OKLAHOMA CITY — On the heels of comments made last month by some members of the Oklahoma City Council, a long-planned project to add more dedicated bike lanes to Classen Boulevard has been paused for review, and could be nixed altogether.
This comes despite voter approval for the project following 2015’s “Better Classen” initiative, and despite area leadership claiming to have no prior knowledge of efforts to change the plans.
Following completion of new bike lanes and street enhancements on Classen from NW 10th Street to NW 16th Street, expectations have been for the project to move south, adding new dedicated bicycle lanes on Classen from Sheridan Ave. to NW 10th Street, connecting Downtown to those completed lanes.
But at the November 18th meeting of the City Council, following a presentation on upcoming bike lane projects by Planning Director Geoff Butler, Ward 4 councilman Todd Stone and Ward 8 councilman Mark Stonecipher each expressed misgivings about the project, citing concerns over Classen car traffic.
Traffic concerns
Following Butler’s presentation, Councilman Stonecipher quickly addressed City Manager Craig Freeman directly, requesting an updated timetable and a closer look at the Classen bike lane plans in the near future.
“I really do think this is a vital and really important street that we always need to stay focused on,” Stonecipher said. “So if we’re going to have some briefings, I’d like to have briefings earlier rather than later as it goes with Classen Boulevard.”
Councilman Stone then offered concerns that, while overall daily car traffic on Classen may support lanes being reserved for cyclists, there could be “busy hours” for car traffic that could cause backups.
“I know in the past, we’ve had to cancel some of these because when we started looking at the busy hours, it’s like, all right, it’s going to be backed up a mile here with the loss of that additional lane,” Stone said from the horseshoe.
But even despite those “busy hour” concerns, City planners believe that car capacity on Classen would likely not be overwhelmed by reducing the auto lanes to four to accommodate the dedicated cycling lanes. At least not for now.
“It has gone down quite a bit in the last ten years, but there’s still about 15,000 cars a day on that portion of Classen, which we think four lanes can handle, and four lanes handles that in other places,” said Justin Henry, Program Planner for OKC’s Transportation Department. “But I think some council people are worried that if we constrict it too much, there will not be opportunity for growth there in the future.”
Already paused
The proposed new bike lanes were expected to be part of “street enhancements” funded in the voter-approved “Better Streets, Safer City” bond package in 2017 and were added to the BikeWalkOKC master plan in its most recent update last year. But the City Manager’s office is still empowered to pause, shift, or cancel those plans altogether in accordance with area research and impact studies.
When OKC Free Press reached out to the City Manager’s office to ask if the proposed new bike lanes on Classen were already expected to be cancelled, a representative for the City offered the statement: “the process has not stopped, it’s simply being paused so we can evaluate other options due to council member concerns.”
However, Ward 6 councilor JoBeth Hamon, in whose ward the new bike lane project would be, said that no one from the City Manager’s office or from City Council had consulted her about changing the plans or had notified her that the project had already been paused.
“No one on Council or from City staff had discussed concerns about the bike lanes being designed on this project or the plans to possibly explore other options,” Hamon told Free Press on Friday. “I learned that the City Manager had been directing staff to explore other options through the grapevine and approached him about it earlier this week.”
Upcoming debate
While the plans could be altered without further voting or discussion, councilors expect that the vocal disagreement and developing rift over the proposed bike lanes will likely result in a council vote to decide the plan’s fate.
“Because a few of us have intervened and there is not unanimous sentiment, it seems like there could end up being a vote on it,” Hamon told Free Press. “From what I understand, a few council members have been working on a resolution to specifically put this up to a vote, possibly to be heard on 12/30.”
Local biking advocacy groups like The Wheels Project already say that they’re hoping to mobilize the cycling community to turn out for public comments at upcoming City Council meetings on December 16th and 30th.
But if the plans are changed without a full council vote, or if a vote to retain the bike lane plan fails, there might be no new plan or compromise to replace it.
“It sounds like the potential plans would be to just refer people to the Western lanes,” Hamon said, “and not have any bike lanes on Classen.”
Brett Fieldcamp is the owner and Editor in Chief of Oklahoma City Free Press. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly two decades and served as Arts & Entertainment Editor before purchasing the company from founder Brett Dickerson in 2026.
He is also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
