Council agenda item proposes 'civilian enforcers' to tackle cars in bike lanes
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin leaders want to crack down on drivers who utilize bike lanes as a temporary parking spot.
At the upcoming Austin City Council meeting, council members will take up an agenda item that could create some ways to tackle the issue, including a group of civilian enforcers.
"We're hoping to just try to make everything safer for everybody," said Paige Ellis, Austin City Council member for District 8.
Ellis says many residents have complained about cars in bike lanes.
"We've had folks over the years come and speak at city council meetings telling us about their experience, having to get out of a bike lane unexpectedly, and some people have been hit," she said.
As a result, council member Ellis has authored this item. Currently, residents are asked to call 311 if they see a car in a bike lane and a citation officer is deployed to the location. However, oftentimes, the car is gone by the time they show up.
If passed at Thursday’s council meeting, it would call on this city manager to get to work on how to be more proactive on fixing this problem. This includes providing visual cues and reminders to drivers to not park in bike lanes and creating a volunteer bike lane enforcement program.
The volunteer program would train civilians to issue citations and warnings to drivers illegally parked in bike lanes. Ellis says there is already something similar in place for ADA accessibility and sidewalks.
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The item would also call for a fleet of electric bikes.
"We are asking them to buy an electric bike fleet for the City of Austin, to make sure that we have people in bike lanes being able to travel through them, and if there are cars that are parked there illegally, they can move those cars, cite them, and make sure that they're out of the way," said Ellis.
In the end, Ellis says this is meant to be an educational initiative. If passed, it would give a grace period where warnings will be given out instead of citations. It would also call for the creation of a bicycle friendly driver training program that will allow first-time violators to get their ticket waived if they successfully go through a training class.
"We're trying to make the streets safer for everybody. We're trying to create predictability, and let people know why it's dangerous to park in the bike lane," said Ellis.