Nueces Bike Boulevard Meeting Tonight

A bicycle boulevard in Portland, Oregon (photo courtesy of city of Austin)

The city of Austin holds its second public workshop on a proposal to convert the Downtown portion of Nueces Street to a "bicycle boulevard" tonight at Pease Elementary, 6-8pm.

Possibly controversial: The League of Bicycling Voters will offer up its own detailed plan, specifically rejecting suggestions to use Rio Grande instead.

Several cyclists and some business owners suggested at the previous meeting that Rio Grande might be a better option. (For coverage of the previous workshop, see "A Boulevard for Bicyclists … and Cars.")

Despite the name, the bike boulevard concept would not make Nueces strictly for bicyclists, but it would discourage automobile drivers from using it as a through street. That caused concern among a few business owners on Nueces, although very little of the street has commercial retail (most of the businesses are law firms).

"We felt the city was moving in the right direction with its planning effort, but that it needed specific input on how the final result should look," said LOBV president Rob D'Amico this morning in a press release.

"LOBV planners also soundly rejected a possible use of Rio Grande for the bike boulevard route, since the hilly street deters new riders and doesn't offer the same connectivity to key facilities – such as the Lance Armstrong Bikeway – that Nueces does," read the press release.

For a look at the LOBV proposal, go to www.lobv.org/nueces.