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Regarding http://www.lobv.org/docs/exposition.pdf
And https://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/dow … elines.pdf
Hi all, LOBV has been discussing this issue throughout the day, and tonight we met with Austin Cycling Association at its meeting to go over the situation as well. In a nutshell, the city had to do maintenance on Exposition Blvd. (from Windsor to Westover -- e.g. 24th to 29th), and since a bike lane is present there, when it is restriped the city has to institute "no parking" in the bike lanes. In doing so, it follow their adopted policy for parking modifications, which includes notifications to residents and businesses on the street. (See link above for full guidelines.)
If more than 50% of the notified object to the no parking, COA is forced to re-evaluate the plan to address concerns. However, it takes a council vote to keep parking in the bike lanes with an ammendment to the city's bike plan.
Only two residences have objected to the no parking requirement so far. So it is likely that the modifications would go through as proposed, unless the two objecting residents garner support from their neighbors (which is quite possible, since they were quite adament in their objections).
However, LOBV is concerned that with the exceptions allowing parking on some segments after 7 p.m. and before 7 a.m. (and in one instance between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.), along with an exception to allow church parking for Tarrytown UMC on Sundays. We feel the exceptions set a bad precedent.
It should be noted that I viewed the site today, and the vast majority of homes on the street have long, expansive driveways, and many circle drives. There were a couple houses with smaller driveways, but even those had parking for two cars.
The problem we are facing is that if we object to the city's proposal, it opens the process up for more objections from residents who hear of our desire to get rid of exceptions. If we were successful, essentially we would have to make COA renotify property owners telling them of the "no parking" without the 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. or Sunday provisions.
So we would like to get your comments.
Regarding the ACA meeting tonight. There was no ACA vote, but it was decided that the group's president speak with COA to emphasize that exceptions should not be made to "no parking" guidelines and that bicycle groups should be notified before notification goes out to property owners if exceptions will be sought to "no parking in bike lanes."
Thanks, and post your feedback here, or email me directly with questions.
Rob D'Amico
President
League of Bicycling Voters
http://www.lobv.org
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The COA new parking in bike lane guidelines were addressed by the Street Smarts Task Force with almost no discussion, they have been passed on by the BAC with minor amendments. The basic policy of the city is that there will be no parking in bike lanes or the bike lanes will go away. The city is in negotiations with property owners concerning the bike lane / parking on Mary St. also. The Shoal Creek fiasco was an embarrassment for everybody. I am not sure that these new guidelines have even been adopted by the city council yet. Everything is in "test" mode. The members of the BAC were notified by email of the proposed changes on Exposition.
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Yes, the guidelines are in "pilot" mode now before being put in the bike plan update. A note on Street Smarts....my subcommittee (law enforcement and safety) actually looked the draft in detail. And we had some discussion on it. But indeed, no one could get a grip on doing something better than what was presented. Although I will note that everyone seemed to be looking at it from the perspective of pur "no parking" rather than "parking modifciations."
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The guidelines state on page three that on collector roadways that have excess of 3000 ADT the parking removal process shall be initiated. which is not what we passed out of the BAC where we wanted parking to be automatically "eliminated" when ADT reached 3000 ADT. Not for the bicycle lane elimination process to be started which is what is going to end up happening on almost every collector street bike route in this town.
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Shouldn't parking in any bike lane be illegal since you must cross a solid white line to get there?
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There is nothing illegal about crossing a solid white line.
These guidelines are predicated on the rigid notion that parking and bike lanes should not coexist in Austin Texas.
We will under these guidelines lose a lot of bike lanes on collector streets where the traffic is both fast and dense at times. At some point the city is going to have to develop the political will to have bike lanes on collector streets or not. I would suggest that as many people as possible actually read these guidelines and address your concerns to
[REMOVED]
Annick is the bicycle issue person for the city of Austin.
In my reading of these guidelines I see a direct political confrontation between cyclists interests and the interests of residential users of collector streets, at some point safety and engineering guidelines are going to have to override parking considerations or our bicycle infrastructure will be seriously diminished.
EDIT: As per the rules, please do not post anyone's email address.
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Hill said: "the section in question between Windsor and Westover is all residential except for the church property on the corner of Westover." That is not correct. Between Windsor and Westover, working from S to N, there is the vegan commercial on both sides, a library, two churches, then the church he refers to is actually a former monastery that is now commercial.
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It's not an unreasonably rigid notion. I have yet to see a modern bike lane painted anywhere else in this country that allows parking.
Also, please don't fall for the effort (successful in the case of Shoal Creek) to conflate "street with residences on it" to "residential street", the latter which has a very specific meaning in transportation circles.
Finally, isn't Exposition actually an arterial, not a collector?
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And more from the West Austin News...
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And more from the West Austin News...
http://www.lobv.org/docs/WestAustinNews.pdf
Wow. They really made this Rob D'Amico guy look like a jerk!
It would appear that Rob is the only one who wants no parking. Annick is trying to find a middle ground but her hands are tied unless all the residents oppose it, and Cindy Stone, her handicapped mother, all the kids, what about them? Her friends and family, where will they park when they visit for the holidays? And Dolores, she only sees an occasional cyclist. And Cindy has pointed out that all the cyclists on this road are training anyways -- they have `professional cycling gear' on!
And the picture given -- there's cars parked in front of the school, but where's the cyclists? Since the text on the picture starts out with `It is an arterial road', I guess the lack of moving cars, but with several parked cars, I guess they're showing that it's not really an arterial road?
And Exposition is the main pathway for emergency vehicles! I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I guess since Cindy said this, it must mean that cars should park there?
The only thing missing was a comment about all these cyclists running red lights and not yielding to pedestrians! (Well, `Lance wanabees' was missing too, but `professional cycling gear' is pretty close.)
Keep fighting the good fight ... (or, put another way, I appreciate your efforts, you mean jerk you :) !)
Last edited by dougmc (2008-09-22 19:52:11)
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as a long time rat reporter myself, I didn't find the article that bad. But the lead bugged me.... "will no longer be able to park their
cars in the street in front of their own homes."
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