BIKE: 311 and urban biking safety

[Lane Wimberley]

I'll try to call in the foliage blocking the bike lane (heh -- nice
pun, in my case) on west-bound Woodward just west of I-35 (which is
St. Ed's property, I believe).  Nasty hazard when the options are to
be flogged by foliage or side-swiped by an over-taking city bus.  I'll
try to do that tomorrow.

Also, don't know if anyone has noticed the fallen tree that is
partially blocking the sidewalk/bike path on Shoal Creek (the creek,
not the blvd) just north of Lamar St. bridge.
Don't know if that qualifies, as it's not on-street, nor is it
dedicated bike facility (I don't think...?).

Finally, I'm glad to hear about this, Patrick.  I've gotten quite sick
of dealing with the thick, slippery and arguably hazardous (nasty, at
least) mud that accumulates under the bridges on the Shoal Creek
sidewalk/path after heavy rains, and so have several times gone down
there myself with a shovel and scooped the mud out of there.  Kind of
a hassle, but the result was worth the effort, although I confess that
I was a little conflicted about doing a job that seems should be the
city's responsibility, since I didn't want them to get the impression
that I was alleviating them of it.

<shrug>

Anyway, thanks for the info.  I'll keep you posted.

-"Bike" Lane

On Apr 11, 2005 5:08 PM, Chuck_Thomas <Chuck_Thomas> wrote:
> 
> pickup parked in the bike lane in the after photo.  love it.
> 
> Thanks for all the work Patrick. I have a deep man hole cover that I'll
> call in & Kramer -chuck-
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces
> [mailto:forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces] On
> Behalf Of Patrick Goetz
> Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 3:58 PM
> To: Austin Bikes
> Subject: BIKE: 311 and urban biking safety
> 
> 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
> 
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-- 
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
human race."
- HG Wells