Protected bike lanes installed on busy Columbus roadway

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Construction on more bike lanes and pathways could start soon after the Bike Plus plan passed during Monday night’s Columbus City Council meeting.  

A project on East Broad Street is basically complete and serves as a test to see how drivers and bikers respond to a physically protected bike lane.  

Before this project, East Broad Street felt a bit dangerous to some bike riders. Brian Ashworth, a transportation planning manager for the city and an avid bicyclist, said he uses that roadway to get to work almost daily.  

“No one expects riders to be out there on East Broad,” Ashworth said. “People are going upwards of 45 miles an hour or more so having just a dedicated space as a user has been pretty awesome." 

The protected bike lanes on East Broad Street are a demonstration project for the city. With the Bike Plus plan passing, city leaders are working to figure out how to build safe bikeways, and East Broad Street is a test.  

“We got some demonstration dollars to show that this bikeway does work,” Kelly Scocco, the director of Public Service for the city, said. “We’re testing it all out and deciding which material is going to be the one that we want to use in the future.”  

There are three barriers the city is using to keep cars and bikes separated. One is more of a visual deterrent while the other two actually keep swerving tires away from the bike lane. Scocco said that over the next year, her department will see how well each barrier works and which one holds up the best.  

Ashworth said he feels safe riding next to any of the three barriers, even with his kids in tow.  

“My kids are at the forefront of my thinking when I’m riding on something like that,” he said. “I mean I have definitely taken my kids along East Broad in these protected bike lanes.” 

Columbus residents may be seeing more of these protected bike lanes popping up along busy roads in the city over the next few years. The goal is safety for everyone and to make biking and scootering more accessible.  

“The East Broad Street project is not only for the bicyclists; it’s really to slow down traffic because cars were speeding down East Broad Street, so we’re being pretty unapologetic about the fact that safety is our number one priority,” Scocco said.  

“We have to be thinking about other modes of transportation,” Ashworth said. “I’m not saying everyone needs to sell their car and buy a bike like I did, but can you replace one trip a month or one trip a week?”  

The city said construction is pretty much complete and it is encouraging bicyclists, scooter riders and others on wheels to test out the protected bike lanes. Soon there will be QR codes put up along the bike lanes so people can give feedback.