Change.org petition urging city leaders to install Pine Street bike lane circulates after committee votes to reassess feasibility and interest
More than 170 people so far have signed a petition to support traffic calming efforts on Pine Street this year as the street undergoes repaving efforts.
MANCHESTER, NH – More than 170 people so far have signed a petition to support traffic calming efforts on Pine Street this year as the street undergoes repaving efforts.
The change.org petition, posted May 13, reads in part:
Subject: Community Support for Repaving and Restriping Pine Street to Include Traffic Calming in 2025.
We, the undersigned residents, workers, and community members of Manchester, strongly support the repaving of Pine Street with a reduced lane configuration and the inclusion of a dedicated bike lane from Bridge Street to Webster Street, in alignment with the 2019 BMA-approved plan to implement bike lanes on Beech, Maple, Chestnut, and Pine Streets during scheduled resurfacing.
We respectfully urge the City of Manchester to move forward without delay and to complete the striping of Pine Street with a reduced lane configuration that includes a bike lane immediately following its scheduled repaving.
One of the key components of the traffic calming initiatives calls for the city to follow through with the inclusion of bike lanes on Pine Street from Bridge Street to Webster Street. The petitioners state that the bike lanes would reduce dangerous conflicts between parked cars, cyclists and drivers as well as helping encourage alternative modes of transportation in addition to the reduction of erratic driving behavior that would come with traffic calming. It was also added in the petition that the Department of Public Works considers the cost of adding bike lines to be negligible as long as they are done while repaving efforts are already underway.
The area of Pine Street between Webster and Bridge Streets, which has one-way traffic heading northbound, was scheduled to get a bike lane at its next repaving along with several other nearby streets following a decision in 2019 by the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BMA).
While the other streets in that decision received a bike lane, a bike lane for Pine Street was paused last week by the BMA Committee on Public Safety, Health and Traffic, as a study group would be established to investigate the issue.
Committee Chairman Chris Morgan says that given the amount of time since the decision by the BMA, a working group of stakeholders is needed to provide input on the potential bike lane to gauge its feasibility and public interest, believing that the status of the bike lanes may have changed over the past six years.
Morgan said he has no opinion on the bike lane, but emphasized that the working group’s role is to update the 2019 information and not necessarily eliminate, remove or stop any bike lanes. Indeed, he noted that the working group may potentially consider expanding bike lanes to other parts of the city where they may be welcome and likewise their prohibit them where they are not in the attempt to determine whether Manchester will be a “bike city.”
“We either have to fully make a decision to move forward or not on bike lanes, we can’t piecemeal it,” said Morgan. “I want the public to weigh in and make a decision.”
The need for safety improvements in that area is not a new conversation for the community. Following a 2023 community charrette held at Central High School, a 60-page report was issued detailing updates to the neighborhood as relayed by residents, including bike lanes. (See the full report here.)
Public input is expected to be requested in the process, which Morgan believes will take one to three months, with a non-public meeting of representatives from the city’s Department of Public Works, Economic Development Office and Department of Planning and Community Development gathering next week for an initial meeting on the matter.
