Bike Parking Workshop – WE NEED YOUR INPUT
Because of some of the success cyclists are getting with local businesses to get bike parking, we are getting some attention from the Richardson City Council. Currently, we are working on a proposal to promote more bike parking throughout Richardson and we would love to get your input.
If you are free this Friday evening, please stop by and let us know what you think about bike parking around town, where you think we need it, where businesses would benefit and how the city can help facilitate this.
Date: Friday, May 30
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Freebirds – 238 W Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080
We hope to see you there.
Protect Biking and Walking Federal Funding
We received a message from the League of American Bicyclists, requesting our support. We would love to get our local cyclist friends involved with this initiative:
Thank you for you dedication to building a Bicycle Friendly Community. We appreciate the work you are doing to make bicycling safer and more accessible. We wanted to make you aware of a sign on letter for Mayor’s, championed by the US Conference of Mayors and the League of Cities, asking Congress to continue to support the Transportation Alternatives program. The Transportation Alternatives program is the biggest funding source for bicycle and pedestrian projects and an important source of funding for small, local transportation projects. Protecting and expanding this funding source ensures communities like yours can continue to make it safer and more convenient for people to bicycle (and get the recognition for it too)!
The current transportation bill expires September 30, 2014 and Congress is now debating policy for the next bill. Please consider encouraging the mayor to sign onto this letter to let Congress know that the community supports continuing and increasing funding for the Transportation Alternatives Program. We have sent a request directly to your mayor as well.
Thank you,
BILL NESPER, Vice President, Programs
With respect to our hard working City Council, we hope that you would take the time to politely encourage Mayor Laura Maczka to participate in this. Let her know that her constituents recognize the progress the city has already made for cycling and we are proud to support this initiative.
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Central Trail Nearing Completion
According to last week’s city newsletter “Week In Review”, the Central Trail extension is nearing completion:
The expansion of the Central Trail is about 90 percent complete, and the City plans to celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon cutting June 2. The 1.9-mile southern expansion connects the 10-foot wide multiuse trail from the Arapaho Road DART Station to Richardson’s southern city limit. A future connection in the City of Dallas is expected to eventually tie it into the White Rock Creek Trail. The $4.5 million project is funded through Dallas County, $1.4 million from the City of Richardson’s 2010 Bond Program and Regional Tollway Revenue funds.
The City is also working to expand the Central Trail half a mile to the north to Richardson’s northern city limit. The existing trail ends at Renner Road, but the expansion will tie in to the CityLine development and eventually connect to the Plano trail system. The $1.8 million northern expansion is funded through Regional Tollway Revenue and the City’s Tax Increment Finance Zone #2. It is expected to be complete in the summer of 2015 and will allow the trail to run from city limit to city limit.
Watch a City Council work session presentation about progress on the Central Trail at bit.ly/1lDwyxu.
We can’t wait to ride this. It’ll be fantastic once cyclists are able to ride from the north end of town, eventually to the White Rock Creek Trail and into Dallas.
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Come Down For The Owens Trail Celebration
Oncor is just about finished with the Owens Trail beautification project and would like to invite you to their celebration.
From Oncor:
We are looking to get the word out about the celebration to be held on Saturday, April 26 from 10 a.m. to noon that marks the end of the Owens Trail beautification project. There will be free, springtime family-friendly activities centered around the trail and the Oncor Texas Trails project.
As part of the promotion next week, we will be posting an invitation on our newsroom website, TheWire.Oncor.com, and similar messages to our social media networks.
We would love for all neighbors and members of the community to come out and join us!
We are grateful that Oncor has chosen on of our trails as the first in this beautification project, and we hope to see it become available on more of their right-of-ways.
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More Progress On Central Trail South
This section is heading south to Spring Valley Station.
We’ve been following the progress on the Central Trail South (what we are calling the DART Trail section between Arapaho Road and 635 LBJ) and we are seeing some great progress. The last time we checked, the biggest barrier – which was building the trail over some creeks and drainage systems (between Belt Line Road and Spring Valley Road) – was requiring some major, time consuming construction.
From our latest inspection over the past weekend, we discovered that most of that construction is complete. All that remains, of the full trail extension, are just a few small pockets of missing trail, as well as the final, finishing touches. We’re hoping these are finished soon.
This section is covering the new drainage systems.
We’ve also discovered a new addition to the Central Trail south – trail construction NORTH of Arapaho. You may remember us pointing out the ‘gap’ in the original plans for the trail extension, back in 2010. We were concerned that the connection to the south extension was nothing more than a narrow sidewalk. We are glad that this issue was addressed and they are now continuing the wider trail from Arapaho Road, all the way to Arapaho Station. We would love to see that gap eventually connect to the north part of the Central Trail.
This is the new section north of Arapaho Road.
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Richardson Gets Safe Routes To School
A few years back, Ricahardson was awarded federal funding through a Safe Routes to School grant from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for two schools in Richardson: Richland Elementary and Yale Elementary.
It’s finally getting implemented and is scheduled to be complete next month. According to the SRTS plan (pdf), we will be getting:
• Barrier-free curb ramps
• Sidewalks (repairs and missing links)
• School crosswalk and signage upgrades
• Bike lanes
• Bike routes (I’m not sure what they mean by this)
They are already working on the sidewalks and barrier-free curb ramps in Yale Park. It’ll also be nice to get the bike lanes, which will help calm the car traffic through the neighborhood streets, create more awareness for bicycling and encourage more people to ride.
The original information about our Safe Routes To School grant had mentioned bike racks for the schools, but they aren’t on the current proposal (pdf). That either means there wasn’t enough funds or ‘Bike routes’ listed above is a typo, and we are still getting them.
We are glad that we live in a city that works hard to get grants like this. This is a big win for Richardson and we hope to see more developments that improve safety and encourage more active transportation.
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Landscaping Improvements Are Coming To A Section Of Owens Trail
Here is some great news from this week’s Week In Review newsletter from the City of Richardson:
Council Awards Bid for Oncor Signature Trails Landscape Project
Landscaping improvements are coming to a section of Owens Trail south of Collins Boulevard as part of Oncor’s Texas Trails Program. Oncor, North Texas’ regulated electric transmission and distribution service provider, is providing $250,000 for the project, which will be maintained by the City.
The section of Owens Trail being improved winds past Oncor transmission towers and lies within Oncor’s right of way. The improvements to the Owens Trail are designed to serve as an example of how Oncor can work with community partners to create landscaped trails that do not interfere with transmission lines.
Construction is expected to begin this month and wrap up in April.
On a personal note, this is good news for me. It happens to be in my neighborhood and on one of my usual routes. I can’t wait to see the completed improvements.
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New Pics Of The Central Trail Construction – Buckingham To Spring Valley
The Central Trail, southern extension – from Buckingham to Arapaho – is coming along nicely. The Central Trail goes north and south along the DART rail line which runs through Richardson. It will eventually connect Richardson, Plano and other suburban communities to the various parts of Dallas.
We’ve already posted pics of the ‘northern’ end of this extension that runs from Arapaho to Belt Line. Now, we’re seeing some great progress on the southern end, between Buckingham and Spring Valley. The trail isn’t officially open, so don’t head that way yet.
We’re not there yet. Even when complete, there is still a huge gap between Buckingham and the White Rock Creek Trail. Although more trail is needed to complete the connection, this Central Trail extension takes bicycle trail commuters one step closer. This is something DFW cyclists can get excited about. Here are some pics and observations.
This is the southern most end at Buckingham (facing north):
Here is the Spring Valley End (facing south):
Here is the Spring Valley End (image, not bike, facing north):
Here is the path along Spring Valley, heading to the signal crossing at Business Parkway. When we saw the plans for this, it originally seemed to be pretty narrow. It actually appears to be wider than a standard sidewalk. Without proper marking it may be confused as one.
Here is the trail connection on the north side of Spring Valley. As you can see, this is pretty wide and feels more like a multipurpose trail. This leads right into DART’s Spring Valley Station.
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Bicycling Goals For Richardson – 2014
What do you think the 2014 Bike Goals for the City of Richardson should be? Please post your ideas that would help improve biking in our city – and would cost little to nothing out of their budget. We’ll see if we can politely bring them to their attention.
I’ll start:
– Safe Passing Ordinance. They passed it in Plano and a few other north Texas towns, so it makes sense for Richardson.
– Keep Public Trails Open Longer. Figure out a way to open the Owen’s Trail for pedestrians and cyclists through the Sherrill Park Golf Course for much longer hours – 24 if possible
– Safer Intersections Along Bike Routes. An example would be to turn the intersection at Melrose and Custer into a 4-way stop.
– Bike Parking Ordinance. Require new construction to include bike parking. OR, at least, offer good incentives for developers to add them to their plans.
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Richardson City Council Approves Resolution for Work on New Trails
State Farm Campus – Plano Road, just south of the PGB Tollway
From last week’s city newsletter:
The City Council on Monday approved a resolution that advances the development of a trail system near the future State Farm campus and surrounding area. The resolution authorizes BCS West Land Investments to design and construct the trail along Routh Creek Parkway from Renner Road to the nearby DART rail station.
The City has obtained a Regional Toll Revenue grant to fund approximately 80 percent of the trail. Once complete, the trail will tie in to the City’s Central Trail, which will eventually run from north to south across the entire City.
Trail Along Routh Creek Parkway, heading north to Renner Road
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Bike Friendly Richardson 
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