The roads in the picture are better than many, if not most of those I ride on daily. ChipSeal would think he was in heaven, but, per "Forward Dallas," page II-4-5 the vision for them is "...without public transit access ... Pedestrian and bicycle movement should be discouraged ..." (my bold italics). Lest you think this is some relic from the 50's, it was adopted by the Dallas City Council on June 14, 2006. Among other things, it prioritizes the application of bicycle lanes on various sorts of streets (page II-4-16). What might the secret Dallas plan be to discourage bicycle movement? Who says neglect of bicycling by government is a bad thing? Perhaps urban planners ought to borrow a page from the medical profession and first learn to at least do no harm. Some claim that PM is too strident, but I read documents such as this and wonder if he's gone soft in his old age...
5 comments:
On the comments page of Forward Dallas, I left the following:
"Per your transportation portion of the document (Page II-4-5), it states that bicycle movement is to be discouraged in industrial areas of Dallas.
How, and using what law, does Dallas intend to accomplish this and how are people traveling without cars supposed to travel through such areas?"
Well, until they repeal or modify sec. 551.101. RIGHTS AND DUTIES.
(a) A person operating a bicycle has the rights and duties applicable to a driver operating a vehicle
They cannot legally prevent the lawful travel of cyclists as vehicles.
The obvious implication is that they won't apply paint or paths to the area to "encourage" child-like bicyclists to ride there.
Frankly I'm saddened that they only want to apply this standard to industrial areas.
Yep, that's how Dallas will get a BFC! For more details on how to city earns, win [bribe?] a BFC read John Schubert's essay: http://limeport.org/2009/05/bike-lanes-bicycle-friendly-cities/
Steve,
That document came out of the Long Range Planning Department. The good news is it isn't POLICY, but Planning's recommendation. The bad news is that's how urban planners across the country think. New Urbanism and Form-Based Zoning are all the rage, and this is how bicycles are treated... as "play" transport.
I sorta figured that PM Summer didn't have a whole lot to do with that document.
I suspect it's the same mindset that produced that Minneapolis bike lane and a lot of the Portland fluff stuff.
Post a Comment