Someone in one of the public forums on the proposed Downtown Bicycle Boulevard project asked that people “look at the project from 30,000 feet.” Well, this doesn’t appear to be that high, but this CGI flyover video of what the project might look like shows it at least as high as a moon tower.
And that cool music? Supplied to the city by none other than David Byrne, a supporter of cycling. Kind of gives it a Ken Burns feel, doesn’t it?
You’ll notice that the video goes into glorious detail on what will happen on Rio Grande Street (for 3 minutes and 10 seconds), but then zips through Nueces rather unceremoniously (only two minutes) – perhaps unintentionally highlighting a complaint of some cyclists, most notably the League of Bicycling Voters, that the compromise plan gave short shrift to amenities on Nueces.
The original idea was to have the boulevard exclusively on Nueces, but feedback from some cyclists (and complaints by Nueces business owners) resulted in a plan that puts most traffic calming devices on Rio Grande, and only bike lanes and sharrows on Nueces. (Although, in fairness to city staff, Nueces is due to be ripped up for a water main project in 2011, making the immediate implementation of traffic calming devices on that street impractical.)
A group of business and property owners is still opposed to the project, while many cyclists have accepted the plan and urge its passage. The plan has been wending its way through the city’s boards and commissions process, and is due before the Urban Transportation Commission a second time on Tuesday, May 11, 6pm at City Hall, so that the UTC may consider an (click for PDF) economic impact study prepared by Angelou Economics.
At present, the Bicycle Boulevard project is due to come before the City Council on June 10.
This article appears in April 30 • 2010.