So around DFW, many cities are talking about accommodating bicycles and pedestrians. A few DFW cities are just starting to publish master bike plans and maybe stripe a lane or two. Austin is charging forward and building bold infrastructure. The Austin Master Bike Plan is good. Really good. So good that it won the very competitive State Planning Project Award.
From the Austin On Two Wheels Blog, they have a nice summary of the November infrastructure updates:
- new sharrows on Lavaca Street to Martin Luther King Blvd
- bike lanes on Martin Luther King Blvd
- painted (green) bicycle lanes on Dean Keeton
- Bike Box at the intersection of 38th Street and Speedway
In 2009 the City of Austin installed 20.7 miles of parking free bicycle facilities, more than doubling the 8.1 miles we installed in 2008. In the third quarter of 2009 alone we installed 8.5 miles of bicycle facilities exceeding the total for any previous year.
So naturally, if you’re reading this and you live in Denton, you might be asking “why isn’t this happening in Denton?”
- Lack of shared vision and coordinated effort between council and planning staff.
- Denton public didn’t consistently advocate for bike lanes/Complete Streets till recently
- Many bicyclists are students, who have high turnover and low political involvement
- There is no representative group for cyclists, yet.
- Few recent bike/pedestrian tragedies to bring scrutiny of current infrastructure faults
Remember that Oak/Hickory bike lane proposal which the Traffic Safety Commission tabled earlier this year? It’s not coming back until we demand it.
Wow! I love the green boxes and the stop sign zones.