City of Wichita wants to add 80 miles of bike lanes. Here’s where
By Kylie Cameron – The Wichita Eagle (TNS)
Dec. 29—More than 80 miles of bikeways could be added to streets and shared-use paths in Wichita over the next 10 years, according to a draft of the city’s bike plan.
Many of the paths will connect to existing bike lanes in the city. The bike paths may mean fewer car lanes on major roadways, most commonly known as a “road diet.”
The draft plan also calls for connecting to bike networks outside the city, including Andover and Derby.
“I’ve had a lot of comments about, there’s existing bike lanes out there now,” city traffic engineer Lee Carmichael said. “Lot of them start and stop abruptly. Can we get some fluidity to that? And yeah, that was one of the goals.”
The city now has 133 miles of bikeways. The city’s 2013 bike plan added more than half of those.
The 2024 plan builds on that, but this time will also take into account rider safety and creating streets that are more equitable for cars and bike riders. That may lead to more road diets and slower speed limits.
“Wichita’s grid network offers many routing opportunities through the city,” the draft plan reads. “However, due to the wide streets, generally high motor vehicle volumes, and high motor vehicle speeds, bicycling can be a challenge.”
Priorities in the 2024 bike plan include more than 30 miles of lanes, with the first projects mainly in the central part of the city and in west Wichita on Meridian and West Street.
Other priorities include adding 6.7 miles of bike lanes along Lincoln Street, from the Arkansas River to Rock Road, connecting it to many of the city’s bikeways that go to the north and south.
“There is a lot of interest in developing bike lanes along Rock Road,” Carmichael said. “There’s a lot of destinations along Rock Road too.”
To add more bike lanes that are safer for cyclists in the central part of the city, parking configurations could be affected.
Angled parking on Douglas Avenue in Delano from Seneca to Sycamore may be removed at some point. The plan suggests converting Douglas to a three-lane roadway with parallel parking lanes on the south side of the street to allow for bike lanes to be added to both sides of the street.
“This segment serves many businesses, Century II, and is a primary connection between Downtown Wichita and the Delano neighborhood and businesses district,” the plan reads.
As it adds more bike lanes, especially on busier roads, the city said it will work with community partners like Bike Walk Wichita to educate the public on how to coexist with more cyclists on the road.
“We can talk about infrastructure, we can talk about education, but it’s really a culture shift,” city spokesperson Megan Lovely said. “If we want a more cohesive cycling community to support and safer for cyclists, that’s going to be beyond our capacity, and it really has to start at the community level.”
Much of the plan would be funded by a $458,735 federal grant the city won approval for in 2022, with the city providing $91,747 toward that total. What parts of the plan the money will go toward is dependent on approval from the Wichita City Council.
“So these are just ideas that will be presented, and so that community feedback is so important,” Lovely said.
The city said it held eight focus groups and had several engagement events with people in the biking community to develop the plan.
The bike plan will go before the city council in 2025.
You can view the draft bike plan and leave feedback at wichitabicycleplan.com.
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