BIKE: 311 and urban biking safety

[Patrick Goetz]

OK, pay attention because this is important.  (For the executive summary 
version, skip down to the line marked with #####'s)

For at least 4-6 months recently there was a big pile of gravel covering 
the entire west bike lane on Guadalupe between North Loop and 51st St. 
The house at 5211 Guadalupe has a gravel driveway (in direct violation 
of city code, I might add) and during some torrential downpour a good 
bit of the gravel ended up in the bike lane.  The gravel was deep enough 
to be a safety hazard in the unhappy event that someone actually tried 
to bike through it rather than going around - the pile was a good 2-3" 
deep and not uniformly distributed.  Since I bike this stretch of road 
almost every day and sometimes more than once, after about 3 months I 
started to feel quite irritated that this obvious safety hazard and 
eyesore was not being taken care of, either by the city or the house 
owner.  After learning that the house belonged to an absentee landlord, 
I decided to contact the city in order to get them to do something about 
the problem.

Before doing, so, however, it occurred to me that this was part of a 
larger issue.  Further north on Guadalupe and then again on 46th street 
there were a few small utility covers in the road that were well over 2 
inches deep.  Most motor vehicle tires are wide enough to skip over 
these covers, but a bicycle tire could get stuck, tossing the rider over 
the handlebars.  This might be OK for a mountain bike with 2" nobby 
tires and shocks, but I tested one of these utility holes with my bike 
and got a nasty jolt as the bike stopped dead in its tracks.  Had I not 
been anticipating the bump, I would probably have been sent flying.

So, the question is, does the City of Austin have a mechanism whereby 
citizens can report bicycling safety hazards with some expectation that 
they'll be addressed in a timely fashion?  I put this on the UTC agenda 
and asked representatives from Streets and Bridges and Public Works to 
give us the scoop.  At the next UTC meeting I learned about the city's 
new "311" program.  The idea is that there is a single number one can 
call for any complaint.  The person who calls is then given a "CSR 
number" (customer service request) which can then be used to track 
progress on the issue.  I was told this new service has not been 
publicized yet, as they're still working out the bugs, but it was 
basically on line and ready to go.

Despite getting an assurance from the service manager of Street & 
Bridges that he was personally going to look into this particular 
problem (gravel and utility holes on Guadalupe), I decided to use the 
graveled bike lane problem as a test case.  The next day I called 311 
and explained the problem.  After waiting on hold for a few minutes, the 
person who answered 311 informed me that this was a Water & Wastewater 
issue and gave me the number to call.  I called Water & Wastewater, sat 
on hold for 45 minutes, explained my problem again, and was informed 
that this was a Public Works problem.  In new and improved buck passing, 
this person helpfully gave me the wrong number for Public Works, so I 
had to look up the correct number before proceeding.  Next I called 
Public Works, explained my problem again, and was informed that "this 
will be taken care of, but probably not immediately".  When I inquired 
about the definition of "immediately", I was told that it wouldn't be 
fixed the next day, but certainly would addressed within 2-3 days.

One month later, at the next UTC meeting I described my ordeal and 
complained that nothing had been done.  At this time I was informed that 
the correct procedure was to call 974-2000 rather than 311, and that 
that was why nothing got done.  OK, on March 23 I called 974-2000, 
reported the problem and was issued CSR #13082.  On April 1, the UTC 
coordinator emailed me to inquire if the Streets & Bridges 
representative still needed to show up at the next UTC meeting or had my 
issue been resolved?  I wrote back that he had probably better not show 
up in order to avoid getting an earful from me, as the gravel was still 
in the bike lane.  Apparently the threat of verbal violence had an 
affect, as 5 days later someone from the city emailed me that the 
problem had been resolved, complete with before and after photos:

    http://www.chickon.org/photos/gravel1.jpg
    http://www.chickon.org/photos/gravel2.jpg


############################################################################################

As should be obvious, I'm a bit concerned that it took the threat of 
verbal haranguing from a UTC commissioner and over a month in order to 
get an obvious safety and code situation resolved.  Consequently, I want 
to collect data on how well the city is responding to these kinds of 
safety hazard reports so that the UTC can take further action, if 
necessary.  To this end, I would appreciate it if people on this list 
could try using the 974-2000 system to report roadway safety hazards, 
keep track of the day the problem was reported, the CSR # assigned, and 
how long it took for the problemt to be fixed (or not fixed, as the case 
may be), and then report what happened back to the list, or to me 
personally so that I can collect the data.

Since I've been thinking about this, I've been looking for similar 
hazards, and they're everywhere.  There's a giant pothole in the middle 
of the bike lane at Duval and 43rd St., for example.  I think it would 
be better if I didn't personally report any more of these, though, as 
this might produced skewed results.

Just to get your juices flowing on this, here is Kunstler's latest 
eyesore of the month:  http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200404.html