REPAVED STREETS WILL HAVE LANES FOR BICYCLING

If the Department of Public Works' recent increased budget request is any indication, then New Orleans could be heading toward more roadways that cater to both motorists and cyclists.

Public Works director Robert Mendoza is seeking more money for road repairs and maintenance for 2009, and says that he intends to use a portion of the money on a pavement management system that would inventory Orleans Parish streets and run them through software to determine the most efficient and cost-effective prioritization of street repair projects.

The budget has yet to be approved by the City Council, but the request follows recent improvements in state-run and federally financed road and bike path projects.

In October, the city unveiled the completed Wisner bike path, a 4.7-mile marked roadway for cyclists that extends from Lakeshore Drive to Lafitte Street at North Jefferson Davis Parkway. Over the past six months, Broad Street and St. Claude Avenue, which are state-controlled roads, received fresh bike lanes with their resurfacing facelifts.

And Mendoza has stated that more bike lanes are on the way, with Public Works projects on Harrison Avenue, from Marconi Drive to Wisner Boulevard; on Robert E. Lee Boulevard, from St. Bernard Avenue to Paris Avenue; on Louisiana Avenue, from St. Charles Avenue to Magazine Street; and on St. Charles Avenue, from Carrollton Avenue to Nashville Avenue.

"We've been working with the city's traffic engineers, trying to figure out what would be the optimal lane configuration on those corridors," said Dan Jatres, manager of the Greater New Orleans Pedestrian and Bicycle Program under the Regional Planning Commission. "We reviewed them with the traffic engineers, and they signed off on either a bike lane or a shared lane."

A bike lane is a clearly delineated lane meant exclusively for cyclists, while a shared lane is marked by a white painted icon of a bicycle on top of two chevrons, Jatres said.

"It's placed in the lane and its distance will vary based on the width of the lane and whether there's off-street parking," he said. "It kind of provides an indicator to the bicyclists of where they should position themselves in the lane and also a cue to motorists . . . to be alert and drive accordingly."

Discord between drivers and bike-riders in New Orleans runs on a two-way street, so to speak, Jatres points out. Bicyclists, for one, can frustrate drivers by disregarding traffic laws or riding against the flow of traffic.

"Those things lead to a lot of unnecessary crashes," Jatres said, adding that by state law cyclists are subject to the same rules of the road as drivers -- as well as the same fines. "A big step in getting respect from drivers is giving respect and realizing that you need to follow the rules, too."

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