COEUR d'ALENE - A couple dozen interested citizens got a crash course in complete street design during a walk-along with a city consultant along East Sherman Avenue Friday morning.

About 25 community leaders, city staff and Sherman Avenue business owners took a walking tour with Chris Danley, of Vitruvian Planning of Boise, to assess the quality of pedestrian access along Sherman from Eighth Street to 17th Street.

Sherman Avenue, which used to be U.S. Highway 10, was replaced as the main freeway through North Idaho by Interstate 90 in the 1970s.

During Friday's walk-along it was easy to see how it was designed to move cars, but it's not very pedestrian friendly - not to mention disabled pedestrians.

The group stopped to assess about seven intersections after sitting through a PowerPoint presentation that detailed Danley's thoughts on that stretch of road.

The group took turns navigating the sidewalks in a wheelchair Danley brought along.

One participant tried to cross Sherman in the wheelchair at the intersection of 10th and Sherman, just two blocks south of Sorensen Magnet School.

At least a half dozen cars sped by in both directions on Sherman before the wheelchair could even start crossing because there isn't a painted crosswalk in that location.

Once he crossed to the other side of Sherman, he was met with a failed wheelchair ramp to the sidewalk.

Danley said the wheelchair ramps don't meet the standards for the Americans with Disabilities Act, but added that is no surprise because those standards change constantly.

City Finance Director Troy Tymesen said the participants in the walk-along have been participating in the East Sherman redesign workshops from the beginning.

"This is just part of the planning process," Tymesen said. "We wanted to get people out to see how it feels. You can always put something down on paper, but you're not sure how that might turn out."

As the group passed 11th Street they started to notice the lack of trees as the intersections got tougher to navigate in the wheelchair.

John Kelly, a member of Bike Cd'A, took his turn in the wheelchair at 15th Street. He had a hard time with one of the wheelchair ramps.

"I need a wheelie bar on this," he joked as he tried get off the street and onto the sidewalk.

Danley explained how the standard width of traffic lanes in usually 9 to 12 feet wide, but he illustrated that no more than 10 feet is needed per lane. He measured out 10 feet in a lane that was about 13 to 14 feet wide.

A delivery truck approached the intersection right after that and fit comfortably within Danley's chalk lines.

"People are already using just 10 feet of the lane," he said. "The wider you build them the faster they will go and use it all up."

He did that to illustrate there is enough room on Sherman Avenue to add bicycle lanes.

Kelly, a retired Coeur d'Alene Police officer, said it is important to the city of Coeur d'Alene because it has adopted a complete streets policy that requires all new road construction to take all users into account, such as bikes, pedestrians and mass transit, as well as automobiles.

According to Kelly the leading cause of bike accidents is riding on the sidewalk. He said when there are no bike lanes some bicyclists opt to ride on the sidewalk.

"That's a problem because motorists are not watching for bikes on the sidewalks," he said, adding many bike lanes are too narrow, and that also forces bikers onto the sidewalk.

"In many places it appears we have bike lanes, but we don't. They are too narrow," he said. "Having the proper infrastructure is important."

City officials will use the input from the walk-along in the development of plans for the future East Sherman redesign.