They took a little longer than anticipated thanks to persistent rain, but bike lanes have come to busy Clinton Street — and more improvements are on the way as the city moves to become more bike-friendly.
Clinton Street, which runs past the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest and the heart of downtown, has been re-striped from four lanes to three between Jefferson and Court streets. With that extra space, the city created a center turn lane and bike lanes.
“We’re turning into more multimodal by adding bike lanes the entire length,” said Jason Reichart, a city civil engineer.
The work is part of the Burlington-Clinton streets intersection improvements project, which also included a new water main, traffic signals and a right turn lanes on Clinton Street.
With those changes in place and Clinton Street identified as a “preferred corridor” for cyclists according to the city’s Bicycle Master Plan, Reichart said it made sense to make the bike lane additions as the rest of the work was being done.