Bellevue Made Big Bike Lane Moves This Week

BELLEVUE, WA — The downtown Bellevue bikeway along 108th Avenue will be made permanent, the City Council decided this week. The city's transportation department found in a recent review that the bikeway made both drivers and cyclists feel safer, did not reduce travel times, and increased bike use in the area.

Next, Council will explore extending the bikeway along Main Street. Here's what that could look like, as Patch reported in April:

In one scenario, a buffered bike lane would stretch from 108th east along Main Street to 105th, linking with an existing bike lane near Bellevue Way. The city would build a parking-protected bike lane westbound between 108th and 106th, and then a buffered lane from 106th to Bellevue Way.

The second scenario, which may have a lower impact on vehicle travel, would also build a buffered lane eastbound between 108th and 105th. There would be a buffered westbound lane between 108th and 107th, and then and existing bike lane would be extended from 106th to 107th.

In other bike lane news, Bellevue crews this week re-striped 108th and 112th avenues from Northeast 12th Street to the Kirkland line to include bike lanes in both directions. That's the first bike lane connection between the downtown area and the 520 Trail at Northrup Way and Lake Washington Boulevard. The lanes were paid for by the Neighborhood Safety, Connectivity and Congestion Levy as part of a larger project in that corridor.