King Street Bike Lane installation has begun, usual characters upset about it

ABC7 reports that 

After a contentious neighborhood debate, the City of Alexandria is laying down bike lanes on both sides of a two-thirds-of-a-mile stretch on King Street between Russell Road and Janneys Lane.

Which is good news. The bike lanes are painted green BTW. Anyway, Francis Buckly is still angry about it. 

"It would take an idiot to put a bike lane here."

Buckley sees the lane in front of his home, as well as the one coming soon on the other side of the street -- and a very tight and busy space in between.

"We'll have buses that have to swerve to avoid each other, they'll cut into the bike lane and heaven knows what will happen next," he says.

Nothing I didn't expect. But, for all the talk about safety, here's a pretty telling statement (emphasis mine).

"As a resident who kept my parking space, that's great personally. But in terms of the scheme of how it's gonna work, I think we're all really concerned about the safety issues."

That's the problem. People think these are their parking spaces, and they aren't. 

Anyway, they report that the City Council is considering banning large trucks on that section of King Street, so that would possibly make the road even safer. 

Comments

[Jon]

I love how buses swerving to avoid each other is seen as acceptable behavior that can never change. It's more of the "drivers break the law there all the time so it's dangerous for bikes and pedestrians" argument that's both absurd and offensive.

[DE]

Poor Buckley, another victim of that damn "Cyclist Tyranny" I've read so much about today because I've been stupid enough to read the comments sections. Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue.

[cyclistinthecity]

Buckley conveniently ignores the testimony from DASH Bus at the Traffic and Parking Board meeting saying that they agreed with the city's plan to put lanes there and that they cope with narrow roads in the city quite adequately.

[jaime]

i really like how they're already putting their trash cans in the bike lane. because, you know, safety.

[kellie Meehan]

Mr. Baier, Director of Alexandria TE&S, told residents at the City Council hearing that they should continue to put their trash cans in the road, even if it blocks or obstructs the bike lane.
This was an issue raised by residents, they didn't know what they were supposed to do and didn't want to block the bike lane.
They were instructed to block the lane by city staff, so that the trucks could get to the cans.
Mr. Baier said this was unavoidable and a primary function of city services.