Quite a bit smoother: the new surface of Madison Street in Albany, north of Sixth.
Madison Street in Albany has been the subject of stories here since 2019 because it’s the site of a project funded by ODOT to increase traffic safety, especially where bicyclists and car drivers are concerned.
This week I noticed that the project was about half done:
The idea is to prevent collisions at the intersections of Fourth and Fifth avenues. There had been a handful of crashes over the past few years where cyclists got hit when drivers starting from stop signs didn’t see them.
Green paint on the pavement at those intersections is supposed to alert drivers that cyclists may be coming down the street, and that the bikers don’t have stop signs. The cross streets do have stop signs.
A couple of speed bumps have already been installed to slow down traffic. They are shallow humps, not the kind of speed bumps you try to avoid in parking lots.
Originally there was talk of making this a “bike boulevard,” which would have entailed additional measures to slow down motor traffic. But that notion has been abandoned as unnecessary.
The city got Linn County to apply a chip seal treatment to the street from Sixth Avenue to Second. Before that the city put down asphalt on the roughest spots. Together, these things have made for a somewhat smoother street.
R&R General Contracting Inc. submitted a bid of $63,999, the lowest of four, for the speed bumps, the bike lane striping and paint, as well as asphalt and other work.
Now that the surface is ready for paint, bike lanes at those intersections presumably will soon be green. (hh)
Perhaps they should look at safety on Riverside Drive! If I remember correctly there have been three bicyclists killed on that stretch of road in the past 10 years!
Paint will make the asphalt slicker.
Rain + slicker pavement = reduced safety.
Studded tires on paint????? May render the above moot, simply resulting in wasted paint/labor? That money could have been better spent elsewhere, like redoing the usually worn out bike lane stripping on Waverly between Fred Meyer & Queen.
“Green paint on the pavement at those intersections is supposed to alert drivers that cyclists may be coming down the street, and that the bikers don’t have stop signs.”
Bikers should have stop signs since they share the road.
“A couple of speed bumps have already been installed to slow down traffic. They are shallow humps, not the kind of speed bumps you try to avoid in parking lots.”
Then whomever(s) approved those speed bumps needs to PERSONALLY reimburse the City so that proper speed bumps can be installed.
Just to be clear, there are no stop signs on Madison at those intersections. The stop signs are on the cross streets. As for speed bumps, the parking lot kind are intended to almost stop vehicles. This would be impractical on a regular street.
I’m confused Mr Hering…you said in the article that they green paid was to alert drivers that the bikers don’t have stop signs, then you just responded that there were no stop signs. So if there are no stop signs on Madison, then what is the purpose of the special paint? And if the purpose is to warn that bikers don’t have to stop on the cross street where there are stop signs, then we’re back to my response that bikers should have to have to stop too (if I wasn’t clear).
As for the speed bumps, they would only be impractical if you could not drive over them at the posted speed limit. As an example, I often drive down S Shore Drive…so long as I am doing the speed limit, I have no problem driving over the speed bumps, but if I’m going faster, then it’s a problem. So if the posted limit on Madison is 25 and you can drive over them at 35, then they are useless.
In the accidents cited by the city, drivers stopped on Fourth and Fifth, then started again, not seeing the bike riders on Madison. So the green paint is to alert drivers on the cross streets to look for cyclists.
The speed bumps are the kind commonly put on streets. They are not like those in parking lots, where they want you to slow to maybe 2 or 3 miles an hour.
I like the speed bumps just not the placement. The second speed bump is way too close to the stop sign, it’s to me kind of pointless because you’re already slowing down to approach the stop sign. As for the on coming lane it also seems pointless unless you’re blowing through the stop sign. I’m not too surprised on the lack of common sense for that speed bump because, hey, let’s face it Albany is usually about half way to half way mark on most things… We’ll get better at it. Hopefully they will install these speed bumps throughout that area and beyond.