Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Syracuse DPW crews are adding several miles of bike lanes to busy city streets this summer. In fact, a stretch of South Salina Street is already near completion.
That path runs from the West Seneca Turnpike to Dorwin Avenue; in August, Erie Boulevard West will be marked from West Street to Milton Avenue.
By early fall, crews will have bike lanes running on South Crouse Avenue from East Adams Street to East Genesee Street -- and cyclists can't wait to take advantage.
Samantha Knowlden counts on her bike to get around, so she's a big fan of South Salina Street's new bike lanes.
“They're great. They're wide enough so that you can avoid the drainage pipes and feel safe enough to stay far away from the cars,” Knowlden says.
“There will be a bike lane on the inside of each lane,” says Deputy DPW Commissioner Pete O’Connor. “There will be one lane heading north and south, and there will be a left turn-only lane, which will narrow the lanes and force people to slow down, because there is not as much room - the lanes aren't as wide.”
The bike lanes on South Salina, though, are not yet having the desired effect; traffic is still moving too quickly for cyclists to feel safe riding on the road.
Richard Holmes has been biking that stretch for 15 years, and doesn't dare to set his wheels on the blacktop.
“I drive as well as bike, and they don't seem to have any respect for pedestrians or the guys riding the bikes. Anybody riding the bike will tell you that,” Holmes says.
Holmes appreciates the addition of bike lanes, but wishes those road sharing rules were better enforced.
For drivers worried that precious parking will be taken away -- the DPW says the city has tried to locate the bike lanes along stretches of road where parking was already prohibited.
