Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

MichaelBluejay · 2019-10-11 10:55:27

For decades it was legal for cars to park in the bike lanes on Shoal Creek Blvd. As of 2019, that's reportedly finally come to an end.

That makes me wonder, are there still any other holdouts? Where is it *still* legal for cars to park in bike lanes in Austin?

This is not a question about enforcement: We all know that cars park in bike lanes even when it's prohibited, and good luck getting the police to come out to do anything about it. The question is, where is it prohibited, regardless of whether it's respected/enforced?

trentsky · 2019-10-11 11:59:38

My understanding of the matter is that SCB did not *technically* have bike lanes since parking was allowed. Official bike lanes do not allow parking. You may recall the city accidentally painted bike lane markings at one point and then had to go back and obscure them with black paint.

MichaelBluejay · 2019-10-11 12:15:01

Yeah, I'm not really interested in the City's excuses. They were bike lanes as far as I'm concerned.

dougmc · 2019-10-15 20:02:22

As far as I know, it's not that SCB didn't have bike lanes so parking is allowed -- instead, it had parking lanes that had some non-standard markers that were kind of like those for bike lanes. But I don't think they were ever really "fully" bike lanes, though I'm not sure that this distinction really matters.

That said, again, as far as I know, the City of Austin *still* allows parking in all bike lanes where "no parking" isn't clearly signed. That said, they've become better at marking things "no parking" lately, but they still only put up the signs in places that 1) people actually park there regularly, and 2) they've decided that they don't want to allow this.

If the city wanted to change it so that parking *wasn't* allowed in bike lanes, they'd change the city ordinances to reflect this, but so far I am unaware of any such changes.

And if you want a specific places that I can think of where people still park in the bike lanes ... parts of Beckett in Oak Hill. Most of Beckett is now signed "no parking" in the bike lanes, but there are spots where it's not signed, and while people don't *normally* park in these spots ... they do sometimes.

MichaelBluejay · 2019-10-16 06:45:03

dougmc wrote:

And if you want a specific places that I can think of where people still park in the bike lanes...

I tried to make it clear that that is NOT what I was asking about.

owlman · 2019-10-16 12:06:34

Two examples:
The stretch of Escarpment Blvd by Mills Elementary has bike lanes marked with the bicycle-arrow symbol, but allows parking. Most (all?) of the rest of Escarpment has No Parking signs, but that segment does not.

I think all of Lost Creek boulevard still allows parking.

dougmc · 2019-10-17 12:50:42

MichaelBluejay wrote:

dougmc wrote:
And if you want a specific places that I can think of where people still park in the bike lanes...
I tried to make it clear that that is NOT what I was asking about.

I guess I should have qualified that a bit more ... "and it's legal for them to do so" -- that *is* what you were asking for, is it not?

If the bike lane does not have "no parking" signs (and doesn't have explicit parking spots), it's legal to park there, and such bike lanes are numerous.

If you were asking for a list of bike lanes that don't have "no parking" signs or explicit parking spots next to them, the list would be huge.

That said, the city is only bothering to consider even putting up "no parking" signs in the places where people actually park.

Bicycle Austin forum

#1 2019-10-11 10:55:27

Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#2 2019-10-11 11:59:38

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#3 2019-10-11 12:15:01

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#4 2019-10-15 20:02:22

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#5 2019-10-16 06:45:03

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#6 2019-10-16 12:06:34

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

#7 2019-10-17 12:50:42

Re: Where is it still legal to park in bike lanes?

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