MyNC.com: Bicyclists Pave Road For New Lanes On Hillsborough Street
By Justin Moss, NBC17, 4 days, 6 hours ago
Updated: Jan. 26 11:20 pm ShareThis
RALEIGH, N.C. –
A group of bicyclists who rode to City Hall on Tuesday helped pave the road for adding bicycle lanes to a stretch of Hillsborough Street.
The bicyclists came to the Public Works Committee meeting to support adding bicycle lanes to a part of the street that runs in front of the N.C. State campus.
Hillsborough Street is undergoing a major renovation, and supporters said bicycle lanes should be part of it.
“Raleigh is becoming a more dense City,” said supporter Victor Lytvinenko. “There’s more and more people riding bikes, and it just needs to be part of the future of our City.”
City staff had recommended adding “sharrows,” or pavement markings indicating that driving lanes be shared with bicyclists.
But the three-person committee decided to recommend adding the lanes, as long as money can be found within the existing project budget.
City staff said it would become clear by October if there would be enough savings in the current construction budget to pay for the lanes, which would cost about $40,000, they said.
“If we’re going to put a bicycle lane anywhere, it should be near students,” said Councilor John Odom, whose statement was met with applause from the 20 or so supporters who came to the meeting.
The lanes still need approval from the full Council, as well as the State Department of Transportation.
