Case Date:

9/28/2022

Ever since 4th St re-opend (one lane, then all lanes) people/vehicles are constantly RUNNING the STOP SIGN northbound at 4th & Lincoln. I walk through this intersection at least twice each day. Many just blow through this intersection without even looking. It happened, again, this morning. I was half-day across Lincoln going east. The go-straight lane stopped, but the turn right lane did not even look my way and went ahead and turned right without stopping. The stop signs are clearly visible. What the heck?

Case Date:

9/6/2022

Good Morning, I received the following email message from Frances Elizabeth Sheets <fsheets@iu.edu> dated Fri, Sep 2, 2022 at 12:11 PM To: "martipa@bloomington.in.gov" <martipa@bloomington.in.gov> "To whom it may concern, Let me get right down to business: 7th street is an absolute fucking nightmare. I grew up in Bloomington, and now live close to downtown as I am a student at IU. This means that I navigate 7th street every single day. Let me tell you - this is not an easy task. I recognize and appreciate the effort that the city has put into the new bike lane running from campus to the B-line. As someone who rides a bike/electric scooter to get around, this bike lane is great. However, the bike lane coupled with the removal of stop signs between Indiana and Walnut has caused more problems than it has solved. Problem number 1: Absolutely no one knows when it is their turn to go. Specifically, when crossing 7th on Grant and Dunn, cars rarely (in my experience) yield to cyclists. This means that I have been inches away from being hit by a car multiple times while using the bike lane. There is no signage instructing cars to yield to those in the bike lane or vice versa. This is an immediate safety issue to me, and one that is relatively unavoidable as 7th street is the road I have to use to get to work, class, and back home every day. Since there is no bike lane on 10th street, using it as an alternate route is not a safer option. Problem number 2: Flow of traffic. Because there are no stop signs on 7th the flow of traffic is constantly a struggle. About half of all drivers stop and attempt to let pedestrians/cyclists/other cars either cross or turn. However, this often only happens in one lane, which means cars are regularly slowing, stopping, and then having to speed back up again because lines of traffic in one direction form very quickly. I experienced this literally five minutes before sitting down to write this email: there was a line of traffic waiting to turn from Grant, multiple cars slowing down traffic attempting to yield to those at the Grant stop sign, and myself and other pedestrians/cyclists trying to cross the road. Again, this is a blatant safety issue. Problem number 3: Visibility. This is more of a potential problem. Young trees have been planted along the median between the bike lane and the road. When these trees reach maturity, they will drastically lower visibility between the bike lane and the road, making the problems mentioned above even more dangerous. Since the stop signs were removed around six months ago, I have witnessed AT LEAST six car crashes on 7th between Grant and Dunn alone. I have also witnessed more drivers than I can count accidentally turning into the bike lane instead of onto the road. Pedestrians also walk in the bike lane frequently, and there was even a city-sponsored run/walk where participants were blocking the entire bike lane in front of the IMU. As someone who has both driven and biked along 7th, the removal of stop signs has not helped at all. If anything, it makes people drive unreasonably fast or unreasonably slow. Everyone I have talked to about this issue has agreed with me, so I know I am not alone in my frustration. Please, PLEASE at the very least put more signage in this area. It is quite dangerous, and as a resident of the city, the new design makes me question whether or not those in charge of city planning have actually ever driven downtown. I apologize if my tone comes off as aggressive, but in the past week alone I have almost been hit by four cars when using the bike lane!!" Thanks, Pat Martin

Case Date:

3/28/2023

the multi use path or trail shown on https://bloomington.in.gov/arcgis/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f262775229f74b349c853bd13ad86841 which is East Moores Pike between Clarizz and Fenbrook does not exist. People go there expecting one. The sidewalk there is ok but not a multi use path.

Case Date:

4/10/2023

During the school drop-off and pickup this intersection has a large amount of traffic. This is also the main corridor that people biking and walking use to get to to school and unfortunately is was not design to be compatible with both large amounts of student driver traffic, and walkers and bikers. This whole intersection as well as the path going into the school needs to be redone to promote more biking among the youth(including me). A well done biking friendly intersection and route into school would improve the safety for walkers and bikers as well as encourage more young students to walk and bike to school which would decrease the amount of traffic as well as the carbon emissions.

Case Date:

9/21/2021

I have been seeing many people on bicycles acting dangerously at this intersection. Biking in between lanes of cars and disregarding the stop sign and pedestrians.

Case Date:

7/14/2022

This incident occurred a couple of weeks ago but I thought the City should know about it to keep track of how many times the 7th Street bike lane is being used incorrectly. I was waiting on Morton headed north to turn west onto 7th. A car coming south on Morton and turning east onto 7th Street got into the intersection, hesitated out of apparent total confusion, then turned into the bike lane. there are no signs visible that help direct vehicular traffic into the correct lanes. There is just a random curb and some lane markings that are difficult to interpret for people unfamiliar with the situation there. I find the entire setup confusing when in a car and I think this is putting pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists at risk of accident and injury. The lack of stop signs is confusing. The lack of direction on what lane to use is confusing. We have a high turn over of residents and visitors here. Hoping people learn how to use 7th Street won't work because we will routinely have new people interacting with it for the first time. Signs could certainly help get people in the correct lanes.

Case Date:

9/17/2021

The southbound bike lane ends too early right before the light. I was riding my bike along the road here and when it ended I didn’t know where to go because I was squeezed into car traffic turning right, however I wanted to go left, so I tried going up to the crosswalk with a walk signal to do a box turn. Whenever I did this the right turn car traffic was too close to the curb which pressed me into it as well and it caused me to hit the curb and I lost my balance and went over the curb, breaking my arm.

Case Date:

10/13/2021

Can someone help explain to me the proper procedure for the dotted bike lane? I was driving east on 7th street approaching Jefferson when a bicyclist approaching me from behind me starting screaming at me to get out of the bike lane. As I proceeded to merge into the middle of the road he continued to scream at me to get out of his way and called me a "stupid bitch". After he passed me in the bike lane he proceeded to ride straight through the stop sign. I was maintaining my lane of travel approaching a stop sign in case a car/bicycle/truck/bus was going to enter towards me. I'm just a little confused about right of way and what is expected of me whether traveling by car or bicycle on this part of East 7th street. I have never encountered dotted lines on either side of the roadway anywhere else in this city or any other city. *there is no option under which I am reporting, just to be clear I am reporting a bicyclist being aggressive, rude, and using obscene language when I was maintaining my own lane of travel.

Case Date:

10/20/2022

Tent pitched ON YHE SIDEWALK in front of People’s Park this morning. LIs this allowed on a public sidewalk? Please ignore the biking/walking info. Below…accidentally touched that and cannot delete that part of the comment.

Case Date:

5/28/2021

We need a trafic light for pedestrians to activate on the B-Line at 2nd street. Trafic rolls on through with out stopping. The signage is not effective.