by Jason Lamb
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Cyclists have something to look forward to after the Anchorage Assembly approved the 20-year Anchorage bike plan at the Tuesday night Assembly meeting.
Supporters say it will cut bike and vehicle crashes while adding new bike paths and bike lanes in Anchorage.
The plan, which passed unanimously, will create more bike trails, add bike lanes and create connections between existing trails.
The cost for the plan's proposals adds up to more than $100 million dollars. Mayor Dan Sullivan says that's too much.
Despite unanimous approval, some Assembly members wanted to make sure that cyclists wouldn't be left with unplowed bike lanes come winter.
"There's the expectation that these lanes are going to be there and they're going to be striped. But we need a strategy for prioritizing in the winter time, which ones we're going to clear first and some sort of coordination so people won't have expectations that those lanes will be there if they're not going to be cleared," said Assembly member Sheila Selkregg.
