"On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned."

 The Fort Worth Star-Telegram got a tip from THE PEOPLE - one at City Hall, about the $50,000 the city is spending to add showers so workers can bike to work.  The tipster is bothered with the cutting of employees and  forced furlough days while adding showers for the few that ride. 

WHAT is the "funding source"? WHAT "designation" is the city seeking?

"I have nothing against riding a bike to work," the tipster wrote. "What I do take issue with is the city, in such dire straits, on a dead run to spend money to build showers so that folks can ride bicycles to work at City Hall.

Funding source: "The scheduled replacement of an air-conditioning system at the Animal Care and Control Center will be deferred until next fiscal year to allow this shower facility to be constructed now," a spokesman said.

Did the city do a survey on need?
No. Mayor Betsy Price, an avid cyclist, told The Watchdog: "Then we would have had to spend money on surveys. ..".

Downtown bike racks are mostly empty, and the lanes are not filled with bicyclists.

City officials say they hope to attain the designation Bicycle Friendly Community through the League of American Bicyclists.

On the other hand, sometimes well-intentioned, government-initiated projects do not go as planned.

Example: North Richland Hills used part of a $2 million federal grant awarded in 1999 to develop its Walker's Creek Park trail. That included money to install lockers under a large canopy near the water park for bicycle commuters to stow their belongings.

In 2009, the lockers were removed because officials feared they could be vandalized or someone could get locked inside. Those lockers remain in storage today.

Arlington Arrogance

The citizens who attended the meeting in Arlington this week must have felt like they were in Fort Worth.  Read the Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Good question. 

No speaking allowed

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck is choosing to use his position as a bully pulpit.

The Tuesday council meeting was a short 90 minutes, yet Cluck refused to let a number of reasonable residents speak about the transportation development plan before the council voted.

He announced he plans to do the same thing for the hike-and-bike public hearing on June 28. Two 30-year plans -- and the mayor will only allow 20 minutes for each side?

How can residents be part of the public process and go on record if they are not allowed to address the council?

-- Kimberly Frankland, Arlington

Arlington headed the Fort Worth Way

No wonder they needed the Save Arlington website. 

Local residents were thrown out of last night's City Council meeting in Arlington.  By police.  WTH?  Seems the opponents of the Hike and Bike plan (that ties closely in with the Thoroughfare Plan) outnumbered the proponents by a long shot.

Seeing as how the majority of the Council was set to vote for the plan, they didn't seem to like the fact they would be doing so in a room full of folks who have ran the numbers and know the issues.  Therefore they limited the speaking time to 20 minutes.  WHAT?  Isn't it in the Charter that anyone who signs up to speak shall receive their allotted time?  Instead, a citizen was told they had 10 seconds to speak.  We voted on what we'd say in 10 seconds, we won't repeat it here.

Another resident said it best, "Turns out there ain't much free speech in city hall unless you agree with them".

Hey, Arlington!

Check out the new website!

http://www.savearlington.com/

Boondoggle's Everywhere....

And not a drop to drink.  WHERE are their priorities?  By the way, if you weren't aware Arlington has some flooding issues.  Maybe someone should address those instead of bike paths.

Learn more @ www.sosarlingtonstreets.com

In SOS email #18, released the morning following Thanksgiving, we pointed out that the Bike Plan in its 400 pages never mentioned anything about cost. That same afternoon, city staff added cost information (see bike plan Appendix C)—$16,086,047. However, right-of-way costs were omitted. Considering that the bike plan is so specific as to streets targeted and how those streets are to be altered, it seems to us that right-of-way needs and estimated costs could have and should have been included as part of the total. Right of way is expensive, especially where property owners resist the taking of their land.

That said, we believe the $16,086,047 total, with or without right-of-way information, grossly understates the true cost of the bike plan because it ignores other key expenses. It is difficult to believe 240 streets (a total of 271.7 lane miles (see Bike Plan section/page 3-12) can be reconfigured for bicycles and the cost be just $16,086,047.

We believe the proposed street/bike plan will, if fully implemented, become a billion dollar boondoggle for Arlington, a claim we do not lightly make. Here are all the costs we anticipate:

1) COST: $16 MILLION plus right of way where applicable (Bike Plan Appendix C total). All costs appear to be associated with street restriping, new bicycle signage, etc. This figure does not account for the value of the traffic lanes that will be converted from vehicular to bicycle use (see item 2 below).

2) COST: $271.7 MILLION. A mile of street lane costs $1 million or more to construct. The bike plan will convert 271.7 miles (see bike plan section 3-5) of street lanes from vehicle use to bicycle use. When the time comes to reconstruct a worn out street, the cost to replace the bicycle lane and the traffic lanes will be the same—over one million dollars per mile.

3) COST: $561.7 MILLION public gasoline consumption caused by increased traffic congestion. The new bike/street plan will, according to city planners, lead to a one minute additional drive time per day per citizen. Given the propensity to understate bad news, we believe the planned “traffic calming” (intentional congestion) described in the street/bike plan will yield two minutes delay per citizen per day or even more. Because of slower (and thus longer) drive times, the citizens of Arlington could spend as much as 12,000 hours per day in their cars, needlessly burning an extra $561.7 million worth of fuel over the 15-year life of this plan. For full details, go to our web site and see “SOS Update #10: New street/bike plan could cost the citizens far more than anticipated.”

4) COST: ??? MILLION. In the case of streets that were narrowed from 4 traffic lanes to 2 in order to make room for bike lanes, the cost of adding back 2 traffic lanes will be extreme, as doing so will require buying additional right of way and then widening the entire street. The per-mile cost of converting such a street back to 4 lanes will be $6 to $7 million per mile.

5) COST: ??? MILLION. When a street is reduced from 4 to 2 traffic lanes, traffic doubles on those remaining lanes and they wear out much more quickly, resulting in an accelerated need for street repairs and replacement. The more frequent repair and reconstruction cycles will be a significant new burden to taxpayers, and to businesses who will suffer due to reduced access to customers.

6) COST: ??? MILLION. The imposition of new building codes, fees, and other requirements crafted to encourage bicycling will place further cost burdens on Arlington residents and businesses. There are 44 bicycle-related changes to zoning ordinances, subdivision rules, codes, and design criteria listed in the bike plan, and more would certainly follow (see bike plan, section 6, pg 1-8).

7) COST: ??? MILLION. These new building codes, fees, and other requirements will discourage new commercial and residential development in Arlington.

8) COST: ??? MILLION. One of the more troubling mandates in the bike plan is a requirement for “changing stations,” facilities with personal lockers, showers, sinks, benches, etc. where bicycle riders can change from their sweaty street Spandex to ordinary work clothes before walking the remaining few blocks to work. Businesses above a certain size will be required to provide these facilities. Smaller businesses would pay a prorated fee for the changing station serving their area. A changing station able to accommodate even moderate use would require 5,000 sq. ft. and cost $1 million or more. Because each would need to be within a few blocks of the bicyclist’s final destination, a significant number would be necessary in order to provide changing service throughout the city. Changing stations will be one of the new building code requirements beginning in 2012-2013 (see bike plan section 7, pg 15).

9) COST: ??? MILLION. Bicycling to work or other utilitarian activity by bicycle will not replace cars in any statistically meaningful way, but the bike plan will increase air pollution because, through “street dieting,” “traffic calming,” and other strategies devised to slow traffic and even intentionally induce congestion (“where congestion is desired,” see street plan, chapter 2, pg 7), the street/bike plan will keep cars and trucks on our streets thousands of hours more than necessary every day. It would take an incredible number of bike trips just to offset the increased gasoline use—much more than will ever happen, given our weather, demographics, and the inherent advantages of the automobile. Thus the environmental remediation costs under the bike plan will go up rather than down.

We have nothing against bicycle riders or off-road bicycle paths that are in parks or on other non-street right-of-ways. We also believe that very limited on-street bike lanes can be justified on a few streets, UTA to the downtown area being a prime example. But the taxpayers and business community of Arlington should not be asked to walk the fiscal-plank for the benefit of a select few.