Bike-friendly: What Cedar Rapids can teach Des Moines

CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. — Jeff Faircloth pedaled through downtown Tuesday, cutting through the muggy afternoon air in a bright orange cycling jersey.

Faircloth, a Cedar Rapids police officer, started commuting by bike to work last spring, riding 8.5 miles each way four days a week.

But what sets his ride apart is a three-quarters-of-a-mile stretch up Third Avenue, where a row of parked cars guards the bike lane from the vehicle traffic speeding past on the street.

Cedar Rapids officials say the stretch, installed earlier this month, is the first urban protected bike lane in the state and represents a significant step forward in the city’s efforts to be more bike-friendly.

“It’s huge, because these kind of projects really act to encourage more cycling," said Brandon Whyte, multi-modal transportation coordinator for the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. "They’re protected. They’re more comfortable. The data shows they’re more appealing” to people who have reservations about cycling alongside cars.

Such lanes are crucial, bike advocates say, as Iowa cities such as Des Moines and Cedar Rapids try to shift into the next gear, from viewing cycling as a recreational sport relegated to the state's vast trail network to making bikes a viable option to ride on city streets and commute safely to work.

The League of American Bicyclists recently stuck Des Moines with bronze status for the fifth straight year — its lowest honor for bike-friendly communities. The city was dinged for its lack of bike lanes and a vacuum of leadership in City Hall needed to marshal Des Moines' cycling efforts.

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While Cedar Rapids hasn't yet reached the league's coveted gold standard for bike-friendly cities, it offers clear lessons on how to make safe urban biking a priority.

Iowa’s second-biggest city has developed a strategy for funding bike infrastructure, given a voice to bike advocates within local government and adopted street policies that emphasize bike lanes and sidewalks.

“I think specifically what we have modeled is … how to support bicycle facilities from a funding standpoint,” Whyte said.

Cedar Rapids has been laying the groundwork for years. Much of the effort has come amid cleanup from the 2008 flood that inundated the city.

Now, the work is beginning to bear fruit. Since 2012, Cedar Rapids has installed 4.3 miles of on-street bike lanes. The city plans to add about 10 miles of bike lanes in the next year, including another half-mile of protected bike lane. Several new trail connections that advocates say will be useful for bike commuters are also in the works.

“I think there is a sense of excitement that, ‘Wow, this is new. This is different. This is forward-thinking,’” Cedar Rapids City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said of the new protected bike lane. “And as we rebuild, I think this is a symbol, a symbol and a reality of the new Cedar Rapids.”

(Johnston recently installed a 1,000-foot protected bike lane to connect two trails, but Cedar Rapids officials say theirs is the first in an urban area, where the infrastructure is built to serve commuters.)

What can cities such as Des Moines learn from Cedar Rapids? Here’s a look at what the city has done:

Arranging funding

The Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization, an agency that administers transportation funding for greater Cedar Rapids, voted in 2012 to allocate 80 percent of its money over five years to recreational trails. The agency started spending that money, about $4 million a year, in 2015.

It wasn’t an easy sell. The suburb of Hiawatha opposed the earmark, and other suburbs wanted a smaller amount dedicated to trails.

But elected officials in Cedar Rapids saw bike infrastructure as an important amenity for attracting high-skilled workers to the city, Pomeranz said.

By comparison, the Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization dedicated about 10 percent of its funding to trail projects in the past fiscal year, roughly $1.1 million.

Adopting street policies

Cedar Rapids in 2014 adopted a so-called complete streets policy that encourages consideration of all types of transportation, including buses, walking and cycling, when building or reconstructing streets.

Des Moines adopted a complete streets policy in 2008, but it's not as favorable for bikes.

Mike Armstrong, an associate transportation planner for the Des Moines Metropolitan Planning Organization, said Cedar Rapids’ policy is more explicit in mandating bike lanes where feasible, rather than making them optional.

Heeding expert's advice

In 2012, Cedar Rapids brought in Jeff Speck, an urban planner and author who specializes in making cities more walkable.

Speck advocates for road diets, in which vehicle lanes are narrowed or eliminated to make way for on-street parking, bike lanes and sidewalks. The idea is to slow traffic so streets are calmer and more pedestrian-friendly.

Cedar Rapids has begun implementing some of Speck’s recommendations, such as converting one-way streets to two-way and replacing some travel lanes with on-street parking and bike lanes.

Speck made similar recommendations in Des Moines earlier this year. The city has followed one of his suggestions and began allowing more on-street parking downtown during rush hour.

Des Moines city leaders are considering hiring a consultant to map out how to implement more of Speck’s recommendations.

“It just depends on the level of commitment you have in the city,” said Larry James, co-chair of Urban Land Institute Iowa, the think tank that brought Speck to Des Moines. “In Cedar Rapids’ case, they have been very out front in implementing these ideas.”

Hiring bike coordinator

Bike advocates in Des Moines have said there is no one person in local government focused specifically on bike issues. In fact, in its report on how the city can be more bike-friendly, the League of American Bicyclists recommended hiring a bike and pedestrian coordinator.

“If we’re going to expand bike and pedestrian access throughout the city, it would be helpful to have someone who, frankly, is an advocate for that kind of transportation,” James said.

Cedar Rapids has two people focused on bike infrastructure.

Whyte, who is employed by the MPO but works closely with the city, said he spends about 80 percent of his time on bike-related issues.

Ron Griffith, a city traffic engineer, serves as the city’s bike coordinator. He advises the Public Works department on how to make roads more bike-friendly and oversees the city’s bike committee.

Pomeranz said having bike coordinators has been instrumental.

“We have someone who is eating, breathing and living this stuff every day,” he said.

Not one size fits all

Not everything Cedar Rapids has done can be easily replicated.

Cedar Rapids approved a 1-cent sales tax for road maintenance in 2013. The new funding allows the city to rebuild its streets, which in turn provides opportunities to add bike lanes.

Passing a similar local option sales tax has proved challenging in metro Des Moines. State law requires municipalities that share a border to vote together when considering a sales tax increase.

So if Des Moines wanted to pass a local option sales tax to pay for roads or any other expense, all of the suburbs it touches would also have to agree to the increase.

Several bills in the Legislature in recent years to change the sales tax rule have failed.

Challenges remain

There have been kinks, no doubt, to work out with Cedar Rapids’ new bike lanes.

A few years ago, the city started using green paint to mark bike lanes near intersections, only to cut back on the length of the painted sections to trim costs.

“I think we went a little overboard on the green paint at first,” Whyte said.

At the new protected bike lane, some cars have been parking too close to the curb, obstructing bikes.

Faircloth, the police officer and new bike commuter, said he would like to see some kind of curb or barrier to keep parked cars out of the lane.

“I appreciate that they put it in, but I don’t think it’s the best design,” he said.

Tim Sippy, 52, commutes to work on his bike about 60 days a year and rode through the protected lane Tuesday. He said a protected bike lane would make his wife more comfortable riding on the street.

He's happy with the city's investment.

“There are still holes to fill in,” he said, “but it’s improving.”

Room for improvement

Despite its successes, Cedar Rapids can’t claim to be the state's most bike-friendly city.

Iowa City takes the top spot in Iowa with a silver rating from the League of American Bicyclists. In Iowa City, 4.3 percent of residents commute by bike, compared with only 0.6 percent in Cedar Rapids and 0.2 percent in Des Moines.

The league has named five Iowa cities as bike-friendly communities. The four others — Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls and University Heights — each received a bronze rating.

While Cedar Rapids has developed a funding model for building bike lanes and trails, the city could take some lessons from Des Moines.

The capital city has implemented a bike-share program and added new rental racks in the past several years. The metro boasts hundreds of miles of trails and an active local advocacy and education group in the Des Moines Bike Collective.

The league said Cedar Rapids should add bike parking and better signage, launch a bike-sharing program and continue to build bike lanes, particularly on busier arterial streets.

Brandon Whyte, the Metropolitan Planning Organization coordinator in Cedar Rapids, said he believes the city can earn silver status in coming years as the metro area invests more in bike lanes and adds other infrastructure.

Comparing the ratings

The League of American Bicyclists rates cities based on a number of criteria including bike lanes, bike-friendly laws and the portion of people who commute by bike. Here is a look at how Iowa’s two largest cities and Iowa City (the highest-rated city in the state) compare with three cities around the country that have received the group's top rating.

Des Moines

Rating: Bronze

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 0.2 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: 15 percent

Bike program staff: 0

High marks for: Bike-friendly laws, strong encouragement of cycling

Cedar Rapids

Rating: Bronze

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 0.6 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: 7 percent

Bike program staff: 1 per 40,203 residents

High marks for: Bike-friendly laws, bike-to-work events, public education

Iowa City

Rating: Silver

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 4.3 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: More than 25 percent

Bike program staff: 1 per roughly 9,000

High marks for: Strong bike culture, bike trail system, community events

Seattle

Rating: Gold

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 4.1 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: 17 percent

Bike program staff: 1 per 144,880 residents

High marks for: Public education, bike-friendly laws

Bloomington, Ind.

Rating: Gold

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 4.1 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: 75 percent

Bike program staff: 1 per 29,104 residents

High marks for: Public education, active bicycle advisory committee

Urbana, Ill.

Rating: Gold

Percentage of daily bicyclists: 5.8 percent

Arterial streets with bike lanes: 25 percent

Bike program staff: 1 per 41,752 residents

High marks for: Bike-to-work month events, public education, bike-friendly laws

Source: League of American Bicyclists