Critics abound on unusual Cass Street design

Critics aren’t impressed with changes to La Crosse’s Cass Street.

A section of Cass from Seventh Street to West Avenue was recently reopened with bike lanes, bump outs and two narrower lanes.

The bike lanes, however, have especially drawn criticism.

The lanes largely dead end from bump out to bump out, forcing bicyclists to veer in and out of traffic, seemingly routing bikers out into narrow lanes of traffic.

One local bicycle social service group called the changes a ‘fiasco’ on social media.

Mayor Tim Kabat has heard the critics.

“As these projects get built,” Kabat said, “as you’re doing the designs, those types of things, I think, are inevitable because you’re trying to balance people, bicycles, cars, buses.

“The next time we’re going to learn and see if there’s changes that get made in the future.”

Kabat, in the WIZM studio Monday (listen to the full interview here), says it’s unlikely the city will make significant changes to the street to deal with the unusual bicycle lane configuration.

“Their suggestion was to start to, basically, rip out the bump outs,” Kabat said. “I don’t think the city is going to consider the ripping out of those bump outs.”