The City of Austin has proposed adding parking shoulders, instead of dedicated bike lanes, on Mesa Drive between Cat Mountain Dr. and Far West Blvd. Sign this petition to tell Council Member Gallo and the Transportation Department that we want dedicated bike lanes on this important route through Northwest Hills.

No. of Petition Signers: 1,109 Dear Council Member Gallo,

Please ask the Transportation Department to add dedicated bike lanes to Mesa Drive!

Sincerely,

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The Transportation Department’s current proposal removes the existing 6 ft wide bike lanes (in which parking was allowed) and replaces them with 10 ft wide shoulders for on-street parking. As the City’s own diagram below clearly shows, these shoulders would not be striped, labeled, or in any way reserved for non-motorized access. These changes would likely lead to an increase in the number of vehicles parked along the street and impeding non-motorized access. Current proposal(Click here for more details):

We support a previous proposal from the Transportation Department to create dedicated bike lanes in both directions with dedicated parking on alternating sides of the street. This approach is depicted below and is similar to what has already been done successfully on numerous other busy streets in this neighborhood. We believe that this is a good compromise between the needs for convenient parking and safe cycling access.

Preferred proposal(Click here for more details):

For more information, Contact Campaigns Director Miller Nuttle at miller@bikeaustin.org

Thanks to the over 50 people turned out to the October 24th meeting in support of dedicated bike lanes on Mesa Drive! We’ll keep this page updated with actions you can take to help improve safety on Mesa Drive. In the meantime, please sign the petition and email Council Member Gallo to let her know that you support dedicated bike lanes on Mesa Drive between Cat Mountain Dr and Far West Blvd: sheri.gallo@austintexas.gov.

As you may have seen, another petition has been circulated, advocating against dedicated bike lanes on Mesa Drive. Below, we address some of the misinformation in the petition: ” By eliminating 50% of curbside parking to make way for dedicated biking lanes, homeowners, neighborhood guests, and service employees will be forced to cross Mesa Drive on foot to reach their destination on the other side.” In fact, dedicated parking will be added to large swaths of Mesa Drive (Depicted in the below map by green stars). Right now, people are forced to park in a bike lane, which is uncomfortable for drivers and bicyclists – under the dedicated bike lane plan, half of the residents on the street would gain dedicated parking on their side of the street. The other half would only have to walk three houses to find parking on their side of the street.

“We feel that dedicated biking lanes are NOT the safer option for our children, residents, neighborhood guests, or commuters and is NOT the ideal solution for commuting cyclists.”

Bike lanes have been proven to improve safety for all users because they narrow traffic lanes – producing a traffic calming effect. Crash data shows that Mesa is the single most dangerous residential street for bicyclists in District 10. Bike lanes will make the street safer for people on bicycles, people crossing the street, and people in cars.

Mesa Drive Parking Impact Map

This map depicts the houses whose parking will be affected by the proposal to add dedicated bike lanes to Mesa Drive. Green stars represent houses who will gain dedicated parking on Mesa Drive(right now, residents have to park in a bike lane – An uncomfortable situation for all involved). Red Stars represent houses who will not have parking on their side of the street (15 in total). Blue squares represent houses who have immediately adjacent side street parking, and will therefore not be immediately affected by parking changes on Mesa Drive.