San Antonio city council belligerent about installing bike lanes
Of course the elites that populate the San Antonio City Council know best and the rest of us just need to sit down and shut-up. They want to put us on a 'road diet' and presumably force us out of our cars and into mass transit. Sorry, but I have 9 kids and taking mass transit is not only inconvenient and not stroller or family-friendly, it's way more expensive per person than travel by car. Use our road taxes to expand them, not take away auto lanes and elevate bikes over cars.
City 'Won't Ask Permission" To Reduce Vehicle Lanes for Bikes
Friday, May 30th 2014
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
Mayor Julian Castro and other members of City Council stress that they are committed to narrowing roadways to create a system of bicycle lanes across the city, and a visibly frustrated Castro said the city will 'not ask permission' from taxpayers before they reduce vehicle lanes from major streets, 1200 WOAI news reports.
"The policy of the City of San Antonio is that we are going to build a strong bike network," Castro said. "We will not ask permission before taking this action, just like we don't ask permission before we repair roads."
The comments came as City Council grudgingly approved a measure to remove six miles of bike lanes on South Flores Street, because residents had complained that the bike lanes would slow traffic and cause traffic congestion.
While council members did order city staffers to do a better job of notifying residents when streets will be restricted to install bicycle lanes, Council members like Rey Saldana stressed that bicycle lanes are part of the SA 2020 master plan.
"The idea of the road diet is that you are going to take a lane away, you are going to inconvenience folks, you are going to create a new normal," Saldana said.
'Road diet' is the latest trendy urban planner phrase to refer to taking roads and streets that are currently four lanes or more, and narrowing the lanes reserved to traffic. That way the road can be restriped for bicycle and pedestrian lanes without the need for more construction or more right of way acquisitions.
Councilwoman Ivy Taylor actually suggested that having plenty of room for vehicular traffic to flow freely is a bad thing.
"The reason why people are speeding is that they have a nice wide clear path," she said. "Unless we figure out some sort of behavioral adjustment to figure out that speeding is dangerous, then one of the ways that we can address speeding is through the road diet."
Members of council stressed that this has been decided, and the role of the taxpayer is essentially to shut up.
Concerns by Councilman Mike Gallagher that slowing traffic might be more than inconvenient to motorists, but an actual danger to children, were drowned out by the rush to pander to bicycle riders, who were loudly represented in the council chamber.
"Because of the lane reductions, students often dart in between moving cars, which is extremely dangerous," Gallagher pointed out.
Many members of Council cited a report released earlier this week saying San Antonio remains one of the most unfit cities in the country as a rationale for placing bicyclists over vehicles. Others said getting more people onto bicycles would save the planet, by cutting down on emissions from cars and trucks.