The Untapped Biking Potential of Davenport

So I've made no secret that I don't think that bike commuting in Davenport is all that great, even though I do it. But today I want to put a positive spin on that: while bike commuting isn't great now, there's some real potential for it to be better with some specific upgrades. Davenport could be a bike commuter city, if a few things were a little different...

1. Three good bike lanes would do 90% of the work

Davenport already channels most crosstown (east-west) car traffic onto four arterials: River Dr, Locust St, Kimberly Rd, and 53rd St. Besides these 4, nothing really goes through for long distances in the city. And that means that to have bike commuting be similarly effective, you just need good bike lanes on those streets; they're the main E-W commercial drags, and they connect into much quieter neighborhood streets that are already easy enough to bike on (though some better pavement wouldn't hurt...).

On top of that, River Dr is mostly closely paralleled by the riverfront bike path, so that leaves only 3 that would need to be built.

2. Lack of through connections is actually an opportunity for biking

As Oh the Urbanity has discussed in Montreal, a street that doesn't go through can actually be an opportunity for non-car options, if you build a modal filter in. Adding a few short bike- and pedestrian-only connections between the curving streets in North Davenport would make bike commuting not just competitive with driving but actively better depending on where you start.

This would be even stronger if the city parks could have clearer bike-friendly paths through them: Garfield Park does this well, including letting the bikes make their way over Duck Creek. Bikes are both recreational and transport; letting them fulfill both goals in and around city parks could help unlock through travel in new ways.

3. Run more buses

Yes, this isn't a purely bike element, but the Citibus is actually pretty well-prepared to take bikes on the front of the bus. 

Two bikes per bus!

I'm not asking for Dutch-style intermodality between transit and bike, but running more buses would greatly increase the ability to use a bike as part of a commute or errand--thus making bike use that much easier. 

So there are some ideas, and I'm sure they're not the only ones, that could make Davenport that much easier to use a bike in. Let me know if you have others in the comments, if you like!