City of Dallas explores options to make biking in city safer
DALLAS - The City of Dallas is working on a plan that would make it safer for bicyclists.
Several Dallas City Council members expressed a desire for city staff to create a connected system that will allow more people to use bicycles as a way to get around, and not just for recreation.
"Years ago we said we want to be a suburban-style city and have roads that go everywhere and that is why you have districts like mine and further into District 12, because we made that decision as a city to go horizontal instead of vertical," said Councilwoman Jaynie Schultz.
Council members want city staff to focus on connecting bike lanes where they are needed, rather than have disjointed lanes throughout the city.
"DART went through their analysis in their bus plan looking at geographic coverage versus ridership. I personally would rather us focus most of our money and efforts on the core of ridership, even if it hurts my district," said Dallas City Councilman Chad West.
The city's new bike routes would also apply to electric scooters.
They would be allowed in the bike lanes, but not on trails, per a Dallas ordinance.
Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn has concerns about proposals to reduce lanes of traffic on busy thoroughfares.
"You are talking about taking a lane away from some of these roads and it's already very heavy traffic, so I think that you'r going to need to hear that from some of the folks. If they were willing to convert to bikes, like Councilmember Schultz was saying, maybe that works out. I rarely see somebody on a bike on one of the roads, they are on the trails," Mendelsohn said.
But even the trails themselves are disconnected.
"Preston Ridge trail effectively stops at Beltline," Mendelsohn said.
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Councilwoman Kathy Stewart said the city needs to focus on connecting neighborhoods.
"I want the high school student who live on the northside of LBJ to have the safe access to the high school. I want students who live south of LBJ who we need to get to Richland College, which we talked about yesterday, to have a safe crossing and a safe way to get to Richland College" Stewart said.
Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold says Dallas needs to beware of becoming like Austin, where she says there is a confusing system of mobility options.
"It is chaos for me, and I grew up there, so I'm looking at all these things that have been added to the road so we can accommodate all these mobile choices," she said.
City staff said the city's new bike plan will not include a concept known as "share-o's," paint on the street telling cars to share the road.
The idea relies heavily on public trust.
"Where we have share-o's in [District 7], I have residents who absolutely will not allow for their kids to utilize them," said Councilman Adam Bazaldua.
The city will also be asking state lawmakers for the authority to reduce speed limits in neighborhoods to 25 miles per hour to make it safer for bicyclists.