From the article:
The city of Milwaukee finished installing advisory bike lanes on an East Side street this weekend.
The bike lanes are on East Edgewood Avenue between Oakland Avenue and Lake Drive, the first advisory bike lanes ever installed in the Milwaukee area, according to the Milwaukee Department of Public Works. The new street layout leaves one center lane meant for traffic going both ways, causing confusion and concern for some neighbors.
“I’m definitely concerned because I bike this all the time,” said cyclist Jeff Knitter. “But it was terrible before. So in a way it can’t be any worse because the road is smooth.”
He is concerned drivers will not understand the new traffic pattern.
The street used to have two lanes for parking and two lanes for traffic. Now, the street has two lanes for parking, two bike lanes with dotted lines, and one lane for traffic.
According to DPW, if a driver sees oncoming traffic, they are supposed to briefly merge into the bike lane to avoid the vehicle, and then merge back into the center lane.
“Every 15 minutes there’s the bus. Plus the bikes, plus the parked cars. It’s just a lot of traffic on one street,” said Dana Grennier, who lives nearby.
I believe Road Guy Rob did a video on this exact situation, but it happened in San Diego. I forgot his thoughts on it, but he brought up a good point about it. If you removed all of the lines, so it’s just asphalt, then it would behave very similarly to how it would with painted lines. People yield to oncoming traffic, bikes still ride together, and there will still be cars parked on the side of the road.
I think people are complaining, because it’s something new. In the video from Road Guy Rob, they removed the lanes and restored it back to the original within a few weeks. I personally think this is a good step for research to see the effects of this style of bike lanes. I do wish they would make protected lanes like they do in Seattle where it goes sidewalk | bike lane | parked cars | traffic | double yellow.
When I worked at UWM, Edgewood was how I got from the Oak Leaf trail to campus. I remember it being rough but mainly because of the potholes.
