Help
ban parking in bike lanes on Exposition
Blvd.!
September
2008
Austin is one
of the few cities in the world which allows cars to park in
bicycle lanes. Not
surprisingly, there's currently a proposal within City
government to officially sanction car parking in the bike
lanes on Exposition at certain times.
We find this ridiculous.
Bike lanes should be for bikes. Period. All the time. No
exceptions.
If you agree that bike lanes
should be for bikes then please send
an email to the City Council telling them so. Please
be polite; angry or threatening messages hurt our cause.
Below is the letter the League
of Bicycling Voters sent to the City.
League of Bicycling Voters' letter to
City Council
September 11, 2008
Austin Mayor and City Council
Via E-mail
Honorable Mayor and City Council Members:
The
League of Bicycling Voters is a Texas non-profit corporation
advocating policies and programs to increase the number of
bicyclists on Austin's streets and trails. Our board
wholeheartedly supports the COA Bicycle/Pedestrian Program's
ongoing efforts to implement no-parking zones for existing
bike lanes when streets with bike lanes are scheduled for
maintenance and restriping.
The
program's draft guidelines (now being piloted for the next
few months before implementation in the bike plan) are
well-researched and a good-faith attempt to address the need
for no-parking zones in bike lanes--while also balancing the
need for automobile parking in residential areas, or for
churches, businesses or others with special needs for
on-street parking.
However,
we must stress that the ultimate goal of this process should
be eliminating parking in bike lanes without exceptions,
since parked cars in bike lanes are a serious hazard to the
safety of bicyclists. As you well know, bicycles are the
cheapest, most effective solution for meeting the city's
goals of providing a livable city that actively addresses
air pollution, congestion, climate change, reduction of our
dependence on foreign oil, and the goals of the Mayor's
Fitness Council.
Therefore, we find it disturbing that a proposal for
no-parking zones in existing bike lanes on Exposition
Boulevard (from Windsor to Westover) includes
exceptions:
• Parking is allowed in bike lanes from 7
p.m. to 7 a.m. on some segments.
• Parking is allowed in bike lanes at all times
except 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on some
segments.
• Parking is allowed in bike lanes on Sundays, in
some segments, to accommodate church parking.
While
the need for church parking seems to have a basis of merit,
the bicycle community was not involved in the dialogue with
the church to balance the needs of bicyclists and church
members. The other exceptions regarding time restrictions,
however, are completely without merit, since the
overwhelming majority of residences affected by no-parking
provisions on Exposition have ample off-street parking
available. There simply is no significant need for
residential parking on Exposition Boulevard that outweighs
the benefits for providing effective and safe travel for
bicyclists in a key arterial roadway in the city's adopted
transportation plan.
Indeed,
Exposition provides an extraordinary opportunity to connect
West Austin neighborhoods with the safest, quickest bicycle
route to future development on Lake Austin Boulevard, to the
Lance Armstrong Bikeway as a route to downtown, and as a
means to access the heart of the Tarrytown/Deep Eddy
Community (e.g. retail, Casis Elementary, O'Henry Middle
School, the library and other key neighborhood
destinations.)
This
opportunity for connectivity and encouraging bicycling is so
appealing that LOBV asks the City of Austin to do the
following:
1) Eliminate exceptions/limitations to the
no-parking zones in bike lanes in the city's proposal.
2) Implement no-parking zones for the entire length of
Exposition, which is striped with bike lanes in its
entirety. COA staff notes that some 37% of the boulevard
is already designated as no parking, due to segments with
sight restriction from hills, stretches with proximity to
intersections and portions adjacent to O'Henry Middle
School. Those segments do not have exceptions to
no-parking zones, so it makes no sense to add a
significant portion of the boulevard (Windsor to
Westover) as no-parking zones with limitations in
place.
Finally,
we note that a couple of residents on Exposition have
written you objecting to the no-parking zones, since they
believe their boulevard is too dangerous for bicycle travel
to begin with. They maintain that bicyclists should instead
travel on the sidewalk. Professional bicycle safety
instructors and advanced riders will tell you that a
sidewalk is often the most dangerous place to ride, because
of potential collisions exiting curb ramps or crossing
driveways. The residents also note that children
should not use the bike lanes going to school. We maintain
that the city should be committed to providing safe and
direct access to schools, businesses, libraries and parks
for adults, and even children who are comfortable with and
experienced enough to ride in bike lanes on busy
streets.
To go
the route of these residents' suggestions would further
marginalize and endanger bicyclists. And we would go nowhere
in our efforts to achieve the aforementioned goals of a
livable city.
Sincerely,
Rob D'Amico
President
League of Bicycling Voters
On behalf the LOBV Board of Directors:
Mike Librik, Treasurer
Kedron Touvell, Secretary
Amy Babich
Tommy Eden
Simon Evans
Jonathan Horak
Eileen Schaubert
Tom Wald
Pete Wall
Lane Wimberley
Cc:
Marc Ott, City Manager
Rob Spillar, Transportation Director
Alan Hughes, Traffic Engineer
Michael Curtis, Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Manager
Annick Beaudet, Bicycle/Pedestrian Project Manager
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