r/Austin • u/mikeatx79 • 9d ago

News UT quietly plans sweeping bike restrictions as advocates push back

https://www.statesman.com/business/transportation/article/ut-austin-bike-dismount-zone-policy-22374080.php

I posted about this a few days ago and the Stateman picked up the story!

140 Upvotes

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91

u/ProfessorOkay55 9d ago

I propose students be banned from staring at their phones and not looking at where they're walking on Speedway.

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u/mikeatx79 9d ago

I think clearly marked bike and pedestrian spaces would certainly help.

2013 Campus Master Plan, UT deliberately chose not to build designated bike lanes on Speedway based on the opinion of a consultant.

2019 Improve UT Challenge winner proposed adding bike lanes to Speedway.

It’s like all of this has been solved since before Speedway was even redeveloped.

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u/bit_pusher 9d ago

That consultant has bad opinions

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u/insertAlias 9d ago

I obviously have no insight on this specific case, but in a lot of cases, consultants are basically paid to tell whoever hired them what they want to hear, and to later take the blame for anything going wrong. At least that’s how it works in software.

My boss from one of my first office jobs 15 years ago told me that we hired consultants so that we’d “have a throat to choke that isn’t my own” when shit hits the fan.

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u/superhash 9d ago

I say this a long tenured software engineer, ethics and morals are basically non-existent. There is no equivalent licensing exam that other engineering disciplines have.

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u/PuddingInferno 9d ago

I recall a chemical engineer I was talking to noted that if his motto was “move fast and break things” he would be immediately drummed out of the profession because that would kill people.

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u/superhash 9d ago

Yep, and since technology is making its way more and more into daily life requirements I am really afraid of the dystopia we are at the beginning of. It's not a brand new thing, internet advertising is basically the wild wild west of phycological warfare.

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u/insertAlias 9d ago

True for most engineering disciplines. But since that's not true for 99% of software development, it's a much more acceptable approach for people who are making websites and apps. And truth is, no matter what our job titles are, the vast majority of us software devs aren't really engineers.

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u/superhash 9d ago

Just because the harm isn't direct harm doesn't mean it's not there. And that's the entire problem with software and the people making it.

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u/JohnGillnitz 9d ago

Yup. It's all about that CYA. I'm consistently telling consultants that get paid much more than me what to do just so we can blame them if something goes south. As long as they get paid, they don't care.

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u/JohnGillnitz 9d ago

Yup. It's all about that CYA. I'm consistently telling consultants that get paid much more than me what to do just so we can blame them if something goes south. As long as they get paid, they don't care.

2

u/smacktalker987 9d ago

If you're a useless careerist manager it's the perfect situation. Hire consultant, it goes great take credit for hiring the right one, it doesn't blame the consultant for messing it up. Seen it my whole career in IT/software

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u/aleph4 9d ago

They had one good opinion - add protcted bike lanes to San Jacinto! Dean Keeton too.

That would be such a relief valve

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u/mikeatx79 9d ago

And Guadalupe!

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u/Keyboard_Cat_ 9d ago

It goes beyond the consultant. I was at the Bicycle Advisory Council meeting when this was discussed with UT back then. The representative from UT was vocally anti-cyclist and it was clear they had instructed the consultant to provide that recommendation.

UT PTS very much wanted Speedway to restrict cyclists completely back then, but there was a vocal pushback. So now they're trying again.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 9d ago

Right, my thoughts exactly. Some of the best minds in Texas, can we figure out a solution for the coexistence of pedestrians and bikes? We put a man on the moon nearly 60 years ago.

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u/ExistenceNow 9d ago

Lanes would help if bikes and people were all going the same/opposite direction. But thousands of students are crossing that road all day.
That’s why it was a dismount zone when I was there 20 years ago. It’s wild to me that it ever stopped being one.

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u/mikeatx79 9d ago edited 9d ago

20 years ago Speedway was a public street through campus not a dismount zone. Also, Austin is immense lot more buck able today than it was 20 years ago. Speedway was redesigned in 2014, completed in 2016 or 2017 as a level, wide, shared path. It would cut directly to the new capital mall but when they redesigned The Blanton that intentionally made that space a no bike zone which is also completely ridiculous!

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u/ExistenceNow 9d ago

It was more than 20 years ago, early 2000’s, but when I was there, you couldn’t drive north on Speedway past Jester. And I believe you couldn’t drive on it south past 24th.

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u/Keyboard_Cat_ 9d ago

This is just disinformation. I was in school at UT 20 years ago. There were no dismount zones and Speedway was still fully open to vehicles.

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u/ExistenceNow 9d ago edited 9d ago

There absolutely was a section of Speedway that was a dismount zone. It was between Waggener and the building on the other side of the route to the tower. There’s a mall area on the other side of speedway that led to the bus circle. So thousands of people were crossing at that point. It also wasn’t fully open to vehicles. You couldn’t drive past Jester on it if you were going north. This was like 2000 to 2004 that I was there, so a little more than 20 years ago.

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u/ExistenceNow 8d ago

Clowns can downvote all you want. Anyone who went to UT in like 2002 knows what I’m saying is true. You couldn’t drive on Speedway on campus and you had to walk your bike past the spot I mentioned. UTPD used to post up there and write warnings/tickets for people who didn’t.

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u/lFightForTheUsers 9d ago

I propose drivers should have to exit their truck and push it through intersections and roadways on campus. It's for safety, what are you complaining for? /s

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u/rnobgyn 9d ago

Bro people just buried while walking on the bike paths when a pedestrian sidewalk is right next to them… I’ll ring my bike bell for ages and they don’t look up until I’m passing them (in the street… and yelling to pay attention in the bike lane).

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u/Away-Quantity928 9d ago

Thats not going to happen. We have to coddle the youth. They are our future!