Yes, street trees could be planted in the future, possibly even in some of the wider buffer areas. City staff is exploring options for tree planting and greening along this segment of Rainier and will bring recommendations for a future project to implement tree planting and greening of the corridor.
The protected bike lane is designed to allow street-sweepers to safely clean the bikeway and street. There is also ample space to place garbage bins, recycling, and yard debris in the buffer zones on either side of the driveways. The gaps before, at, and after driveways allow mail vehicles to pull over without holding up traffic … Continued
While a two-way bikeway on the south side of Rainier would not require cyclists to cross driveways, this is not the safest option for cyclists on Rainier Avenue. A two-way bikeway would create complex conflict points at heavily trafficked intersections where drivers would need to look for vehicles, pedestrians, and two directions of bike traffic … Continued
Studies show that almost two-thirds of adults would consider riding their bike more often if they had better places to ride, and as many as 81% of those would ride in protected bike lanes. Another type of bike lane, “buffered bike lane” delineates space for bicyclists but does not provide a physical separation between people cycling and … Continued
When studying the street, we realized that the driveways located along Rainier Avenue do not provide adequate sight lines for people currently exiting the driveways. To remedy this, the curbs were painted red for 20 feet on each side of the driveways. Regardless of how we decide to move forward with the repaving and repainting … Continued
One of the best ways to park cars and protect cyclists is by moving cars away from the curb and putting the bike lane in between the sidewalk and the parked cars. In the demonstration project configuration, there is a five-foot buffer protecting the parked cars from the bikeway and an extra three-foot buffer protecting … Continued
Parking on Rainier Avenue was provided along both sides of the street prior to the installation of the demonstration project. However, we found less than one-third of the curb space west of Maria Drive was occupied during peak times, and even less is occupied east of Maria Drive. To accommodate a safer road design for … Continued
Rainier Avenue is large enough to accommodate about 40,000 cars per day. Even with a lane reduction the street can accommodate more than the total vehicles using the road now. Thus, we don’t believe people would choose to go out of their way to avoid Rainier Avenue and use nearby neighborhood streets. Traffic volumes on … Continued
DRIVING LANES According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), converting four traffic lanes to three lanes – one travel lane in each direction with a center left-turn lane – can improve safety and traffic flow while adding benefits for pedestrians and cyclists. ¹ [1] The Federal Highway Administration found a crash reduction of 19 … Continued
