Texas - Dallas should play in traffic?

This is a good read. I knew there were shakeups, But to believe this has really been going on. It is nice to see people in the community stepping up.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2009-11-26/news/dallas-former-bike-czar-tells-newbie-riders-to-go-play-in-traffic/1

Regardless of which side of the VC issue we might fall on, it is good to see cycling get publicity.

PM's problem is the same as John Forester's: They are so convinced they've got the Cycling Gospel, they alienate people with other ideas. Too inflexible to accomplish things in a real position of responsibility.

Some time back, I was riding on Bike Route 280, through one of the nicer parts of town. The street was wide, with very little traffic, just about ideal riding conditions. And then I passed a man, woman, and girl on bikes, and they were all riding on the sidewalk, carefully negotiating a 90 degree bend in the sidewalk. That's where it really hit me, that the point of bike lanes is not so much to have a place to ride, but to inform people where they ought to ride. I guess what strikes me as odd, and sad, is that much of the problem is shear ignorance, but I've never seen anything being done to remedy it. It seems like you should see public service commercials or signs on the road or something tell you how and where to ride, and it's missing. So they're going to paint a stripe instead.

To reinforce this idea, you'll notice up above is a sticky called "Texas Rides". One of the posts in there is links to the Dallas bike route system. The reason it is posted there is because nobody realizes it exists, otherwise. So the city has this system, but has done a pretty good job of keeping it secret, too.

I've ridden Bike Route 280 from one end to the other. What I observed is that near White Rock Lake, you'll see other cyclists out. Anywhere else along that route, zero cyclists pretty much.