photo by: Journal-World File Photo

This file photo from 2009 shows a bike lane along Ninth Street just east of the intersection at Indiana Street.

Transportation planners are asking residents what changes would help make the city more bicycle-friendly, including the possibility of additional bikeways, amenities and traffic enforcement such as lower speed limits.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization is conducting a survey about potential changes as part of its update to the Countywide Bikeway Plan, which aims to create a low-stress bicycle network throughout Lawrence and Douglas County, according to a city news release.

Specifically, the survey asks residents whether they would support implementing 16 potential changes. Among the changes is an idea that would lower the speed limits on residential streets from 30 mph to 20 mph. Other ideas include providing more police enforcement to ensure cyclists and drivers follow traffic rules, incorporating bicycle-friendly training into driver education programs and adding long-term bicycle parking and end-of-trip amenities, such as locker rooms and showers. The survey also asks a few open-ended questions, such as whether there are bikeway connections residents think should be prioritized or added to the bikeway network.

Senior Transportation Planner Jessica Mortinger encouraged both current and potential bike riders to complete the survey and said that transportation planners and engineers would use the responses to create bicycle infrastructure that people feel comfortable using.

“There is a desire to ensure that the facilities we are building are the most comfortable for the largest number of people,” Mortinger said. “And so, we hope to use that feedback to shape recommendations in the plan.”

The plan will reconcile into a single plan various existing bicycle-related plans, such as the Lawrence Pedestrian Bike Issues Task Force, the Lawrence Loop Alignment Study and the Lawrence Bike Parking and Amenities Policy Review. Various committees and boards, including the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Transportation Commission and the City Commission, will review the new plan.

The survey asks residents whether they would support various ways to make Lawrence and Douglas County more bicycle-friendly and asks for feedback on potential bikeways and amenities, traffic enforcement, and community education. Mortinger said the potential changes residents are asked to evaluate were based on best practices to make communities more bicycle-friendly.

The responses will be considered alongside responses to a survey the city conducted this summer to gauge how comfortable residents are using different types of bikeways. Those included in the survey included streets with shared-lane markings, conventional bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, cycle tracks, bicycle boulevards and streets with traffic calming such as speed bumps.

The survey results, a preliminary summary of which is available on the city’s website at lawrenceks.org, indicate that the respondents were most comfortable with cycle tracks, buffered bike lanes and bicycle boulevards. Most residents, or about 85 percent, said they were comfortable with cycle tracks, which are bike lanes that are physically separated from both the sidewalk and street, oftentimes by lanes for parallel parking, medians or other physical barriers.

Mortinger said the new bikeway plan would use the feedback from both surveys to help determine which characteristics increase the comfort level of a bikeway. She said taking into account the appropriate design, vehicle speed, vehicle volume and other characteristics could help ensure that whatever the city designs in the future is more friendly for people who want to bike.

The survey is available on the city’s website until Dec. 1. Residents can also speak with transportation planners and Bicycle Advisory Committee members at upcoming meetings. Meetings are currently scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 8 at Cottin’s Farmers Market Indoors, 1831 Massachusetts St., and from 6 to 8 p.m. Nov. 12 at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, 100 Rock Chalk Lane.