Bike Denton

Tomorrow night, Denton’s city council will consider allocating $200-300k of budget surplus towards jumpstarting the recently completed Bike Plan. Without any jumpstart funding, Denton has allocated only $50,000 yearly for Bike Plan implementation.

If spent well, this money could fund priority projects that set the tone for continued rollout of the plan. This council seems aware of the momentum that propels the plan, and given the bike-friendly makeup of this council, advocates know this is a historic opportunity to see real-world progress towards Complete Streets in Denton.

The meeting is tomorrow at 6PM in the council chambers at city hall, 215 E. McKinney St. There’s a Facebook event (with 100+ RSVP’d!), although in-person testimony is the most compelling show of support. If you’d like to express an opinion without speaking, you can show up just before the meeting and fill out a yellow comment card.

Denton has a budget surplus of $192,000, and some city council members suggest allocating it to the Bicycle Plan. Public hearing on Sept 6, vote on Sept 20.

Council member Dalton Gregory advocated using the money to help implement the city’s ongoing bicycle plan, which would receive only $50,000 under the proposed budget.

“I completely agree with Chris that we need to not spend money that’s not there,” Gregory said during the meeting. “But on the other hand, we’ve invested some money on this plan. We’ve actually been talking about bike and pedestrian needs for over 30 years and not really invested a lot. … If we’re really serious about this, we’ve got to do more than plan.”

As councilman Gregory points out, discussions of bicycle accommodation stretches back decades in Denton’s history, but there were never any long strides. The fragments of those discussions are what we have now: the UNT Language Building bike “parking mall”, failed plans to paint lanes on Fry and Welch, previous P&Z discussions of bike lanes here and here, and the short (yet popular) W. Hickory bike lane.

Here’s some context on the $192,000:

• one four-way traffic signal intersection costs $225,000+
• $192K is only 3.3% of the target $5.8M street maintenance budget
• $192K is .032% of Denton’s overall $585M city budget
• cost of Hickory and Industrial restriping to add ~10 parking spots: $60,000

This Wednesday at 5:30PM, Denton’s Planning & Zoning commission will review the Bike Plan draft. The plan includes proposed bike accommodations and project costs, and it’s the cumulative result of all the public input so far. RSVP to the Facebook Event, if you plan to go. The plan can live or die by these meetings, as we’ve seen in Arlington, TX.

This is the public’s first look at the plan, and from here it goes to the Traffic Safety commission, then another public meeting, and then on to city council for final approval. This is the first of three approvals the Bike Plan needs before it’s incorporated into the Mobility Plan (which I would link to, but I can’t find it on the city website).

The meeting is at City Hall, and I’m not sure if it’s in the council chambers or work room. If the council chambers are empty, just head down the hallway to the right and enter the glass meeting room.