Last week I wrote how the City leaders backed away from the term “bike lanes” when referring to the re-striping of Business 34.  Conversations with several City Council members since the publishing of that article have not clarified the position of the City, but rather indicated that there are design complications, perceptions of safety issues and political considerations all preventing clear support and direction in implementing bike lanes on Business 34.

I have yet to meet anyone who is opposed to adding bike lanes around town so I am going to leave the political issues of implementing bike lanes for someone else to address.  I would like to address the issues relating to safety perceptions and design complications. Read the full story

Last night’s City Council meeting had at least one bizarre moment.  It occurred after Brent Willett approached the podium to address the City Council as a representative of the Chamber of Commerce and Fairfield Economic Development Association (FEDA).  In order to address concerns from the business community regarding the new three lane configuration coming to Burlington Avenue, Brent presented two letters (one from the Chamber and the other from FEDA) summarized as follows:

we [FEDA and Chamber of Commerce] understand that the planned curriculum of traffic lanes will be adjusted from its current and historic four lane orientation to a one which will feature one eastbound lane, one westbound lane, one middle left-turn lane, and bike lanes on one or both sides of the roadway, with the exception of the section of roadway between Main Street and Court Street, where bike lanes are for one block suspended altogether due to vehicle parking considerations.

FEDA has long been supportive of innovative public transportation policies which- in order of
priority- address the safety of travelers, improve the overall efficiency of freight and passenger
travel and create and preserve recreational opportunities for Fairfield area residents.

As does FEDA, the Chamber requests on the behalf of its members that the Fairfield City Council become inclined and commit future resources toward a scientific review by a qualified actor of traffic safety incidence improvements, vehicle efficiency data and bicycle use and safety data no more than 12 months from the completion of the striping of Burlington Avenue later this summer.

After presenting his opening address to the Mayor and City Council, the response from the Mayor and several Council members was that the new lanes are not “bike lanes”.  Just last week I received emails from city leaders using the term “bike lane” when referring to the new smaller lanes going on the outside of the roadway in both directions.  However last night neither the Mayor or City Council members wanted to call them “bike lanes”.  City Council member Martha Norbeck said they were not designated bike lanes.  And the Mayor pointed out that the redesign of Burlington Ave did not include the goal of putting in bike lanes, but rather that was a secondary consideration resulting form the extra space left over from a three lane configuration.

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Before I get into anything, I have to say how overwhelmingly proud I am to live in a town with a “sustainability plan.” Even if it was just a piece of paper that said “sustainability plan for Fairfield, Iowa” over and over again, just the sheer fact that it exists puts us head and shoulders above almost every other town and city in America. Any suggestions I make regarding the plan, then, are with the underlying idea that it’s amazing and I’m all for it.

Fairfield is a great proving ground for this new direction. At 9,000+ in-town population and over 13,000 in the county, we’re not not so large as to hinder communication, but not so small as to avoid notice from larger communities. As the population runs from ultra-conservatives to extreme liberals, and from multi-generational rural agricultural families to new-aged hippie-types, we will certainly figure out a way to make these changes appealing to both ends. Read the full story

Bike, no light. (c) professor k.

It turns out that Fairfield has a bicycle law (who knew?!). I was informed of this as I rode with my back-blinky-red-light (coz I want cars coming up behind me to know whare to aim) towards town and my friend Jim informed me that I could get a $65 ticket for not having a front-light. So I looked up this municipal code: Read the full story