Richardson City Staff Presents Bike Plan To City Council
On Monday, April 20, 2015 Richardson City Staff presented their Bike Plan to Richardson City Council. The presentation was a combination recap of what they’ve done, as well as their next steps.
It was nice to see how important bicycling is to our city officials and how they continue to see the value of what it brings to our community. It was also nice to see that our little grassroots, advocacy group has been recognized—not only for what we’ve done, but also as a partner moving forward.
You can catch the presentation, online. Click the link below and go to Item D in the list:
http://richardsontx.swagit.com/play/04202015-1034
The video shows Michael Spicer, Director of Development Services and Lori Smeby, Director of Parks and Recreation. Dave Carter, Asst. Director of Development Services, Transportation and Traffic – who helped put it together – was there as well.
The were lots of people who were engaged in the conversation, but we really appreciate our City Council’s positive reception of the Bike Plan and their enthusiastic support of cycling in Richardson. Thank you Laura Gibbs Maczka, Bob Townsend, Mark Solomon, Scott Dunn, Kendal Hartley, Paul Voelker and Steve Mitchell.
This is a great opportunity to have a voice for all people who ride bikes. We should work to build our community as a diverse group with a broad perspective. If you have any friends or neighbors who are interested but concerned about cycling, please invite them to join our Facebook page, engage our City and be part of the conversation.
This is an exciting time to live in our city and we look forward to the next steps.
City of Richardson Bike Parking Initiative
Increased bike parking has always been one of the goals of Bike Friendly Richardson. More bike parking provides incentive for folks to ride their bikes to local destinations, like parks, libraries and local businesses. We have a great city to ride, and now it’s time to work harder on our destinations.
Recently, we were asked by City Council member, Scott Dunn, to present information about creating a functional and comprehensive bike parking plan that would benefit, not only cyclists, but local business owners as well as the city. Bike Friendly Richardson‘s new Bike Parking Initiative’s lead, Mark Adams, was able to present a brief introduction to a bigger plan that will, hopefully, pave the way to a system of well designed and well placed bike racks that will encourage more cycling around town.
Along with some shared input from other local cyclists, Mark has done some extensive research into the world of reliable, sensible and secure bike parking, and we will be sharing that information with city council, staff and developers. We hope to follow in the footsteps of other great cities and incorporate a bike parking component into future building ordinances. We would also love to have the City as a supporter in our crusade to ask existing local businesses to consider investing in bike parking as well.
You can catch Mark’s presentation to the Richardson City Council here.
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ATTENTION: MONDAY IS A BIG DAY FOR RICHARDSON CYCLISTS!
There are two big bike events happening on Monday, June 2. Please try to attend either one, or both.
The first is the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the new Central Trail extension in Richardson. It’s a much needed extension of an existing trail, providing some great connections between our local DART rail train stations and neighborhoods. The City of Richardson and Dallas County are hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the trail on June 2.
Here are the details:
Date: Monday, June 2. 2014
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Spring Valley DART Station/Central Trail – Spring Valley Road at Lingco Drive
The next is the Bike Friendly Richardson, Bike Parking Initiative presentation to the Richardson City Council, that evening.
We were asked by City Council member, Scott Dunn, to present information about creating a functional and comprehensive bike parking plan that would benefit, not only cyclists, but local business owners as well as the city. Our new Bike Parking Initiative’s lead, Mark Adams, will present a brief introduction to a bigger plan that will, hopefully, pave the way to a system of well designed and well placed bike racks that will encourage more cycling around town.
Date: Monday, June 2. 2014
Time: 6:00 p.m. – During the City Council Work Session
Location: Richardson City Hall – 411 W Arapaho Rd, Richardson, TX 75083
WE NEED TO SHOW OUR SUPPORT FOR THESE EVENTS! Let’s try to get as many cyclists as possible to the ceremony and council meeting, and show our appreciation and support.
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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.
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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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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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Updated Pics Of The Central Trail (South) Construction
Here are some updated pics of the new, southern link to the Central Trail.
Construction is still looking a bit light, south of Belt Line. We’ll keep you posted on any new updates.
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Central Trail Construction (South) Coming Along Nicely
We’ve been keeping an eye on the construction of the southern extension of the Central Trail.
Central Trail is the trail that runs parallel to Central Expressway, along the DART Rail Red Line tracks. Currently, it starts at Renner Road at Routh Creek Parkway (where it connects to the Spring Creek Trail), and runs south to DART’s Arapaho Center Station – well, sort of. In our opinion, it really stops at about Alma Road, and becomes a sidewalk, along Greenville, until it reaches Arapaho Center Station. Read more about that here.
This new addition is designed to extend Central Trail south, from Arapaho Road to Buckingham Road – at the city limit. Future extensions will eventually connect it to the White Rock Creek Trail. We were also given some information that lead us to believe that the trail extension will connect to the Arapaho Center Station train platform, instead of the bus transfer station on the east side of Greenville Road. That would be fantastic if it actually happens.
Once this extension is complete, people will be able to walk or ride their bikes to three of the four DART train stations in Richardson (Spring Valley, Arapaho Center and Galatyn Park). The Bush Turnpike Station will have to wait for a future extension.
Here are some pics and descriptions of the current progress:
This shot was taken at the southwest corner of Arapaho Road And Greenville Avenue. You can see the DART tracks to the right and Greenville Avenue to the left.
This shot was taken a bit further south along Greenville Avenue. As you can see, they’re making every effort to save the trees.
This shot was taken even further south along Greenville Avenue. Here you can see how the trail will coexist with the DART Red Line.
This pic was taken just south of the Jackson Street crossing.
As you can see, the trail isn’t ready to ride.
As the trail approaches Belt Line Road, it actually crosses under the DART Rail track overpass.
This is where the trail will cross Belt Line Road. The city has decided that the light at Interurban will be the best place to cross.
Once across Belt Line Road, the trail is lost at this parking lot entrance. It eventually begins again at the rail underpass.
The trail construction seems to end at Polk Street.
I rode a bit further south to find this bridge being built at Phillips Street. Not seeing a current plan, I can only guess that this will have a roll in the extension of Central Trail.
I didn’t get a chance to ride down to Spring Valley Station. I’ll try to get down there next weekend to check on any progress down there.
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Recap – Cyclists In Suits – Texas Bicycle Lobby Day 2013
Image ©BikeTexas.org – Please visit their site.
When I first heard about the BikeTexas event, Cyclists In Suits, my first thought was (like perhaps a Tweed Ride) this is a bike ride where folks dressed up and rode around the capital. I would soon discover that this was not a dapper critical mass, nor did it even involve getting on my bike. Cyclists In Suits was not an event to show state legislature that we can gather for a ride, but rather, we can gather and have a productive discussion about bicycle policy in Texas.
Cyclists In Suits is a biennial event held during the Texas Legislature’s regular sessions. It is great opportunity for Texas cyclists to share their love of cycling with their state legislators. The goal is to have cyclists from every legislative district in Texas visit the capitol with our staff and remind the legislature that we are voters and we want them to represent our cycling interests.
The next thing that ran through my head was, I’m not a lobbyist, nor am I a very political person. Why would I want to participate in this event? The answer is, I LOVE CYCLING, and I will do everything I can to make it better in Texas. The least I could do was add myself to the head count and show the Texas legislature that there are many constituents who care about cycling.
Our local advocacy group, BikeDFW, hosted a bus ride to Austin that day – which I joined. The trip involved departing from DFW at 5:00 am, arriving in Austin to participate in lobby activities, network with like-minded advocates from all over the state, then return that evening. It was a really long day.
Although the group on the bus was very diverse, ranging in gender, race and cycling style, I was hoping to have a better balance of the different bike cultures. Perhaps, as cycling becomes more popular among the non-sports crowd, we’ll see more of that. Regardless of the balance of cyclist types, this group was fantastic. There’s something to be said about shedding the lycra, cleats, helmets and skinny jeans and seeing bicyclists unite for a common cause. On the bus, we weren’t ‘racers’, ‘roadies’, ‘commuters’, ‘critical mass-ers’, ‘fashionistas’ ‘VCs’ or ‘weekend riders’. We were, simply, cyclists.
When we got to Austin, we were greeted by the BikeTexas folks. They escorted us to the capital building and into a room they had reserved for the bicycle lobbyist. We were each given a couple of bags of bicycle lapel pins to hand out to anybody wanting to show support. We then got a quick tutorial on who we would be talking to and the best way to communicate to them. We also learned about the bills they were currently trying to push through, HB 2225 – Safe Passing (SB1515 – Safe Passing) and HB 1102 – Complete Streets (SB 565 – Complete Streets). There were more bills for cyclists, but the goal was to remain focused on these two for better impact with legislators – who meet with many different types of lobbyists, daily.
Fresh Of The Bus, Heading To The Capital Building
After the briefing, we were split into smaller groups and given folders containing all the information about these bills. We were to go to our selected offices, introduce ourselves as constituents and pass on the folder that represented their district. The expectation was set that we most likely wouldn’t meet with the actual Senator or Representative, but rather their staff. That was the case for all of my group’s visits, and most of the staff that we encountered were very receptive and happy to meet with us.
Jay Helping Us Lobby
After our lunch break, the whole group met at the Senate Gallery for a Reading of Special Resolution. When that was finished, we were asked to take a moment, visit the Senator and Representative from our own districts and sign their visitor log books. For my part of Richardson, this was Representative Angie Chen Button and Senator Ken Paxton. You can click here to find yours.
Texas Senate Session
Once we were finished lobbying, we all gathered on the steps of the capital building for a group picture, where we were joined by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis. It was nice to see such a large group representing Texas cyclists, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it get larger.
Bike Pins Everywhere – Showing Support
Later that afternoon, we walked over to the BikeTexas headquarters for a group happy hour. Here we were able to meet and discuss the events of the day as well as the things we learned. It was nice to network with other cycling advocates from around the state.
BikeTexas Happy Hour
BikeTexas HQ
We finished out the trip with the long bus ride back to Dallas. On the bus, I was able to reflect on what I learned that day. Here are a few:
– Cyclists in Suits is not a bike ride.
– Lobbying isn’t just for the politically minded. It’s for anybody who cares about a cause.
– Cycling policy affects all bicycle cultures. If you care, you should try to get involved.
– Texas Legislators are there to listen to their constituents. Talk to them.
– It costs a lot of money to hold these events and sponsor bus rides. If you like what is being done, you should join or support BikeDFW and BikeTexas.
Bicycle Networking
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Bike Friendly Richardson 
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