Bicycle Austin forum

The first time I heard about removing the bike lane on Nueces to add street parking (to make up for lost parking on Rio Grande) was from Annick Beaudet. She was trying to "sell" the Rio Grande project to the neighborhood by offering up the Nueces bike lane. This happened repeatedly. As far as I know, the university neighborhood group never demanded (or even asked) that the Nueces bike lane disappear, but the "we'll replace the lost parking on Rio Grande" statement was repeated so often by city staff that now it seems inevitable.

If there is evidence that replacing the bike lane with parking and having bikes ride in "sharrowed" lanes will make biking more dangerous, that would be good to know now. The current plan is to leave the Nueces bike lane intact until the Rio Grande facility is completed (probably in late 2013), so there is time to change the fate of the Nueces bike lane if any feels strongly about it.