Texas - Dallas cycling coordinator hates bike lanes?

We have put up a story to support Bike Friendly Oak Cliff (http://bikefriendlyoc.wordpress.com/)in their efforts to get bicycle infrastructure rolling, on our blog, Austin Bike Blog, with a post about the Dallas cycling coordinator. I was pretty astonished to hear the views of Dallas' bicycle coordinator, honestly. It looks like he won't support bike lanes in Dallas under any circumstances, mainly due to his ideology.

The story is available here (http://austinbikeblog.org/2008/11/26/why-cycle-dallas-will-never-get-a-link-on-our-blogroll/).

Yes... good old PM Summer... IMO he has set Dallas back years and years....

And I'm sure you will see other posters that will post studies of how bike lanes are bad, how Dallas has a great grid system for cycling and no need for lanes, how Dallas has plans, etc.... and I've emailed a council member about just putting a 75 yard bike lane on a section of a street that is at the top of WRL, a cycling meca.... but pretty much Dallas leadership thinks it is dangerous and that is that.......

I'm pretty sick of this attitude, of course bike lanes aren't perfect, of course not... nothing is perfect... and if Dallas wants to stick to its grid system, fine the I just wished they would have a little education, maybe paint bicycles on the road or something, anything... anything PM Summer... we just have tired ol' blue outdated blue signs, you have to search high and low on the city website to even find anything about cycling... pretty piss poor job IMO...

Sorry for the rant... I just returned from Tucson where there are countless bike lanes and bike paths.

Vehicular Cycling on some of the "Grid System" roads is a nightmare...if not outright suicidal.
Posted speed limits are exceeded by up to 15mph at some times. (posted 35mph actual 45 - 50+ on parts of Arapaho)

Luckily most of my commute I can ride on residential streets. I've yet to find a "safe" way from Preston (on Arapaho) accross the tollway though. Even the sidewalks are pretty impossible with signs and utility poles planted in the exact center of a narrow path.

Anyone responsible for "Planning" this mess should be forced to cyle each route on the system for a reality check.

It's amazing that we don't need bike lanes, but car lanes barely wide enough for two cars abreast with 4 inches from the white line to the curb is the answer.

What a moron.

I am about as sick of doctrinaire vehicular cyclists as I am of doctrinaire ultra-conservative or ultra-liberal politicians. What makes for safe cycling is so situational, there are many variables.... One size does not fit all.

Insisting on on-road VC in an old East Coast city whose grid was laid out in 1850 for horses where people do drive 25 MPH because they can'y go any faster without hitting things is one thing... but insisting on on-road VC in Dallas or Houston is another!

Give me a connected system of dedicated bike lanes, rideable shoulders, and truly slow, quiet side streets, and off-road paths please!

I just wish McKinney would send a street sweeper through so I don't have to ride on miles of broken glass. I spend most of my time on sidewalks where there are some because the drivers here are so inconsiderate with murder as an option for saving a few seconds.

FT Worth has 40 paved miles around the Trinity River. Dallas has 0. Fort Worth is developing the Trinity area as fast as it can. Dallas is engaged in nothing but Trinity bickering and is paralized by the fear that any developers actually making money. OMG!

DART STILL has no bike racks, every other urban area in North America has them

Fort Worth is also about to engage in a plan to bring back street cars and Dallas has a Bike Coordinator who thinks cyclists are pot smoking hipsters who should be banished to MUP or worse, forced to use "real" vehicles.

Idiots. We need change.

Chris

edit/update - DART is FINALLY recognizing we live in the 21st century - they ARE going to install bikes racks on DART buses! Good lord, I am floored by this.

Read more here (http://www.dart.org/riding/bike.asp) (scroll a bit) They even have a how to use a DART bike rack video with a chick wearing a skirt ("skorts"?). I kid you not. They must think all cyclists are weekend leisure riders. Well who the hell cares as long as they are FINALLY installing racks, 20 years late but oh well.

It's amazing that we don't need bike lanes, but car lanes barely wide enough for two cars abreast with 4 inches from the white line to the curb is the answer.

What a moron.

Just think of the narrow nine foot lanes as nine foot wide bike lanes! Woo Hoo! :thumb:

I wonder though, on streets that have two lanes each eleven feet wide, where are you going to put five foot wide bike lanes?