GUEST COLUMN | Mitch Drummond
I have been biking in Taylor for many years, initially for recreation and later for purpose.
Years ago, I taught our boys to ride bikes without training wheels and by the time they were four, we were riding frequently, many times to the Dairy Queen for ice cream cones, although I really needed a long tether attached to their bikes. When I retired, I wanted to bike more often so we purchased better bikes and this past year we sold a car and included two E-bikes.
Living a block off of Main Street I have noticed an exponential increase in traffic congestion over these past 10 years and I am concerned for the future of transportation in our community. CARTS provides a limited public transportation service, but it is still hard to get around town without a driving a vehicle and this will only become more difficult as we inevitably increase in number.
While living in Austin during the late 60s and early 70s, I watched what happens as traffic increases, the number of driving lanes increase and streets become more congested, dangerous and difficult to navigate, driving or otherwise. I don’t want to see that happen in my community.
Since we don’t want to stop families from coming to Taylor, the obvious solution is including multimodal transportation options which include mass transit, biking, scooters, walking or even skating. Many of these options require one to live near the destination, which is a whole other issue.
Mass transit can be expensive, but not as expensive as building and maintaining additional lanes, other options require a certain level of mobility or skill, but what ever mode, there need to be options for everyone. There are a number of good reasons to support bike lanes and pedestrian walk ways, it’s affordable and adding protected bike lanes limits and narrows automobile lanes, street diets, which naturally decrease speeds and makes shorter crossings for pedestrians, making the streets safer for everyone, including vehicles. The inclusion of bike lanes and side walks has been proven to increase property values, increase economic vitality, increase health benefits and generally improves the quality of life.
Of course there are consequences, we are accustomed to trading convenience for safety; consider stop signs, traffic signals, artificial speed limits, all impediments to driving. But these are all required to allow us to live and work in a community.
We’ve all heard the complaints concerning bike lanes: safety concerns, do you really think it safer for a bike to be in the same lane with a vehicle, reduced parking on public streets, turning conflicts at intersections, increased traffic congestion due to loss of lanes and narrowed lanes; none of these will endanger your life.
Many feel that cyclists are a nuisance that don’t belong on city streets even though those riders also contribute taxes that support our streets. The gas tax and vehicle registration fees do not fund local streets; our city streets are entirely maintained with property and sales taxes.
The automobile era began about 100 years ago and since the end of World War II most cities have been built to accommodate automobiles to the detriment of other modes of transportation.
To the point where it is difficult to live and work in a city without owning a vehicle, forcing everyone to own at least one vehicle. We have come to accept this as normal; we are required to spend up eight to 10 thousand dollars a year maintaining an automobile just to survive. It doesn’t have to be that way. A bike does not have to be a child’s toy; it can be a mode of transportation and compared to vehicles, bikes are much less expensive to purchase and maintain. One can get a regular bike for under $500 and an E-bike for less than $1,000 and there are no fees, no insurance, very little maintenance, and no more $3 a gallon gas. It’s good for your pocket book, your health, and the environment, and for short trips, it’s faster than a vehicle, and finally, there’ plenty of parking space.
So yes, I am in favor of increasing bike lanes, in fact I believe we need to define bike routes throughout the city and add them to the maps and advertise Taylor as a bike friendly city.
It’s possible we need to incentivize the purchase of bikes to increase participation. We are at a cross roads; we have the opportunity to make Taylor a walkable and bike-able community that future generations will enjoy or we can double down on traffic congestion and grid lock just like every other large city in Texas. Where do you want to live?
