Idaho Dispatch

Your Local Media Ally

Op-Ed: 15 Minute City Concept Continued: Ada County Bike Corridors

By • March 13, 2023

More evidence raises the question on 15-minute cities by including a string of bikeways in Ada County.

Dust off your bike folks, who needs a car? That means families, elderly and the disabled community, rain, shine, hail, or snow. Ada County Highway District (ACHD) is implementing bikeway corridors throughout Ada County. The current corridor planning started in 2022 and is projecting a Five-Year Plan to 2026. Included in this plan is a Bike Master Plan with the motto “ACHD Supports You However You Choose to Travel.” This plan is to “connect you to where you want to go.” It gives adequate space for cars and bicycles.

These corridors include a “Low-Stress Bikeway Network.” Be prepared to share the road with bikes. One can find this already in Hyde Park in the North End Boise and elsewhere. Picture yourself driving so slowly behind a group of bikes. Courtesy and common sense no longer needed and replaced with entitlement.

Is this happening in your neighborhood? Are you seeing construction and not really clear on what is going on? The following is a list of bikeway corridors from the Ada County Highway District’s 2022-2026 5-year plan.

  • 11th St Bikeway, State St / Heron Street — 2022-2023
  • Liberty St Bikeway, Douglas St / Denton St – 2023
  • Ustick-Northview Bikeway Connection, Shamrock Ave / Milwaukee St & Poplar St Bikeway, Milwaukee St, to Orchard St. This plan is in pre-adoption.
  • Nez Perce Street Corridor Study – 2024
  • Garden St Bikeway, Cassia St / Greenbelt – 2024
  • Columbia Village Bikeway, Hwy 21 / Boise Ave – 2025
  • St Bikeway, Resseguie St / Bannock St – 2025
  • 43rd St Bikeway Connections, Ustick Rd / Greenbelt in Garden City – 2026
  • Bannock St Maintenance and Bikeway, Broadway Ave / Greenbelt – 2026
  • Hollandale-Targee Bikeway, Locust Grove Rd / Entertainment Ave – 2026
  • Linder-Meridian Bikeway, Pine Ave / Temple Dr – 2026
  • School Ave Bikeway, King Rd / Deer Flat Rd – 2026

The recent corridor that Ada County Highway District is implementing is the Ustick/Northview & Poplar Corridor. Let’s take a look at the plan. This corridor goes from Shamrock Avenue close to Ustick to Orchard Street which enables a bike rider to get downtown quickly.

The road sections in purple have bike lanes. The roads that are yellow mean they are a low-stress shared street bikeway. This gives bike riders the authority to ride down the middle of the lane. The roads with dots in them have traffic calming features including curb bulbouts which narrows the street, speed cushions which are vertical humps in the street, and neighborhood traffic circles which have raised islands placed at major street intersections.

There are other bikeways that have already been implemented. With this 15-minute city concept in question, is this “convenience” really convenient? Those that would love this concept already do this within their personal lifestyle. Come on, who would object to these bike corridors, this wouldn’t affect me? This one size fits all approach to transportation and getting rid of the carbon footprint isn’t showing the progression of the 15-minute city honestly. Is this our transportation future? How will we easily camp over the weekend? Not only would long-distance planning become difficult, how would families travel? What about the elderly and
disabled? Not everyone can work from home. Not everyone goes downtown. Not everyone has the desire to ride their bikes in the snow. Alarmingly, Boise is not the only area included in ACHD’s plan. It is spreading to all of Ada County. The shared-street bikeway discourages cars from going down particular roadways. Ultimately closing off roads to motorists. It doesn’t make sense that those who live on a particular street are the only ones who can drive on it. People who are driving cars may need to take a longer way around to get to their destination to avoid the shared-bike road.

Even The View’s Whoopi Goldberg complained to then Mayor de Blasio on his bicycle infrastructure expansion and the traffic nightmare in New York City. This plan doesn’t seem to have worked elsewhere. Is this part of the ‘bikes good’ / ‘cars bad’ mindset? Is this just the beginning? Let’s keep a watch on what is going on in our valley.

Authors: Jackie Davidson and Christi Warhurst, Ada County Concerned Citizens

This Op-Ed was submitted by Jackie Davidson. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.

Amazon Outlet

Related posts:

Op-Ed: Trump Flashback
Op-Ed: Democracy Needs Election Standards
Early Returns in Idaho Breaking Records
Tags: 15 Minute City, 15 Minute Neighborhood, ACHD, Ada County, Ada County Highway District, Bike Corridor, Bike Master Plan, Bikeway, Boise, Traffic, Transportation

16 thoughts on “Op-Ed: 15 Minute City Concept Continued: Ada County Bike Corridors”

  1. Elect a Mayor who possesses Communist ideals, then it’s Communism that arrives.
    15 minute cities are part of the One World Order’s plan to control all.
    Beware

  2. Let me make one thing clear to ADHD, the enviro-wackos, the Boise Communist Mayor and her ilk: there is NOTHING you can ever do to get me to bike on these corridors.

    I don’t like riding my bike in, near or parallel to traffic. It is nerve-wracking, as I see so many distracted drivers when driving my CAR, but at least if a distracted driver hits me, I have a fair chance of surviving. Odds of a biker surviving a distracted driver rolling through a red light, making an illegal turn, etc. are quite low and the injuries, if one even survives, are far worse.

    Bottom line: I bike to enjoy nature; I drive a car to make a living, to transport things and people, to reach another destination (daytrip or vacation), run errands, etc., BECAUSE IT IS CONVENIENT AND EFFICIENT.

    I hope the Idaho Dispatch runs a picture of the mayor and the city council arriving at city hall on bikes in February at night while it’s snowing. AND EVEN THEN, I still wouldn’t use the bike corridors.

  3. I am for improved bike lanes in town. Too many sketchy crossings and sections of road deter myself and probably others from riding a bike on a fine weather day.

    Nothing makes me happier than zooming by stopped traffic on eagle road!

  4. They’ve been installing these New World Order ridiculous ideas for a while. Just look at the “live work play” or “live work create” areas. Fight back against this this with every grain of your being, do not comply. Force this garbage to fail, and encourage others to push back. We have to continue to be a thorn in the side of the lunatics of the world.

    1. You bet. We need to resist. One big way is USE CASH for everything you possibly can. If your work allows you to receive a paycheck rather than digital deposit, do that as well.

    2. The new planning and zoning codes are the foundation to 15-minute cities. It’s called density. If you want a look at what Boise will be like go to Stewart and 37th in Boise. It’s a congested mess of cars parked on both side of the road. They are building live-work townhomes sky high.

    3. The new planning and zoning codes are the foundation to 15-minute cities. It’s called density. If you want a look at what Boise will be like go to Stewart and 37th in Boise. It’s a congested mess of cars parked on both side of the road. They are building live-work townhomes sky high.

  5. 15 minute cities are part of the Great Reset. If people don’t stand up now, we will be enslaved by CBDC (digital currency). People think it’s “convenient” but they will control what you buy – and if you can even access your own money. No more savings, BTW. That’s only for the uber-wealthy at the top. They are planning a techno-feudalism global planation for everyone but themselves. This is a huge part of it.

    Thank you for the OpEd and raising awareness. It’s here.

  6. Interesting how the authors and a few other crackpots are spewing their so- called facts and trying to make themselves look like experts in this subject all by doing some copy/ paste antics in an article. They hope readers will buy into their lazy, opinion and ideological based set of “truths”, all after never having asked a question or making any attempt to understand these pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Have either of you 2 “authors” ever attended one of the dozens of public meetings or answered any of the myriad of surveys in an attempt by ACHD to find out what you, the driving, biking and walking public would like to see on these corridors? No, you’re too lazy to do anything but play keyboard warrior.

    You ask me if I have? Why yes, many, and I don’t bike. Because i have and you haven’t let me set you straight on this matter. Most of these plans are years in the future, won’t happen until other road repairs are being made in the area (that’s called efficient use of funds) and only involve paint and maybe some road candles and curb extensions.

    Attitudes like those expressed by the authors are the reasons for many of these projects. The authors and thousands of others like them could care less about people dying from vehicle/ pedestrian, vehicle/ bike collisions. They couldn’t care less that these projects, the ones closer to schools, are designed also to get students on their feet or bikes while getting to school, thus allowing their parents the opportunity to stay off the road and lower our massive congestion, all while spending far less than it would take to completely rebuild those roads to 3, 5, or 7 lanes.

    1. Response to Ryan, who is really the one who “couldn’t care less”? I propose it is folks like yourself, hear me out on my reasoning. For far too long people demand special rights, special consideration, special lanes, etc. Why, we are all considered equal in the eyes of the law and our legislation already spells this out. When sub groups start demanding special considerations whar they saying is “I am entitled”. Your desire to have your own lane should not override my lack of desire to build and maintain that lane.

      2. You sound like Representative Blacksma on the House transportation committee when, just this week, she used the analogy of “leftovers” in describing funding that should be used for facilities such as these.. What a hypocrite! I’ll vote Amy and all amounts of funding to protect the life of the unborn but, after they’re born we’ll utilize “leftovers” to fund their ability to get to school, shop, go to the park, etc by any means other than an automobile. Sounds to me like you’re one as well.

  8. I used to be an enthusiastic proponent of alternative transit options such as bikes and buses and rail. I still am, but my vision always included motorcars. I still ride my bike when I want or need to. But I will NEVER give up my motor vehicles.
    Unfortunately, I cannot take the face value advertising of these ACHD policies seriously. There are too many signals out there that give away the REAL goals, which are to REMOVE the motorcar from our choice as free moving citizens. It’s really a shame because transit options can assist with congestion problems, but when you hear how tyrannical forces like the WEF say that they want to take all of your possessions from you and and force you to rent what they LET you rent, then you know that transportation policy will become an abusive tool in enforcing lifestyles that are really just another form of prison.

Comments are closed.