April 4th: Illegal Bike Lane Parking Resolution at City Council

[Spencer John Schumacher]

Good Afternoon All, 

I wanted to take a minute to flag Item 40 at the April 4th, 2024 City Council Meeting. This is the long awaited bike lane blockage resolution based on the previous BAC and UTC Recommendations. In fact, the resolution even gives us a nice little shoutout:  

WHEREAS, Bicycle Advisory Council Recommendation No. 20230620-005 and Urban Transportation Commission Recommendation No. 20230711-004 provide multiple recommended measures to improve the safety of bicyclists by ensuring bike lane parking regulations are enforced;

Here is a quick summary of what it does: 

• Initiates code amendments to ensure that motor vehicle parking in the bike lanes and off-street bikeways are prohibited by default, not just where signed
• Directs the City Manager to provide recommendations regarding visual cues notifying drivers of the parking prohibition along unprotected bike lanes
• Directs the City Manager to acquire a fleet of electric bicycles for use by Transportation Mobility Officers (parking enforcement) and set goals for the percentage of time Mobility Officers travel via bicycle and the percentage of time spent on bikeway parking enforcement. 
• Directs the TPW, in partnership with APD, to develop and implement a Volunteer Bike Lane Enforcement Program, modeled after the Accessible Parking Enforcement Program
• Directs the City Manager to implement a Bicycle Friendly Driver Training Program to allow first-time violators of the bikeway parking prohibition to have their ticket waived in exchange for a driver training program regarding bike safety
• Allows a six month grace period after implementation with a plan for public education campaigns
• Directs the City Manager to report back on progress with: 
• A memo on recommended visual cues for unprotected bike lanes and progress on Mobility Officer e-bike fleet acquisition the cost estimate and recommended funding source, by May 28, 2024
  
• A Mobility Committee Update on code amendments, Transportation Mobility Officer goal setting, volunteer program progress, driver training program, and public education plans by October 17th, 2024
• Code amendments for City Council consideration by October 24th, 2024

All in all, I believe this is a fantastic resolution that will finally make meaningful progress towards curbing illegal bike lane parking. I would encourage all you to reach out to your council members (CM Ellis is the sponsor and CMs Qadri, Atler, Harper-Madison, and Pool are co-sponsors) to let them know you support this and, if you are able, sign up to speak at the April 4th council meeting in favor of the resolution (Item 40). 

I have attached the draft below as well as the BAC's two recommendations on the subject. Feel free to reach out with questions or concerns. 

All the best, 

--

Spencer Schumacher

He/Him

Executive Director of the Innovation and Technology Caucus of the Texas Legislature 

spe...@itcaucus.com

Chair of the City of Austin Bicycle Advisory Council

spencers...@utexas.edu

Commissioner for District 9 of the City of Austin Urban Transportation Commission 

bc-spencer...@austintexas.gov

Member of the City of Austin Downtown Commission 

bc-spencer...@austintexas.gov