“Lance Armstrong Gateway” Cycle Track Plan on Bishop Revealed
December 30th, 2009 § 10 Comments
Roy Appleton, at the Dallas Morning News, wrote an article on our efforts to install the first cycle track (physically separated bicycle lane) in Dallas along Bishop Boulevard connecting the Methodist Hospital campus to the Bishop Arts District. We’re dubbing this the “Lance Armstrong Gateway” Cycle Track, as Methodist was the birthplace to the Tour de France champion. This, in tandem with our efforts to create an East/West Bicycle Boulevard along Seventh Street, would provide a seamless connection from residential and school areas, to retail and work. The final link needed is the connection into Downtown itself, which is also being worked on with details forthcoming.
(Cycle Track in Aberdeen)
This is an exciting opportunity that we’ve worked with local property owners, and Council Member Delia Jasso to move forward on. Mrs. Jasso’s leadership and help in the effort has been instrumental in getting this project off the ground. We still have a ways to go but the exciting development is that the funds already exist for the project, and our first meetings with leaders at Methodist Hospital have shown promise for a coordinated promotional effort on branding the area as a major bicycling corridor.
This sounds very interesting. Any chance you could provide a legible version of the plan?
I don’t have a digital copy of the larger plan in hand. Will post once it’s available.
This is SOOOO exciting! I just got back from New York and rode in one of their cycle tracks. It was INCREDIBLE. We were all able to ride at a casual pace, and talk with eachother…when will we know more?
It’s still the early stages, but we hope to know more within a few weeks. Right now, our engineering group at OCTA is looking at intersection treatments like separate bike signaling (another first for Dallas, but seen throughout Europe and now in NY & Portland), or something similar to what was rolled out on NY’s Grand Street: http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/07/25/plan-for-grand-street-cycle-track-features-new-design-treatment/
The interesting part is this presents an opportunity to implement traffic calming pedestrian islands on Colorado as well, due to a b blind grade that is currently not safe for pedestrians who park across the street and walk to the hospital. A lot of what gets implemented will depend on the price of the treatments, but the existing bond money coupled with federal ISTEA funds which are being used for many new cycle tracks in the US, can help us get there quicker. Plus, the CDC is promoting bicycle infrastructure projects, which all hospitals look to….so other funds may be opening up as well (rumor is that fed bicycle funding is about to grow exponentially).
Here’s a larger picture:
http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=10NL2mYl53PcYY6cnJhBKs18fx5KdM
What do they plan to do about all those driveways currently along Bishop Avenue?
Driveways stay right where they are. Cycle tracks run parallel to sidewalks, which also cross the driveways. Here’s a google map example of a cycle track in a residential neighborhood in Amsterdam (note the multiple driveways):
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=amsterdam&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.160552,78.662109&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Amsterdam,+North+Holland,+The+Netherlands&ll=52.295357,4.854755&spn=0.005354,0.038409&z=15&layer=c&cbll=52.295347,4.854758&panoid=dlDhJhjpqEgRp53zC1RBdw&cbp=11,357.52,,0,7.11
At driveways, we place mountable curbs (small stepdowns when exiting, small step-ups when entering), that cars pause for when crossing: http://tinypic.com/r/2j4boxx/6
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