FULLERTON : Committee Pushes for More Bike Lanes

Widen the roads to accommodate more cars? No thanks, say members of the bicycle users subcommittee.

Committee chairwoman Karen Anderson said more people could pedal to work and on errands if more bike lanes were created instead.

The year-old committee makes recommendations to the city, and is now trying to have an extensive network of bike routes included in the city’s Master Plan for future development.

“I believe that a bicycle is an excellent form of transportation for many people,” Anderson said.

She said bicycles may become more popular if a gas tax is ever approved or if gasoline becomes more scarce. If any of that happens, she wants the bike lanes to already be in place.

The seven-member committee is working with city staff members to identify streets on which bike lanes, separated from car lanes by a stripe, could be established.

Bike lanes come in three classifications: Class 1 is a bike path completely separate from the road, and paved; Class 2 is on the regular road, but separated by a stripe; Class 3 is on the road, and simply marked by a sign.

Anderson said four Class 2 east-west routes through the city have been identified, and five north-south routes are being considered. The group wants to connect the Fullerton routes with those in other cities, she said.

Creating Class 2 routes in the city is difficult, said Don Hoppe, a city engineer who assists the committee. “The city is basically built out,” he said, and adding a bike lane would often require elimination of on-street parking or a road widening.

Hoppe said that there are standard widths for traffic lanes and bike lanes and that sometimes a road cannot accommodate both. Many underpasses were not constructed for bike lanes and cannot be widened, he said.

Anderson helps the group by providing maps, data, and traffic studies. Hoppe has “never told us ‘No, you can’t do that,’ ” she said.

“There are a lot of constraints in Fullerton to establishing bikeways: narrow streets, on-street parking,” Anderson said.

The committee hopes to have its plan for the bike network finished by March or April, Anderson said. Members will show their ideas to the Transportation and Circulation Commission for eventual presentation to the City Council.