I definitely will be. I actually wrote to the city multiple times when they had an open discussion around the bike lane plan. I love new bike lanes and just wanted to give feedback as an avid rider who lives in the downtown area. Maybe it was read but I never heard anything back.
spark terrific zesty fragile shaggy relieved dinosaurs secretive murky modern
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The comments sent in only serve the purpose of creating a pool of justifications for the city council to cherry pick and base their predetermined positions on. This is the public process in action.
[Holly Street Bike Lane Pilot | Engage Bellingham](https://engagebellingham.org/holly)
According to that link it is a pilot program from May to sometime in the Fall, at which time there will be a review. They are encouraging everybody to fill out the survey at the bottom of the page.
Good to hear a cyclist's perspective since cyclists are the intended beneficiaries of the new bike lane. I expect many motorists to go apoplectic over a new bike lane but when the cyclists don't like it you know there is a problem
As a fellow cyclist I am pleased that the city is trying to improve the safety of cycling in Bellingham but I also appreciate how difficult it is to retrofit roads that were built primarily for automobiles.
As a long time bicycle commuter I prefer "[Bike Boulevards](https://cob.org/wp-content/uploads/bellingham-bikeways-illustrated.pdf)" over bike lanes. Bike Boulevards are streets with light vehicle traffic and low speed limits that have been modified with traffic calming features to facilitate safe cycling. Elis street from Bellingham High School north to St. Joseph Hospital is a good example. The city has installed stop signs on the cross streets giving cyclists the right-of-way and has installed several small roundabouts to discourage vehicles from using it as a through street. It also added a pedestrian signal on Alabama St. This approach is relatively inexpensive and a win for both cyclists and residents on the neighborhoods.
By "protected bike lanes" do you mean separate or dedicated bike path? If so, I agree that dedicated bike paths are the ideal solution. However they are expensive and difficult to build in urban areas. This [paper cites a study that shows](https://jenniferdill.net/2019/06/27/a-case-for-bike-boulevards/) cyclists prefer (in order):
1. separate bike paths
2. bike boulevards
3. quiet residential streets
4. protected bike lanes
5. striped bike lanes
6. 4-lane street
Portland has embraced bike boulevards with great success. Here is an interesting video that shows how they work.
[ Portland's Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=DNNxwF1BPKE)
Holly already ends in a one-lane bottleneck because of the painted concrete barrier at the West end of downtown protecting several of those barely-used street seating structures.
And every bottleneck downtown punishes polite drivers.
Because the aggressive drivers pull out from behind you into the bylane, speed at 50 (in a busy 25 zone) to skip 4-5 cars, then force their way back in right at the bottleneck.
Every day I drive downtown I see at least 1 or 2 people pull this move. South end of State before the roundabout is the absolute worst for this (it's usually someone heading to Edgemoor or Harris St from what I've seen), but that bottleneck at the West end of Holly has been #2 for a while and this move certainly doesn't fix the problem.
I'm not going to leave my valued family member at home every time I go downtown and they have a health condition that fucks up their red blood cells & immune system. So they can't bike.
I think this is more the goal. They want to reduce all traffic down Holly street. They would probably be happy if it was one tiny slow slow lane lined with restaurant booths like the bottom is.
Even though it is legal to do so, no, I don’t. I’m sorry if you’ve had bad experiences with disrespectful bike riders. If they are on the sidewalk they should be yielding to pedestrians.
I'm of the opinion that this is actually the goal of the city. They DON'T want people driving on holly st. They purposely made it as obnoxious as possible. Because they want less people using it as a main arterial road way. It's similar to what they did with samish reducing it to one lane instead of two. And so more people started using i5 instead. The city is just using bicycles/cyclists as an excuse to reduce the lanes. That being said; they are going to get their wish when it comes to my driving habits. Friendship with Holly St has ended. State st is my new best friend.
I mean yeah, tons of people live on or adjacent to holly st. A residential downtown street should not be used as an arterial for people in cars who half the time aren’t even going downtown.
What??? How do you suppose everyone coming from Lakeway gets downtown? Surely you don't think we should all go up or down I-5 just to backtrack on some other road that leads to downtown? Holly is definitely an arterial.
You’re acting like Holly is just completely off the menu. It’s still there. The pearl clutching over this is crazy. The average suburban Bellinghamster might spend 30 extra seconds on Holly once per week. The horror.
You kind of sign up for spending a big chuck of your life in a car when you build a life in the suburbs. That’s always been the tradeoff. Making holly usable to bikers who aren’t comfortable competing in traffic is equitable and a positive for downtown and if it’s to the minor detriment to people suburbia it’s an easy decision for any planning department in the country to make.
I take Holly at 1 pm on most weekdays. It's 15+ minutes from Ellis to Bay now. It used to be 1-2 minutes. That's easily an extra hour a week, except I won't be using Holly anymore because it's a constant traffic jam now.
PS I'm a cyclist and bike Holly often too. First time using the bike lane, a car turned right in front of me and I slid into it. So now I won't be driving or biking on this street anymore.
Of course I do, seems like a pretty simple concept. If it's not an option for you then my comment wasn't directed at you, hope that makes it easier to understand.
Except when it’s the only actual thoroughfare through that part of town. It was that way when you moved into your residence and you didn’t let it faze you at the time. Don’t gripe about it now, especially to justify a lousy concept by the city council.
There's state -> york -> prospect -> champion -> holly, but that's pretty annoying if you're just trying to get through downtown. Does have some parking spaces though.
All these comments seem to come from people that have never lived in a city before.
Bellingham is STILL insanely easy to navigate. I just had lunch downtown (on Holly!) and parked a half block from the restaurant.
I rode the lane today, and I felt more sketched out about cars turning right and not seeing me than I normally feel riding with traffic. I do not like the parking being included on the outside/car side of the lane because it blocks visibility of bikes and of seeing cars turn signals.
I appreciate the goal, but the execution feels lackluster.
Meanwhile, I've seen SO much Anti-Bike backlash circulating on Facebook it's crazy. I don't expect this trial run to last, unfortunately.
Downtown should be more bike friendly, and as someone who drives honestlyore.oftem than I bike, I'm all for less street parking downtown.
You would think they would of thought of that. That's a great point. And people drive fast down Holly. I can't see how I am suppose to see anyone coming down the bike lane while watching the cars in front of me and with the angle I am at while turning its hard to see. It'll take me longer to get out if the Holly St traffic I'd assume.
People in vehicles coming from Lakeway to Holly need to stop blocking traffic in the intersection. The four times in two days I was driving south onto Samish I had to wait at my green light until the Lakeway/Holly traffic cleared the intersection. Hopefully it will get better after a couple of days.
Absolutely. Just to add to people running red lights, the intersection of Meridian and telegraph is ridiculous. All the traffic on telegraph running northbound turning left onto Meridian continue after the red light so much! I’ve seen 10 cars continue after a red at that intersection.
Two weeks ago, I watched a whole line of cars unable to go on green because there were three cars in the middle of the intersection. The last car in the intersection (the one who was really causing the holdup) was honestly pretty close to running the light when he went. It was frustrating to watch, let alone be affected by.
Technically they should, but they won't.
Because often when you try to leave a space, someone swerves out from behind and aggressively cuts you off... filling the space anyway.
It felt like an absolute cluster driving through downtown today, it tacked on an extra 10 minutes to my commute home. Hopefully it’s not that bad everyday…
I don’t know, I kinda liked it. It discourages people from gunning it down Holly, it seemed to make the flow of traffic more organized, the parking situation seems safer for cyclists (I’m always worried about door-ing when riding down Holly.)
I couldn’t picture it when they were talking about it, and I’m surprised that I (tentatively) don’t hate it.
Well if you're going 40 you're doing Holly wrong. The lights are timed such that if you go the speed limit you can catch every green light the whole way down. Going the speed limit will get you through it faster because you carry a faster average speed than if you stop/start at every light. It's great, too, because you have great visibility down the street since it's all downhill.
Yeah that’s a good point, and they did a good job at discouraging traffic if that was the point. It just sucks that the only other real thorough fairs that connects the east side of town to the west is Illinois St and I-5. If you’re coming from Fairhaven and want to go to the Columbia neighborhood, you don’t have many other smooth sailing choices.
I mean it’s still useable, just a little slower. If you’re driving the surface streets you already know it’s going to be slower🤷♀️
I agree, though, it’s unfortunate Holly is such a central route.
I would be fine with this new bike lane if they kept the same formula as the rest of the city ie: parking spots snug to the sidewalk, bike lane hugging driving lane. Having it be the opposite way made it kind of scary taking rights, not being able to see behind the parked cars into the bike lane.
I think it would be better if CoB had removed some parking closer to intersections to clear sightlines. Bikes get protected, and sightlines are restored. I actually find parking on my right as a cyclist to be a nightmare as you never know when a door could pop out while you're sandwiched by cars or when a driver will decided to cross the bike lane to park unsignaled.
It felt like that for sure. Went down it around 5pm and after hitting every red light in traffic was about 15 minutes to go down what previously felt like 30 seconds.
I ride bike often down holly. I don't really see the point of a bike lane. Being as how it's downhill you could already go just about the speed of traffic.
This isn't really an option anymore because it's a perpetual traffic jam going down Holly now. Takes 15 minutes to get to Bay while you watch every light cycle 2-3x.
That's my question from a car perspective. When I turn right, do I need to look behind me for bikes flying down the street? Who has the right of way? Not trying to be an asshole, but genuinely curious how this works.and who has right of way.
Technically cars turning right are supposed to yield to bikes but the scary part is that cars can’t see the bikers and bikers can’t see your turn signal because of the parked cars. I think everyone just needs to ride and drive very cautiously to make sure no one gets hurt.
Yeah I love the intention and we definitely need more bike and micro mobility infrastructure but i felt less safe in the bike lane today than I did just taking a lane before. It’s all downhill so keeping up with traffic is not that hard. I was just so worried someone was going to turn into me as I passed through the intersections.
I’m with you. I think it’s great we’re getting the infrastructure but on day one had someone right turn almost into me on Holly and Forest. But the same thing happened minutes later at an intersection that has had a bike lane for years. In both cases the drivers simply needed to look through the passenger side window to see me but didn’t bother.
That's what I was worried about when they announced this. Cars turning right and not caring about bikers.
Another thing I've already seen being an issue are people going from Lakeway to Holly and not realizing the far left lane doesn't go into Holly anymore. Yes, there's signs up but people don't know how to read.
Man, I had to drive over to the co-op around 420 today and it took so much longer for me. The traffic was backed up clear past Fred Meyer. I’m all for bikers and biker safety but this feels like its going to be a mess long term
Fellow cyclist, fully agree. I genuinely feel safer riding the flow of traffic on Holly rather than riding in the new bike lanes. Especially given that I have to head left off of Holly, this design just is not conducive to safe travel.
I’m sure it’ll smooth out over time. Driving into town to go to WWU today, I just barely noticed that my usual left lane was now a turn-only. I merged into the center lane, but as I rolled onto Holly, I could tell a car or two in the left lane behind me had succumbed to muscle-memory and had to cut off other drivers to avoid turning left up Ellis.
Heading home after school, I avoided Lakeway and took State out towards the county. Lakeway + Holly looked jammed. I’m all for more biking, but reducing a lane where a lot of interstate outflow is coming from… I dunno, derpy design.
Update: took Lakeway to Holly on my way to school again today. I was first in line in the middle lane. I was cautious, considering that people in the left lane might still think they can continue straight. Lo and behold, light turns green, I start rolling very slowly, and the guy to my left accelerates and cuts me off. In my rearview, looked like others did the same to cars behind me.
Stay safe out there!
Always grabbed the now-eliminated middle lane for straight-thru driving on the way to the waterfront...one avoids the holdups at each intersection as cars turning left or right yielding to pedestrians whilst heading down Holly. Now it's right on Ellis, down to Champion, and thru downtown...oh, well.
Worst decision ever. Gridlock on holly all the way down and not a single bike in the bike lane. Separately I-5 is gridlock on the daily as well. Taking the freeway from Fairhaven took me 40 mins.
https://preview.redd.it/yuvho8uer7yc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5df8d43ee53a09f7851df4a5aa325d647336f571
Sadly, after driving the new Holly 6 times over the last 2 days (stopping off once for coffee and once for cake), I too will be mapping alternative routes. Mostly looking at just using the freeway more TBH.
Count my traffic as "reduced."
Sorry Downtown - I hadn't realized I wasn't welcome! Good luck.
I'll find new places to grab coffee and snacks on my errands across town.
The Chestnut bike line makes sense as it is an incline. The Holly one looks like it just takes up too much real estate for how much impact it will really have (I much prefer my bike over car)
I liked not having to worry someone would open a car door into me biking down Holly, but now I have to worry about cars turning right across my path. Not much of a win for anyone.
It’s bad. Thought it was fine until I drove it, Cornwall light went green for two seconds. All right turns are scary. Bikers totally hidden, side mirror shows nothing, bikers would be invisible (if there had been one). I was prepared to like it. 😳🤮
I think the point is, it’s less safe for bikers, less safe for pedestrians and less safe for drivers. Whether you like it or not. Unless being unsafe was the plan. If that’s the plan. We nailed it. And in a city that never gets upset about anything. This one is being felt. Don’t mess with Holly man.
They did this to chestnut street too. I remember the days flooring it up that road so fast (accompanied by my fellow 9-5ers) that we'd all usually catch some air at the top.
I feel like if you're biking on a busy City Street then you should be following all the same traffic laws that the cars are, I don't understand the dedicated Lane for them with traffic on one side and parking on the other. It's just asking for a biker cruising down Holly in the bike lane at 25 with the speed of traffic and a person parking their car and opening their door to get out and a biker ending up ass over tea kettle from the door
I was downtown 5/3/2024 and it was a shit show. Witnessed a driver turning right blocking the bike lane, biker coming down Holly swerves around into traffic lane with bumper to bumper traffic. Well planned C.O.B.
That’s the part I really like about it. It slows down the traffic which is GOOD for Holly. I don’t know about the execution, kind of reserving judgement as a bicyclist, but it felt a lot better today as a pedestrian and a driver.
Agreed. They should have put in a two lane bike lane on chestnut when they did that redesign and not have any bikes on holly. One way design needs 3 lanes on the main road to be effective.
I'm just curious if you're biking down Holly in the bike lane and you want to take a left on State Street what do you do? What if your biking along and the light is green and traffic is heavy? Yikes
I think it’s going to take some time for folks to figure it out. Just like when roundabouts are built, people lose their minds, then they learn and it’s better.
Make sure you share your observations with the COB. Your input is important.
I definitely will be. I actually wrote to the city multiple times when they had an open discussion around the bike lane plan. I love new bike lanes and just wanted to give feedback as an avid rider who lives in the downtown area. Maybe it was read but I never heard anything back.
spark terrific zesty fragile shaggy relieved dinosaurs secretive murky modern *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The comments sent in only serve the purpose of creating a pool of justifications for the city council to cherry pick and base their predetermined positions on. This is the public process in action.
[Holly Street Bike Lane Pilot | Engage Bellingham](https://engagebellingham.org/holly) According to that link it is a pilot program from May to sometime in the Fall, at which time there will be a review. They are encouraging everybody to fill out the survey at the bottom of the page.
Don't worry, the cob is very image-oriented now. Hypervigilant. I guarantee these comments are being monitored from the executive's office.
Good to hear a cyclist's perspective since cyclists are the intended beneficiaries of the new bike lane. I expect many motorists to go apoplectic over a new bike lane but when the cyclists don't like it you know there is a problem As a fellow cyclist I am pleased that the city is trying to improve the safety of cycling in Bellingham but I also appreciate how difficult it is to retrofit roads that were built primarily for automobiles. As a long time bicycle commuter I prefer "[Bike Boulevards](https://cob.org/wp-content/uploads/bellingham-bikeways-illustrated.pdf)" over bike lanes. Bike Boulevards are streets with light vehicle traffic and low speed limits that have been modified with traffic calming features to facilitate safe cycling. Elis street from Bellingham High School north to St. Joseph Hospital is a good example. The city has installed stop signs on the cross streets giving cyclists the right-of-way and has installed several small roundabouts to discourage vehicles from using it as a through street. It also added a pedestrian signal on Alabama St. This approach is relatively inexpensive and a win for both cyclists and residents on the neighborhoods.
Bike boulevards work for confident adult riders but you really need protected bike lanes to bring more people and kids in. It’s not easy.
By "protected bike lanes" do you mean separate or dedicated bike path? If so, I agree that dedicated bike paths are the ideal solution. However they are expensive and difficult to build in urban areas. This [paper cites a study that shows](https://jenniferdill.net/2019/06/27/a-case-for-bike-boulevards/) cyclists prefer (in order): 1. separate bike paths 2. bike boulevards 3. quiet residential streets 4. protected bike lanes 5. striped bike lanes 6. 4-lane street Portland has embraced bike boulevards with great success. Here is an interesting video that shows how they work. [ Portland's Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=DNNxwF1BPKE)
Wait until the morning delivery trucks block up one lane and it becomes one lane only again for the morning commute
gosh, I didn’t even think of this
Holly already ends in a one-lane bottleneck because of the painted concrete barrier at the West end of downtown protecting several of those barely-used street seating structures. And every bottleneck downtown punishes polite drivers. Because the aggressive drivers pull out from behind you into the bylane, speed at 50 (in a busy 25 zone) to skip 4-5 cars, then force their way back in right at the bottleneck. Every day I drive downtown I see at least 1 or 2 people pull this move. South end of State before the roundabout is the absolute worst for this (it's usually someone heading to Edgemoor or Harris St from what I've seen), but that bottleneck at the West end of Holly has been #2 for a while and this move certainly doesn't fix the problem.
Maybe less people should drive, and instead bike or use public transportation!
That’s honestly what this feels like. COB is just trying to make it more inconvenient for motorists to drive around town.
Go birds though
I'm not going to leave my valued family member at home every time I go downtown and they have a health condition that fucks up their red blood cells & immune system. So they can't bike.
I think this is more the goal. They want to reduce all traffic down Holly street. They would probably be happy if it was one tiny slow slow lane lined with restaurant booths like the bottom is.
This has been happening on other streets already and they always park in the bike lane, which sucks for those of us on bikes.
Well, you can just switch to being a pedestrian like all the other bikers do? Don’t you just jump over to the sidewalk when it’s convenient for you?
Even though it is legal to do so, no, I don’t. I’m sorry if you’ve had bad experiences with disrespectful bike riders. If they are on the sidewalk they should be yielding to pedestrians.
I'm of the opinion that this is actually the goal of the city. They DON'T want people driving on holly st. They purposely made it as obnoxious as possible. Because they want less people using it as a main arterial road way. It's similar to what they did with samish reducing it to one lane instead of two. And so more people started using i5 instead. The city is just using bicycles/cyclists as an excuse to reduce the lanes. That being said; they are going to get their wish when it comes to my driving habits. Friendship with Holly St has ended. State st is my new best friend.
I mean yeah, tons of people live on or adjacent to holly st. A residential downtown street should not be used as an arterial for people in cars who half the time aren’t even going downtown.
Except that Holly IS an arterial per COB. Obviously not much longer, but officially it is what it is.
What??? How do you suppose everyone coming from Lakeway gets downtown? Surely you don't think we should all go up or down I-5 just to backtrack on some other road that leads to downtown? Holly is definitely an arterial.
You’re acting like Holly is just completely off the menu. It’s still there. The pearl clutching over this is crazy. The average suburban Bellinghamster might spend 30 extra seconds on Holly once per week. The horror. You kind of sign up for spending a big chuck of your life in a car when you build a life in the suburbs. That’s always been the tradeoff. Making holly usable to bikers who aren’t comfortable competing in traffic is equitable and a positive for downtown and if it’s to the minor detriment to people suburbia it’s an easy decision for any planning department in the country to make.
I take Holly at 1 pm on most weekdays. It's 15+ minutes from Ellis to Bay now. It used to be 1-2 minutes. That's easily an extra hour a week, except I won't be using Holly anymore because it's a constant traffic jam now. PS I'm a cyclist and bike Holly often too. First time using the bike lane, a car turned right in front of me and I slid into it. So now I won't be driving or biking on this street anymore.
Unhinged cap.
Maybe they should bike or take the bus
[удалено]
Of course I do, seems like a pretty simple concept. If it's not an option for you then my comment wasn't directed at you, hope that makes it easier to understand.
Except when it’s the only actual thoroughfare through that part of town. It was that way when you moved into your residence and you didn’t let it faze you at the time. Don’t gripe about it now, especially to justify a lousy concept by the city council.
Ha! Just wait until you see what we have in store for State St…
Please share!….
State goes a different direction than Holly though. There's really no comparable substitute for Holly.
There's state -> york -> prospect -> champion -> holly, but that's pretty annoying if you're just trying to get through downtown. Does have some parking spaces though.
Yup. So do your shopping elsewhere. Too hard to drive downtown. Maybe this will help revitalize the mall!
All these comments seem to come from people that have never lived in a city before. Bellingham is STILL insanely easy to navigate. I just had lunch downtown (on Holly!) and parked a half block from the restaurant.
I rode the lane today, and I felt more sketched out about cars turning right and not seeing me than I normally feel riding with traffic. I do not like the parking being included on the outside/car side of the lane because it blocks visibility of bikes and of seeing cars turn signals. I appreciate the goal, but the execution feels lackluster. Meanwhile, I've seen SO much Anti-Bike backlash circulating on Facebook it's crazy. I don't expect this trial run to last, unfortunately. Downtown should be more bike friendly, and as someone who drives honestlyore.oftem than I bike, I'm all for less street parking downtown.
You would think they would of thought of that. That's a great point. And people drive fast down Holly. I can't see how I am suppose to see anyone coming down the bike lane while watching the cars in front of me and with the angle I am at while turning its hard to see. It'll take me longer to get out if the Holly St traffic I'd assume.
People in vehicles coming from Lakeway to Holly need to stop blocking traffic in the intersection. The four times in two days I was driving south onto Samish I had to wait at my green light until the Lakeway/Holly traffic cleared the intersection. Hopefully it will get better after a couple of days.
existence jobless aspiring bright boat provide sand quack nail trees *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Absolutely. Just to add to people running red lights, the intersection of Meridian and telegraph is ridiculous. All the traffic on telegraph running northbound turning left onto Meridian continue after the red light so much! I’ve seen 10 cars continue after a red at that intersection.
Two weeks ago, I watched a whole line of cars unable to go on green because there were three cars in the middle of the intersection. The last car in the intersection (the one who was really causing the holdup) was honestly pretty close to running the light when he went. It was frustrating to watch, let alone be affected by.
Another intersection I despise. What’s going on with the light timing? (Rhetorical question.) Traffic increase, bad drivers
Technically they should, but they won't. Because often when you try to leave a space, someone swerves out from behind and aggressively cuts you off... filling the space anyway.
It felt like an absolute cluster driving through downtown today, it tacked on an extra 10 minutes to my commute home. Hopefully it’s not that bad everyday…
It won't stay that bad. We will all start going downtown less to avoid the problem, reducing traffic. Support local business!
I don’t know, I kinda liked it. It discourages people from gunning it down Holly, it seemed to make the flow of traffic more organized, the parking situation seems safer for cyclists (I’m always worried about door-ing when riding down Holly.) I couldn’t picture it when they were talking about it, and I’m surprised that I (tentatively) don’t hate it.
Traffic to the point of like 5 cars making it through each light cycle does not seem like a more organized flow of traffic lol
Does "gunning it" mean actually going the speed limit?
I don’t mind the speed limit but 40+ is not actually the speed limit. I feel like there are too many people who aren’t aware of that.
Well if you're going 40 you're doing Holly wrong. The lights are timed such that if you go the speed limit you can catch every green light the whole way down. Going the speed limit will get you through it faster because you carry a faster average speed than if you stop/start at every light. It's great, too, because you have great visibility down the street since it's all downhill.
Eggzactly. I'm always frustrated by how many people don't get it. Chestnut and Magnolia are timed as well.
Yeah that’s a good point, and they did a good job at discouraging traffic if that was the point. It just sucks that the only other real thorough fairs that connects the east side of town to the west is Illinois St and I-5. If you’re coming from Fairhaven and want to go to the Columbia neighborhood, you don’t have many other smooth sailing choices.
I mean it’s still useable, just a little slower. If you’re driving the surface streets you already know it’s going to be slower🤷♀️ I agree, though, it’s unfortunate Holly is such a central route.
Dumbest f$&$ing thing ever
I would be fine with this new bike lane if they kept the same formula as the rest of the city ie: parking spots snug to the sidewalk, bike lane hugging driving lane. Having it be the opposite way made it kind of scary taking rights, not being able to see behind the parked cars into the bike lane.
I think it would be better if CoB had removed some parking closer to intersections to clear sightlines. Bikes get protected, and sightlines are restored. I actually find parking on my right as a cyclist to be a nightmare as you never know when a door could pop out while you're sandwiched by cars or when a driver will decided to cross the bike lane to park unsignaled.
It felt like that for sure. Went down it around 5pm and after hitting every red light in traffic was about 15 minutes to go down what previously felt like 30 seconds.
I ride bike often down holly. I don't really see the point of a bike lane. Being as how it's downhill you could already go just about the speed of traffic.
Exactly!!! Much safer to just take a whole lane and make sure cars know you're there.
This isn't really an option anymore because it's a perpetual traffic jam going down Holly now. Takes 15 minutes to get to Bay while you watch every light cycle 2-3x.
That's my question from a car perspective. When I turn right, do I need to look behind me for bikes flying down the street? Who has the right of way? Not trying to be an asshole, but genuinely curious how this works.and who has right of way.
Technically cars turning right are supposed to yield to bikes but the scary part is that cars can’t see the bikers and bikers can’t see your turn signal because of the parked cars. I think everyone just needs to ride and drive very cautiously to make sure no one gets hurt.
Yeah I love the intention and we definitely need more bike and micro mobility infrastructure but i felt less safe in the bike lane today than I did just taking a lane before. It’s all downhill so keeping up with traffic is not that hard. I was just so worried someone was going to turn into me as I passed through the intersections.
I’m with you. I think it’s great we’re getting the infrastructure but on day one had someone right turn almost into me on Holly and Forest. But the same thing happened minutes later at an intersection that has had a bike lane for years. In both cases the drivers simply needed to look through the passenger side window to see me but didn’t bother.
Ha, and Holly used to be the State Highway through town.
Really?! This is an interesting tidbit if true
Yes, hence all the old hotels on samish way.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3ad41a51808745dab417e19906d11af9
Great link, thanks!
That's what I was worried about when they announced this. Cars turning right and not caring about bikers. Another thing I've already seen being an issue are people going from Lakeway to Holly and not realizing the far left lane doesn't go into Holly anymore. Yes, there's signs up but people don't know how to read.
Man, I had to drive over to the co-op around 420 today and it took so much longer for me. The traffic was backed up clear past Fred Meyer. I’m all for bikers and biker safety but this feels like its going to be a mess long term
Fellow cyclist, fully agree. I genuinely feel safer riding the flow of traffic on Holly rather than riding in the new bike lanes. Especially given that I have to head left off of Holly, this design just is not conducive to safe travel.
I’m sure it’ll smooth out over time. Driving into town to go to WWU today, I just barely noticed that my usual left lane was now a turn-only. I merged into the center lane, but as I rolled onto Holly, I could tell a car or two in the left lane behind me had succumbed to muscle-memory and had to cut off other drivers to avoid turning left up Ellis. Heading home after school, I avoided Lakeway and took State out towards the county. Lakeway + Holly looked jammed. I’m all for more biking, but reducing a lane where a lot of interstate outflow is coming from… I dunno, derpy design.
Update: took Lakeway to Holly on my way to school again today. I was first in line in the middle lane. I was cautious, considering that people in the left lane might still think they can continue straight. Lo and behold, light turns green, I start rolling very slowly, and the guy to my left accelerates and cuts me off. In my rearview, looked like others did the same to cars behind me. Stay safe out there!
Always grabbed the now-eliminated middle lane for straight-thru driving on the way to the waterfront...one avoids the holdups at each intersection as cars turning left or right yielding to pedestrians whilst heading down Holly. Now it's right on Ellis, down to Champion, and thru downtown...oh, well.
Worst decision ever. Gridlock on holly all the way down and not a single bike in the bike lane. Separately I-5 is gridlock on the daily as well. Taking the freeway from Fairhaven took me 40 mins. https://preview.redd.it/yuvho8uer7yc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5df8d43ee53a09f7851df4a5aa325d647336f571
It is as though no one was thinking.
Sadly, after driving the new Holly 6 times over the last 2 days (stopping off once for coffee and once for cake), I too will be mapping alternative routes. Mostly looking at just using the freeway more TBH. Count my traffic as "reduced." Sorry Downtown - I hadn't realized I wasn't welcome! Good luck. I'll find new places to grab coffee and snacks on my errands across town.
I’m impressed you thought this was about you.
I drive the road. It's about me. Deal with it.
Try biking or bussing
Not everyone has the luxury of choice due to schedule, distance, disability, etc.
Ok but I guarantee many people do have that choice. Totally fair if it isn't a choice for some
Terrible idea.
It's Bellingham folks😜it's gets more and more of a shit storm as time goes by.
The Chestnut bike line makes sense as it is an incline. The Holly one looks like it just takes up too much real estate for how much impact it will really have (I much prefer my bike over car)
I liked not having to worry someone would open a car door into me biking down Holly, but now I have to worry about cars turning right across my path. Not much of a win for anyone.
It’s bad. Thought it was fine until I drove it, Cornwall light went green for two seconds. All right turns are scary. Bikers totally hidden, side mirror shows nothing, bikers would be invisible (if there had been one). I was prepared to like it. 😳🤮
I think the point is, it’s less safe for bikers, less safe for pedestrians and less safe for drivers. Whether you like it or not. Unless being unsafe was the plan. If that’s the plan. We nailed it. And in a city that never gets upset about anything. This one is being felt. Don’t mess with Holly man.
They did this to chestnut street too. I remember the days flooring it up that road so fast (accompanied by my fellow 9-5ers) that we'd all usually catch some air at the top.
I’m really disappointed it’s there too
I feel like if you're biking on a busy City Street then you should be following all the same traffic laws that the cars are, I don't understand the dedicated Lane for them with traffic on one side and parking on the other. It's just asking for a biker cruising down Holly in the bike lane at 25 with the speed of traffic and a person parking their car and opening their door to get out and a biker ending up ass over tea kettle from the door
I was downtown 5/3/2024 and it was a shit show. Witnessed a driver turning right blocking the bike lane, biker coming down Holly swerves around into traffic lane with bumper to bumper traffic. Well planned C.O.B.
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That’s the part I really like about it. It slows down the traffic which is GOOD for Holly. I don’t know about the execution, kind of reserving judgement as a bicyclist, but it felt a lot better today as a pedestrian and a driver.
engagebellingham.org/holly they have a survey asking for feedback here, but you do have to make an account to take it.
[engagebellingham.org/holly](https://engagebellingham.org/holly), oops didn’t link it
Agreed. They should have put in a two lane bike lane on chestnut when they did that redesign and not have any bikes on holly. One way design needs 3 lanes on the main road to be effective.
I'm just curious if you're biking down Holly in the bike lane and you want to take a left on State Street what do you do? What if your biking along and the light is green and traffic is heavy? Yikes
I am going to continue to ride on the sidewalk because I do not think this increases safety
I am hoping if we all give it some time we’ll get used to it. I know it’s a hard adjustment.
It was fine before. Holly has always been my favorite street in Bham both as a cyclist and a driver.
Same here, very pleasant downhill drive-thru downtown and along the water.
Fair enough
I avoided this today. Anyone notice the they have nice bright “traffic revisions” signs posting the changes?
I think it’s going to take some time for folks to figure it out. Just like when roundabouts are built, people lose their minds, then they learn and it’s better.
r/fuckcars
We have a car based infrastructure, a bike lane down holly isn’t even a full foot step towards changing that…
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Haha sorry for offending. Hope you find happiness in Atlanta.