Rob from LOBV says: Come to the West 6th Street bike lane open house this Monday!

Rob D'Amico of the League of Bicycle Voters just sent out the following notification of an upcoming Open House being put on by the City of Austin regarding some new lanes that they want to put in on West 6th Street (past Lamar):

Hi all, please note that COA is having an Open House to discuss/review current plans for bike lanes on West Sixth Street (Lamar to Patterson) on Monday.

Details:
Open House on September 14th, 2009, from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm at One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Road, 3rd Floor Conference Room.

You can view the plans here:
http://www.lobv.org/westsixth.html

Unfortunately, this is about the same time as the ACA meeting Monday. But I know the city would be interested in any comments on the plan, as well as your words of support. A couple of the merchants have grumbled about the plan, since there is a loss of 8 parallel parking spaces. (The angled parking also will be converted to reverse-angle parking as well.)

LOBV considers bike lanes on W. Sixth a crucial step forward in providing a safer and more direct route to West Austin in that area. Our long term vision includes other facilities like sharrows and signage to get bicyclists into the right lane of sixth east of Lamar, then into the bike lane West of Lamar, then across MoPac....all of which should increase ridership markedly on the street and hopefully improve business for the merchants.

Pleas email annick.beaudet@ci.austin.tx.us with your words of support or other comments.

Direct questions can also be directed to:
Jason Fialkoff
Jason.Fialkoff@ci.austin.tx.us
Neighborhood Connectivity Engineering Associate
Department of Public Works
City of Austin
512.974.7060

If you want to check out the plan itself, the CoA's been so kind as to put a copy of their plan online in PDF form.

I've been thoroughly impressed by the number of bike lanes that the city's been putting in all over the place. Many streets that I thought would NEVER get striped are undergoing lane diets, parking modifications, and other measures to better include bikes in the overall traffic landscape. In addition to Annick and Nadia, a lot of the credit goes to Nathan Wilkes and Jason Fialkoff, the two engineers of the City Bicycle Program. If you appreciate what the city's been doing for us bikers on this or other projects, you should drop them a note and let them know.