New shared-lane street markers were finished this week in Des Moines; a triumph for cyclists in the city.
The lanes run along Locust Street and Grand Avenue from west (Western Gateway Park) to east (Iowa Capitol Complex) and a north-south vine connecting them on one-way Fifth Avenue with a “contraflow” bike lane, the only one in Iowa. Cyclists pedal into one-way traffic, in their own bike lane set off by double yellow lines.
The work is part of the Des Moines Bike and Trails Master Plan. A federal air quality grant paid for $300,000 of the $360,000 project, and it increases the miles of on-street bike accommodations in the city to 17 miles, or 10 percent of the goal of 170 miles.
