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interaction so that vehicles can easily back out of the parking space and into the traffic lane without having to worry about pedestrians or other vehicles. He added that it also moves cyclists to the through movement as opposed to having to ride behind vehicles that are trying to back out of the parking space and driving back into the travel lane. Mr. Tassano continued that the second option, Option A1b, reduces the number of travel lanes from six lanes to four lanes. He stated that a four-lane roadway induces higher speeds because the driver is right next to the median and will only have to worry about the vehicle to the right. He added that the landscape buffer has been eliminated, there is diagonal parking and a bike lane behind it, followed by a moving travel lane. He indicated that vehicles backing out of a parking space would have to back across a bike lane and into a travel lane with vehicles that may be going 35 miles per hour. He indicated that with respect to the diagonal parking provided in both options, pulling onto a four-lane moving arterial would not be his recommendation. Chair Narum referred to the lesser design option and inquired if this would satisfy some of his concerns with the second option. Mr. Tassano replied that he understands the lesser option to be exactly what the second option is. Chair Narum stated that she thinks there would be some sort of median protecting cars backing in and out of the parking area. Mr. Dolan stated that Mr. Tassano’s analysis shows that he has a problem with the second option. He noted that Mr. Williams made reference to a variation of both options where the road is narrowed to one lane but only for half the distance so the curb line does not have to be changed on the east side and there would still be the protective median. Commissioner Blank commented that the problem is that the second option is not balanced, whereas the first option is balanced in terms of the direction of the car travel, He noted that, if he is reading this correctly, there would be three lanes going in one direction and only two going the opposite direction because of the left-hand turn lane. Mr. Tassano stated that this was how he read it initially, but it appears that the black lines which would be in the westbound direction of Option 2 are skewed when compared relation to the rest. He indicated that he believes the intention is to have just the two travel lanes, with everything north of the second line of the top black line as actually the parking area. Commissioner Blank noted he was looking at the left side, and Mr. Tassano was looking at the right side. Mr. Tassano stated that he thinks the right-turn lane becomes a parking lane. PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES, January 26, 2011 Page 25 of 50