Advertisement New Orleans city officials discussing plans to add a bike lane in CBD Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The New Orleans Department of Public Works is looking into replacing a vehicular lane of traffic with a designated bike lane on Baronne Street. The plan may not be in the fast lane to being approved. According to a fact sheet from the NODPW, if the project is approved, one travel lane from Canal Street to Calliope Street would be removed and replaced with the bike lane. Crews would remove one parking lane from mid-block Julia Street to Calliope Street and replace it with a second travel lane to create two travel lanes, one parking lane and a dedicated bike lane on this section of Baronne Street.City crews have been re-paving Baronne Street as part of the state of Louisiana's Paths to Progress program. Even before Wednesday's public meeting, two organizations have already been voicing their opinions or concerns on adding a bike lane."There's no reduction in travel lanes, it's a substitution," said Naomi Doerner with Bike Easy, an advocacy group for bikers. She said putting a bike lane on Baronne is not a negative but an additional mode of transportation."It's just prime for this downtown connection that we really need in the bicycle network," she said.With the new $200 million South Market District bringing 600 apartments and 170,000 square feet of retail space, Doerner said the bike lane will also add value to the city as more people move into the downtown area."They're not moving into the downtown so that they can drive around in it, they're moving there because there's a walkable, bikable, close-to-where-they-work neighborhood. That's the whole point, we want to create a neighborhood and not just a throughway," she said.However, business in the area say the lane will lead to more traffic and less business. Donny Rouse with Rouses Supermarkets expressed his concerns in a statement.Read full statement here"The loss of one lane of vehicular traffic will affect our business and the activities of dozens of businesses." Rouse said. "There is already a protected bike lane two blocks away on Loyola Avenue that is connected to other bike lanes, and there are better solutions that can benefit everyone."Garrett Lemoine, who drives Baronne from his home in the French Quarter to his job in the Warehouse District, also sees room for compromise."I don't think we should take out a lane of traffic. If there's a way to add the bike lane without taking away a traffic lane, I think that would be fine, but you can see with just one lane what the traffic looks like now," he said.According to the New Orleans Department of Public Works, a traffic assessment showed a bike lane would increase drive time during rush hour on Baronne street by about a minute and a half. The department also said the city ranks eighth in the nation among large cities for the number of residents who bike to work with 2.3 percent.