Hundreds of Bike Lane Miles Approved for Dallas, but is the City Working Fast Enough?

[-]

Fragrant-Mission7388@reddit

Absolutely not, it should be an actual priority for the city

[-]

SamHenryCliff@reddit

Every time this comes up I think of comedian Tom Segura telling bike advocates that if they really want to live in a bicycle friendly environment, they should move to Ho Chin Minh.

[-]

Hi, corporate bike guy here. I put my dress shirt in my backpack and bike in my “wife beater” undershirt. Also it isn’t that hot in the morning. Also all of the big office towers downtown have gyms with showers, though I haven’t found that necessary.

It isn’t rocket science.

[-]

IllBus4102@reddit

I do the same 👍

[-]

SamHenryCliff@reddit

Okay we’ve got one! 15 years and you’re the first! Congratulations and try not to get hit by a robotaxi.

[-]

Upstairs_Balance_464@reddit

I’ll tell everyone else I see with their bike on the train and at the bike rack that the car brains don’t think we exist!

[-]

SamHenryCliff@reddit

I’m sure the dozens of you will be willing to disproportionately shoulder the economic costs of changing the infrastructure to suit your preferences, seeing as you’re saving all that money on gas!

[-]

Upstairs_Balance_464@reddit

Hahahahaha

An absurd portion of all the property and other tax I pay goes toward cars. You pay nothing to mitigate the economic cost of climate change when you drive. We bulldozed entire neighborhoods for your car. Half of the buildings that ever existed downtown were bulldozed for parking. Your car is giving children breathing problems with the exhaust and the shit coming off the tires. Cars kill people daily, just here in Dallas.

And YOU want to lecture ME on “economic costs”?

[-]

Cool_Lingonberry6551@reddit

This is hilarious, and basically is exactly the obnoxious zeal they are talking about.

[-]

Ornery_Palpitation12@reddit

He’s right though…

[-]

frenchezz@reddit

You live in a society smartass, you're paying for things all the time you will never use. It's called a common good, just because you choose to not take advantage of it doesn't mean other people will make the same decision.

I don't have kids, never will. I'm still 100% for public education and playgrounds that benefit them.

[-]

NecessaryViolenz@reddit

Why the fuck would I choose a method of transport that requires I shower at the office?

Guess what my routine in the car is? Get coffee, drive to office, sit at desk.

Guess what my routine for DART is? Get on DART, ride train go station, walk to office, sit at desk.

I'm not dragging my Canondale into the elevator to park in my office.

Bike commuting isn't more common because it's highly inconvenient

[-]

frenchezz@reddit

You know what none of your routines include? A workout. That's why they're choosing their method.

[-]

Upstairs_Balance_464@reddit

I’m pretty hot with my shirt off since I’m minimizing my “sit on my ass” time. Does your commute help you get laid?

[-]

NecessaryViolenz@reddit

I’m pretty hot with my shirt off since I’m minimizing my “sit on my ass” time.

You can do cardio separately from your commute, and I've not seen an epidemic of hot cardiobird cyclists.

Does your commute help you get laid?

Taking DART has NEVER helped anyone get laid.

That's a separate activity from hitting up the gym.

[-]

NecessaryViolenz@reddit

Sir, I'll kindly not ask you to interrupt the DFW urbanism circle jerk with your facts and logic. They've traveled a long way from California to their new home, and you interrupting their complaining about cars in the city they moved to, which they knew in advance was entirely car-based, is really making it harder on everyone.

[-]

SamHenryCliff@reddit

Okay this sent me ahaha nicely done

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

If it was faster to bike than drive, you would see it

[-]

Ornery_Palpitation12@reddit

Surprisingly (to you) sometimes it is faster. It’s also cheaper. I commute to work in downtown everyday by bike.

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

If you think it's faster for most people you're losing it. My bike commute is literally 4x as long as driving

[-]

Ornery_Palpitation12@reddit

It just depends on your location and destination. Sometimes it is faster. Sometimes. It’s still a very viable way to get around and as Dallas becomes denser it will become more relevant. We should start investing in bike infrastructure to be ready for that day. We have spent too much money on car infrastructure and if we want to grow as a city then driving will quickly not be an option.

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

I'm not saying we shouldn't. People here any sort of critique and always assume you're on the opposite side. Our main problem in the US is land use, not bike infrastructure. Trying to retrofit sprawl with bike lanes and bus routes won't work, because it's not a fast way to get around in the majority of cases. The main advocacy should be around land use changes - densification, "15 minute cities" or whatever you wanna call it. It will make our cities more resilient and productive as well as making non-car travel more viable.

The average dutch person bikes 1.5 miles per day, how many places can you reach in 0.75 miles? I got a park and maybe a gas station.

https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/best-kept-secret-dutch-biking-dutch-hardly-bike

[-]

Ornery_Palpitation12@reddit

That’s all happening at the same time. We should promote it all at the same time before we try to address the problem too late.

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

Yeah idk, we can't even pass a simple "ADU legalization" bill because for some reason Texas Democrats don't want it? makes no sense

[-]

noncongruent@reddit

Democrats have no power in this state, and haven't had any power since Republicans gerrymandered them out of contention back in 1995. Democrat's can't pass any legislation they want to pass, and they can't stop any Republican legislation that Republicans want to pass. From a functional standpoint the only purpose Democrats serve in the Texas Congress is as seat fillers to meet constitutional quorum requirements.

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

I mean it would have passed if not for the "no' votes from Democrats.

[-]

noncongruent@reddit

If it didn't pass it's because Republicans didn't want it to pass. If all the Democrats had voted "yes" then more Republicans would have voted "no" and it still wouldn't have passed. This kind of thing goes on a lot because it allows Republicans, who have 100% control of the Texas Legislature, to fail bills that the public may like and be able to blame Democrats for the failure, much as you're doing now. Look at it another way: Since Republicans have an overwhelming majority in the Texas lege, if they really wanted the bill to pass they could have easily voted to pass the bill. The real question is, why didn't they?

[-]

IamSpiders@reddit

Cause both sides have their fair share of NIMBYs and doesn't really align with the culture war very well (Property rights vs urbanism vs muh housing prices). Republicans being NIMBY is a bit more understandable since they are the party of the suburbs. Dems though? Unreasonable imo. But California exists, so that should be proof enough of how strong NIMBYism is

[-]

Substantial-Ad-8575@reddit

I knew of one person. Who road his bike to his job downtown. Well, bike to light rail and then downtown. But he did that as training, more so than better transit option…

[-]

Paradox1989@reddit

When I worked in Irving we had a guy there who was an Iron Man participant. He would ride his bike on a 60 plus nile round trip to work and home every day.

[-]

SamHenryCliff@reddit

Right, so this plus the other guy makes 2. In 15 years there’s 2 people for a sample size. I knew at least 50 who used DART park & ride. At some point the taxpayer / societal benefit, in Dallas, doesn’t really add up for emphasizing bicycling as a primary mode of transportation.

I’m getting downvoted because bicycle advocates, in my experience, are rather obnoxious in their zeal to enforce their views on others. They’re the anti-abortion protestors of transportation.

[-]

frenchezz@reddit

You don't see it because the infrastructure to allow it doesn't exist, are you really that dense?

[-]

YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit

I'd consider the other kinds of bike riders, though. The poor people who aren't working in downtown but are biking from place to place wherever it is they live. While the bike infrastructure downtown needs improvement, a lot of the rest of the city doesn't even have bike infrastructure. And the people biking there probably aren't doing it for fun or as a way to get their workout done during their commute to their email job.

[-]

Alert_Ad_694@reddit

I see loots of people on electric scooters nowadays, and not just the rental ones either. Bike lanes are a great way to get those scooters into infrastructure that's safe for them. I think as e-bikes and e-scooters become more ubiquitous a lot more will be willing to ride and in turn use the bike lanes

[-]

Anon31780@reddit

As usual, “no” is the correct answer here. City is racing an iceberg for this sort of improvement work, and the iceberg has lapped twice.

[-]

TakeATrainOrBusFFS@reddit

Hijacking your top comment to say that there’s a runoff election between a guy who is pro-bike (Jeff Kitner) and his NIMBY opponent going on in District 11 now. This election could seriously decide the how the Bike Plan gets treated for years. Go vote!

[-]

Anon31780@reddit

Can’t be a hijacking if I’m letting you steer! Pub away - Dallas needs to be better, and it won’t get that way if we don’t put better folks around the horseshoe.

[-]

TakeATrainOrBusFFS@reddit

Hell yeah.

[-]

jhrogers32@reddit

Shout out /DFWbike though. They seem to be active and going to meetings to push things along (a bit more).

[-]

TakeATrainOrBusFFS@reddit

The Dallas Bicycle Coalition is pushing things forward on the advocacy front. Going to City Hall, putting out the calls to action, and so on. You can follow them on Instagram, on Bluesky, or by email.

[-]

Anon31780@reddit

100%

[-]

Maxikaner_@reddit

It’s a million degrees most of the year - waste of money and a bad idea. Should spend more time trying to make DART more usable

[-]

TakeATrainOrBusFFS@reddit

Climate matters, but there's nothing about ours that is stopping us from being a bike city.

Check out MyPerfectWeather.com, which has a map that shows the number of "comfortable" days in a year for every county in the US. You can find this map by clicking on Comfortable Weather from the little bar on the left of the page.

The number of comfortable days per year in Dallas is comparable to other cities like Chicago and New York City that are major cities for bike commuting. Go tell a Chicagoan who bikes that you envy their perfect year-round weather, and they'll laugh at you in negative 10 temperatures.

They don't make these excuses. Why should we?

The problem is that we don't have enough bike culture here to push for things like showers in work places so people can rinse off and get ready after their morning commute, along with all the other necessary components of a bike-friendly city like safe, ample bike parking and safe streets.

We fix this by advocating to make Dallas more bike-friendly, and for that I recommend checking out the Dallas Bicycle Coalition on Instagram, on Bluesky, or by email.

[-]

YaGetSkeeted0n@reddit

The city has been working on basic-ass streets and pipes for months and years sometimes. Shit that the Chinese could probably get done in one week.

[-]

TakeATrainOrBusFFS@reddit

It’s on us to push them to prioritize it. It’ll be no easy task, especially with the city trying to free up funding to hire the 900 new police after the charter amendment thing, but we can’t let that stop us from holding their feet to the fire.

Cars are expensive as fuck, both to own and to subsidize their infrastructure through taxes. Transit is getting better but at a rate largely dependent upon redevelopment of the city to be denser. Bikes (and scooters, and other micromobility) are comparatively dirt cheap and provide mobility now with relatively easy infrastructure upgrades. As we build this out, we’ll lift people out of poverty and provide better alternatives to driving for those of us who are simply sick of wasting our brief chance to exist rotting in traffic.

[-]

mjrballer20@reddit

For those complaining about speed of progression I advise you go to any public meetings they have

Those comments you read below that complain, "who would use these bike lanes in the hot summer, what a waste of money"

I promise you they show up.

[-]

dfwpopo@reddit

Nothing moves fast in this city except for a council member's pet project.