Last night, the Austin City Council heard public comment on the Austin 2020 Master Bike Plan and the cycling community was there in force. In addition to such regular stalwarts as Tommy Eden, Hill Abel, Tom Wald, and BikeTexas’ Robin Stallings, there were nearly 300 people signed up to speak about the plan with only 11 signed up opposing. Not everyone spoke, but there was an incredibly diverse cross section of the community from small business owners and cycling advocates to regular old cyclists. The biggest issue continually brought up in the discussion was ensuring proper funding of the plan and its relatively low cost compared to road construction (the entire plan costs less than 2 highway flyovers.)
Most of the negative remarks were from NIMBY folks members of neighborhoods not wanting specific projects in their neighborhood. Despite these comments, response from councilmembers was overwhelming positive.
Unfortunately, due to a technical SNAFU with training of members of boards and commissions the city legal department recommended the Council postponed final action on the plan. The Mayor indicated that he expects the plan to be voted on at the June 11 Council meeting.
Related posts:
- City Council Action on the Master Bike Plan, Part Deux ...
- Austin City Council Passes Master Bike Plan on 6-0 vote ...
- Austin American Statesman endorses Master Bike Plan ...
- Austin Master Bike Plan wins State Planning Project Award ...
- BAC meeting allows venting over last minute Master Plan changes, introduction of new bike lane installation process ...
on May 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 am
Did y’all make it out last night? I was on the lookout but didn’t see you. Though the bike community really mobilized for this one, I was actually surprised we didn’t get more people there. If Critical Mass can draw 500+ I want to see 1000+ at a political event like this.
on May 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
I had child care issues, but did watch on channel 6. I’ll let Marcus chime in with his lame excuse.
on May 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
No worries, I’m just a slight bit bummed that we didn’t have 7 more people sign up in support. Being able to say that we had “over” 300 citizens supporting the bike plan update would have been dope. I wonder what their record is for number of issue supporters/detractors signed in at once…
Since you watched the Channel 6 broadcast I’ve gotta ask, did I my thoughts look and sound as jumbled on-camera as they felt in-person?
on May 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
SOS probably holds the record. I don’t remember the numbers, but I know public comment went until the early hours of the morning.
You were very much you. It was fine.
on May 22nd, 2009 at 12:16 pm
One other thought. 300 is nothing to sneeze at. I just want to make sure we get the same kind of showing at budget time when their will be the inevitable attempt to throw the plan under the bus.
on May 26th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Budget time is just the FIRST battle; the far more important ones are when a bike facility conflicts with the ‘rights’ of some dude who doesn’t want to have to park his third and fourth car on the other side of ‘his’ street (anybody who doesn’t ALWAYS think “SHOAL CREEK BOULEVARD” when hearing about bicycle plans isn’t qualified to comment).
Electing Laura Morrison was a huge disaster on this scope; she’s tilted so far towards the parochial side on neighborhood issues that she’d probably just ban bikes from the roadway entirely. I don’t see much difference between McCracken and Leffingwell on this issue, though, so no loss there.
on May 26th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
It will remain to be seen how Laura votes on specific issues, but she was quiet complimentary of the plan at Thursday’s meeting. Let’s stick to specific examples of what actually councilmembers do, not you’re hypothetical worst case scenario, Mike.
on May 26th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
It’s very easy to be complimentary of the plan when it doesn’t require making any tough decisions (i.e. now). All the council members who did the wrong thing each of the two times they screwed up on Shoal Creek voted for the last Bicycle Plan and many of them pushed for many other worthwhile bicycle facilities (when, again, parochial neighborhood interests were not at stake). We’ve run out of such projects in large part, though (as seen by the objections raised by the people near that park at the last meeting).
And it’s not precisely hypothetical; she ran as the ANC candidate and has proceeded to precisely match my expectations with every word she’s said and every vote she’s made. It would be the biggest surprise in YEARS if she were to vote in favor of citywide bicycle interests against the ‘neighborhood’ on a case like Shoal Creek.
on Jun 15th, 2009 at 11:48 am
[...] heavy rains and probably some meeting fatigue, the turnout was much different this time compared to the May 21 Council meeting when public input was heard but no vote taken. In May, nearly 300 people signed up to speak and [...]