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Dallas bike lanes moving forward, but not the way everyone wants

Read More: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/trans...yone-wants.ece

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In 2012, Dallas had 8 miles of on-street bike lanes. Today that’s grown to 39.3 miles. Within the next few years, that’s expected to increase to 107 miles.

- “To see the progress that Dallas has made is really impressive,” said McNair, a director of bike advocacy group Bike DFW. Others, including some Dallas City Council members, aren’t as awed. That’s largely because 32 miles of the network so far is made up of shared lanes. Those are places where the city paints arrows and bike icons often called “sharrows” to indicate cyclists and drivers share the same space.

- In addition to a 2011 bike plan that calls for expanding the network of cycling lanes, the city has also drafted a “complete streets design manual” that, among other things, advocates for more bike-friendly streets. The full City Council is expected to vote in December on whether to make both documents part of Dallas’ overall thoroughfare plan. Interim assistant mobility planning director Tanya Brooks told the council’s transportation committee this month that the shared lanes are simply low-hanging fruit.

- The 2011 bike plan calls for increases in the shares of dedicated bike lanes, which use paint striping to separate bikers and drivers, and protected bike lanes, which put a physical barrier between the two. Of the city’s 39.3 miles of on-street bike lanes, the only protected lanes are on the Jefferson Boulevard bridge that connects downtown to Oak Cliff. But 5.2 more miles of protected lanes are in the works on Houston Street in Victory Park, the Margaret McDermott bridge, the Sylvan Avenue bridge and the Continental Avenue and Riverfront Boulevard reconstruction projects.

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