ODOT Rumble Strips vs Stripes and how it affects bicycles

Original post from Tricia Kovacs

ODOT has received stimulus funding to implement rumble stripes on 1650 miles of Ohio state routes. The reason for this is to improve motorist safety. Unfortunately, rumble stripes are hazardous and very annoying for cyclists. I am trying to be open minded about this because they improve safety for motorists, and because ODOT is considering cyclists in the design. They are planning to use rumble stripes (on the lane stripe) rather than rumble strips (1′ to the right of the stripe) and to install 10′ gaps every 50′.
The long term plan is for all state routes to have rumble stripes if they are outside urban areas, have shoulder > 2′ and speed limit > 45 mph. If the road is a bike route, the shoulder must be > 3′.
I am disappointed that there will be long stretches of SR 104 (the TOSRV route) being striped, just in time for the 50th anniversary tour. I have ridden on rumble strips on 104 north of Chillicothe, 23 north of South Bloomfield and SR 50 east of McArthur, and they all stink. OBF has been expressing our concerns with ODOT folks. We did ask at the last Ohio advocacy meeting that the new stripes be installed at various locations around Ohio so we can ride them and see what they are like. Currently, there are only rumble strips in Ohio.
If you want to comment on the ODOT plans, please contact scott.varner AT dot.state.oh.us.


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