DESIGN CONCEPT UPDATE | GRANBY STREET BIKE LANES

The Granby Street cross-sections below illustrate how a typical section of the street looks today, and how it could look under the proposed bike lane design concept. The proposed design concept includes a 7-foot bike lane on both the northbound and southbound sides of Granby Street, with a 3-foot buffer separating each of the bike lanes from vehicle traffic. Possible materials for the buffer and signage that could accompany the bike lanes are provided below the street cross-sections.

The cross-sections also show how the design could look at bus stops. Hampton Roads Transit Route 1 travels along Granby Street at 30 minute intervals during peak hours, providing service from downtown Norfolk to Pembroke East via E. Ocean View Avenue. Hampton Roads Transit Route 961 also provides service between Downtown Norfolk, Hampton Transit Center, and Newport News Transit Center. On Granby Street, Route 961 stops at Kingsley Lane and Wards Corner.

Scroll down to view the street cross-sections, and proceed to the Design Concept Map section to view further details of the proposed design.

The proposed bike lanes on Granby Street will include some form of physical barrier in the buffer between the bike lane and adjacent vehicle lane. The images below illustrate common buffer options for bike lanes. The physical barriers within the buffers will be discontinued or replaced with lower profile mountable barriers where vehicles have to cross the bike lane, such as at intersections and driveways. Examples of low profile mountable barriers are also illustrated below.

What have people said so far? The survey that was open in March and April 2021 included a question that asked respondents what type of protection they would prefer as part of a potential buffered bike lane.

There was not an overwhelming preference for any one type of buffer over another, however the options that included flex posts on a bike lane or buffer received the most votes. The design team will continue to assess the most appropriate type of protection that could be included with the proposed buffered bike lanes, and will also seek out feedback on this question at the upcoming public workshop on June 29th.

These images show what types of signage could be included with the proposed buffered bike lane design. Signs such as these would be intended to alert both vehicles and bicycles to situations where they would need to yield the right of way to other users, and to make clear that the proposed bike lanes on Granby Street are reserved for bicycles.

Please explore the interactive map below to view the proposed bike lane design concept for the Granby Street corridor. The map also allows you to place icons to comment on parts of the design that you feel work well, that you are unsure about, or that you see as a potential challenge.

The project team held a first virtual workshop on March 11th, 2021 that introduced the project and allowed attendees to submit comments in real time via an interactive map and survey.

We received a huge response. Over 200 people attended the virtual workshop, over 1,700 comments were placed on the interactive map, and the survey received over 700 responses. In addition, almost 60 questions and comments came in through the project website.

If you missed the first virtual workshop and would like to see what was discussed, you can  watch the recording  any time. For details on our public outreach efforts and the input we received, you can browse the round one  Public Involvement Summary  and read through our  Q&A  that addresses frequently asked questions. And of course, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us on the project website at  www.norfolk.gov/granbybike .

All of this input had an impact on the proposed design. Continue scrolling to view some highlights from the  Public Involvement Summary .

As mentioned above, the first round of public input included a comment map that allowed users to place icons and comment on a variety of topics regarding the corridor. The questions that accompanied each icon is noted next to the map series below, with each of the maps displaying the density of comments that were placed for each topic.

Analyzing the comments and the number of icons placed on different parts of the corridor helped the design team focus on areas where the community identified issues. These are reflected in the Focus Areas included in the Design Concept Map above.

What have people been saying? The survey received over 700 responses, and some of the key takeaways that helped inform the proposed design are listed below. For a more detailed look, the  Public Involvement Summary  breaks down and displays the results of each survey question.

• Almost ¾ of respondents live or work along Granby Street, over ¾ of respondents use Granby Street to shop, dine, or run errands, and about half of respondents commute through corridor.

• “Somewhat confident” was the most frequently self-identified bicyclist category at 33.5%. People in this category tend to prefer facilities that are physically separated from vehicle traffic, but would be comfortable using bike lanes or paved shoulders if necessary. The lowest percentage of respondents (19.5%) classified themselves as “no way, no how,” meaning that they rarely or never ride a bicycle regardless of the bicycle infrastructure provided. 22.8% of respondents were “interested but concerned. This indicates that the majority of survey respondents either have some level of comfort as a bicyclist already, or are interested in bicycling but concerned about the safety of bicycling on street. Better bicycling facilities could help those classifying themselves as “interested but concerned” or “somewhat confident” bicyclists.

• The majority of respondents (77.3%) currently bike for recreation, followed by biking to shop/dine/run errands (35.9%), and 19.4% of respondents commute to work, school, or religious institutions by bike. About 19.4% of respondents do not currently bike at all. This shows that while most survey respondents bike for recreational purposes or to run errands for most of their trips, some respondents do commute to work, school, or religious institutions by bike.

• Over half of the respondents who indicated they walk on Granby Street feel safe doing so; 36.9% of respondents report not walking on Granby Street at all. This suggests that the majority of survey respondents who do walk on Granby Street consider the pedestrian facilities to be adequate for their needs.

• In question #5, 21.0% of respondents would bike on the roadway on Granby Street if they felt safer. In question #8, 49.8% of respondents would bike on Granby Street if there was a bicycle facility and 13.6% said it would depend on the type of facility. This suggests that providing a comfortable bicycle facility could attract bicyclists to Granby Street. In question #5, when asked if they bike in the roadway on Granby Street, 21.0% of respondents would if they felt safer, 26.4% of respondents already do but do not feel safe, and 7.0% of respondents already do and feel safe. This suggests that the majority of survey respondents would benefit from a comfortable bicycle facility on Granby Street.

• Preferences for elements of a comfortable bicycle facility in question #9 were mixed, however the two most popular elements were “a buffer with a vertical element (e.g. flex post/curb)” and “safe and comfortable intersection crossings” (43.1% and 40.8% of respondents, respectively). Respondents selected the bike lane design (37%) and buffered bike lane design (38%) at rates lower than the buffer with a vertical element, although those designs came close in popularity. Overall, these preferences suggest that a bicycle facility providing physical separation from vehicle traffic and including comfortable intersection accommodations would appeal to the highest number of respondents.

• There was no clear consensus on question #10, which asks what type of vertical protection for bicycle facilities would be preferred if such a design were advanced. In addition, more respondents skipped this question than any other question. A total of 116 respondents skipped this question, vs. an average of 6.5 respondents skipping each of the other 9 questions. This suggests that for those respondents that would prefer or benefit from physically separated bicycle facilities, there was no consensus on which type of separation would be most desirable.

What's happening when? The project schedule below provides an overview of the project, from the development of bicycle facility options this year to the full design of those facilities in 2022.

After the June 29th Workshop, the Comment Map will remain open for public comment until July 29th. The input received from the second workshop and public comment period will then be used by the project team to prepare a recommendation memo outlining the design concepts proposed for advancement. Detailed design and construction of this project are contingent upon City Council approving an ordinance to accept SMART Scale funding for the project in fall of 2021.

To implement the Bicycle and Pedestrian Strategic Plan's recommendations for Granby Street, this project will develop and evaluate a bicycle facility design that meets the needs of everyone using the corridor.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Strategic Plan identifies buffered bike lanes as the preferred type of bicycle facility for Granby Street. Conditions and needs have changed since 2015, so the final design may recommend bike lanes that include physical separation instead of a painted buffer only. and the final design will involve multiple users: pedestrians, drivers, bicyclists, and public transportation users. Part of the purpose of this project is to ensure all of these users are accommodated.

Today, Granby Street has six travel lanes for vehicles (three in each direction). These lanes carry a combined total of about 24,000 to 34,000 vehicles daily. Based on best practices, this lower level of traffic makes Granby Street a candidate for "lane repurposing," which means a reduction the number of vehicle lanes to make space for better multimodal facilities for bicyclists, pedestrians, and public transportation riders.

In addition to making more space multimodal travel, a vehicle lane reduction would improve safety by decreasing conflict points between vehicles, shortening pedestrian crossing distances, and providing more predictable bicyclist positioning along the street and through intersections. Safety improvements are always welcome and would help advance the City of Norfolk's Vision Zero goal of reducing traffic fatalities to zero.

While it has not yet been formally adopted, the draft City of Norfolk Multimodal Transportation Master Plan identifies two Multimodal Centers on either end of the Granby Street corridor: Wards Corner and Riverview. "Multimodal Centers" are areas with high existing and planned residential and employment densities that have the potential for significant multimodal trip generation. A "multimodal" trip is a trip that is made by bike, on foot or mobility device, or by public transportation - not only by car. In addition, in the Multimodal Transportation Master Plan this part of Granby Street is designated a "Boulevard" street, which means that it is intended to move lots of people in buses, on bikes and on sidewalks between Multimodal Centers (in this case, Wards Corner and Riverview).

The importance of the Granby Street corridor as part of Norfolk's multimodal street network makes the careful consideration of bicycle facility options, and their impacts on other modes of travel, even more important.

Click  here  to submit questions or comments to the project team.