BVC-CHAT CS focus groups

[Matthew Hattaway]

Even if they ever lifted the ban, I think it would still be stupid to ride on Texas ave. 
  M "I've been hit more than yall" H
  
jeanmarie at brazoscyclists.org wrote:
  
Rebecca Riggs wrote:

> The issue is connectivity, but you need to understand why major arterials
> like Texas Avenue will never be striped for bike lanes.

You know that feeling you have when you read someone's reply to something
you wrote and you wonder "Did I really say something that stupid?" ...
I had one of those moments when reading Rebecca's post. I realize
Rebecca did not mean to attribute to me what I didn't say, and
since she knows many people advocate bike lanes, she felt compelled
to reply to that idea. (Hmm, just like I'm compelled to reply now! :)
Lest anyone reads her post and thinks I was advocating for bike lanes on
Texas Avenue, I did want to clarify what I did, in fact, say.

Just for the record, this is what I said:
http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/bvc-chat/2006-October/005247.html
and this is what Rebecca said:
http://philebus.tamu.edu/pipermail/bvc-chat/2006-October/005248.html

What I advocated was lifting the bike ban on Texas Avenue. Having any
arterial with bicycles banned indicates that the city thinks bikes do NOT
have the same rights under the law as other traffic. Further, it is a
stupid ban. We do not ban bicycles on the Hwy 6 frontage (which is,
in fact, the only way I have of getting to work off Wm. D. Fitch Parkway
aka Greens Prairie Road) where traffic moves at 55+ mph, but we do on
Texas Avenue where the speed limit is what? 35-40 mph? There are more
intersections and driveways on Texas, true, and intersections/driveways
are the location of the bulk of bicycle/auto accidents. However,
injuries and fatalities are closely correlated with speed, and so
35-40 mph traffic is much nicer than 55+ mph.

What could be done to make Texas Avenue more friendly? Keep the speed
limit down (and it can't get that high with all the traffic lights anyhow)
make a wide outside lane, and lift the ban. That's it.

We need more planners (and frankly more bicycle advocates) educated in
bicycle driving. If all the planners (and advocates) know about when
trying to make streets bicycle friendly is bike lanes and side paths,
I hate to say it, but I think we're sunk -- we won't have them on major
arterials because they are major arterials, and we won't have many on
residential streets because the residents object to losing parking (we've
seen this happen). What we need is folks with an understanding of how
bicycles safely interact with other vehicular traffic and therefore how
to design our community to encourage more travel by bicycle. Note that
most residential streets are fine for bicycling without any lanes, by
children and adults alike because the speed limits are low.

That said, tooting my own horn here for a moment, I'd be happy to teach
a Road 1 course which is an introduction to Bicycle Driving. There
is more to riding a bicycle than just balancing on it! I need 3
students (minimum) to find at time when they agree to do it. We
could start by doing just the 4 hour classroom module and wait in the
bike stills and on-street clinic until more people found time. There are
about 4 hours of classroom and 5+ hours of on the bike time.

On a side note I do not advocate much for bike lanes in general,
though I know that some of the rest of you do. There is debate on the
topic so I'm not going to try to summarize it here. If you are
interested, here are some links to get you started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bike_lane_debate

http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/facilities.htm

Jean Marie


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