Copyright M Live Michigan
ANN ARBOR, MI — Just how often are Ann Arbor bike lanes obstructed by illegally parked vehicles and curbside trash and recycling carts? If you ask regular bicycle commuters, it’s a fairly common occurrence. A new city report on bike lane obstructions puts some hard numbers to it, showing dozens of drivers have been ticketed just this year. City Council received a quarterly report from Police Chief Andre Anderson and City Administrator Milton Dohoney in October, showing how the city is responding to an April council resolution calling for a comprehensive enforcement strategy and engineering solutions to prevent bike lane obstructions. It shows from January through September users of the city’s A2 Fix It app filed 142 complaints about vehicles parked in bike lanes, plus another 65 complaints about curb carts in them. The police department also fielded 35 calls and issued 62 bike lane parking citations, the report shows. The department started directed patrols of bike lanes March 26. Patrol officers, a downtown response team, traffic unit and community standards officers have been given specific directions to prioritize bike lane violations by emphasizing education and enforcement, the report states. In the last quarter, education by community standards officers resulted in 67 vehicles being moved, the report shows. The top violation spots have been the 400 and 600 blocks of South Main Street, where cars regularly park in the bike lanes. The police department is still working on identifying engineering solutions to prevent obstructions, the report states. Council Member Dharma Akmon, D-4th Ward, thanked the police chief and department for the report. “The point of the resolution resulting in this report is to keep obstructions out of lanes, which is why it called not only for citations and tracking, but also for recommendations for any necessary modifications to the enforcement strategy, as well as engineering solutions,” Akmon said. One thing that popped out in the report is the problem on South Main Street where the city has had nice buffered bike lanes for over two years without any vertical posts to keep cars out, she said. It’s next to apartments where cars regularly pull up. “I see people continuously using it for loading and unloading, as well as for parking, despite there being locations for all of those things,” Akmon said. “So, I hope that some recommendations are coming forward to add vertical delineators.”
