2.Is Cycling Increasing in Denton?
I’ve lived in Denton for ten years, and I can’t ever remember seeing so many cyclists around town here. Not only that, I’ve even seen some with helmets, lights, racks, fenders, hand signals.
Am I alone in thinking that ridership here is at an all time high?
Here’s how I think it could help:
- more bike lanes
- restriped existing bike lanes
- more bike racks
- pressure for riding safety courses
- improved driver awareness/sensitivity
- less traffic congestion
- healthier citizens
- local business foot/bike traffic increases
I don’t have any Denton statistics, but this Christian Science Monitor article is encouraging:
The trend slips under the radar of national data, but phone calls to various city governments reveals a strong uptick in bike commuting this year:
• Bike count tallies showed an increase of 30 percent over last year on San Francisco’s Market Street, 44 percent over 2006 levels at the intersection of Broad and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, and 378 percent from five years ago on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago.
• New bikers are maxing out the capacity of transit systems across the country. Bikers boarding buses in Houston rose from 1,510 in April to 3,624 in June, according to the League of American Bicyclists, which also reports that Charlotte’s bike-on-bus boardings have reached an all-time record, surging 30 percent this June from a year ago. On San Francisco’s regional CalTrain, a quarter of rush hour trains surveyed in September “bumped” bikers because onboard racks had reached capacity.
• In Denver, this year’s ‘Bike to Work Day’ drew 35,000 bikers, up 43 percent over last year.
High gas prices are changing transportation habits. For eight straight months, Americans have driven fewer miles than they did over the same period a year earlier, according to the US Department of Transportation.
But don’t think this is a complete turnaround just yet:
The latest US census figures from 2006 offer perspective: Only one half of one percent of Americans commuted by bike.
But the rise, even if it’s a small number, is affecting cities in everything from transportation funding to traffic safety.
Good news from the Fed:
Congress, meanwhile, is considering a bike commuter act that would permit tax deductions like those for public transit riders.
Hopefully we’ll see some safety courses like this in Denton:
The rush of newbies has triggered tensions with drivers unaccustomed to sharing the road, and driven cyclists to seek out traffic training.
“I’m getting hammered by mayors asking, ‘What are you doing about all these new bikers on the street and nobody knows the rules of the road?’ ” says Robert Raburn, executive director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition in Oakland. When the organization started classes in 2003, it offered maybe two a year. Now, it has six slated for September with two more to be announced.
credit: Christian Science Monitor via Living Carfree in Big D
Bike Lane Indicators?
Are there any other painted bike lane indicators besides the 2 on W Hickory St? Shouldn’t there be? Should there be directional arrows too?
UPDATE: there is a bike-dude glyph inside a fat directional arrow on W Hickory. Perhaps there should be more arrows? And a lane going east on Oak St?
Pizza Portage
FYI, 2 bungee cords is all anyone needs to carry a J&J’s large pizza on a bike w/rack. I added a third, and it was totally unnecessary.
Also, if you’re riding with a bass guitar on your back, don’t lean back too far and jab the pizza with the bass. Also, don’t walk underneath spinning ceiling fans with the bass.
If it’s this easy to carry a pie, it must be cake to carry spuds.
trading (moving) spaces
Here’s another good idea for a local newspaper article, have two commuters swap car vs bike and write about their experience.
Says the driver about biking,
“It’s not as scary as I thought. It’s not as difficult. Cars have been really friendly.”
Says the cyclist about driving,
“This definitely is not going to convince me to drive anymore”
“It was also very scary”
“I felt I had a lot of responsibility to watch out for the other people especially bicyclists who I felt I couldn’t see very well”
Dallas Officially Encourages Commuter Cycling
Joe Simnacher of Dallas Morning News writes:
Urban planners are looking to enlist more mild-mannered Clark Kent-like bicycle commuters to help battle Dallas-Fort Worth’s air-pollution and traffic congestion woes.
Six years ago, Paul Hakes of Irving could hardly pedal three miles. Now he cycles a 42-mile round trip, three times a week, to his job at Texas Instruments in Far Northeast Dallas. His safety gear includes a mirror, light and camera.
They want more people to consider bicycle commuting for short distances, either directly to work or to link to mass transit.
The city of Dallas has started the construction bidding process for the East Dallas Veloway, which will link the Fair Park area to the White Rock Lake trail by late 2009.
Mike Sims, senior program manager of sustainable development for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, says:
“Ultimately you’ll be able to get on a bicycle from downtown Dallas up to Frisco and up to Plano”
Wow. And I never thought I’d want to move back to Dallas.
I can only hope that the City of Denton notices this great action by Dallas, especially since Denton’s smaller size naturally lends itself to bicycle commuting. A cooperative effort between Denton city planners and community cyclists (like the Querencia Community Bike Shop) could have amazing results.
CVS drive-through approved by Denton Planning/Zoning board
By a vote of 5 to 1, the City of Denton Planning and Zoning Comission chose to allow the proposed United Equities site plan for a CVS store with drive-through at Fry and Hickory.
The Denton Record Chronicle has an emotionless article about the Special Use Permit hearing.
The article fails to mention the following points:
* Handicapped visitors must walk through the drive through lane to enter the store. In fact, ALL parking visitors must walk through the drive-through lane to get to the store.
* The council chambers were filled mostly with citizens opposing the drive-through
* The consulting “traffic analyst” for United Equities nervously explained that his estimate of 8-10 cars through the drive-through per hour was based not on a current traffic study; he used data from previous years, and only for the month of July (obviously between major UNT semesters, and failing to project based on UNT’s rapidly increasing enrollment)
* The city staff planner who opened the discussion recommended permit approval and didn’t express interest in accurate traffic data or risk analysis. I’d say this creates huge liability for the city, developer, and especially pedestrians/cyclists.
* Much of the outspoken opposition were elderly homeowners in the Historic District, not the voters who elected officials can afford to anger.
* Patrice Lyke explained the history of the Special Use Permit: a disincentive to create unnecessary drive-throughs, since they encourage constant idling cars that pollute, especially in a designated “pedestrian-friendly” area.
* When asked by commissioners if the CVS would be open 24 hours, United Equities had no idea.
* An anonymous council meeting attendee answered (“no” to) the question, seemingly on behalf of CVS, yet he never identified himself officially or registered to speak. His remark is entirely unsubstantial.
* Several of the opposition mentioned counting cars in other local pharmacy drive-through lanes and finding peak traffic numbers as high as 30+ cars per hour.
* Nita Thurman (of the Denton RC staff) explained that she was hired by United Equities to do historic research, but that her opinion to support the drive-through was not influenced by her paid work.
* After the vote result was clear, the huge majority of attendees were visibly and audibly disappointed with the result.
* The site plan displayed (accepted as such) did not include an explained deletion of one ingress/egress point onto Hickory. Now there are only 2 ways to exit the drive-though lane and parking lot: out to Fry, and snaking through the parking lot and then out to Oak.
city hearing on CVS vs Fry St, please attend!!!
Planning and Zoning Public Hearing on the Fry St Project – Wednesday, Nov. 14th- 6:30
PM at the City Council Chambers
Attention all cyclists in Denton, your voices and presence can help make a huge difference at the City Council Chambers on Wednesday evening. A public hearing for the zoning exemptions to build a CVS drive-through on Fry St will be held.
The P&Z public hearing for the CVS drive-through permit on Fry St. is coming up this Wednesday at 6:30 PM in the City Council Chambers. This zoning permit would allow construction of a CVS pharmacy as an anchor tenant for a 55,000 sq foot strip center. This will undoubtedly increase vehicle traffic and accident risk for cyclists and pedestrians.
The Denton Development Plan designates this area as “pedestrian friendly”, which is in direct contrast to the proposed zoning exemption. As of the last hearing on this topic, the council did not seem terribly concerned or opposed.
Show up early if you want to fill out the slip to speak (which makes a huge impression!).
Denton cyclist hit on Mingo road
A Denton bike commuter named Jasmine was hit by a car last night. She says she was riding down Mingo road around midnight, when a sporty, dark car passed her and immediately turned right. She hit the side of the car and bounced back onto the ground. She says she had both front/rear lights on when this happened. The car fled, and hopefully a police report will be made.
