| |
|
|
 |
Newsroom
2/3/2010
Two people with interests along Nueces Street have contacted News Radio 590-KLBJ to express their opposition to plans by Austin's Bicycle program at City Hall to turn Nueces Street into a bicycle boulevard, a proposal which would cost an estimated $325,000.
"When they put out the little traffic monitor strips, we sat here in our office and watched the same people ride up and down the street," Monica Thomason said Wednesday. Thomason works in an office building along Nueces. "The bike people are making it sound like there are hundreds of bicyclists who ride up and down Nueces every day and that is 100% not true."
Thomason worries that the data the city is collecting will be slanted in favor of the bicycle boulevard. She believes it's possible that a minority, those with a heavy interest in the street becoming a bicycle boulevard, are doing their best to assure that the data shows it is needed.
Greg Copp, a certified public accountant in business for 13 years on Nueces, tells KLBJ it is not his wish that the project move ahead. "I just don't understand how you can do this without telling people," he said. Copp received a notice from the City on November 23 of last year, notifying property owners that the plans to expand the city's bikeway system exist. "If this thing happens," Copp says, "I can't tell you how incredulous I'll be. They don't care, as long as I pay my taxes."
Copp and Thomason both told KLBJ in separate interviews that during the rain all day Wednesday, February 3, there were far fewer than a dozen bicyclists riding Nueces Street. Neither understand how such few numbers justify such a costly conversion.
The Austin League of Bicycling Voters has maintained that Nueces Street is the only flat or gradual street between W. 3rd St. and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. which would support such a bikeway.
No one from Austin City Hall has yet responded to these latest complaints.
Meantime, Copp says his neighboring property owners are planning to form a neighborhood association because they believe their voices are being ignored by Austin's local elected leaders and the decision has already been made, even though the City insists it has not. Copp says since he does not live within Austin's city limits, he may make a sizeable campaign contribution to a future candidate who runs against whomever on Council votes to approve funding for the bikeway conversion.
|
«
Return to previous page
»
Send to a friend
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|