Council considers protected bike‑lane pilot; staff recommends Madison Street with alternatives

Iowa City staff and Tool Design consultants presented a planning‑level evaluation on Sept. 16 of streets where painted bike lanes could be upgraded to protected bike lanes using bollards, pavement markings and, eventually, curb changes. Kent Ralston, the city’s transportation planner, introduced Sean Murphy Lopez of Tool Design, who described a prioritization analysis that started with all existing painted bike lanes in Iowa City and scored corridors against six factors: existing lane width without moving curbs, reported bicycle‑vehicle crashes, demand for bicycling, driveway density, existence of parallel side paths, and traffic volumes. From 23 candidate streets the team identified 10 corridors for detailed planning‑level review; most fall in the city core and include…