NEW ORLEANS -- New bike lanes installed on Baronne Street in the city's CBD just last week are now facing some opposition.
"We're not anti-bike, we're pro common sense, we're safety, and I live on this street," says Dolan Bolen, who lives near Baronne and Julia. He said the lanes belong somewhere else, perhaps on a wider street.
"Every small business owner, and building owner on Baronne that we talked to signed the petition to oppose this," said Bonen.
He's now helped to collect 140 signatures to bring before the City. Attorney Gibby Andry's office is in the 800 block of Baronne, that's by Howard.
"Everybody on this block and in this area of downtown were blindsided by sudden existence of a two-way bike lane," recalled Andry.
He shared a photo of a near collision between a bicycle and a car, he claimed that happened because drivers don't expect to watch out for anything coming towards them on a one way street.
"The vehicle is obviously looking to the left not at a bike."
Eyewitness News took the complaints to the Bike Easy the advocacy group working with the city to install bike lanes around New Orleans.
"It does say to yield to bikes right there," explained Robert Henig Bell, the group's campaign manager.
But he says the group is open to any kind of feedback.
"This is a three-month demonstration, we're going to see, we're studying the traffic impacts we're having bike counters, we have other counters to see if traffic is affected negatively," said Bell.
He wants to make it clear, the new lanes did not take away a driving lane, or parking space that had been there since 2014.
"Still have the traffic coming through, big trucks and trailers."
As the study continues residents like Bonen vowed to fight the change.
"It's about a lot of misrepresentation and the fringe doing something that affects us negatively in a great way," said Bonen.