Revised BAC Agenda for tonights' meeting, a note about the memorandum, and WHY you won't be seeing your pics in the final copy.

Update: Thanks to Tom and Elliott, the person responsible for the picture change request has been identified:

Tom Wald:

Annick Beaudet, CoA Bike Program Manager, told me that the request first came from the Assistant City Manager, Rob. (I can’t remember his last name.) Annick complied with the request.

Jim Carrillo from Halff Associates, Inc. is almost certainly just a messenger/secretary on this issue.

Elliott:

Robert Goode, Assistant City Manager in charge of Public Works. Better yet, since as city staff as opposed to a consultant, he is actually somewhat accountable to the public. I’m interested to hear more.

Sounds like Assistant City Manager Robert Goode is the person to talk to about this decision. If you happen to hear from him about this, let me know what he says.

Update x2: The City's reasoning as to why they want to exclude images of local helmetless riders from the Bicycle Plan Update is that the City's Health and Human Services Department advocates wearing helmets as a safety issue, and so the powers-that-be did not want a city document circulating that may appear contradictory to the party line. pictures of foreign riders without helmets are ok because they don't fall under the local jurisdiction so the Ciclovia and separated path pics can stay. Bottom line is that no Austin-based helmetless riders are going in the document, as per the City of Austin Bike/Ped program, the Transportation folks AND Health and Human Services. Ah well, thanks for submitting the pictures anyways y'all. I really liked seeing you in the draft.

Makes me think what the City of Austin's official photographs/documents looked like in previous years and what categories of citizens got didn't make the cut due to the prevailing political views of the era. Hopefully the City's views continue to evolve in a positive direction. Who knows what the 2021 Bike Plan Update is going to look like? Maybe they'll chose to exclude anyone not using the latest government-approved Mark IV Toxin Re-Breather...

The agenda for tonights' BAC meeting was just revised and forwarded to my by Nadia Barrera, and here are the changes made:

3. Items from BAC – 7:40 to 7:55
• Austin Bicycle Plan – UT/Speedway – Tom Wald
• Austin Bicycle Plan – Included photos – Annick Beaudet
• Shoal Creek Boulevard – Delineators – Chris LeBlanc

4. Items from Staff – 6:40 to 7:40
• Parking Modification Guidelines – Suggested Changes
• South Shore Planned Unit Development
• Bicycle Plan Benchmarks

The second BAC item really interests me, because as I was reading the addendum of changes (pdf) to the 2009 Bicycle Plan Update I couldn't help but notice the following modification:

• Replace all photos that have unsafe behavior. All photos need to show helmets and close-toed shoes.

Really y'all? I hate to be a downer, but MOST of the interesting pictures in the document include people without helmets. The removal of these pictures will greatly damage this document and makes it much less of a representation of the local cycling community and more of a representation of a few clubs/organizations vision of what we should be if all the cyclists stepped in line. Here's my message to Halff and Associates, the City of Austin Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, and everyone else involved in the production of the document:

Was that loud and clear enough? Unsafe behavior includes things like running stop signs without checking for cross traffic, bicycling when you're too drunk to properly control your vehicle, swerving your bike unnecessarily when riding in a group or in traffic, behavior like that. Go ahead and remove THOSE pictures, but leave the ones that represent a large portion of the local cycling community, that is those that decide to include personal choice in their attire selection and not just dress to conform to the rules and regulations of the Austin Cycling Association/Austin Flyers/Austin Ridge Riders/etc.

Go look through the document and pay attention to the pictures therein. That awesome picture of Sean on his 36" wheeled cruiser that graces the cover of the guide? Nope! Too dangerous! The great photo of the couple on the tandem that resides in the Executive Summary? Thanks for submitting your picture, but no thanks. The protected bike lane shown on page 74 (and again on 81)? That's obviously not a protected bike lane, since the bikers aren't wearing HELMETS! Outta here! The photo on the first page of Chapter 5 (implementation and funding) with the family standing in front of the Capitol with their bicycle and child trailer? UNSAFE!!! Neither the CHILD OR THE ADULT is wearing a helmet! GET RID OF IT! The picture of from page 177 illustrating Columbia's Cyclovia system? Look at those unsafe Columbians, not a single helmet in the entire crowd! Talk about an entire CULTURE of "unsafe behavior", and this is what we want to emulate in Austin? NEVER!

I'm sure by now you can tell I'm being facetious. Is this really how we want to present ourselves? As some marketing companies view of what we all should look like? They solicited photos from us, why not actually USE those photos?

Ridiculous. What do y'all think about this? Do you appreciate the city's attempt to whitewash Austin's cyclists into what THEY want us to look like? If not, let them know what you think. Hopefully it's not too late to keep this marketing company from fucking up our Bike Plan. If you want to make your voice heard on these or any other issues relating to cycling in Austin, please come to tonight's meeting.