Bicycle Austin forum

I am a business owner on Nueces Street.  I think it is important that the bicycle community hear my concerns as opposed to constantly be labeled ignorant by certain opposition.

Nueces is almost entirely zoned for commercial property.  When I invested my life savings as well as my company's future in purchasing property on Nueces last year, I did it for one simple reason: the ability to increase exposure of my company within a densely populated and growing downtown district with accessible through traffic in place.  Nueces offers this as it is a thoroughfare from MLK to downtown and soon to expand to Cesar Chavez.  Many alternate streets do not provide the same luxuries.

My company, as many others established on Nueces, rely on this exposure.  My client based has grown since our move and it can be often directly traced back to this exposure.  I have also hired two new employees since this summer.  My area is also zoned by the city to continue to grow with development once the economy turns around.  Additional growth will lead to more traffic and more exposure. 

The problem with a bicycle boulevard is it is designed to deter automobile traffic.  This decreases exposure therefore also devaluing my business.  Unfortunately, there are not and will never be enough bicyclists on Nueces to compensate for this lost exposure.

In addition, my commercial property will go down in value as it has less intrinsic value to other companies to purchase the property.  The reason the property values have doubled in the last five years to begin with along Nueces is due to the rapidly increasing exposure it offers businesses and the city's rezoning plans to densify the area. 

Opposition also claims that only a minority of property owners along Nueces reject to the bicycle boulevard.  This is not the case.  Every business owner I have talked to is devastated by the financial impact this will have.  The only business set to benefit is Lance Armstrong's bike shop.  To call all of us ignorant and fearful of change is foolish.  Many others, like me, have business and economic backgrounds and clearly realize the negative impact deterred automobile traffic will have. 

The city is also providing some misleading information.  Remember the study that Annick provided that showed only 3,500 cars use Nueces a day?  Well it was done in August of 2002 while UT & ACC were not in session.  How much has downtown Austin changed in 7 1/2 years and how much busier is it when both schools are in session?  Also there is no concrete numbers to support Annick's claims that businesses have benefited from the Portland bicycle boulevard.  I have spoken to one Portland business owner who states otherwise.

The argument of less stop signs is minuscule.  How much time is lost having to stop at a couple stops signs when commuting through downtown?  The C-cyclist benefit will be minimal.  You will still have some auto traffic, freight trucks (we had an 18 wheeler deliver to us yesterday), fire trucks (MLK & Nueces station) and rush hour traffic.  After all, it is a business corridor within a metropolitan city.  Which brings me to me next point: what the heck are kids doing riding their bikes unsupervised within a downtown city?

Listen, the truth is businesses rely on Nueces and the vehicles that use it.  The area is zoned to be heavily developed and become ever busier in the near future.  Bikes are able to navigate on Nueces sharing the road just fine right now.  Trying to fit a bicycle boulevard on Nueces is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.