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| Headed out on the new cycle tracks |
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| Headed to Kirbey Lane on eastside of Lamar |
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| Navigating around the bus stop |
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| Headed back on westside of Lamar; no sidewalks in parts |
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| Sidewalk closed. |
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| No curb cut or way to stay on bike without riding into oncoming traffic or picking up bike and walking over flower bed (which we ended up doing) |
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| The noxious curb Why are there so many utility poles in the middle of sidewalks? |
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| Bike crash! Bruised knee and bruised ego. |
very good. I ride on Ann Arbor to LaCasa and stay on the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteTry riding on Manchaca Road from Jones Road to Stassney The bike lane is part of the sidewalk - raised away from the traffic and protected by a line of trees.
It is beyond me that this model is not the model for all of Manchaca and Lamar.
I understand the desire to ride bikes away from traffic, but I ask that trees not be impacted to build bike paths, especially heritage trees. We all want to walk and ride under the shade of a large tree. Please, help the old heritage trees to continue to provide shade and not being impacted and killed because a bike path or sidewalk was built improperly. There are ways to build these paths around old trees and the best practices need to be used by Public Works to save trees. City code needs to be updated to more modern standards regarding paths and sidewalks, and special techniques need to be used for those special cases when a heritage tree will be impacted.
ReplyDeleteBike lanes that are part of the sidewalk require that the sidewalk be enlarged significantly, from a standard 3-5 ft. wide to 8-12 ft. wide. This can be very bad for heritage trees if the enlarged sidewalk will get too close to the trunk. It’s also very bad for trees due to the soil disturbance caused during the construction, especially cutting roots during trenching, soil compaction and preventing the tree from getting water due to the additional impervious cover. Some times the sidewalk will be installed 1-3 ft. from the trunk which is too close to the tree and is very dangerous to the public because the tree may fail, and yet, it is done.
City code for sidewalks and concrete trails needs to be updated to more modern practices. Public Works has a technique to build above grade with no trenching and no soil compaction, at least that is the claim (I have doubts that a sidewalk 8 ft. wide can be installed above grade only over 2 inches of sand with no gravel or sand base, with no trenching and still provide an ADA slope), but even then, the additional impervious cover is a problem depending on the tree location. If part of the tree’s dripline is covered with concrete already, then the additional coverage from the path may be a problem depending on how much more dripline will be covered.
BTW, city code requires that poles be 2 ft. from the curb, even if that puts it in the middle of ADA sidewalks.
Have you seen the survey the City is doing regarding transportation safety? A good place to get your ideas heard... https://austintexas.granicusideas.com/discussions/top-safety-issues-for-central-texas
ReplyDeleteThe utility poles in the middle of the sidewalk? WHAT is up with that? I have never encountered such a thing in other cities.
ReplyDelete