During Tuesday’s San Marcos City Council meeting, councilmembers discussed and voted on the second reading regarding changes in the city’s Master Transportation Plan. After much consideration, the council voted to pass the plan that includes the Thoroughfare and Bicycle Plan which will modify various roadway alignments and bicycle facility classifications.
Previously, city council recommended unanimous approval of the item including the five recommendations and discussion items presented by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Throughout the discussion, Mayor Jane Hughson brought up concerns regarding lane removals due to changes with the bicycle lanes. Councilmember Shane Scott posed the idea of adding speed bumps to reduce speeding on Craddock Avenue.
“Traffic calming is a real big factor for cyclists and you know if we can get someone not flying down Craddock, sharing the lane is going to be a lot better,” Scott said.
Sessom Drive is currently down to one lane in each direction and according to Richard Reynosa, Assistant Director of Engineering, it will remain that way for another year.
“The idea is that we are building more bike infrastructure so that more people will use it and stop relying on fossil fuels and cars,” Councilmember Maxfield Baker said. “We have to remember that this isn’t just a matter of like ‘Oh we’re providing bicycle lanes,’ it’s literally a sustainability effort on our part.”
Baker further explained that measures should be taken to ensure the safety of both drivers and cyclists on Craddock.
Councilmember Mark Gleason also expressed his concern with taking away those lanes to make them bike lanes.
“In the time that we need to re-engineer and do all this on Sessom and Craddock,” Gleason said. “Let's look at putting a shared-use bike path on Sessom immediately, I’d support that in a heartbeat and I don’t think we need to take away those two lanes in an area that’s going to continue to see growth and is extremely busy.”
Gleason then made a motion to approve of the plan but keep the four lanes of traffic on Craddock Avenue and Sessom Drive. Baker ended the discussion with his thoughts on the proposed amendment.
“If we put those bike paths out there, some of that growth that y'all are referring to could be people that want to live in a place where they have easy access to a bicycle path,” Baker said.
In regard to the amendment made by Gleason, it went on to fail 3-4. For the main plan, the council passed the Thoroughfare and Bicycle Plans as part of the Transportation Master Plan, 5-4.
To view the full agenda and meeting, visit san-marcos-tx.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=9.
