“Plungers for a Safer Aksarben” was put up to give people the experience of a protected bike lane on 63rd and Shirley Streets, the scene of multiple accidents. The Omaha Public Works Department removed the plungers about four hours after they were installed.
Even a squirrel seemed to appreciate the slowing of traffic.
Looking south on 63 Street near Woolworth Avenue at an installation called Plungers for a Safer Aksarben (PSA).
Plungers wrapped in reflective tape line the bike lanes on 63rd Street.
A group of bicycling advocates glued 120 plungers onto 63rd Street north of Shirley Street about 10:30 a.m.
Rows of toilet plungers appeared Monday along bike lane lines near an Aksarben neighborhood intersection that has been the scene of multiple accidents between cars.
A group of bicycling advocates glued 120 plungers onto 63rd Street north of Shirley Street about 10:30 a.m. The plungers stayed up long enough to make a social media splash, until the City Public Works Department removed them about four hours later as road obstructions.
One of the advocates, Stuart Nottingham, said he and seven fellow cyclists stuck the reflective tape-wrapped plungers to painted bike lane lines to demonstrate that protected bike lanes would slow traffic and make the street safer for everybody who uses it.
“The plan was to leave them out for 36 hours so people could see what a protected bike lane could do,” Nottingham said.
Such lanes use some sort of barrier, such as posts, curbs or planters, to separate cars and bikes. They’ve been appearing across the country, including in Lincoln, but not yet in Omaha.
A sign at the site labeled the plunger-posting as “Plungers for a Safer Aksarben.” A similar deployment of plungers in Wichita, Kansas, in February led to city officials installing protective posts along a stretch of a bike lane, the Wichita Eagle reported in March.
In Omaha, city officials have been meeting with Aksarben-Elmwood Park neighborhood residents upset about a number of serious collisions at 63rd and Shirley Streets, including a fatal crash in 2015.
The crashes generally have involved vehicles on Shirley Street going through a stop sign at 63rd Street, then being hit by cars going north or south on 63rd Street.
The city plans to install a roundabout this year with a raised center to slow traffic through the intersection.
The collisions have not included bicycles, said Todd Pfitzer, assistant Omaha Public Works director. But the bike lanes are part of the Aksarben discussion, and advocates for multi-modal transportation in Omaha have pressed for protected bike lanes in the city.
Pfitzer met with neighbors earlier this spring to discuss the situation.
The city had studied the area and collected a lot of data, including how fast people drive there. That included observations that cars on 63rd Street traveled faster north of Shirley, where there are bike lanes, than they did south of Shirley, where there are no bike lanes.
Pfitzer said that’s because on-street parking is not allowed where the bike lanes are, so the street’s wider there.
The city doesn’t plan to put in protected bike lanes, Pfitzer said. They cost $1 million per lane mile, he said.
“There’s nothing budgeted for that, and it’s not in the (Capital Improvement Program),” Pfitzer said.
Cycling advocate Sarah Johnson said removing the bike lanes was among the options the city presented at a neighborhood meeting. She said a lot of people were disheartened. Johnson appreciated the plunger action.
Pfitzer said the city has no plans to remove the bike lanes.
Johnson said abundant studies prove that protected bike lanes slow vehicle traffic and make streets safer, and that 63rd Street near Aksarben Village “is a great example of where a treatment like that would be successful.”
“I just want the city to start realizing that it’s a better idea to start building for people, not just cars,” Johnson said.
The plunger platoon had planned to monitor vehicle speeds past the plungers and give the data to the city. Nottingham said they were disappointed they were unable to do so, but glad they got the conversation going.
“That was our main goal,” he said.
christopher.burbach@owh.com, 402-444-1057, twitter.com/chrisburbach
Christopher Burbach
Chris Burbach covers the Douglas County Board, Planning Board and other local government bodies, as well as local neighborhood issues. Follow him on Twitter @chrisburbach. Phone: 402-444-1057.
