Bike boulevard proposal cycles debate

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Bicyclists and business owners continue to fight over a proposed bicycle boulevard in Downtown Austin.

The City of Austin has drawn up plans for reducing vehicle traffic on Nueces Street from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Fourth Street.

Cyclists said the bike boulevard would offer bicyclists a safer route through downtown.

Under the city's proposal, engineers would spend $350,000 to design traffic circles, medians and so-called pinch points to slow or calm vehicle traffic along the street.

The city would use transportation bond money set aside for bicycle infrastructure in 2000.

Business owners along Nueces Street have showed up to public meetings and said the city should consider other routes or scrap plans altogether.

"To take a street out of commission or make it difficult to travel for automobiles for the benefit of two percent of the population makes no sense," said Scott Sayers, a business owner on Nueces Street

Meanwhile, the League of Bicycling Voters has indicated major support for the plan.

"Half the people in Austin want to be able to bike to work sometime," said Tom Wald, the League's Executive Director.  "We're going to have a crammed downtown. We need people to walk downtown, we need people to bike downtown."

The city has set a meeting on the issue Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at Pease Elementary School at 1106 Rio Grande St.