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You can park beside the new Franklin St. bike lanes — not in them

Posted at 6:41 PM, May 21, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-21 18:53:43-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- Steven Easter frequently makes deliveries along Franklin Street in downtown Richmond, but the new bike lanes didn't exactly excite him at first.

"I thought it was somewhat of an inconvenience," Easter said.

He now has to find parking on the right side of the street when making deliveries on the left side.

"I would have to come on the other side of the street and walk it back over that way," Easter said.

Or, so he thought.

Max Hepp-Buchanan with Bike Walk RVA showed CBS6 that in many spots along Franklin St., the left driving lane now serves as a parking lane outside of the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. rush hour.

"So after 9 a.m. it's okay to park here right on the other side of the bike lane," Hepp-Buchanan said.

But, so far, the city has not put up signs to show one lane is for parking, and the biking lanes are for cyclists only.

A photo on Instagram shows cars parked in the bike lane over the weekend.

View this post on Instagram

Typical #rva drivers parking in the bike lanes on Franklin ST this past Sunday. #visionzerofail #visionzero #cyclistsafety #distracteddriver

A post shared by TypicalRVAdriver (@typical.rva.driver) on

"Richmonders are not used to this type of travel pattern and so it's going to take weeks of educating everybody," Hepp-Buchanan said.

We parked our news vehicle in the new floating parking lane and heard a lot of this:

"You're blocking traffic, you could put on flashers," one driver said.

"Turn on your blinking lights," another driver said.

"Don't you think you should have your blinkers on?" another driver said.

Nobody seemed to realize the left driving lane is now a parking lane,but Hepp-Buchanan said through education and new signage people will ultimately get used to the changes.

"I think it's going to take weeks of adjustment but we've seen this done in cities across the country," Hepp-Buchanan said.

For more information about the changes please visit this website:
http://bit.ly/FranklinStGuide

And to read more about the many changes in biking infrastructure, click here: http://wtvr.com/2018/05/17/franklin-street-protected-bike-lanes/

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