Bike specialist tours Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — A national bike expert pedaled by the city's new green bike lanes on Fourth Avenue, past 'super sharrow' markings to share the road on Bever Avenue and next to signs telling motorists that 'bikes may use full lane' during an 8-mile bike tour Wednesday.

'A lot of places have great trails but haven't done anything to encourage biking on the street,' said Stephen Clark, a bicycle-friendly community specialist for the League of American Bicyclists. 'Pretty smart design is going into the infrastructure here.'

The city's progressive thinking on being bike friendly earned the attention of Clark's organization, which listed Cedar Rapids as one of 100 cities to visit this year.

The league uses bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond to recognize the level of commitment toward being a 'bike friendly' community. Cedar Rapids is considered a bronze, but hopes to elevate its status by re-imagining how streets are used by different modes of transportation.

Clark, who will visit 79 cities this year with the backing of Trek Bicycle Corp., provides hands-on advice to cities on the cusp of elevating their status. A report card with at least three recommendations for improvement will be forthcoming in the next few weeks, he said.

Dubuque, Des Moines and West Des Moines were added to the itinerary to extend the value of the trip, but visiting Cedar Rapids was the impetus, he said.

Cedar Rapids will eventually seek a status upgrade, but likely not until fall 2016, said Ron Griffith, a city transportation planner who devotes 30 percent of his time to bike projects.

'We want to wait until some of our new bike facilities are complete,' he said. 'Not much has changed since our last application' in 2014.

Within two years, Cedar Rapids will have added buffered bike lanes, which physically separate bikes from cars, and have completed more connections in the trail system.

Wednesday's small group ride wasn't just about promoting the city, though. It was a chance for direct feedback about how to make cycling as inviting of a way around Cedar Rapids as driving.

The city has made being bike friendly a priority recently, not just for recreation but to get to work or the store.

Bike amenities are a quality-of-life attribute that will help make the city a healthier and more desirable place to live, city officials say.

Representatives from Hawkeye Bicycle Association, Northtowne Cycle and Fitness, Hall's Bicycle Co., Linn County Trails Association, city planners and Sandi Fowler, assistant city manager, joined Clark on the ride Wednesday.

Those riding identified connectivity of the bike network, education, access to amenities and growing the critical mass of cyclists as priorities.

'These people coming in to Cedar Rapids have no idea what to do,' Bill Cummings, president of the Hawkeye bike club, said in calling for education about the unconventional street markings.

Clark kept snapping pictures.

He said he was impressed by the use of elevated speed tables at intersections of bike trails and roads as a way to slow traffic. The city's combination of super sharrows with street signs specifying cyclist's right to the road will be included in his future presentations of best practices, he said.

Clark said the biggest hurdles are connecting gaps in the bike network and increasing ridership.

The percent of commuters who go by bike in Cedar Rapids is 0.5 percent, he said citing U.S. Census Bureau figures. This is low compared with other biking communities, he said.

He also suggested strategies used elsewhere such as narrower vehicle lanes, removing center yellow lines and 'road diets' — reducing lanes and using the excess space for other purposes such as biking — as ways to make it safer to share roadways.

for bikes on streets.

'I left feeling like there's a lot more going on than I thought,' he said.