Tuesday afternoon on Madison Street at Fourth Avenue: The bike lane is green.
Three years ago there was a story on this site about putting green paint on bike lanes on Madison Street, a first in Albany at the time. Now this has been done.
The green paint pavement markings were applied on Madison at two intersections, at Fourth and Fifth Avenues. This was done as part of an ODOT-funded safety project to prevent or reduce crashes involving bikes and cars.
Fourth and Fifth have stop signs at those intersections but Madison does not. According to the city, several crashes occurred there when drivers pulled out of the cross streets after stopping and didn’t see bike riders on Madison.
The green paint is supposed to alert drivers to the potential presence of people on bikes.
That section of Madison is considered a bicycle route because within several blocks east or west, it’s the only straight shot from Pacific Boulevard north to First Avenue.
Before the new markings were painted this week, potholes were filled and the pavement got a new chip-seal treatment. On a bike, it’s still rough, but not as rough as it was. (hh)
Watching paint dry on Madison at Fifth Avenue on Tuesday afternoon.
Two Thumbs Down…!!!
All one has to do, is drive on that stretch to understand.
Waste of money.
Agreed. I drove on that section and thought maybe they ground down the existing surface and just applied seal over that.
On the reverse side, Gibson Hill is nice. Must be because Benton County was involved instead of Albany.
You are so right.I would no more ride a bike down that street its bad enough driving a car.
It would be interesting to know whether the bicycle riders involved in these accidents were riding on the correct side of the street.
Very good point! I ride a bicycle and it totally peeves me to see some of these jerks ride so recklessly, that we all get a bad name. Calling multi use paths “bike paths” is another example. Bicycles get the abuse while walkers, joggers, runners & strollers go free.
I’d guess that bicyclists would be respected more by drivers if bicyclists actually followed the rules of the road they are supposed to follow. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the entire bunch.
As for multi use paths, they are called “bike paths” because most of the bike riders think they own the path and that the walkers/jogger/runners, etc should get out of their way.
I’d guess that drivers would be respected more by bicyclists if drivers actually followed the rules of the road they are supposed to follow. It only takes one bad apple to spoil the entire bunch.
As for multi use paths, they are called “bike paths” because most of the bike riders have to put up with walkers/jogger/runners, etc that are plugged in to their ear buds and are too stupid to pay attention and get out of their way.