The city of Seattle released a plan to make West Seattle streets more inviting for bicyclists, with painted bike lanes, hill-climbing lanes and stretches of road for bicyclists to share with motorists.

The Seattle bicycle master plan recommends 5-foot-wide bike lanes be painted on the sides of arterial streets throughout the city to designate they are "for preferential use by bicyclists." That includes many West Seattle "ways:" Admiral, Fauntleroy, Delridge, Avalon and Sylvan.

Other candidates for bike lanes are 16h, 35th and 48th avenues, plus Roxbury and Barton streets.

Designated climbing lanes would be painted on uphill sections of Barton Street, 48th Avenue, Lincoln Park Way and Marine View Drive.

The plan also recommends 34th Avenue Southwest be designated a "bicycle boulevard," from Roxbury Street north to Holly Street. The slower pace bike route would continue through High Point, head east on Brandon Street to run north on 26th Avenue.

Some streets also would have sections where bikes mix with cars and trucks in regular traffic. A chevron symbol would be painted on those shared streets to direct bicyclists to the most appropriate places in the roadway to ride. Bike-and-car routes are recommended on most of California Avenue, Thistle Street, Ninth Avenue, 49th Avenue, Jacobsen Road, and sections of Alaska, Genesee and Charlestown streets.

The citywide bike plan states that sidewalks are suitable as bike paths, but bicyclists are admonished to keep speeds down to 5 or 10 mph to blend safely with pedestrians, runners and other sidewalk users.

Among the bicycle master plan's other recommendations for West Seattle is to install crossing islands or perhaps a median on the eastern section of Admiral Way, between Admiral Viewpoint and the West Seattle Bridge. It also advises prohibiting parking on the west side of Admiral Way as it approaches Spokane Street.

A bicycle side path is suggested parallel to and east of 35th Avenue Southwest by the West Seattle Golf Course.

A "high-priority" bicycling connection is 35th Avenue, between Morgan Street and Avalon Way, the bike plan states. It recommends a study be done to determine the efficacy of removing one of 35th's traffic lanes or restricting parking to one side of the street. Climbing lanes and shared lanes are other possibilities, the bike plan states.

Currently Seattle has about 67 miles of marked or separated bicycle routes, including Alki Avenue and West Marginal Way. The Seattle bicycle master plan recommends adding about 136 miles of bike lanes and bike routes during the next two years. Similar measures are planned for 452 miles of streets throughout the city over the next 10 years.

Executing the plan would cost an estimated $240 million over the coming decade. Money to install and build many of the bicycling improvements will be paid for with money from the "Bridging the Gap" measure voters approved last fall.

The bicycle master plan was written by the Toole Design Group, a Maryland-based consulting firm.

Stu Hennessey, longtime bicyclist and owner of Alki Bike and Board, said bike lanes should be wider than the 5 feet the city's master plan recommends. Bike lanes should be at least 80 inches wide, he said. Trash and other road debris tends to collect at the roadside so bicyclists need enough room to maneuver around such obstacles without having to steer into the adjacent car lane, Hennessey said.

There's enough room in the roadway for wider bike lanes, he said, if the city eliminated the center lane. He claims only a tiny percentage of all traffic uses the center lane.

"It's a waste of space," Hennessey said.

Climbing lanes are a good idea, Hennessey acknowledged. But there's a problem on the eastern end of Admiral Way, where "car ranchers" frequently park cars with for-sale signs on them along the uphill side of the road, he said.

The sidewalk isn't always a suitable alternative bike route because parked cars often straddle the sidewalk.

The city is accepting public comments on the Seattle bicycle master plan until 5 p.m. Friday, May 18. E-mail comments to walkandbike@seattle.gov or call 684-3902.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at timstc@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.