College Station is first in Texas and 25th in the nation among cities of at least 100,000 population in the percentage of bicyclists who commute.
Meantime, this decade has seen 297 bicycle crashes. Two thirds of the bicyclists were between the ages of 18 and 34.
And what to do to reduce that number was discussed by the city council this month.
Between 2016 and 2018, Vanessa Garza of the city’s planning and zoning department reported 88 bicyclists were involved in crashes. 63 percent involved a motorist who failed to yield the right of way, and 34 percent involved a bicyclist riding the wrong way on the sidewalk.
Garza talked about education efforts with Texas A&M students and doing targeted enforcement efforts around the campus.
Police chief Scott McCollum was asked about distracted driving…by bicyclists as well as motorists. That was the cause of nine percent of bicycle crashes between 2016 and 2018.
Councilwoman Elianor Vessali brought up the city’s and A&M’s relationship with the current provider of bike sharing.
Councilman Dennis Maloney brought up requiring new developments to have bike paths.
Councilwoman Linda Harvell brought up the frustration of exiting the Southside neighborhood onto George Bush Drive across from the A&M campus.
Mayor Karl Mooney brought up a past experience at another university that resulted in changing where bicyclists could ride.
After the council discussion, there was a proclamation acknowledging May as National Bike Month.
That was followed by two people speaking during the public comment portion of the council meeting. Jorge Sanchez called for protective bicycle lanes and College Station adopting a TxDOT program used in Bryan called “Safe Routes to Schools”. And suggestions from local bicycle dealer Robert Rose included the city adopting a local version of state legislation adopted in other cities that did not get to the full House following a committee vote. HB 962 related to the operation of a motor vehicle passing a pedestrian or a person operating a bicycle.
No direction was taken by the council following the discussion.
Click below for some of the comments from the May 13, 2019 College Station city council meeting.
Listen to “College Station city council discusses improving bicyclist safety” on Spreaker.