West Des Moines' plan for bicycle network reviewed

Posted Oct 25, 2010
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West Des Moines, IA By Adam Belz abelz@dmreg.com October 26, 2010 West Des Moines wasn't designed for bicycles. The city has a trail system good for recreation, but for those who want to use their bikes to get to work, run an errand, or meet friends, much of the city must be retrofitted, a consultant told the City Council last week. West Des Moines' streets are too narrow - or too busy - to add bike lanes, the consultant said. The city also has too many cul-de-sacs and dead-ends for bikes to easily move from one place to another. In addition, First/63rd Street on the town's border with Des Moines is so full of zooming cars that cyclists have trouble getting across. "This is like the Great Wall of China," Ann Freiwald, a senior associate at Alta Planning and Design, said of First Street. "The whole playing field is tilted toward cars, moving as many cars as possible through there as fast as possible."

The City Council last week reviewed a master plan for a bicycle network in West Des Moines. The question that kept rearing its head over the course of the session: How badly does the city want to encourage more bicycling? For now, there is no answer. Only one of six council members - Jim Sandager - rides a bicycle at least once a month. Councilman Ted Ohmart put it this way: "I parked my bike when I got my driver's license." Up-to-date figures for ridership among the population of West Des Moines are not available. In 2000, the last year for which census data is available, fewer than 1,500 people in all of the Des Moines metro area rode bicycles to work. That number has since increased but no one will know by how much until 2010 census data is released, Freiwald said. The master plan sets a framework by which the current council and future ones can decide on how to spend money for bicycle infrastructure over the next 20 or 30 years. The plan also forces council members to think now about whether bike lanes, share-the-road signs, bike paths on new bridges and better trail connections are a priority. Added signs and street markings - which cost $2,160 and $6,460 per mile, respectively - received little opposition at an Oct. 18 council workshop on the subject. The tough decisions will come when the city builds new roads. Adding bicycle lanes to a new road costs roughly $700,000 per mile, or an 18 percent increase to the cost of the road, according to city estimates. Councilmen Kevin Trevillyan and Ted Ohmart shook their heads at the cost. "Do you know what the numbers of people who actually ride their bikes on the roads is, to justify $700,000 a mile extra cost?" Trevillyan asked. Ohmart said he is skeptical about the cost-benefit, and has long wanted to get bicycles away from streets and onto bike trails, for safety reasons. Mayor Steve Gaer and Parks and Recreation Director Gary Scott said, however, that the city has made a habit of long-range planning that seem far-fetched in the short-term but ends up being far-sighted. One example: Raccoon River Park. "If you told me we would spend $20 million on Raccoon River Park in 1986, I would have laughed," Scott said. The city already plans miles of trails winding west along the Raccoon River, or running along major routes like the southwestern swing of Grand Avenue. The city will use signs and street markings to encourage more residents to ride their bikes on roads that will never have bike lanes, and to set up a network to channel cyclists through town on safe residential streets. "Probably the first thing is to get the shared lane markings or signs in the existing parts of town where we're not going to change the street configuration," Scott said. Questions about more expensive bike lanes on new roads will come later. Freiwald, the consultant, acknowledged the cost can pile up. Portland, Ore., has spent $60 million on its bike system over the past 30 years. Still, that's less than it costs to build one mile of urban interstate, she said, and it has turned Portland into one of the most bike-friendly cities in America. "It is a little bit of, 'If you build it, they will come,'" she said.