The Syracuse Common Council approved the addition of new bike lanes along Waverly and Comstock avenues, with the hope of making traveling safer for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.

The council approved the three-quarter mile road reconstruction from Irving Avenue to Comstock Avenue on Waverly Avenue, and from Waverly Avenue to Euclid Avenue on Comstock Avenue to join the Connective Corridor bike lanes. This addition will make traveling safer, said Paul Mercurio, the department of public work’s transportation planner.

The $1.34 million project to add six blocks of bike lanes was approved by the Common Council last week, though many were hesitant to approve the plan because of its high costs, said Councilor-At-Large Lance Denno. After finding 80 percent of the project’s funding from federal grants that support transportation upgrades, the council remained reluctant to approve the plan until the Onondaga County “Save the Rain” program agreed to contribute $250,000.

Syracuse is no stranger to cyclists, as a 2010 census collected by the League of American Bicyclists showed that the city had a higher percentage of bicycling commuters than Albany, Rochester and New York City. University Hill was the most sensible place to add new bike lanes, as college students made up the highest percentage of bicycling commuters in the city, Mercurio said.

“That’s why bike lanes were proposed for Euclid Avenue, because so many students use bikes,” said Bob Dougherty, common councilor and a self-proclaimed avid cyclist. “It makes the most sense to put them where there’s heavier traffic.”

Dougherty said he supported more bike lanes because it would encourage more people to ride their bikes while creating a safer environment for both cyclists and drivers, and a vibrant community for the city.

The new bike lanes will be similar to the lanes on University Avenue, with raised sidewalks between cars and cyclists. These raised bike lanes are usually only possible on wide roads, Denno said.

This addition will reduce Waverly Avenue’s four lanes of traffic to two lanes of traffic, which would increase parking spaces along the avenue without delaying the flow of traffic, he said.

One of the greater benefits, Denno said, is that these new lanes will be connected to the bike lanes on University Avenue’s Connective Corridor, a lane that has stood alone since its was built in 2012.

“You don’t want strips of cycle tracks isolated from each other; you want to connect them from one part of the city to another so they’re fully integrated,” he said. “In this case, Waverly and Comstock are already wide streets, and at the same time tie into the bike lane on University Ave. It’s a geographic opportunity on this half-mile stretch of road.”

Denno said planning and design for the new bike lanes are set to finish by the end of this summer, and construction is expected to start by spring 2014.

Published on April 7, 2013 at 11:18 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng