Results of Magnolia Bike Lanes/Re-striping Meeting

I attended the Fort Worth South, Inc. presentation yesterday evening on the proposed re-striping of Magnolia Avenue to feature fewer traffic lanes and create dedicated bike lanes. As I expected, there were both supporters and opponents in attendance. What I was pleasantly surprised at was the very strong showing of supporters at the meeting - there were noticeably a good deal more people there to voice their support of the proposal than there were people against it.

Among the supporters were several urban infill developers, urban real estate agents, residents of Fairmount and Ryan Place, bicycling proponents, and several Magnolia business owners (two examples of which were Spiral Diner and, naturally, Panther City Bicycles). From what I could tell, the smaller group of opponents had a few Magnolia business owners as well - two of the more vocal opponents were the gentlemen who run Paris Coffee Shop and Abel Office Machines.

Opponent’s concerns were that reducing the traffic lanes would create severe congestion on Magnolia and drive people away from businesses. They also remarked that they never see bikes on Magnolia and so didn’t see the point in bike lanes. At one point, somebody even remarked that bicycles should stay off Magnolia completely and only use Oleander.

It’s another round of something I see often at these sort of meetings - a confrontation of sorts between Fort Worth’s “old guard” of people for whom speedy car access is Priority #1, and the newer urban-minded residents who are reactivating the city’s Urban Villages like Magnolia into mixed-use, active neighborhoods.

Mike Brennan of Fort Worth South presented several case studies of similar situations in other cities, showing that every time, congestion did not occur as a result of the reduction in traffic lanes and the addition of bike lanes. FWSI’s research shows that the two lanes + turn lane design carries about the same capacity of cars as the four-lane design, just a bit slower and a lot safer. One of the big safety improvements is that with the center turn lane and two traffic lanes, people don’t slalom from lane to lane to get around cars waiting in the left lane to turn left - something that happens all the time on Magnolia as drivers are so often terrified at the thought of losing a half second by slowing down behind another vehicle. It’s been the cause of quite a few accidents on the street.

So, I absolutely do not believe that reducing the travel lanes on Magnolia will create any notable congestion problems. As for bikes on Magnolia - the attendee who said they have never seen bikes on Magnolia must not have been looking very hard. In the last six months especially, there have been some significantly noticeable increases in bike traffic on Magnolia. I’ve seen them at the western part of the street tied up to the bike racks in front of Spiral Diner, and I’ve seen them parked at Yucatan and other more easterly parts of the street as well. Just this evening, as I was enjoying some vegan tacos at Spiral Diner after the meeting, many people arrived via bike, and I saw several people ride past on bikes as well. So there are most certainly a growing number of cyclists on Magnolia. (The owners of Spiral Diner spoke out particularly compellingly in support of the proposal. They are very familiar with the issues surrounding biking on Magnolia. Of their 17 employees, 15 ride their bikes to and from work every single day.)

Several people at the meeting who were supportive said they want to become cyclists as well, but aren’t experts at urban cycling and are scared to cycle on Magnolia amongst the (often speeding) traffic. Creating dedicated bike lanes would be a big draw to neighborhood residents who aren’t as experienced to get on their bikes and start transporting themselves around the neighborhood sans car and learning how to cycle in an urban setting. It’d also be a draw for people who arrive via bus with bikes or with bikes on the future streetcar line.

The comments from opponents about bikes “staying off Magnolia” were particularly noteworthy - a key part of any successful urban environment is a street system that is not solely about making cars happy. Streets should be about accommodating all users, be they drivers, transit users, cyclists, or pedestrians. Comments such as these reveal the attitude amongst many that bikes don’t belong in what they consider the sole realm of the car. The reality is that bikes belong on the streets just as much as cars do - we need to move beyond our old attitudes of only catering to the Almighty Car. As we move into a future where cheap oil will be little more than a memory, there will be more and more people coming back to our walkable, bikeable urban environments and using their bikes. It’s high time we started taking our streets to livable status for all users.

The decision at the end of the meeting was that the support was strong enough for FWSI to report to the city that we should proceed with the proposal. I would expect that opponents will be sending letters to the city and FWSI, so I urge all of you out there who support the proposal to send in letters/e-mails/phone calls as well. Mike Brennan can be reached at mike@fortworthsouth.org, and Councilman Joel Burns can be reached at district9@fortworthgov.org. Contact these guys and voice your support for re-striping Magnolia to feature dedicated bike lanes and fewer traffic lanes!