This came in from a resident of the neighborhood that would be affected by the proposal:
Classic
It uses the same bait and switch technique that the city has been using for years.
The text of the document tells us that the purpose of the meeting is “to inform the public of plans for the installation a a bike lane along Escondido Drive from Resler to Broadmoor”.
The graphic however shows the bike lane running from Resler to Los Robles. The link provided on the meeting notice shows the bike lane going all the way up to Broadmoor and then back down Thunderbird.
We saw the same kind of thing when we voted on a proposed “Heritage Cultural Center” that later became an “Hispanic Cultural Center”. Now the city refers to it as a “Mexican American Cultural Center”.
The multipurpose performing art and entertainment center that we voted on is now “the arena”. According to news reports the city manager at the time knew that letting the public know that the facility would be used for sports would hurt its chances of passing.
Gravity and collisions
Escondido from Los Robles to Broadmoor is narrow and steeply uphill. Residences on much of the length have little parking and short driveways. Cars park on both sides of the street and narrow the usable roadway even more.
The meeting notice did not ask for public input. Instead its purpose is to inform the public.
It might be a good idea to attend the meeting and inform the city staff of what you think.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
A waste of vocal cords. (BUT if you don’t go then any later comment that you make will be ignored, as you “did not attend the public input meeting.”
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Has anyone ever seen anyone using the ‘bike lanes”. I haven’t.
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They are mostly too small and dangerous, not physically separated from the motorized traffic.
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Bike lanes in my area are wide enough for an oversized bicyclists and clean. Once in a great moon you will see one biker and they’re in the middle of the road. They claim they’re training?
It would be much cheaper to build a bicycle track for them at Cohen which is falling apart.
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I see cyclists using the bike lanes. I also see them blowing through stop signs and red lights. I also see them riding on the sidewalks, which is against the law, and also riding against traffic. The police never issue tickets to cyclists.
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Actually riding on sidewalks is no longer against the law in El Paso. City Council changed that a couple of years ago at the suggestion of PD because there were concerns that kids (and adults) felt safer being able to ride on the sidewalks on some streets and the PD didn’t want to have the law on the books if they never felt like it was reasonable to enforce it.
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This is likely a case where the current project is just what they are showing in the notice and the larger footprint corresponds to what they plan to do down the road (or maybe segments that already exist). If you look at the bike plan it calls for a lot of really obnoxious bike amenities that seem geared to making cars the secondary modes of transportation that are considered on roads in some areas.
I have no love for the City gov’t in general but this is nothing like the cultural center crap. It’s a very different type of crap that counts less on pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes at once and more on general apathy and disinterest from everyone overall.
If you really want to speak your mind against this then you need to go to those meetings and make sure that your City Rep hears from you there and at ALL the times when other similar crappy things come up in their district. Get your friends and neighbors to call them and don’t let them act like they don’t know how much it’s disliked. Unfortunately the planning group within the Capital Improvements Departments has some fairly dedicated bike supporters who are trying to make El Paso into Austin without really taking into account what El Paso as a whole needs right now and the City Reps only hear from those folks telling them how great bike lanes etc. are and a few incoherent residents from time to time. What’s worse it’s usually about something super specific like their house, not the street as a whole and it’s fairly easy to write them off.
The reps need to hear from calm rational people who are upset and angry about the changes happening in their neighborhoods before they’ll go against the chic urban planning options that are all the rage these days. If you can get enough people together to form a residents association DO IT! They will listen to those and even go talk to them and if your association strongly opposes bike lanes that will at least slow them down. If folks really stand up and say no and don’t back down then the City will back down, but what most often happens (and I’ve seen it at many community meetings) is that folks accept some small change or compromise that is verbally promised and ultimately accept the project as a whole happening and then the City runs with it.
Look at the streetcar mess. People accepted one thing and the City turned around and did something completely different on Stanton up passed Rim Rd. The City cut traffic volume on Stanton in half resulting in much longer waits for people who are trying to turn left and since not enough people complained about the overall plan the City didn’t feel like it needed to take a step back and change their plan.
It’s never a done deal with the City but you need numbers and they don’t need to be huge. 10-15 people can easily swing what the City does in an area if they are vocal, rational, and organized enough because the City staff hates conflict and their bosses hate conflict and the reps hate conflict and they will go out of their ways to avoid it so if you show them that plan A is really not liked they might scrap it entirely. That’s how others have gotten public art removed and entire projects killed or substantially reworked in the past.
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If the Mayor, City “Staff”, whoever they are, want “Opinions” from US “Stupid, ignorant peons”, THEY will tell US what OUR OPINIONS are.
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Well they do and can because they know there no consequences. They will be re-elected anyway.
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Questions should be asked about the number of accidents on the road how many walls mail boxes and signs have been knocked over. Quality of life is not having potholes Quality of life is not having circulatory going up and down the street empty spewing fumes every fifteen minutes and believe me there was no hearing. No one cares if there is a rider they are in my yard on my bench and leaving their garbage. I did not vote for any of these Yahoo!’s
Sent from my iPhone
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City leaders are for this even if the folks say NO.
Bike riding is healthy but not safe on the streets of El Paso…
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Too damn hot to ride a bike here. BTW, that’s my neighborhood.
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I seem to remember a year ago that the city decided all the money spent on bike lanes had been a bad idea because new studies have said that lanes not physically separated from traffic were dangerous. The new plan was only to build lanes separated from traffic. I believe this was after the 10 or so folks who actually ride bikes complained about the unsafe bike lanes. Guess they’ve gone back to unsafe bike lanes.
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The WASTE of TAXPAYER money continues because the minions WE elected to REPRESENT US, DON’T. Neither the Mayor, City Council, NOBODY controls the UNELECTED people like the City “Planning” Commission, Roads, Streets, City “Manager”, City Attorney, who are all out of control. THEY don’t care how much or what THEY waste OUR money on, it’s NOT their money. Would bet that MOST, ALL(?) of the people who “Work” at City Hall, don’t even pay TAXES. Never see bike riders on the bike lanes in the North East. They ride on Martin Luther King, NO bike Lanes. They ride on the North, South Gateway, NO bike lanes. These people are a traffic hazard, put themselves in danger, as well as other drivers. They don’t know, don’t use the minimum traffic safety LAWS, rules. Turn signals, lights, observing traffic flow, nothing. THEY expect other drivers to watch out for THEM, while paying no attention to what they are doing. And of course, there are virtually NO Police on the streets any more. This money they WASTE on bike lanes can be much better spent on REPAIRING streets, street markings, lane markings. Many, MOST(?) streets in El Paso you cannot tell where the right lane, left lanes are, where the turn lanes are. But like everything else in El Taxo, they just continue to waste, tax, spend, tax some more. It’s just much easier to keep INCREASING TAXES than it is for politicians, “Planners” to do ANY thinking.
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God help you all. Pessimism is an understatement. I’m officially done with this blog. Have “fun” being miserable.
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