I was very disappointed to hear of Bellevue Deputy Mayor Kevin Wallace’s opposition to bicycle lanes on 116th Avenue Northeast in “City staff propose cutting lane on 116th for bikes.”

As the city of Bellevue’s own traffic data shows, the current traffic volumes on 116th do not justify two northbound travel lanes. Automobile volumes are the same in the southbound and northbound directions and one travel lane in each direction more than meets the needs of that volume.

Adding bicycle lanes would actually improve automobile traffic flow. To understand this all you need to do is go out there during any commute time and watch what happens when one person on a bicycle comes through. Since there is no space allocated for bicycles, the bicycler “takes the lane” (position themselves in the middle of lane) since this is both allowed by law and the only safe way to ride and avoid getting clipped by cars trying to pass in the lane if you stay too far to the right.

This means that all traffic in the curb lane needs to change lanes to get around the bicycler, which slows down traffic across the board and backs things up when the automobile volume is heavy. Now multiply this impact by the hundreds of cyclists that travel this key connection between the 520 Multi-Use Trail, downtown Bellevue employers/shopping/dining and the I-90 Bicycle Trail.

This Kirkland resident and his family, who live in the Bridle Trails area and is a mere two miles from downtown Bellevue, almost never go into Bellevue to spend our money because Bellevue is largely inaccessible by bicycle. Similarly, many people who would commute by bike along this road, drive instead and cause traffic backups elsewhere in Bellevue.

This project benefits everyone, is very very cheap and should be built.

Glen Buhlmann, Kirkland