RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - Bicyclists across North Texas love the regional plan to have 4,000 miles of streets and trails that specifically address their needs.
“Growth has brought in vehicle capacity. When the streets weren’t congested, four of five of us could get out,” said Bob Whitson of Garland, who now rides with larger numbers as a member of the Plano Bicycle Association. “You have to go up past McKinney to get out in the country now.”
The Dallas Morning News reports he and dozens of others were universal in their approval of plans for regional trails and potential for safer bike trips shared by the Texas Department of Transportation in late October at the Richardson Civic Center.
As someone who logs 120 miles a week, treks planned from downtown Dallas to Denton, Fort Worth and McKinney are not out of Whitson’s physical reach as a cyclist, even as he turns 70 this month.
However, while the White Rock Lake and Katy Trail hike-and-bike trails are so popular that they too are congested, the connections between cities are not yet on the ground. Major gaps in the developed system are keeping North Texas from being a connected region.
Only about 25 percent of the regional veloweb and 10 percent of North Texas’ planned urbanized on-street bikeways have been built, according to the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Mobility 2045 report.
“For people that ride once or twice or three times a year, they have enough,” said Marlys Armstrong of Dallas, who started the Dallas Pedals and Pints cycling meet-up group a few years ago. “But for people that are using it for transportation or exercise or recreation, it’s not. It needs to connect.”
Kevin Kokes, a transportation planner for the council of governments, said the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area has one of the nation’s higher crash rates for cyclists. A survey by his agency of the 12-county region found that more than a third of North Texans would do more bicycling if they felt safer.
Cyclists believe others would share their passion if it weren’t for having to use roadways where, regardless of who’s at fault, they always lose in a collision.
“I don’t feel safe riding my bike on streets,” said Dennis Ingram of Dallas, who bought a bicycle a couple of years ago and wants to ride more but is a bit out of practice. “Drivers don’t pay that much attention.”
The council last month announced that it had approved $36.7 million for key bicycle and pedestrian connections that have been in its metropolitan transportation plan since 1996.
About $9 million in federal funds will be used to finish a 53-mile trail connecting downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth.
Nearly half of the trail - called the Fort Worth to Dallas Regional Trail Corridor - was unfunded in 2013 when the mayors of Dallas, Irving, Grand Prairie, Arlington and Fort Worth agreed to commit to complete a continuous trail alignment to provide access to rail stations, jobs, schools, neighborhoods and parks.
The corridor has 14 gaps and 27 unbuilt miles. Planned completion is 2023.
Dallas Pedals and Pints has organized weekend Dallas-to-Fort Worth rides, finding travel as a group “safe enough” on existing streets, Armstrong said.
“Even then, cycling is not a safe sport in Texas,” she added. “But it’s so good for you and so much fun when you get started that you say, ‘Well, I’m going to fall at some point, but it’s worth it anyway.’ I just don’t want to get killed.”
The other funding announced by the council of governments will be used to design and build a pedestrian and bike trail that will run alongside Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s planned Cotton Belt commuter rail line.
But that 45-mile regional trail from Plano to Fort Worth is not fully funded, nor is any of the Dallas County part of it built yet. September 2019 is the target completion date for areas of Collin County near the University of Texas at Dallas and downtown Plano.
The trail will ultimately connect in Grapevine with the Cotton Belt Trail, which exists through Colleyville and North Richland Hills in Tarrant County and is planned to link to downtown Fort Worth.
Gaps also exist along the 40 miles of the planned Dallas to McKinney trail and the mapped 54-mile Dallas to Denton trail.
Kokes said the plan for the regional veloweb has also been enhanced with an 11-mile trail from Midlothian to Waxahachie. And a study is set next year on a potential 12-mile route between Cedar Hill and Lancaster in southern Dallas County.
Meanwhile, at the Oct. 24 meeting Bonnie Sherman of TxDOT introduced the state’s Bicycle Tourism Trail Study, an 8,318-mile conceptual statewide network. TxDOT hopes to get the aspects of the study into its 2050 state transportation plan but hasn’t set aside money for the network.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
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