Bike Lanes on 3rd Street?

[Tulsa Zephyr]

I haven't seen any posts on this yet, but I drove down 3rd between Lewis and Utica this afternoon and see that it now has bike lanes painted on it.  It surprised me, in a good way...

[Conan71]

Plenty wide enough, it still doesn't inspire confidence with distracted Tulsa drivers though.

[cannon_fodder]

I've been down 3rd dozens of times before the bike lanes were added with no issues. The bike lanes will even add to that. So while I still don't trust driver's, no one ever should. I dare say a bicycle in that set aside lane is probably safer than a motorcycle with traffic... motorcycles following the same golden rule:  assume every driver wants to kill you.

[johrasephoenix]

Will this eventually be extended all the way into downtown? 

[PonderInc]

I believe so.. and it should also eventually connect with the existing 4th (?) street bike lane going east. 

[davideinstein]

Will this eventually be extended all the way into downtown? 

Hopefully!

[davideinstein]

I believe so.. and it should also eventually connect with the existing 4th (?) street bike lane going east. 

This needs to happen. 4th between Yale and Memorial is the best road in town.

[StLTransplant]

Does anybody know if these will be added to 6th Street as well? Would be awesome for access to Cirque, The Phoenix, Papa Ganouj, etc.

[SXSW]

Does anybody know if these will be added to 6th Street as well? Would be awesome for access to Cirque, The Phoenix, Papa Ganouj, etc.

The Tulsa pedestrian and bicycle master plan calls for dual bike lanes on 6th from Houston through downtown to Delaware/TU. 

[Ed W]

Does anybody know if these will be added to 6th Street as well? Would be awesome for access to Cirque, The Phoenix, Papa Ganouj, etc.

...and this is one problem associated with bike lanes, a mistaken dependency that insists some destinations are inaccessible without them.

[rebound]

...and this is one problem associated with bike lanes, a mistaken dependency that insists some destinations are inaccessible without them.

Yeah, but,  I think that's been discussed on here before.   While I ride on Tulsa streets (bike lanes or not) all the time, and am comfortable with it, there are a lot of people that don't want to ride directly on city streets without bike lanes.  Adding them has virtually no negatives, and immediately increases bike traffic on those streets.

[johrasephoenix]

Yep, you totally don't need bike lanes on many streets, especially downtown, because the roads are so ridiculously oversized.

But

a) bike lanes are nice and make a statement that bikers are valued.  Pissed off drivers won't honk at you if you're in the bike lane
b) they narrow driving lanes causing drivers to slow down
c) bike lanes are absolutely needed on our arterial streets.  I would love to ride my bike down Peoria because its the fastest way to get from A to B most of the time, but when I do I feel like I'm one angry or drunk driver away from death.  We're a city where just about everything is located on arterial streets but it is unsafe to ride on arterial streets, especially in south Tulsa.  I've tried to ride down 71st several times because it was the most direct way to work and I could feel my life insurance premiums skyrocketing. 

[Red Arrow]

Yep, you totally don't need bike lanes on many streets, especially downtown, because the roads are so ridiculously oversized.

But

a) bike lanes are nice and make a statement that bikers are valued.  Pissed off drivers won't honk at you if you're in the bike lane
b) they narrow driving lanes causing drivers to slow down
c) bike lanes are absolutely needed on our arterial streets.  I would love to ride my bike down Peoria because its the fastest way to get from A to B most of the time, but when I do I feel like I'm one angry or drunk driver away from death.  We're a city where just about everything is located on arterial streets but it is unsafe to ride on arterial streets, especially in south Tulsa.  I've tried to ride down 71st several times because it was the most direct way to work and I could feel my life insurance premiums skyrocketing. 

And I would like to fly my 100 mph Cessna into Chicago O'Hare airport.   I have the ratings and I believe it would be legal but expensive.

[cannon_fodder]

71st St. is a highway, not a street.  So is, for that matter, Harvard, Yale, 41st Street, Riverside, etc.  A highway is a long, straight road with high speed limits, wide lanes, and designed to have little interruption to rapid traffic flow.  They are designed to signal to drivers that they can go "full speed ahead" and not worry about the consequences of 4,000 pounds of steel impacting anything important.

Bikes don't belong on highways. I believe a bike has the right to be on a non-divided highway, but please don't do it. 

Also, 21st Street between Pittsburgh and Louisville is the worst stretch of "bike route/share the road" I have ever seen. 

[johrasephoenix]

Thing is, I worked at 71st and Yale and lived downtown.  I wanted to bike to work to stave off fatness from all the Brady District beers. 

I spent a lot of time on Google Maps and doing practice bike rides and there is actually no way to get to 71st & Yale on side streets.  All of the residential roads down there loop around, curve, make cul de sacs, and don't connect to each other.  The ONLY way to get to 71st & Yale was on the arterial streets.  It's not like midtown where you can skip the traffic on 21st by riding on 19th.