Bike-friendly city goal of lane project

Whether you ride a bicycle for fun, sport or recreation, or because it’s your main source of transportation, the experience is much more pleasant in a bike-friendly community.

Brownsville is not one of those communities, even though a good portion of its residents ride out of necessity. As far as City Commissioner Rose Gowen is concerned, no one who rides for any reason should be forced to risk life and limb fighting cars for space on the road. That, and the obvious health benefits associated with bike riding, are why she’s pushing projects to make Brownsville a better host to bicyclists.

That’s why Gowen was at the intersection of Pablo Kisel Boulevard and Morrison Road Tuesday morning, to see a demonstration involving the application of a low-maintenance, high-visibility marker for bike lanes. The nonskid, super-reflective, thermoplastic markers are essentially melted onto the road surface using an industrial-sized propane torch, and likely will be used to mark exist-ing and future bike lanes around the city.

Gowen, city traffic director Robert Esparza, public health director Art Rodriguez, Brownsville Community Improvement Corpo-ration executive director Delina Barrera and other officials looked on as the inaugural marker was heated onto the asphalt surface.

Doing the honors, in a Day-Glo orange vest, was John Moreno of North Carolina-based Flint Trading Inc., the company supplying the markers. The firm’s literature lists the cost of labor and materials for one marker at approximately $375, though Moreno said Brownsville’s cost probably will be quite a bit less since Texas is a big customer.

The thermoplastic markers last several times longer than painted ones, which means savings where the city’s labor costs are concerned when compared to repainting conventional markings every year. The BCIC has $70,000 budgeted for the project.

Although Tuesday’s demo involved the application of a single marker, Gowen described the occasion as significant.

“We don’t believe that we’ve paid enough attention to bike safety and the availability of bicycle lanes and the built environment to accommodate people other than in cars,” she said. “Since a third of all of our people do not drive, we need to make accommodations for the riders on bicycles, the walkers on sidewalks and such, simply because that’s the way they get around.”

Maybe even more important to Gowen is the wellness aspect. In a community where 80 percent of the population is overweight or obese it’s vital that there be avenues for activity, she said.

“A street without a bike lane is a lot more dangerous, and a person is much less likely to get on their bike and go down that road. They’ll get in their car instead,” Gowen said. “So we’d like to be able to promote avenues to and from schools, to and from malls, retail outlet centers, restaurants and all of that, for people to be able to get to the places they want to go without having to get in a car.”

Sunrise Mall is an example of how not to do it: Neighborhoods just to the north are essentially cut off from the mall, except by car. Gowen’s dream, and that of a project under BCIC, is to create a network of connecting bike trails and lanes around the city.

She acknowledges that convincing Brownsville motorists to think differently about bicycles will take a while, and will require more than clearly defining bike lanes. That’s why the city is coming out with a multimedia round of public service announcements meant to educate drivers to “stop using the bike lanes as just another lane in the road for their car,” Gowen said.

“It’s not a turning lane,” she said. “A turning lane is going to be marked with arrows and all of that type of thing. We want to edu-cate the drivers to share the road, which means sharing with bicycle riders, not just that the bicycle riders are giving the right-of-way to the cars, but rather you’re truly sharing. And we need to help people understand that when they drive they need to slow down around bike lanes. They need to not drive in the bike lanes. And they need to not push the riders off the road, which does happen. All of that needs to stop.”

While she encourages residents to leave the car behind for a change and take the bike for quick trips to the store, Gowen said people have to feel safe doing it.

“It shouldn’t be a terrifying experience, especially for children” she said. “If our children learn that it’s scary to ride a bike, be-cause aunt or uncle or somebody got hurt when a car got into the bike lane, then that child’s going to grow up much less likely to want to ride.”

Sclark@brownsvilleherald.com