The Austin City Council
voted on Thursday to expand the city’s bicycle plan, adding an additional 247
miles of bike paths and creating a network for bikers of all ages and
abilities.
A part of Imagine
Austin, the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan is an update of a plan originally passed
in 2009. Since then, there has been a 70 percent expansion of lanes and trails,
from 126 to 210 miles in a span of five years, according to documents provided
by the Austin Transportation Department.
The new plan is set up to
create 200 additional miles of on-street facilities and 47 miles of urban
trails at a cost of $151 million. The main focus of the new plan is safety,
which will be addressed by adding protected bike lanes. A concern brought up at
the City Council meeting is that additional bike lanes would reduce motor
vehicle safety, leading to an increase in traffic.
A.J. Camp, owner of
Peddler Austin bike shop, said that the infrastructure for bikers in Austin has
been improving, but safety is still a concern.
“There are a lot of
cities that are way worse to ride a bike in, but every time you go out you are
taking a risk because the safety infrastructure is not great,” Camp said. “The
lanes are about two feet wide and there is no separation between the bikes and
the cars…especially with all the cell phone usage going on.”
The main goal of the
2014 Bicycle Master Plan is to build a biking network for people from ages 8 to
80 by creating protected bike lanes, or lanes that have a physical boundary
between bicyclists and automobile drivers.
Nathan Wilkes,
engineering associate with the Austin Transportation Department and coordinator
of the 2014 Austin Bicycle Master Plan, said that the potential amount of
people that bicycling could reach has not yet been realized.
“Only 15 percent of
Austinites are willing and interested in painted bike lanes, so only 15 percent
of Austinites are attracted to our 2009 plan,” Wilkes said. “If we switch to
protected lanes we can reach 55 to 60 percent of Austinites. We have seen a lot
of really exciting results from our updated plan.”
Robert Spiller,
Austin’s Director of Transportation, said that the implementation process will
be dependent on funding.
“We will be looking
for, whether they are STPMM funds, surface transportation metropolitan mobility
funds, or other funds that can flow either from the state or the fed to fund
this,” Spiller said. “We have an annual budget and plan where we take advantage
of when Public Works is completing their repaving. So that is where we
coordinate with them to capture streets once they have been repaved. We would
hope to move forward with this as quickly as possible, the next 10 years or
so.”
The 2014 Austin Bicycle
Master Plan is anticipated to convert 7 percent of the 300,000 daily vehicle
passengers from the business and university districts of Austin, according to
statistics provided by Austin’s Transportation Department.
Nathan Wilkes said that
their implementation plan revolves around creating a compact and connected
Austin.
“Bicycling is a way to
make spaces closer and to connect people, but also create an affordable
Austin,” Wilkes said. “The second largest expense in a household is
transportation budgets, so any increases in bicycle transportation we can do has
an impact on the affordability of our community and creating a healthy option.”
The updated plan required
an amendment before being passed that addressed the concerns of motor traffic
volume, stating that there will be flexible public engagement to encourage a
successful implementation.
Major Lee Leffingwell
had concerns about the road and parking capacity that new bicycle lanes would
take up.
“Our policy is not to
reduce motor vehicle capacity,” Leffingwell said at the City Council meeting.
“There could be roads that could stand some reduction in capacity, but that
ought to be a waiver to the policy, we just see a lot of public criticism over
it.”
By
Phillip Tracy
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