Rainier Avenue is scheduled to be repaved and re-striped in 2023. The traffic calming demonstration would be implemented by mid-summer 2022 and would provide an opportunity for people to submit their feedback on the design.
We plan to install a temporary demonstration project along a portion of the street so that we can test the design and get additional community feedback. This would be done by removing existing pavement markings and installing new painted markings to create the new alignment. During the demonstration period, the community would have the opportunity … Continued
The project budget does not include funds for planting street trees at this time. However, street trees could be planted in the future, possibly even in some of the wider buffer areas.
The protected bike lane would be designed to allow streetsweepers to safely clean the bikeway and street. There would also be ample space to place garbage bins, recycling, and yard debris in the buffer zones before and after each driveway. The gaps before, at, and after driveways would allow mail vehicles to pull over without holding … 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. We plan to correct that by painting the curbs red for 20 feet on each side of the driveways. Regardless of how we decide to move forward with the repaving … 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. If this did occur, there would be a five-foot buffer protecting the parked cars from the bikeway and an extra three-foot buffer protecting … Continued
Parking on Rainier Avenue is currently provided along both sides of the street: there is space to park over 200 vehicles along the entire length of the roadway. However, less than one-third of the curb space west of Maria Drive is occupied during peak times, and even less is occupied east of Maria Drive. To … Continued
Rainier Avenue is large enough to accommodate about 40,000 cars per day. Even with a lane reduction the street could accommodate more than the total vehicles using the road now. If Rainier Avenue were extended westerly at some time in the future, we believe that a three-lane street would still be sufficient for the expected … Continued
