Why I didn't share the Bicycle Survey

For most of the month of Sept, 2020 I have heard about this Micromobility Survey of the Public Works Department. I even took the survey, but at the end of the day, what's the point? I lost count of the number of surveys I took over the past 10 plus years only to have a city that don't have any useful bike lanes, but have miles of seprate trails that are illegal to use after dark.

Sec. 22-28. Public parks hours of operation and curfew.

(e) Notwithstanding subsection (a), parks designated as natural areas by the director of parks and recreation and parks developed as part of the Linear Creekway Parks development program (Leon Creek, Salado Creek, Medina River) shall be closed for all purposes each day at sunset, or after events scheduled by the department of parks and recreation are completed, and will re-open each day at sunrise.

Image 2020-28-1

I understand what they want to do, but they're doing it all wrong. During the TPR's The Source on Sept 23, 2020, Timothy Hayes, the Pedestrian Mobility Officer for the City of San Antonio said he has to consider whether or not that any new infrastrure will make the cars move slower. Now Timothy here rides a bicycle to and from work. And what I got from this statement is this: "that if a car travel increases by just one minute because of a protected bicycle lane, then we can't have the necessary safe infrasture installed." This seemed to confirm for me why on their comments map (Image 2020-28-1) showing one of the potential corridors is Guenther St. The fact that they're considering Guenther St, a street that doesn't need anything done to it except maybe wider sidewalks, is telling me that the city of San Antonio is again planning on justifying on putting down another useless bicycle lane. AKA, shoving a green smoke stick up the ass of the Cycling Community.

Image 2020-28-2

Their comment map reminded me of a meme from the Copenhagenize website of a few years back. (Image 2020-28-2) The meme perfectly illustrates the frustration between City traffic engineers and cyclist in the community. The bottom two maps are titled as "Where "THEY" think cyclist want to go" and the other "Where Cyclist ACTUALLY want to go. Well San Antonio Public Works, we should be able to ride our bicycles everywhere safely.

If the city wants to really focus on making Vision Zero a reality, it has to do the following. Slow the cars, evaluate whether or not this street needs a bicycle lane or not. And finally, learn from the Dutch on what they do and why they consider puting in a bicycle lane or not.

Slow The Cars:

Charles Marohn of Strong Towns has made several videos over the years explaining what a Stroad is and how it doesn't just negatively impacting the safety, but also the overall finances coming into the city. His organization, Strong Towns, has a campaign called "Slow The Cars" and has several articles on what a community should do to slow the cars. Timothy Hays commutes by bicycle to work is either incapable of understanding this or the laws are written to where he can't put the people first when designing infrasture. If it's the law that makes him incapable of actually producing any safe infrasture, then he needs to come to the cycling community and tell us what laws need to be changed and how to change them. He has to do this or accept the fact that his job is just smoke and mirrors and he will never accomplish anything of value.

Image 2020-28-3

Bicycle Lane Yes Or No:

Copenhagenize has a simple little chart on how to evaluate on whether a stretch of stroad needs a bicycle lane or not and what type of safe bicycling infrasture is needed based on the top speed of the motor vehicles. So far, San Antonio has utterly failed at this. The best failure to see is on E Arsenal St and the other horrible example is along I-37 at the Convention Center where the bicycle signals require you to push the beggars button to activate the signal while in Houston, it turns on 10 seconds before the green light for the cars. For those who don't understand what a "Beggars Button" is. It is the button you push to activate the crosswalk signal.

What does the Dutch do?

If you want to see safe bicycling infrasture done right, well you have to see how the Dutch do it. You can travel there and try to learn, or you can watch Bicycle Dutch on YouTube and learn what they put down and where and why they do it. Now I understand why some of what they do will never fly in San Antonio and I get that. But that doesn't mean that we can't attemp to get as close as possible to the Dutch standards. The infrasture in the Netherlands is so safe, the Dutch don't feel the need to wear bicycle helmets. The three videos that the people in Public Works need to see are...
On-street Cycle Lanes in The Netherlands:  https://youtu.be/8-h7OdlviKo
Separate Cycle Paths Yes Or No (Netherlands):  https://youtu.be/mIdQ8RMDtGM
Junction Design the Dutch - Cycle Friendly - Way:  https://youtu.be/FlApbxLz6pA

I do see the potential of San Antonio of reaching Vision Zero. But we don't get there by asking cyclist what they want and not follow through. We get there by making the necessary changes that make the infrasture safe for an 8 year old and safe for an 80 year old. We don't get there by worring about the travel times of cars. We don't get there by installing substandard infrasture. If I have to push a beggars button to activate the crossing signals, then you built it wrong. If a car is parked in the bicycle lane, then you built it wrong. If the protected bicycle lane on a street that doesn't need it, you did it wrong. It is why there's an undesirable motto of the city that says "Keep San Antonio Lame."

If you want to take the survey and share it with your friends, you can click on the link right here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SABikes

And if you want to comment on their map and make changes click on the link right here: https://wikimapping.com/Midtown-and-Downtown-Bike-Plan-Update.html

Just remember, they stop taking info on Sept 30, 2020. But if you really feel the need for them to listen to you, please complain that they should allow another two weeks for imput.

And for the record, I hope Timothy Hays don't become like the engineer featured in this video.

Images:

Image 2020-28-1: A screenshot of the City of San Antonio Public Works bicycle corridor map. It can be found here at https://wikimapping.com/Midtown-and-Downtown-Bike-Plan-Update.html

Image 2020-28-2: A Meme illustrating the conflict between traffic engineers and the people who ride bicycles. It can be found here at http://www.landscapearchitecture.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Copenhagenize_.06_.jpg The Original can be found here at https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3698/12906206594_3ab3839c14_c.jpg

Image 2020-28-3: The chart that Mikael Colville-Andersen created for determing at what speeds does a stroad needs a bicycle land and what type of bicycle lane. This picture can be found on his blog: http://www.copenhagenize.com/2013/04/the-copenhagenize-bicycle-planning-guide.html

WordPress: (will post later)

Sources:

The Latest Useless Bike Lane: https://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-latest-useless-bike-lane.html

A Tale of Two Protected Bike Lanes: https://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-tale-of-two-protected-bike-lanes.html

Another Useless Bicycle Lane: https://bikesanantonio.blogspot.com/2014/10/another-useless-bicycle-lane.html

Copenhagenize.com: http://www.copenhagenize.com/

Planning The Future Of Micromobility In San Antonio: https://www.tpr.org/show/the-source/2020-09-23/planning-the-future-of-micromobility-in-san-antonio

San Antonio Bikes: https://www.sanantonio.gov/SABikes/About

Get involved with micromobility!: https://onlinepublicmeeting.org/give-your-input

Midtown and Downtown Bike Plan Update: https://wikimapping.com/Midtown-and-Downtown-Bike-Plan-Update.html

Strong Towns: https://www.strongtowns.org/

Slow the Cars: https://www.strongtowns.org/slowthecars