While many city leaders agree that Dallas would benefit from a walkable, “bike-able” urban environment, the low-hanging fruit is to connect existing bike paths and ensure safety, officials said during a Dallas City Council briefing Wednesday.
Three City Council members will ride their bicycles to City Hall next week as questions linger over a proposed update to the Dallas Bike Plan.
Director of Transportation Gus Khankarli told council members his staff is preparing improvements to a citywide bicycle network map, developing updated bike facility standards, prioritizing projects, and educating residents on the effort.
The updated plan proposes 536 miles of improvements or additions to the existing network.
The updates will connect network gaps, improve public safety, and create connections to trails and transit systems, Khankarli said during the presentation at Wednesday’s council meeting.
The Dallas City Council is slated to adopt the updated bike plan in early 2024.
Implementing The Dallas Bike Plan
Councilman Chad West said he was pleased to hear that an “implementation piece” is forthcoming.
“The plan reads more like a consultant document than an actual plan,” he said. “Before we publish anything that’s called a plan, I think we need to include that implementation piece. That really needs to be at the core of this, because that’s what everyone’s going to look at. This other stuff is just window dressing.”
West asked that, as staff develops the implementation piece, they also come back with three options for financing: a conservative option for implementation using a funding plan similar to what has been used in recent years; an aspirational option for evolving into a model city for cycling; and a middle-ground approach.
The councilman also requested a project priority matrix that allows either a geographic approach or a targeted ridership approach.
The proposed changes have gone through an extensive community engagement process, but Khankarli said another public workshop could be held before the council adopts the updated plan next year.
District 12 Councilwoman Cara Mendelsohn said residents in her district are not particularly receptive to the bike plan.
“I would definitely agree with the need for another round [of public input], now that you’ve got a map of what you’re thinking,” she said. “It’s very clear to me that different parts of the city have different needs. My district is surrounded by highways. All of the major roads are actually part of the highway network.”
There are 17,000 cars per day on Campbell Road, where a bike lane is proposed, Mendelsohn added.
“It’s already very heavy traffic,” she said. “If they were willing to convert to bikes, maybe that works out. I rarely see somebody on a bike on one of the roads. They are on the trails, though.”
District 9 Councilwoman Paula Blackmon said she wanted to ensure that the plan has a “North Star” or guiding focus.
“You can’t have multiple North Stars,” she said. “I think it is providing meaningful transportation through bike mobility. Then add the goals and then we can start allocating resources.”
And while Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold often fights for equity among the council districts, she said Wednesday that District 4 residents are more concerned about street repairs than bike lanes.
“I think there are some targeted neighborhoods that will benefit from this particular design, but where I am right now, our constituents are continuing to ask for road and street improvements so they can drive their cars,” she said. “We need to work on that first.”
Impact on Neighborhoods
The Dallas infrastructure was built for vehicles, Khankarli explained.
“One of the challenges that we have here is we have ‘bike to nowhere’ in some locations,” he said. “You’ll be biking and all of a sudden you’re in the middle of an intersection that doesn’t connect to anything. We want to start looking at these gaps to make sure we have connectivity.”
“Bike boulevards,” shared lanes designated for bicycles and vehicles, can serve as traffic-calming measures that lower motorist speeds within residential neighborhoods, said Chief Transportation Planner Kathryn Rush. She added that they tried to avoid bike facilities on streets that have front-facing homes.
District 2 Councilman Jesse Moreno said implementing additional bike lanes will ensure that people obey traffic laws and drive at or below the speed limit.
“As we look at roads throughout the city especially here in the [Central Business District] where it’s more dense now and we have roads that no longer have the capacity for high-volume traffic, those are perfect opportunities to convert those lanes into bike lanes,” he said. “The infrastructure is already there.”
