I don’t agree that Amarillo is bike friendly. Riding around town is a harrowing and frustrating experience. Not all lights don’t detect me and I have to hit the pedestrian switch. If I had a trailer this would not be a reasonable solution due to the length. It can be frightening to get to great routes like the long rail trail. Unfortunately, we don’t have any more of those to turn into bike routes. So, as great as that is it’s a bit of a non-starter.
The three fold brochure that was in a our packet for the Old Tascosa Classic is very misleading. The loop is listed as a route when parts of it are unrideable. You can’t mix 70 mph traffic with 20 mph without a physical divider. Most of the city routes are marked Bike Route – No Lanes. That just means a sign in somebody’s yard. And the Bike Lane – Future is a very short list.
People park in the bike lanes all the time, because there is no enforcement and some are a joke. You would have to be crazy to ride down Bell between Plains and the overpass. There is always at least one car there and only inches of space between bikes and cars.
Can we get a safe route across the railroad tracks, better access to get on the Plains railroad trail, and better access to parks. Why aren’t new housing developments like Tradewinds required to build roads wide enough for a bike lane? Most parks are near schools. What if there were bike routes connecting all the parks in town? Or all the elementary schools? That seems like a reasonable start. Or maybe a finish.
I’m trying not to mention the fanciful ideas from copenhagenize.com, new.carfreecity.us, or bike racks on buses, or the separated pedestrian/bike path I saw in Albuquerque this summer.
It would be nice to ride from Belmar to Elwood and Memorial Parks without fearing for my safety.
You should come and ride around in the Portland area for a while. It makes itself as the most bike friendly city on the west coast, and/or the in the U.S.