Group urges more consistency for bicyclists on Ocean Boulevard

Representatives of a consulting firm said Ocean Boulevard would benefit from more consistency – in signage, among other things – to improve safety for bicyclists.

Staff members with VHB consulting firm spent most of this week in Myrtle Beach surveying bicycle safety along the boulevard between 31st Avenue North and Third Avenue South through a grant Myrtle Beach received from the Federal Highway Administration. There is no money involved in the grant.

“There is a lot of positive development along sections of the corridor,” said Elissa Goughnour, transportation specialist with VHB. “It’s one of the big corridors and some consistency would benefit the corridor’s safety [for bicyclists].”

VHB staff joined city staff and volunteers to survey Ocean Boulevard on Tuesday by car and Wednesday by bicycle.

Those in the group examined 14 sites where there have been crashes involving bicycles since 2011 – when Myrtle Beach began installing bicycle lanes along Ocean Boulevard.

Goughnour said consistency could be achieved through having more signage, a defined bicycle lane done by using a different color to differentiate it from the rest of the road, improving roads that have deteriorated and improving crosswalk markings.

“The two takeaways for me are there is inconsistency and incongruency among the signage and that we should mask the bike lanes,” said Tom Russo with the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Committee.

“Masking” would be accomplished by painting the street markings -- such as the bicycle emblem and lane lines -- a color that isn’t already used on roads, Russo said.

City planner Kelly Mezzapelle said there are some short-term suggestions that could be implemented at very little cost, such as installing signage that says “bike lane starts” and “bike lane ends, share the road.”

“I think the other suggestions we will keep on the books for when new projects come up, as opposed to creating new projects,” she said.

For example, the city is working to bury utility lines from Second Avenue North to Ninth Avenue North, and Mezzapelle said roadway maintenance could be done at that point.

Mezzapelle said she also thought there should be an emphasis on educating motorists and bicyclists to make sure they share the road safely.

“We talked a lot about a marketing and education campaign,” she said, adding that as the group analyzed the areas where there have been crashes in the past four years, the cause usually was behavior and not infrastructure.

Myrtle Beach won the grant by being a participant of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Mayors’ Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets” that provided staffing to conduct the survey of part of the city. Myrtle Beach is one of nearly 100 U.S. cities participating in the challenge.

Conducting the survey has been a goal of the bicycle and pedestrian committee. By being part of the Mayors’ Challenge, Myrtle Beach was able to apply to have some of that survey done as a grant. It is one of two cities to receive the grant.

Goughnour said it was difficult to estimate what the cost would be for a survey similar to the one that was done Tuesday and Wednesday in Myrtle Beach.

The committee had said it hoped to do a safety survey of the entire city, but Goughnour said she wasn’t sure that was necessary.

“They could look at areas at the highest risk through crash records and focus their attention in those areas,” she said.

The consultants from VHB will make a final presentation to some city staff members Wednesday, including members of the bicycle and pedestrian committee. The committee then will make recommendations about improvements that can be made.

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Group urges more consistency for bicyclists on Ocean Boulevard."