Second Magnolia Avenue Complete Streets Meeting Tonight
Speaking of affecting change locally…
The second public meeting about the proposed conversion of Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside between Hemphill and 8th Avenue into a “complete streets” configuration, featuring a reduction in travel lanes from four to two, the addition of a center turn lane, and the addition of dedicated bicycle lanes, is tonight at 5:30 PM, in the community room of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at 800 W. Magnolia. At the last meeting on August 27th, the majority of attendees supported the proposal, including area residents, Fairmount association members, local developers, and Magnolia businesses like Spiral Diner. (Opposition seemed mainly from Paris Coffee Shop and Abel Office Machines, with some also from Whitsel Florist.)
Since that first meeting, Fort Worth South, Inc. has worked with the city, The T, and delivery truck drivers to refine the design and address the concerns of some of those opposed to the project. Refinements include the addition of designated loading & delivery zones and a bus pull-off near the Hemphill intersection. Area business owners and residents are encouraged to attend tonight’s meeting. I’ll be there as well to report on the progress here at the site.
The proposed redesign would be safer by reducing traffic speeds and providing a turn lane to eliminate slaloming, and would encourage bicycle activity thanks to the dedicated bike lanes. I hope that if possible some of the readers of Fort Worthology will attend to show support for the proposal.
2 Responses to “Second Magnolia Avenue Complete Streets Meeting Tonight”
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I was saying before that the need to bus (and future streetcar) pull-offs would be a bad thing. You said they wouldn’t be needed. Now they’re in the plan. What effect does this have on the continued support of the streetcar task force for a route on Magnolia? Have they been included in this discussion?
Jonathan,
I still don’t think a pull off is needed at all, but if it silences a few people in opposition so be it. I think it’s needless but it’s better than no restriping at all. It’s all about playing the game, in the end. As far as I know, this would not affect the bus stopping at the rest of the stops on Magnolia – it’s just a pull off near Hemphill, presumably for time control reasons. The rest of the stops would likely operate exactly as they do now, though I suppose we’ll see at the meeting.
Again – why does it matter if the transit rolling down Magnolia is on a rail or a tire? The streetcar can go down a restriped Magnolia just fine. If desired, it could even be configured to use the center lane, though that’s just one possible option of several. There are plenty of examples of streetcars sharing streets with bike lanes all over the world. The streetcar, as far as I’m concerned, is a non-issue when it comes to the Magnolia restriping. The streetcars are not radically different in their behavior than buses are. There are techniques to integrating streetcar lines and bike routes, techniques I’ve personally shown to city planning officials. It’s not unworkable at all. Worst case, the outer part of the roadway would be just for the streetcar – and in the end, that’s a worst case I don’t find too objectionable, because the streetcar and the reduced lanes would help to slow and reduce traffic anyway, continuing to make biking safer on the street.
The bike lanes are a great bonus – the slowing of traffic and safer nature of the re-striped Magnolia and the more pleasant environment it creates for all users is the main goal.
And considering that several of the people who have worked on the restriping proposal also came up with the design of the Near Southside streetcar alignment, I’d say that yes, the two camps are informed about the other. (In the interest of disclosure, I did some contributions on the Near Southside streetcar alignment but have not had much to do with the restriping from a design standpoint other than my suggestion of incorporating bike boxes to the restriping, but others have worked both projects.)