Syracuse introduces new bike infrastructure introduced on Comstock, Waverly avenues

After nearly a decade of planning, Syracuse added new bike and parking lanes on Waverly and Comstock avenues last month. The new infrastructure is still only in the early stages, said city transportation planner Paul Mercurio.

The new transportation infrastructure, which was installed near Syracuse University’s campus in October, has thinned both Comstock and Waverly avenues from two lanes to one, added a bike lane near the sidewalk and added a “floating” parking lane in the street that breaks up the traffic lanes and the bike lanes. In doing so, the city has changed the traffic patterns significantly.

This first-stage rollout is part of an idea called “tactical urbanism,” Mercurio said, which is a method used by city planners to make consistent infrastructure improvements. Instead of waiting for federal aid for new projects, which can take years and be extremely costly, local governments undertake low-cost interventions to make small changes a little at a time, Mercurio explained.

“When you’re planning and doing all the outreach, people can’t really get their head around something and how it’s going to work,” Mercurio said. “The idea of tactical urbanism is to go out and make some low-cost interventions to make some changes now. Don’t wait for the perfect situation — make a difference now, make a change in people’s lives, and give people an idea of what to expect.”

Not only does this method give people an idea about what to expect, it also gives the community an opportunity to voice their opinions about what works and what doesn’t, Mercurio said. In the weeks since the lanes have gone in, community members have begun to provide feedback about the new changes.    

For example, Rachel Lindholm, a communications design junior, said she was concerned about driving conditions with the new traffic pattern.

 “The bike lane is a good idea because I think this campus has a lot of bikers,” she said, “but the addition of the parking spaces on the side of the road have created a very hazardous environment for everyone driving.”

Lindholm said she thought one of the most dangerous areas for drivers is on Comstock Avenue, where pedestrians frequently jaywalk. “When I was driving from South Campus to Main Campus I almost hit people because they were running across the road. Now that there are those parked cars there, the visibility is much worse,” she said.

Morgan Dreyer, a finance junior, also said she thought the primary issue with the new infrastructure is the parking lane. “I just think that that parking lane is just asking for trouble,” she said. “A number of times I’ve seen people sitting behind it honking rapidly, because they think it’s an actual lane.”

Dreyer also said that a big issue she sees with the new traffic patterns is that people who were not expecting the changes do not understand how to use them. She said she has seen a number of people cut into the bike lane on Waverly Avenue, mistaking it as a turn lane, which she said is dangerous to cyclists, pedestrians, and other drivers. 

But this new parking lane has multiple uses, Mercurio said. “There is always a demand for parking, so we knew that should we create parking, people would fill it,” he said. “We starting looking at what other cities were doing, and with the parking in the street you kill two birds with one stone – you make it safer for cyclists, but you’re also creating a parking space, and it’s a cost-effective solution because you can create parking and create a buffer all just by putting in striping and sides. The city gets a bang for their buck.”

The history of this new infrastructure reaches back to the mid-2000s, Mercurio said, when a University Hill Transportation and Land Use Plan was compiled to provide recommendations about how to handle the growth of the universities and the hospitals on the Hill and related commuter traffic. One of the recommendations was to consider a comprehensive network for bike infrastructure in the Hill area. A 2006 study then looked at all the different routes on the hill to figure out what would be best for bike infrastructure.

In December 2008, the final report was put together. It explicitly states some of the changes that have taken place over the past few weeks, such as the reduction of traffic lanes on Comstock Avenue between Euclid and Waverly avenues and “bike lane markings on both sides from Comstock to Irving,” on Waverly Avenue. Mercurio said these plans were all being designed at the same time as the Connective Corridor, but the Connective Corridor had more funding behind it.

As for next steps, Mercurio said that the city will hold public meetings in early 2015 to get feedback from the community about what changes need to be made moving forward.

“We have a lot of intersections right now where all the traffic shuts down so that pedestrians can cross, so maybe there’s a more efficient way for the cars and the people to share the space,” Mercurio said. “Maybe there are some areas where we’ve put parking lanes, maybe people want us to take out those parking spots and put in a turn lane that people want to see. Or maybe, changing where some of the curb lines are so that there are designated bus pull up areas so that they’re not blocking traffic.”

Whatever the next step would be, Mercurio said the city of Syracuse wants to hear from the community. “This is a way for us to get feedback from the public about what works and what doesn’t work,” he said. “This way, we won’t do something that people don’t like.”