Bike Boulevard Update
8th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
The Austin Chronicle has a nice update of the Bike Boulevard plan, in which it states, “much of the traffic calming and other devices intended to benefit bicyclists have been moved from Nueces Street, as originally proposed late last year, and over to Rio Grande Street.” The plan is meant to provide a corridor for Austin bicyclists to get in and out of downtown safely. The cycling community is divided in its support of the changes which city council will consider May 13th.
Posted on: April 8, 2010
Filed under: biking
2 Comments
Stuart
April 28th, 2010 at 11:08 am
I have noticed that the label “divided” usually gets attached to the losing side in a political battle. Make no mistake about it, we did lose this particular battle. But, in fact, we are divided in a similar fashion to way the congressional Democrats, who won their battle, are divided on health care reform: some wanted single payer; some wanted the “public option”; and some were wanting exactly what eventually got passed. But, almost all of the Democrats wanted health reform of some kind. Similarly, the Austin Bicycle Community wants more bicycle infrastructure downtown and throughout the city. The only question is how best to achieve that. Do we keep fighting for a true Nueces St. Bike Blvd.? Or, do we gladly accept the suboptimal solution being proposed by the City of Austin transportation staff? Or do we do something in between, or do we do something else entirely different?
But, make no mistake about it, we are not divided even though we are disappointed by the current situation. And, we are determined to press on and push for more positive change for bicyclists and other modes of alternative transportation. And, we are slowly winning that war.
katherine
April 28th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Stuart, thanks for your insight!
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