You are hereMLK Bike Lanes FINISHED, and a request for input from yours truly.
MLK Bike Lanes FINISHED, and a request for input from yours truly.
I just got in from riding in the rain a short while ago and when I opened my email this one popped out at me:
We now have bike lanes on MLK from I-35 to Rio Grande
The trucks painting the new bike lanes were finishing up today, Friday, 10/02 at 5:30. Some of the bike lanes get a little narrow in places but at least we have them. Check it out.
Thanks for letting us know Brad! I was just raving over breakfast to a couple out-of-towners (Ft. Worth and Portland, respectively) about how great the City of Austin Bicycle Program folks have been with their responsiveness to our needs and the speed at which they were installing bike lanes into heretofore totally unimaginable places, and now I read this. Talk about some affirmation, eh? To Annick, Nadia, Nathan, Jason and all the rest of y'all who were instrumental to the installation of these bike lanes, and for all the shit that you do behind the scenes to accomplish it, THANK YOU!
I've recently bumped into the city folks out at various events around town (BAC meeting, LOBV dinner, even the Thursday Night Social Ride on occasion) and they've been mentioning how much they're yearning for public input on their latest projects. I know that the city programs like the Bicycle/Pedestrian program live and die on public input, so if y'all happen to enjoy some of the new bike facilities around town, and can spare a few kind words for some really kickass folks, please drop them a note letting them know what you think!
The more positive input they get on the projects they complete, the more attention the City is going to pay to some of the larger and more ambitious projects planned for the future. We were able to turn out over 400 people to sign in favor of the Updated Bicycle Plan, if we could get 50 people emailing the city each time they finish a major striping project or facilities installation, imagine what else would get accomplished! You're obviously sitting in front of your computer and bored if you've made it this far, so take a minute and tell Annick, Nadia, or any of the rest of the staff how great a job they're doing. First off I'd appreciate it, and secondly if enough of you start doing this just watch and see what happens at the City level; it'll be pretty fucking cool.
The section of MLK between Airport and 183 (where I live) has no bike lanes/shoulders, and the speed limit is 50 mph. Seems like a waste of the activists' time and the city's money to stripe bike lanes on a section of the road with slower traffic, where riding in the lane has always been safer to begin with.
You want bike lanes in your neighborhood? Email the city's Bike/Ped program about it, and lobby your cycling neighbors to do the same. The city responds to citizen input and right now they're actively looking for striping opportunities. Maybe they don't know how many of y'all would benefit from a lane there, and are focusing around the very neglected UT area because of the volume of cyclists who pass through daily. Let them know what you want, but don't gripe about what other people who are taking an active role are accomplishing. Do something, and be tenacious about it. If they tell you no, keep at it (and get others to do the same) until they say yes.
It seems to me that the City of Austin simply looks for places where it's easy to put down some paint and create a bike lane without actually making any real changes -- and in general these are places where you don't need them anyways. `Hey, we're giving you what you want -- we made some bike lanes!'
The activists push for specific bike lanes where they generally would be useful.
Structural changes, no. It's VERY expensive to actually widen a lane, and impacts utilities, rights-of-way, and many other things beyond paint and reflectors. As far as LANE changes, the city is doing A LOT to give real estate to bike lanes, and to keep them safe from parked cars and the dreaded "door zone". Anderson Lane up north underwent a pretty extensive lane diet, as did Exposition, Steck, and several other projects that I haven't personally ridden on yet. The places they're installing lanes right now aren't for us Class A cyclists who'll bike the streets lanes or no, they're for the new students that are taking to a bike for the first time since they were a kid, and maybe don't know the city too well. Or maybe the guy riding to his job every day that isn't kitted in spandex or a messenger bag, but still wants to ride on the street and get where he's going quickly. I don't think the placement of the new lanes is a bad thing.
well one thing i noticed thats retarded as hell is that the bike lane is on the left of the rigt turn lane going westward where lavaca and guadalupe meet, so since a majority of traffic goes that way instead of just going straight down MLK this seems like it will be dangerous
I saw people getting confused by this and honking at each other the other day. It's an accident waiting to happen.
There's a similar facility on eastbound Steck just past Mopac, I believe at the intersection of Shoal Creek. If the cyclist is turning right they stay right (and proceed in the car lane), if the cyclist is going straight then they stay in the cycling lane, and then there's no chance of a right-hook. It's not a BAD facility, just different, and will require people getting used to it. If the city standardizes similar intersections with this type of marking, then I think people will get comfortable with using it rather quickly.