What the city of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho can teach the little City of Lake Worth (and FDOT too)

Coeur d'Alene is larger than the City of Lake Worth. It's almost 3 times the size in land area and a population of 46,000. They have a very active 'complete streets' community trying to make the city more walkable and bikeable. They also have a similar problem Lake Worth has, namely a major street that separates the town and makes it very hard for people to cross. As I've noted before, Dixie Hwy functions more as a wall than a road for many in the City.

Motorists in the country have become accustomed to wide lanes, typically the 12' standard, which is fine for highways and turnpikes but completely unnecessary in (or through) a city downtown. The dilemma in Coeur d'Alene was how to add a bike lane to Sherman Ave, their main thoroughfare.

Chris Danley, of Vitruvian Planning of Boise, showed how with some simple chalk:

     Danley explained how the standard width of traffic lanes in usually 9 to 12 feet wide, but he illustrated that no more than 10 feet is needed per lane. He measured out 10 feet in a lane that was about 13 to 14 feet wide.
     A delivery truck approached the intersection right after that and fit comfortably within Danley's chalk lines.
     "People are already using just 10 feet of the lane," he said. "The wider you build them the faster they will go and use it all up."
He did that to illustrate there is enough room on Sherman Avenue to add bicycle lanes. [emphasis added]
     Kelly, who is also a Coeur d'Alene Police officer, said that is important to the city of Coeur d'Alene because it has adopted a complete streets policy that requires all new road construction to take all users into account, such as bikes, pedestrians and mass transit, as well as automobiles.

You can read the entire article about Coeur d'Alene and their complete streets effort here.