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City of Spokane approves Master Bike Plan

SPOKANE, Wash. - With gas prices on the rise again, many people are looking for alternate forms of transportation.  If you're thinking about riding your bike, soon it will be a lot safer and easier in the city of Spokane, because Monday night the Spokane City Council unanimously adopted a master bike plan.

It was just a couple weeks ago when the state of Washington was named the nation's most bicycle friendly state for the second year in a row, but people in Spokane we talked to disagreed with that ranking until they found out about the city's newly adopted bike plan.

2001 was the last time the city made significant changes to the city's bicycle network and bicycle policies.

A city spokesperson says Spokane does seem to have a lot of great trail systems but not much in terms of urban travel.

Spokane cyclists Lisa Ferrara says bike lanes are badly needed, "I don't feel safe riding on the streets and it's illegal to ride on the sidewalks so it's definitely something that's needed. Drivers in Spokane aren't really award of how to share a land or not to share a lane as the case might be with biker".

Cyclest Summer Hess agrees with Ferrara, "I don't own a car and this is the first city I could get away with this in, so it's been nice but for the safety of the cyclists it would be nice if there were bike lanes".

Many council members agreed a master bike plan has been needed for a long time, not only for safety reasons but also for the health aspect, to get people exercising and out in the fresh air but also as an alternate form of transportation.

Click Here to view the map that shows in red the future bike lanes in the city.

Cindi DeHoog
KHQ Reporter