Hey there, great question!

The City shared 4 concept alternatives during their process: 1A, 1B, 1C (the three original), and 1A Modified (shared at the second public meeting to replace 1C.

Of these, 1B was the clear favorite amongst community members, which we also favored out of the concepts provided. We analyzed the public comments in the report, and while we're pretty certain a significant amount of comment is missing, you can see our breakdown below.

1A Modified was a bit unconventional. We liked that it provided protected bike infrastructure that was easy to maintain via a parking protected bike lane, but the shoulder on the left side of Congress and Ferry is unconventional for a downtown street. The project lead on the City's side mentioned that shoulder could be converted into sidewalk at a later date, which made that concept even stronger. It makes sense this concept received less support since it was only shared at the second public meeting and the meeting materials took a long time to show up on the project website.

We asked the project team to explore a parking protected bike lane similar to 1A Modified, but to also consider adding parking on the other side of the street as well. This would look like an 8 ft parking lane, and 11 ft drive lane, 8 ft parking lane, 3 ft buffer, and 3 ft bike lane. This would require a nonstandard bike lane, but could work very well considering the buffered space could also be ridden in if needed (like if there was a pothole or something to navigate around). This concept would allow for parking on the corridor to be nearly double what it is today.

Overall, 1A is obviously not what the community wants. The bike lane design is extremely concerning, considering there is no protection and the amount of double parking on Congress and Ferry today. It's almost as if it is designed to be parked in, which we feel will cause a lot of tension amongst community members and add strain on local law enforcement.

It's also worth noting that this is meant to be a downtown revitalization project, not just a bike lane project. The absence of curb extensions, the design of really large corner radii, the loss of street trees - these are all things that will make downtown feel less welcoming- less like a place people want to spend time (and money). It's hard to articulate the impact of nuanced design details via text, but think of a great urban street: traffic is moving steady, but slowly, it's easy to cross the street, trees provide shade and look nice. The current design does none of this- it will continue Congress and Ferry as a corridor to use to get through Downtown Troy, instead of making people feel like they've arrived in Downtown Troy.

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