New bike infrastructure in downtown Spokane
After work yesterday, camera in hand, I rode south on downtown Howard St. This is one of the new bike lanes the City Of Spokane is implementing with $600, 000 in federal money to create bicycle infrastructure downtown.
It was an awkward feeling. I’m so used to claiming the lane downtown, always riding smack in the middle because I believe it’s safer. A few cars and delivery trucks blocked the lane. Many were still riding on the sidewalk. But one older gentleman came up along side me in a cruiser and said, “It’s about damn time. I usually stay off the streets.” The new Howard lane runs from Lewis and Clark High School, takes a break at Riverfront Park, and then picks up again north on Howard St. to Buckeye Ave. 
Ninety percent of the upcoming project consists of painting bike lanes onto a loop of downtown roads bounded by Jefferson Street, Spokane Falls Boulevard, Howard Street and Fourth Avenue, as well as adding racks and other facilities. Where the lane doesn’t fit, you’ll notice a stencil that indicates the lane is to be shared between motorists and cyclists, known as “sharrows,” like in this photo I took on E 37th Ave, on the South Hill. These are increasingly commonplace in Spokane - they’re now on Spokane Falls Boulevard and Riverside Avenue too. What do readers think of sharrows? Do they encourage safer riding and driving behavior from both bicyclists and motorists?
Or do they give a false sense of safety for cyclists? Is this better than nothing – provided that nothing is indeed the only other alternative? What about bike boulevards?
Image courtesy of MetroSpokane.
