Six bus stops on Main Street and Fairview Avenue will benefit from the redesign, according to Valley Regional Transit.
BOISE, Idaho – Security footage from Bobby Peterson, the owner of Fairly Reliable Bob car dealership, shows two vehicles driving on the sidewalk of a new bus stop design in downtown Boise.
The city is upgrading six bus stops on Fairview Avenue and Main Street to the new design, according to Valley Regional Transit (VRT) public information officer Mark Carnopis.
Not everyone thinks this new design is an improvement.
The new design of the bus stop separates the cycle path from the traffic lane. The design of the bus stop aims to “allow buses to stop safely for passengers without crossing tracks and without disrupting the flow of bicycle traffic”, according to Carnopis.
It’s a good idea on paper, according to Boise cyclist Rob Hanson. However, Hanson is concerned that right-turning drivers will not see the biker emerging from behind the bus stop structure.
“I’ll generally try to stay off roads that don’t have side space,” Hanson said. “People with these special lanes look at cars to turn right. A lot of times they miss a cyclist because they’re not in the lanes they’re looking at. So they pull right in front of you.”
It’s a concern Hanson shares with Fair Reliable Bob’s owner, Bobby Peterson. During the design phase of the bus stop, Petersen said his concerns fell on deaf ears.
“They built them too close to the traffic lane. So where the white line would normally be is where the sidewalk is,” Petersen said. “I don’t care who you are, if you’re driving a car you’ve touched the white line or crossed the white line. We all do that. None of us are perfect. But in this case, if you cross the white line white line, you hit a curb 12 inches.”
The project is managed by the Capital City Development Corporation. However, Valley Regional Transit spoke with KTVB on their behalf.
“Every stage of this project was designed based on transit street design guidelines and site-specific studies with the support and approval of [Ada County Highway District] and VRT… There is no encroachment on the traffic lane,” Carnopis wrote to KTVB in an email. the road, etc.”
In March, the design added reflective boundary sticks and stripped pavement leading to the platform’s front curb to alert drivers. Both safety measures were in place when two different drivers hit the curb in Fairly Reliable Bob’s safety footage.
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