Austin bike plan encounters opposition

Some business owners opposed

Steve Hawley, Feb 25, 10.

The plan to turn Nueces Boulevard in Austin into a bicycle boulevard has run into some opposition, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Some local business owners, who say they were not contacted about the plan, are concerned that the proposed bike boulevard will hurt their businesses, and property owners fear that reducing vehicle traffic and parking may lower property values. The opponents have formed a new group called Austinites for Downtown Mobility to oppose the changes.

The article notes:

The formation of the group comes just before the City of Austin’s third and presumably final public forum on the boulevard concept. The forum will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Pease Elementary School, which is at 1106 Rio Grande St. downtown. The city had said previously that the forum will include results from a traffic analysis of Nueces.

The idea of making Nueces something of a bicycle haven was included in a citywide bicycle master plan approved by the Austin City Council. However, that plan did not include details of what sort of changes might be made on Nueces to slow down or reduce traffic and thus make it more commodius for cyclists.

Austin officials say that vehicle traffic will not be restricted, and bicycling advocates say that the plan will increase property values rather than decreasing them. City officials have also raised the possibility of creating the bike boulevard one block over on Rio Grande, but bicyclists have opposed that alternative because Rio Grande has more hills than Nueces Boulevard.