Accommodating bikers and walkers
With our effect on the environment creeping into our heads, some are turning to alternative transportation methods. Riding bikes and walking is becoming more popular. Luckily our administration is taking action to accommodate our needs.
It takes a lot of people to integrate biking and walking throughout the city of Kent, Portage County and the university. The City of Kent Engineering Division, Portage Park District, the university and other organizations play a role in accommodating bikers and walkers.
The city of Kent Engineering Division is a part of the Service Department and is responsible for the Capital Improvement Projects of the city, according to their website. This division is also responsible for keeping up the roads, sidewalks and traffic control systems.
Portage Park District’s Executive Director, Christine Craycroft, said via email; “We partner with local communities in assisting with trail planning and connections.” This organization works with other municipalities and townships to intertwine the trails and paths.
Michael Bruder is Kent State’s Executive Director of Facilities Planning and Design and has been working on campus for 17 years. He said about five to eight years ago the campus really started to advocate for bikers and walkers, more particularly walkers on campus.
“The way the parking lots are laid out, the way the roads are laid out; it is intended to favor pedestrians around campus,” Bruder said. “That is an overarching idea that goes through all of campus.”
“Back in 2004 the city passed the Bicentennial Plan,” Jim Bowling, City of Kent Engineer said. “Which focused on creating an environment for bicycle and pedestrian use.”
He said it is more than building paths, bike trails or shared-use paths. Since this plan the city has put more emphasis on pedestrian use when reconstructing the streets.
According to an article on the US Department of Transportation’s website, shared-use paths are used to accommodate multiple recreation activities. Such as; walking, biking, inline skating, wheelchair use, etc. These paths should be separate from vehicular traffic.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/sidewalk2/sidewalks214.cfm
Bowling said the new streets that were built downtown had a 15-foot minimum for sidewalk width (curb to back of sidewalk). Which was large compared to what would have been done in the past.
“Bicycle and pedestrian facilities all don’t come out to be the same,” Bowling said. “It’s not like we are going to mandate a 10-foot sidewalk everywhere.”
Each project needs to be tailored in its own way. Streets and sidewalks need to meet different needs. The typography plays a huge role in the creation of roads. Bowling said, there is no set regulation when it comes construction because of all the variations.
“On Summit Street, what is being built now, you see eight-foot wide sidewalks being built,” Bowling said. “Which is larger than what we would do in a subdivision but that’s because there are more pedestrians around the university.”
Jim Bowling and Michael Bruder both say the Summit Street project will solve the problem of too many bikers and walkers crowding the esplanade on campus.
Michael Bruder said the university thinks of bikers in three categories; A-bicyclist, B- bicyclist and C- bicyclist. A being the fastest riders and C being slower riders. There shouldn’t be fast riders in congested areas where there are a lot of walkers, so this Summit Street project will allow bikers to move faster on Summit without interrupting the pedestrian flow on the esplanade.
“The biggest shift started with the construction of the esplanade,” Bruder said. “That actually used to be a road. There was a 1996 campus master plan that proposed this idea.”
The esplanade wasn’t finished until 2006. Bruder said this reshaped campus and became an important defining feature.
Around the same time, the Centennial Courts were being designed. They opened in the early 2000s. Bruder said this was a time when they were encouraging cycling by building indoor storage rooms in these dorms. Their goal was to allow 20% of the students to store their bikes indoors. These bike rooms are also located in the honors dorms.
Bruder said the biggest issue they face is making sure bikers and walkers coexist without inflicting on one another. The main problem is where there are too many bikers around walkers.
“There are some concerns where the esplanade crosses Lincoln Street,” Bruder said. “When it first opened they didn’t have the sign that said; yield to pedestrians.”
Bruder said the north side of East Main Street, across from front campus isn’t too biker and walker friendly. The side with Five Guys, Taco Bell, etc. has a very narrow sidewalk while the campus side of Main Street has more room for pedestrians.
The city of Kent and the university will continue to work together to fuse downtown and campus together, while working with other organizations and people to accommodate bikers and walkers.
The university has a cyclist organization called Kent State University at Kent Cycling and Bruder thinks they can work closely with them to gain some feedback from the students who bike around campus.
“They will be a resource for us to get the student perspective,” Bruder said.
