Three options to revamp the city’s bike thoroughfares on Mallard Lane moved along this past week at the Taylor City Council, including one suggestion with a $2 million price tag that involves resurfacing the road.
No action was taken on the issue at the June 13 meeting, session, though nearly 20 residents and cycling enthusiasts signed up to air their opinions.
Taylor’s comprehensive plan calling for the addition of bike lanes on city streets has continually come under fire since the rubber met the road and lanes were actually created.
“We have a comprehensive plan that asks for these bike lanes. In my opinion, it’s just for the newer part of Taylor,” Mayor Dwayne Ariola said. “I don’t think a piece of paper should make us spend millions in bike lanes for old Taylor.”
Councilwoman Shelli Cobb said she has personally walked door-to-door and spoken to people on Mallard regarding the impact of the bicycle lanes the city striped when the road was renovated.
“They truly do want safety for cyclists,” Cobb said. “But their quality of life has been affected to an extent that I don’t think any of the rest of us truly understand completely.”
She added, “We have to find a way to give those residents a quality of life back and also still foster a sense of cycling in our community.
We’ve got to do something different here.”
City Engineer Jacob Walker said one option was to keep the road as it is, with a two-way bike track just on the north side.
A second option called for one-way bike lanes on either side of the road. Neither of these options allow for street parking or left turns onto Mallard.
The third suggestion is to take bike traffic off the street, creating shoulders for parking, and adding a shared-use path across the neighborhood for bicycles.
Walker said a multimodal path must be 10-feet wide to ensure bicycles and pedestrians can safely use it at the same time. Under city codes, anything smaller would not be able to be used by bicycles.
This would mean 14 feet of encroachment into neighborhood front yards.
“It would be a different type of inconvenience for the homeowners,” Walker said.
The cost would be almost $2 million to create the pathway and resurface the road for new striping.
During public commentary, Monica Zavala, a Mallard resident, said she’s not anti-bike but wanted the council to understand the issues the bike lane created, especially regarding removing on-street parking.
“The impact that it’s had on us is that we can’t have family gatherings anymore. We can’t have baby showers. We can’t have graduations. We can’t have birthday parties. We’re just asking for our rights to be given back to us, to have our families come and visit us,” Zavala said.
While some people spoke out against the striping, an active contingent of bicycle enthusiasts also showed up, many even riding their bikes to the meeting.
Alison Ditto, operations manager at the new Talbot Commons Pocket Hotel downtown, said the hotel has been working on acquiring bicycles for guests to use to explore Taylor.
“We think that biking around this town is the best way for tourists to pop into all of our little shops and restaurants and spend their money,” she said.
An avid rider herself, Ditto said she has pedaled along Mallard because it is one of the safer places to bike.
Texas Beer Co. founder JD Gins said he regularly began bicycling to lower cholesterol and has seen significant health improvements. He feels the recent controversy over Mallard bike lanes has sparked significant anger towards cyclists.
“The online hysteria over these bike lanes have already created so much hostility toward bikers and I hope you don’t send a clear signal to deprioritize bike safety,” he told the council. “I’ve had to start running a camera on my bike after being harassed and being forced to file a police report.”
Cobb said the homeowners she spoke to would be willing to give up their landscaping for a sidewalk installation if it meant getting back their on-street parking.
