{"id":20671,"date":"2024-03-20T01:42:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T07:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=20671"},"modified":"2024-03-18T16:45:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T22:45:39","slug":"winter-rules-for-bike-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/20\/winter-rules-for-bike-lanes\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Rules for Bike Lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

River Street Parking Fiasco<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/p>\n

Winter Bike Lanes<\/strong>
\nIf you live near or do business on River Street in Hailey, chances are you\u2019ve seen or heard of the increase in parking tickets over the past several months. In fact, it\u2019s any street with bike lanes.
\nLocal businesses along River Street are expressing extreme frustration and concern as their customers experience an unprecedented wave of tickets and vehicular towing.
\nLocal firefighter Phil Rainy is trying to put out the fire. Often, community members don\u2019t know who to talk to or even have an official way to voice concerns. Sometimes it only takes one voice to activate a community and Rainey took the initiative to be that voice.
\n\u201cFirst, I spoke to Lisa Horowitz and asked her, \u2018Why are we enforcing this when it\u2019s the dead of winter and almost no one is on a bike anyway? Most of the time the bike lane is unusable because it\u2019s full of snow and ice.\u2019 Her reply to me was, \u2018We want to train people to use the bike lane.\u2019 I said that it doesn\u2019t make sense. Why wouldn\u2019t we just have winter rules because the people that are riding bikes aren\u2019t using the bike lane, they\u2019re using the street.
\n\u201cI sent a formal letter to the City Council and Lisa [Horowitz], asking why we couldn\u2019t have winter rules like we do for parking during snowplowing. During the two dates that are considered winter, we don\u2019t enforce that parking. They replied that the city wants to keep the bike lane open whether it\u2019s used or not. Then they started giving tickets and towing vehicles away.\u201d
\nBusinesses like Discount Grocery are furious. Employees have to park on the street and they\u2019ve done away with all parking on the street near this facility.<\/p>\n

Community Solutions<\/strong>
\n\u201cEvery business owner I\u2019ve spoken with can\u2019t believe that they\u2019re doing it and is incredibly upset. Discount Grocery, Les Schwab, every business I spoke to, same problem, and so I started a petition. If nobody wants this, why are we doing it? But I didn\u2019t want to complain unless I had a solution. So I suggest that we put the bike lane parallel to the road so the bikes can move from the road to the bike lane to the road and it\u2019s safer.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a problem the city created that didn\u2019t exist before and it\u2019s potentially life threatening. Right now you can ride a bike down that bike lane between the curb and the vehicles and if someone steps out in front of an ebike going 20 miles an hour, either a little kid or an older person who can\u2019t see over the vehicle and\u2014boom\u2014someone\u2019s going to the hospital if it doesn\u2019t kill them. Again, it\u2019s a problem the city created that didn\u2019t exist before.
\n\u201cWhy does a bike need six lanes? Right now a bike can travel in six lanes, a vehicle can only travel in two, one in each direction, and pedestrians can only travel in two. Put the bike lane parallel to the road. Give them a cushion so they can ride safely. Right now it\u2019s not only a pedestrian hazard but in a vehicle, if you\u2019re backing out, you\u2019re going straight into traffic and you can\u2019t see a vehicle coming at you and they can\u2019t see the vehicle coming out.<\/p>\n

GURP<\/strong>
\nSome months back, Wood River Weekly wrote about the Gateway Urban Renewal Project in Hailey that aims to make the city both a more bike friendly and walkable place as well as give it a stronger identity in the cluster of Ketchum, Hailey and Bellevue that make up the Valley. Three extra feet were found that could be put to use in growing trees, making better sidewalks and in general enhancing Hailey as a walkable city.
\nIs this type of enforcement part of a longer-term plan to change the city? Are tax dollars being appropriately designated?
\n\u201cAs a taxpayer, I\u2019m wondering about liability,\u201d continued Rainey. \u201cBut they\u2019re not looking at it that way. If we want to keep it, if you really insist on this bike lane, then put it where it makes sense. Then, during the winter, people aren\u2019t worried about tickets when they shouldn\u2019t have to. It\u2019s a disaster for business in the community.\u201d
\nRainey has printed up a petition and is amassing signatures. So far every signature has been from a local business that feels it\u2019s been wronged by a new ordinance that the business\u2019s tax dollars have helped pay for. It\u2019s hitting businesses twice, first through tax dollars and second through loss of income when people are understandably angry about their cars getting towed or ticketed.<\/p>\n

Signatures and Signs<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe big thing is there\u2019s virtually no signage,\u201d said Rainey. \u201cThere\u2019s one sign at the north and south ends of River Street. People parking around the businesses don\u2019t see the signs.
\n\u201cAt Wood River Inn, when people come to stay and they get towed, they\u2019re not coming back. They have to put signs on their counter asking customers not to park there or they\u2019ll be towed.
\n\u201cOne of the most bizarre aspects of the fiasco is that if you get a ticket, it goes to Newport Beach, California. Should you want to dispute it, you have to do so through them. You get a ticket in Hailey, Idaho, and have to take it up with Newport Beach, California, to handle it? How does that work?
\n\u201cGranted, it\u2019s only a $35 ticket, but driving records, wallets, businesses and moods are affected. So I made sure I could get enough signatures on the petition to show the consensus in the community. On the City of Hailey\u2019s website, they claim statistics showing x number of people voted in favor of these lanes but I know I wasn\u2019t asked, so I wonder who was?\u201d
\nIf you\u2019re concerned or impacted by the ticket fiasco, you can sign Phil\u2019s petition in person at Hyperbarics of Sun Valley or online at Change.org under the title \u201cImplement Winter Rules for Bike Lane Parking in Hailey, Id\u201d.
\nIf you\u2019re reading online, click the link below:
\nhttps:\/\/chng.it\/dk24jHdz<\/p>\n

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River Street Parking Fiasco BY ISAIAH FRIZZELL Winter Bike Lanes If you live near or do business on River Street in Hailey, chances are you\u2019ve seen or heard of the increase in parking tickets over the past several months. In fact, it\u2019s any street with bike lanes. Local businesses along River Street are expressing extreme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,78,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-hailey","9":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20673,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20671\/revisions\/20673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}