SPOKANE, Wash. — Riverside Avenue is about to become safer for cyclists. The city of Spokane is moving forward with plans to add protected bikes lanes on the downtown street stretching from Monroe to Division.
It's been a street that many cyclists avoid, including Rhonda Young. She said that's because the four lanes of traffic create constant challenges.
"As a cyclist, that kind of constantly changing vehicle traffic is really unsettling and frankly dangerous," Young said.
But once the city adds protected bike lanes, we could see more cyclists travel through Riverside Avenue more often.
"It's just the right project to bring this to Spokane and I really like it," Young said.
According to city plans, the estimated $5 million project will include replacing the main waterline, repaving the street, and re-configuring the street lanes.
It will reduce the four lanes to three, which makes space for protected bike lanes on both sides of the street.
The bike lanes will run behind Spokane Transit Authority bus stops. This ensures separation between bicyclists and buses.
But the city told KREM 2 details on how the bike and driving lanes are separated have not been finalized yet.
Still, while the traffic flow will be new to both drivers and cyclists, Young believes it won't take long to get used to.
"I think it'll make a lot of sense to drivers," Young said. "There will still be plenty of space for the vehicles, there will still be parking and it just allocates everybody their own space. So it's almost more predictable."
Some cyclists believe the design should have even more barriers to separate the lanes.
"A lot of people are against it because they just don't understand it," Erik Nelson, who is also a Spokane cyclist, said. "They haven't lived in a city where it works."
He is excited for the project though, and believes it will encourage more people to get their roll on.
"If we had more protected bike lanes, you'd have more people riding their bikes," Nelson said. "Especially with the e-bikes that are coming out, we're having more and more older people who are getting back into biking."
Construction on Riverside is expected to begin this spring. It will be completed as early as this fall.
