it is a success for us in Newark, we think that other Delaware municipalities will want one, too!

  Mark Deshon is chair of the Newark Bicycle Committee.

RELATED:

• So Close: Just Missing Silver, Newark Wins Bronze Recognition from the League of American Bicyclists

• Tweet from city on city council vote

• Newark 2014 Bicycle Friendly Community “Report Card” (League of American Bicyclists)

• Additional feedback for Newark from League of American Bicyclists

• Protected Bike Lanes Mean Business

• 24 States, 53 Cities: Protected Bike Lanes Have Become as American as Pizza 

• Philadelphia’s Brand Spankin’ New Protected Bike Lane

• All Bike Delaware articles on protected bike lanes

• 14 Ways to Make Bike Lanes Better

• The Rise of The North American Protected Bike Lane

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