Bike Lanes Removed After Complaints From Constituents

The City of Tulsa will remove bike lanes that were added along four miles of Pine Street, after complaints about congestion. Last year, the City added two lanes for bikes and in the process removed two lanes for cars. That squeezed traffic on Pine from four lanes down to two.

“The process itself wasn't done well, not at all, so I've gotten a lot of complaints from constituents,” said City Council Chair Vanessa Hall-Harper, who represents the area. “I think we need to backtrack a little bit and figure out how we're going to move forward in a community engaging process.”

Hall-Harper says she supports bike lanes, but not on the busiest street through her district.

The decision to eliminate the bike lanes goes against the City's transportation master plan. In this case, City Hall decided there should have been more public input before the decision was made to put the bike lanes down in the first place. “We need to do a better job as a city government on the front on community engagement involving the city councilor from that area before we start putting the paint down” said Mayor G.T. Bynum.

The lanes run four miles along with East Pine, from MLK over to Yale. The city plans to restripe the street any day now.