Sharing the Road in Suburbia; Cost Effective Techniques for Bicycle Lanes Retrofits

This presentation will provide examples of tools and strategies that the City of Dunwoody has used to add over 10 miles of new bicycle facilities on existing roadways since incorporation in 2008. While some of the projects have involved major reconstruction of the roadway, the emphasis of this discussion will be techniques that are relatively low cost add-ons to pavement resurfacing projects. Early on city leaders established a goal of transforming the community, an inner suburb of Atlanta, into a more walkable and bicycle-friendly environment. The city adopted a complete streets policy to consider accommodating cyclists not only on major transportation projects but also on pavement resurfacing projects. In implementing this policy the city has faced technical challenges and in some cases, community skepticism and the presentation will provide specific examples of how design flexibility and proactive community engagement led to successful projects. In one example the city will show how it used tactical urbanism concepts from the city planning field to temporarily stage a road diet and pedestrian crossing in order to alleviate skeptic's concerns and gain community support. Example bicycle retrofit projects to be discussed include a Restriping with narrower lanes a Minor road widening without curb and gutter a Moving curb and gutter in conjunction with sidewalk construction and resurfacing a Reconstructing a 4-lane roadway to a 2-lane roadway with bike lanes and wide sidewalks a Reducing 4-lane roadway to 2-lanes with a center turn lane and pedestrian refuge island an Adding a climbing lane a Designing a multi-use path adjacent to existing roadway The presentation will provide background information on the character of the city and its transportation system for context, provide an overview of the complete street policy, present several examples of implemented projects and discuss the city's response to common concerns from the community. Learning Objectives: Develop low-cost bicycle lane retrofit projects. Implement flexible design solutions for unique situations. Engage the community to build support for road diets and bicycle lane retrofits.