Backers say East Village bike lanes have made neighborhood safer

Austin Cannon
The Des Moines Register
Bikers test the newly-painted bike lanes along East Grand Avenue.

The colorful East Village bike lanes lauded by cyclists and sometimes scorned by drivers have cut down on vehicle crashes and made the heavily traveled corridor safer for pedestrians, officials behind the project say.

Des Moines installed the bike lanes last summer on a multi-block stretch of East Grand Avenue.

The project, which cost about $205,000 and extends from Second to Pennsylvania avenues, reduced vehicle traffic to one lane in each direction and moved on-street parking away from the curb, providing a buffer for cyclists on each side of the road. 

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“There aren't nearly as many accidents,” said Meg Schneider, senior vice president of business resources and community development at the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

Des Moines plans to transform a portion of East Grand Avenue from the Des Moines River to Pennsylvania Avenue into a "complete street," building roads to accommodate bikes, pedestrians and public transit in addition to vehicles. Green indicates a bicycle lane and the dashed sections are proposed barriers between cars and bikes. A small black "T" indicates a car parking space.

According to Department of Transportation data there has been a 2 percent decline in vehicle crashes and 58 percent drop in injury accidents since the bike lanes were installed.

The data was compiled by Connect Downtown, a transportation program run by the city, the Greater Des Moines Partnership and Urban Land Institute Iowa aimed at making Des Moines’ downtown streets easier and safer to navigate for people who walk, drive and bike.

It compared crash reports from the last 10 months to the 10 years prior to installation of the bike paths.

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Data from the city also showed the Des Moines Fire Department shaved almost 30 seconds off its response time to incidents in the area. 

“It has improved safety for all users,” said Jennifer McCoy, a city traffic engineer.

The Des Moines City Council is expected to discuss the future of the pilot project during a Monday workshop before making a decision whether to keep the bike lanes, scrap them or make changes. 

Schneider said reducing the number of vehicle lanes slows traffic, resulting in fewer injuries when there are crashes.

Throttle-happy drivers have been a common complaint among business owners along the stretch of East Grand Avenue. The project runs by some of the district’s most popular retail destinations like Zombie Burger and Raygun.

And with the on-street parking closer to the middle of the road, pedestrians are protected by a row of parked cars, Schneider noted.

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“We need to treat the street a little bit more like it is a neighborhood instead of the major thoroughfare,” she said.

But not everyone has been supportive of the project. Drivers have complained about the design and some business owners say that moving parking away from the curb has caused problems with deliveries.

Kate Shaw, the owner of Porch Light, 526 E. Grand Ave, said Wednesday she initially supported the project, but moving on-street parking away from the curb has made it dangerous for people getting out of their cars and caused problems for trucks unloading goods.

It can be dangerous when a truck stops to unload outside a store, forcing vehicles to go around it in the oncoming lane, Shaw explained. “I’m not happy about (the changes).” 

McCoy said the city expects to examine the loading zone issue and possibly make other tweaks to the street.