It was a packed house in the gymnasium of Pease Elementary Wednesday evening, the setting of the second of three meetings hosted by the City of Austin about a proposed Bicycle Boulevard.
A Bicycle Master Plan for Austin approved by the city council includes a proposal to create a Bicycle Boulevard on either Nueces from 3rd Street to M.L.K. or on Rio Grande.
The idea of a Bicycle Boulevard is to give cyclists priority over cars on one particular stretch of road.
"It essentially increases bike ridership for the entire community. It provides a safer, more accessible route by using a variety of traffic calming measures to make it more bikable," said Rob D'Amico, President of the League of Bicycling Voters.
Austin's Public Works department is seeking input on whether or not cars should be banned all together or limited on their access with what experts are calling "traffic calming devices."
Nueces is a mixture of residential, retail and businesses most of which are comprised of attorney's offices.
The majority of the opponents to the Bicycle Boulevard are concerned mainly about property values, access and parking.
"Nueces? It's kind of hard to find parking space around here sometimes and they want to make it a bicycle-only?..that would be much harder," said Israel Rodriguez who works on Nueces.
City employees at Wednesday's public input meeting on Bicycle Boulevard say public opinion will be taken very seriously before any final decisions are made.
"One thing I can guarantee with this project is that all the driveways on Nueces or Rio Grande wherever the project ends up being will continue to have access," said Annick Beaudet with Austin's Public Works Department.
The third and last public input meeting on the Bicycle Boulevard is scheduled for February 24 at 7 p.m. at Pease Elementary School.
The Public Works department is expected to come up with a final plan sometime in April.
