Originally Posted by
cooker
Those dollar numbers seem ridiculous. Perhaps it also includes the cost of studying the proposal, estimating the impact on traffic flow, restriping adjacent lanes, holding public meetings, etc, but even so it seems way too high. I wonder if the guy just doesn't like the idea and is trying to discourage it with disinformation.
EDIT - estimates vary widely.
Here's an estimate of $35,000-$100,000/km and
here's one of $100,000-$1,000,000/km, from two neighbouring Canadian cities
As I said it was just what we were told at the very last city counsel meeting I attended. Our group was even part of a study to pick the best streets for these bike lanes. We were there to advocate for bike racks on the main drag through the downtown area. The side issue was bike lanes and we got some class 2 and 3 bike lanes but no bike racks. They marched out the city engineer to give us the cost figures and he listed every single cost involved in painting bike lanes. From new pavement to a crew for each sigh every quarter mile. We only got the few painted lanes by agreeing to wait till they had a repaveing project on the street under consideration. That way they avoided the deprecate cost of a road paving crew. But they still got billed 25k per sign that simply said,bike lane, with the city code on the bottom. Because city workers are involved I personally believe it is simply moving money around to increase their budget for the next year.