Bike Denton

To quote PathLessPedaled,”Moms and families on bikes are key to bike advocacy.”

Last night, a crowd of around sixty people asked city council for initial funding for the Bike Plan. Since it was first announced, the city budget surplus rose from $192,000 to 333,676, making Bike Plan jumpstart funds even more plausible.

Among those who spoke in favor, a senior woman (who said she rode 10 miles from Robson Ranch!) and two elementary school girls had the council rapt with attention. Another citizen gave a powerful presentation that showed how Denton could paint 20 miles of bike accommodations in the first year for $232,295, if done efficiently. Parent and advocate, Amber Briggle, explained that bike infrastructure can raise property values by 11%, and that even a modest 3% increase would bring almost $1,000,000 in revenue to Denton.

The supporters spanned an age range of 8-80 years old, which is the ideal range that Complete Streets says we should design our roads for. What’s more, the supporters were roughly even in gender split, which is ultra-super-mega-important in bike advocacy. Crazy important.

So how did the council react? Well, the mayor dispelled any notion that council would make an immediate decision, because they vote on the overall budget on Sept 20. Shortly after that, the Bike Plan comes to council for approval in October. Immediate decisions aside, the overwhelming citizen support made an obvious impression on council. Councilman Jim Engelbrecht said it was rare to see so many younger people participating in the civil discourse, and he said “these people deserve an answer.” Mayor Burroughs opined that the city should consider integrating bicycle accommodations with maintenance work, to conserve money and effort. Additionally, the mayor called for traffic signals to detect bikes and education to “get the word out.” Councilman Roden asked for a staff report on why no significant progress had been made in the last 12 years, despite stated goals to expand bicycle infrastructure.

Bike Plan momentum is high, and the council members know that. Within the next month, we’ll know more about specific monetary allocation to the plan, and we’ll see the Bike Plan make its way through the Traffic Safety and Planning & Zoning boards before final approval from council.

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.