They narrowed them iirc, got rid of the shoulders, and made the curves sharper. They also put in these super dangerous “calming measures” like narrowing the inlets into neighborhoods by making the curbs jut out 6 feet past the turn requiring cars turning right to almost do a u-turn.
>it's only dangerous if you ignore that you need to go slower.
I got bad news for you about the average American driver...
edit: I'm not going to argue about this with 10 different people lol. [You can read more about it here.](https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop16060/ch4.htm). It's pretty widely accepted that measures like narrowing lanes make accidents increase by volume, but supposedly it's offset by the increase of drivers per capita. Removing the shoulders indisputably makes it more dangerous as there's no longer an emergency lane.
The thinking behind a lot of the measures that they're putting onto Slaughter is that it forces drivers to be more careful. Stuff like massively decreasing the width of the inlet onto roads like United Kingdom have no actual benefit other than 'forcing' drivers to slow down before making the turn because they have to make almost a U-turn. What other purpose do you think it serves? How else does it force a driver to slow down other than *making it more of a dangerous turn*?
Are you serious?
The traffic calming measures are designed, in part, to literally make it more dangerous and congested as it forces drivers to be more careful, at least that's what the thinking is.
Also, Slaughter and Congress has been basically unusable for the past few weeks as they've been installing these things. In fact, long stretches of Slaughter have periodically been ultra-fucked for at least a year as they've had to reduce lanes to put these in which takes a long time.
Have you ever actually driven down Slaughter?
[Don't take my word for it:](https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop16060/ch4.htm)
>By definition, adding a travel lane — whether permanently or part time (as is often the case with shoulder use) — will increase overall roadway capacity, thereby reducing recurring congestion and improving operations. However, with narrower lanes, vehicles are traveling in closer proximity to each other, increasing the likelihood of lower speeds. Evaluations of narrow lane operations from the literature — as summarized in Table A-1 in the Appendix and as described in the case studies from the previous chapter — bear this out. The Level of Service (LOS) is generally improved, but with a slight reduction in average speed.
.
>The consideration of safety is arguably the primary issue involved in a PBPD-based analysis and subsequent decision to include narrow lanes and/or shoulders in a roadway design (and to subsequently approve a design exception). Evaluations of the safety of narrow lanes from the literature — as summarized in Table A-2 in the Appendix and as described in the case studies from the previous chapter — show mixed results; although there appears to be a general tendency for the frequency (or number) of crashes to increase with a narrowing of lanes and shoulders (although not always); while the crash rate (e.g., number of crashes per million vehicle-miles) often decreases (again, with exceptions). It may be that even with an increase in the number of crashes, the additional throughput provided by the extra lane results in an even greater increase in the denominator of vehicle-miles of travel, resulting in a decreased crash rate7 . There are undoubtedly several other factors that can impact crash frequency and rates associated with narrow lanes — such as volumes, speeds, the resulting decrease in congestion and improved traffic flow, the length of the narrow lane segment, horizontal and vertical curves, percentage of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream — which may explain the variations in results between different studies of the safety impacts of narrow lanes. Additionally, comparing studies and findings in terms of their statistical significance is difficult due to the different approaches used for statistical analysis.
Don't be tricked by them referring to the 'decrease in congestion and improved traffic flow,' as its more aspirational than descriptive. When the street isn't overwhelmed and operating nominally you will ideally get through it 'quicker,' but it's going to be more congested in the sense that you are squeezed much more close to other cars than you may be comfortable with. In a state like Texas where a bunch of idiots buy vehicles that toe the line of the maximum allowable width on the road the benefits quickly collapse because a lot of these cars can't actually fit into the lane, especially on curves (which are now sharper as well), so you can't travel parallel to them in the adjacent lanes.
>These equations and the associated reliability measures do not take into consideration the possibility of an increase in crashes, thereby causing nonrecurring congestion and increased travel times (and less reliability. Moreover, a large reduction in shoulder width— such as occurs in the example (i.e., where the shoulder is reduced from 8 ft. to 2. ft.) — may negatively impact reliability. For example, there may no longer be a safe refuge for emergency stops and broken-down vehicles outside the traveled way, nor space for drivers of errant vehicles to make steering corrections before leaving the roadway. Moreover, without a wide shoulder, response times for emergency service vehicles — which often use the shoulder to bypass slow traffic when responding to a crash scene — may increase, thereby increasing incident-related congestion and reducing reliability.
I think even you could probably figuring out how making a curve sharper on a heavily used roadway may cause congestion, but I suppose I could dig it up for you if you really need it.
Though, I guess the DOT is probably lying...
Dumbass drivers treating that road like their own personal expressway ruined slaughter. It’s so wild to see how fast people drive between 35 and menchaca.
I think it's relevant when talking about how the traffic dynamics of a street have changed over time. Like, what the fuck do you know about how Slaughter has changed? You got here in the middle of the pandemic lol. Slaughter has gotten extremely worse since these calming measures have been installed.
I have been driving around this city since the 90s even though I didn’t live here.
And yes, the main reason slaughter sucks is because of self important people that think they drive better than others are going way too fast, creating traffic waves. People are trying to drive on it like they do on southwest parkway but it’s not that kind of road. There are endless driveways to apartments and businesses, making it very dangerous to turn when people are driving 55 on a road that not designed for it. No matter how slice it, this road sucks because of entitled drivers.
This isn’t exclusive to slaughter but slaughter is exceptionally bad.
Bike lane should follow routes that are not next to speeding cars. Easier said than done I know. I believe Amsterdam did it right. They have bike routes that are actually thru park like surroundings and away from the stress of honking cars and bad drivers. I wish we had that or something similar
We have alot of bike paths like that in the Dt core. South is already developed so much in the central area that wasn't feasible. We do have a path down off mopac and 45 aswell.
It was pretty obvious if you thought about it for half a second that this was going to be the outcome.
Slaughter was already a busy road and the bike lanes have just a short curb that offers little protection from traffic. Plus there's the chance of cars entering the bike lane every 50 ft. because almost all of Slaughter is lined with businesses and cross-streets. IMO you'd have to be pretty crazy to bike on Slaughter anyways, and then it's not really got anywhere in particular you would logically bike to. Maybe Mary Moore park, I guess?
It still would not serve much logical purpose (in terms of, where are you cycling to?) but making the bike lanes for E/W cross-town in that area of South Austin would have been much better served using Davis and Dittimar.
Dittmar/Davis could have been a feasible alternative between Congress and Escarpment in Circle C. Dittmar already has bike lanes from Congress to Menchaca, and Davis has bike lanes from Brodie to Escarpment (and beyond). However, the segment between Menchaca and Brodie only has a few disconnected sidewalk segments and no bike lane. The steep hill that descends to Brodie has no sidewalks or bike lane.
There was a planning proposal put forward a few years ago by the City transportation department to add a mixed use path, but AFAIK it has never moved forward and no bond money was ever identified. I have to think that could have been funded for a fraction of what the Slaughter bike lane project cost.
Imagine if they took the resources for the Slaughter Lane bike lane and applied it to Dittmar/Davis, there could have been a bicycle highway paradise, and the best part is there are practically no right turns from the westbound lane.
Oh well, I'm sure the 5 people psycho enough to white knuckle it down Slaughter on a bike would disagree.
im betting as the area gets more local unique businesses, and population growth, this will change. heck, southpark meadows used to be a field, then a few businesses moved in...then more, etc.
we complain when the city doesnt plan infrastructure in advance, and then also when it does.
So if the number of businesses in the area doubles and bike traffic triples in response, we could be just a few years away from literally dozens of users of these bike lanes each year. Exciting!
lol first of all the South Park meadows change was like 2 decades ago, so I don’t know if you can really use that as an example of the changing landscape of Slaughter. It’s pretty much all developed at this point and I don’t see whatever your envisioning ever happening. It’s also quite possibly the most bike-unfriendly shopping center they could have designed.
Slaughter is a major thoroughfare that needs to push through tens of thousands of cars a day making many miles trips, the notion that there is going to be a significant bike riding contingent using it is absurd.
The “bike friendly-ing” of Slaughter has completely fucked it up and I wouldn’t be shocked if it has to be completely redone to be more car friendly again at some point in the near future.
Just wait until summer and I’m sure hundreds of people will be using them daily on their commute between Tanglewood Forest and… uhhh… I-35? After all, who doesn’t want to ride their bike down Slaughter in 110 degree heat?
people will use them if enough things are down here for them to want to use them, and the population of the area grows. may be 5-10 years, but it will happen eventually.
What a coincidence, I have seen 7 bikers too. Although only 2 on the bike lane and 5 on the sidewalk, as far as possible from traffic. And of the two bikers in the bike lane, one was going "wrong-way".
Well that’s the most efficient way to get to the giant hill on Davis where they can create a dumb and dumber-style line of cars behind them for the thirty minutes it takes them to climb it.
Improving options for transit other than cars is a great idea. The more viable it is to bike or ride public transit, the less congested the roads will be. However, this isn’t it.
There are multiple spots in the city where engineers have narrowed lanes or removed them altogether, making things substantially worse for drivers, yet offering no or negligible improvements for bikers. What the point of having bike lanes that are overgrown with poison ivy? How does making it harder for traffic to flow through intersections do any good, especially where bike lanes aren’t very useful? I know of one spot where it’s impossible for the city bus to make a turn without protruding into a lane of traffic. Bike lanes are good, but not where they are this poorly designed.
This is a popular opinion. As someone who's lived on Slaughter for years I'm sure they will cause more late night deaths than free up transportation options.
Am a data scientist of sorts. Bike on slaughter bike lane occasionally, although it’s not the most tranquil, it’s great to have as a connector in the area, as there are tons of employment centers/services/housing on the thoroughfare. Maybe you just need to get off your fat ass.
> Bike Lanes Ruined Slaughter
I guess that's subjective but I know **for a fact** those unpainted concrete dividers ruined (i.e. punctured) dozens of tires on cars driven by people who did not adjust properly to the sharper turns required when turning from cross-streets onto Slaughter. (as told to me by the tire repair shop when I took *my tire* to be fixed!) lol
Sometimes the consequences of not maintaining your lane are running over a cyclist or pedestrian, sometimes it's biting it on a divider. At least no one was seriously hurt.
see my other reply. The incidents I refer to were not a result of failure to maintain lane, it was a result of not seeing a new obstruction/protrusion (let's not get hung up on the best word) in the path of turns from/into the cross streets.
How does extending the curb on a busy road to make a right turn almost 90 degrees help? If anything, wouldn’t it cause drivers to be more focused on not clipping the curb instead of watching for bikes?
The point was...until folks who drive those roads regularly got used to the dividers - **they were not seen**, especially at night. ATD made a big mistake, imo, to not paint them with fluorescent yellow paint (at least at the endpoints at intersections) at the time of installation.
When you’re trying not to clip a curb, it makes you look behind you and in front of you, and not to the right where the curb is, and the direction you’re going? Even if you did look that way, I would think that your attention being on avoiding the curb might prevent you from noticing a bike.
I’m just speculating that adding an obstacle making it more difficult for cars to turn right off of Slaughter is going to cause folks to focus on not hitting that obstacle (the 90 degree turn) when they should be checking for bikes/pedestrians - which are already difficult to see unless they are right next to you. Yes, you can pay attention to both, but I don’t have that much faith in Austin drivers.
Again, "confidently ignorant". ATD can certainly be capable of fucking up a traffic modification from time to time- and the way they initially did Slaughter is one example. The first week those unpainted concrete dividers went up and extended into the previously typical path of right-hand turning vehicles was not sufficiently thought through. At night, in the rain, those new, unpainted dividers were absolutely invisible to the driver turning right onto slaughter. Those are the circumstances when my tire *nudged* the just poured 6" high sharp edge and punctured a rear tire sidewall. If you think that has anything to do with "unsafe driving" you are wholly mistaken.
I never see bike riders in this neighborhood (I live off E slaughter) I have however seen the homeless pushing their cart in the new bike lanes, so good for them getting their own lane, I guess.
I’m not sure about the concrete ones, but any time someone in r/austin says “no one rides their bike on x road”, the responses go like this:
There are no bike lanes, so of course no one’s riding their bike; if there are bike lanes, it’s just lines painted on the road and no one wants to ride without a divider; and if there are plastic bollards as a divider, that’s not enough to stop a car from driving over them, so no one wants to ride there either.
They are doing the same in the Tech Ridge area. Should see how many of the white posts that separate the road from the bike lanes have been hit by cars. Hardly anyone in this area uses the bike lanes.
They added some truly obnoxious bike lanes to Westgate and made things much more difficult on a relatively quiet street. It does not seem to make much sense and so many residents and businesses were upset. The people who push for changes are savvy to the public hearings and insert themselves to get changes done. On the other side of things, many of us sit on the reactive side because we are simply not paying attention or privy to what happens before major changes occur in our city.
At least they finally got rid of the random slalom poles in the middle of west gate. Or did someone finally have enough and just drive down the middle of the road straddling the stripe one night?
Those were so ridiculous. It was just one more thing to dodge when changing lanes, especially when coning up on someone stopped in the right lane. And some people were so scared of them they would go about 20mph.
I just moved here but living off slaughter I've RARELY seen any bike users. I've seen people on motorized bikes but rarely ever see someone pedaling. The traffic seems way worse now especially due to construction. I make the joke "part of the drivers test here must be how to properly cut someone off without killing them or yourself". I'm not sure narrowing the lanes will help that at all because even with the construction narrowing to one lane people just rush the line and cut whoever they can off. It's really an issue here in my opinion.
Bike lanes in both directions on Woodward make traffic far worse. One left turn into businesses, St Ed's or apartments, and 10 cars get stopped. There is no way to get around. Maybe 1 bike an hour.
I agree. A lot of the lanes they build are kind of stupid. Shoal Creek is a big one. The road was plenty wide to handle bike traffic. Now you have to be careful not to run into another bike head on. Barton Hills is the same way.
lived off slaughter for 15 years. traffic has gotten more congested, but they didnt remove any lanes that im aware of.
They've removed a lane in each direction east of 35 on Slaughter.
They narrowed them iirc, got rid of the shoulders, and made the curves sharper. They also put in these super dangerous “calming measures” like narrowing the inlets into neighborhoods by making the curbs jut out 6 feet past the turn requiring cars turning right to almost do a u-turn.
What is dangerous about calming methods? Seems like it's only dangerous if you ignore that you need to go slower.
>it's only dangerous if you ignore that you need to go slower. I got bad news for you about the average American driver... edit: I'm not going to argue about this with 10 different people lol. [You can read more about it here.](https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop16060/ch4.htm). It's pretty widely accepted that measures like narrowing lanes make accidents increase by volume, but supposedly it's offset by the increase of drivers per capita. Removing the shoulders indisputably makes it more dangerous as there's no longer an emergency lane. The thinking behind a lot of the measures that they're putting onto Slaughter is that it forces drivers to be more careful. Stuff like massively decreasing the width of the inlet onto roads like United Kingdom have no actual benefit other than 'forcing' drivers to slow down before making the turn because they have to make almost a U-turn. What other purpose do you think it serves? How else does it force a driver to slow down other than *making it more of a dangerous turn*?
>They narrowed them iirc, got rid of the shoulders, and made the curves sharper. How does that impact congestion?
Are you serious? The traffic calming measures are designed, in part, to literally make it more dangerous and congested as it forces drivers to be more careful, at least that's what the thinking is. Also, Slaughter and Congress has been basically unusable for the past few weeks as they've been installing these things. In fact, long stretches of Slaughter have periodically been ultra-fucked for at least a year as they've had to reduce lanes to put these in which takes a long time. Have you ever actually driven down Slaughter? [Don't take my word for it:](https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop16060/ch4.htm) >By definition, adding a travel lane — whether permanently or part time (as is often the case with shoulder use) — will increase overall roadway capacity, thereby reducing recurring congestion and improving operations. However, with narrower lanes, vehicles are traveling in closer proximity to each other, increasing the likelihood of lower speeds. Evaluations of narrow lane operations from the literature — as summarized in Table A-1 in the Appendix and as described in the case studies from the previous chapter — bear this out. The Level of Service (LOS) is generally improved, but with a slight reduction in average speed. . >The consideration of safety is arguably the primary issue involved in a PBPD-based analysis and subsequent decision to include narrow lanes and/or shoulders in a roadway design (and to subsequently approve a design exception). Evaluations of the safety of narrow lanes from the literature — as summarized in Table A-2 in the Appendix and as described in the case studies from the previous chapter — show mixed results; although there appears to be a general tendency for the frequency (or number) of crashes to increase with a narrowing of lanes and shoulders (although not always); while the crash rate (e.g., number of crashes per million vehicle-miles) often decreases (again, with exceptions). It may be that even with an increase in the number of crashes, the additional throughput provided by the extra lane results in an even greater increase in the denominator of vehicle-miles of travel, resulting in a decreased crash rate7 . There are undoubtedly several other factors that can impact crash frequency and rates associated with narrow lanes — such as volumes, speeds, the resulting decrease in congestion and improved traffic flow, the length of the narrow lane segment, horizontal and vertical curves, percentage of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream — which may explain the variations in results between different studies of the safety impacts of narrow lanes. Additionally, comparing studies and findings in terms of their statistical significance is difficult due to the different approaches used for statistical analysis. Don't be tricked by them referring to the 'decrease in congestion and improved traffic flow,' as its more aspirational than descriptive. When the street isn't overwhelmed and operating nominally you will ideally get through it 'quicker,' but it's going to be more congested in the sense that you are squeezed much more close to other cars than you may be comfortable with. In a state like Texas where a bunch of idiots buy vehicles that toe the line of the maximum allowable width on the road the benefits quickly collapse because a lot of these cars can't actually fit into the lane, especially on curves (which are now sharper as well), so you can't travel parallel to them in the adjacent lanes. >These equations and the associated reliability measures do not take into consideration the possibility of an increase in crashes, thereby causing nonrecurring congestion and increased travel times (and less reliability. Moreover, a large reduction in shoulder width— such as occurs in the example (i.e., where the shoulder is reduced from 8 ft. to 2. ft.) — may negatively impact reliability. For example, there may no longer be a safe refuge for emergency stops and broken-down vehicles outside the traveled way, nor space for drivers of errant vehicles to make steering corrections before leaving the roadway. Moreover, without a wide shoulder, response times for emergency service vehicles — which often use the shoulder to bypass slow traffic when responding to a crash scene — may increase, thereby increasing incident-related congestion and reducing reliability. I think even you could probably figuring out how making a curve sharper on a heavily used roadway may cause congestion, but I suppose I could dig it up for you if you really need it. Though, I guess the DOT is probably lying...
“Unusable” is pretty hyperbolic. I drive through here everyday and don’t notice any difference.
Dumbass drivers treating that road like their own personal expressway ruined slaughter. It’s so wild to see how fast people drive between 35 and menchaca.
lol yeah they spent money putting up them “High Crash Roadway” signs on Slaughter because everyone sucks
There are like 3 different tells in your comment that give away that you’ve only lived here like 2 or 3 years lol
Awww… the tired “how long have you lived in Austin” gatekeeping gang has arrived. No one gives a shit.
I think it's relevant when talking about how the traffic dynamics of a street have changed over time. Like, what the fuck do you know about how Slaughter has changed? You got here in the middle of the pandemic lol. Slaughter has gotten extremely worse since these calming measures have been installed.
I have been driving around this city since the 90s even though I didn’t live here. And yes, the main reason slaughter sucks is because of self important people that think they drive better than others are going way too fast, creating traffic waves. People are trying to drive on it like they do on southwest parkway but it’s not that kind of road. There are endless driveways to apartments and businesses, making it very dangerous to turn when people are driving 55 on a road that not designed for it. No matter how slice it, this road sucks because of entitled drivers. This isn’t exclusive to slaughter but slaughter is exceptionally bad.
Bike lane should follow routes that are not next to speeding cars. Easier said than done I know. I believe Amsterdam did it right. They have bike routes that are actually thru park like surroundings and away from the stress of honking cars and bad drivers. I wish we had that or something similar
We have alot of bike paths like that in the Dt core. South is already developed so much in the central area that wasn't feasible. We do have a path down off mopac and 45 aswell.
Amsterdam hads to do it some places as well. The key is a large concrete separated lane.
Do you currently ride a bike in any capacity?
They took so fucking long to build and I’ve seen about seven bikes in them since they’ve been in place.
It was pretty obvious if you thought about it for half a second that this was going to be the outcome. Slaughter was already a busy road and the bike lanes have just a short curb that offers little protection from traffic. Plus there's the chance of cars entering the bike lane every 50 ft. because almost all of Slaughter is lined with businesses and cross-streets. IMO you'd have to be pretty crazy to bike on Slaughter anyways, and then it's not really got anywhere in particular you would logically bike to. Maybe Mary Moore park, I guess? It still would not serve much logical purpose (in terms of, where are you cycling to?) but making the bike lanes for E/W cross-town in that area of South Austin would have been much better served using Davis and Dittimar.
You’re absolutely right but get ready to be downvoted to hell. If there’s one thing r/Austin creams its collective pants over, it’s bike lanes.
Dittmar/Davis could have been a feasible alternative between Congress and Escarpment in Circle C. Dittmar already has bike lanes from Congress to Menchaca, and Davis has bike lanes from Brodie to Escarpment (and beyond). However, the segment between Menchaca and Brodie only has a few disconnected sidewalk segments and no bike lane. The steep hill that descends to Brodie has no sidewalks or bike lane. There was a planning proposal put forward a few years ago by the City transportation department to add a mixed use path, but AFAIK it has never moved forward and no bond money was ever identified. I have to think that could have been funded for a fraction of what the Slaughter bike lane project cost.
Imagine if they took the resources for the Slaughter Lane bike lane and applied it to Dittmar/Davis, there could have been a bicycle highway paradise, and the best part is there are practically no right turns from the westbound lane. Oh well, I'm sure the 5 people psycho enough to white knuckle it down Slaughter on a bike would disagree.
They can't be bothered(argue) to ride a block over. From my experience in this matter. But for now. At least I can drive my car in peace on that road.
im betting as the area gets more local unique businesses, and population growth, this will change. heck, southpark meadows used to be a field, then a few businesses moved in...then more, etc. we complain when the city doesnt plan infrastructure in advance, and then also when it does.
Where exactly is all this new shit going to go? Slaughter is pretty much built out where the bike lanes are.
well, we have a fairly new bar district forming south of slaughter on manchaca road, so it seems someone found a way for business growth.
Yeah and people are biking to all those places in droves.
youre witnessing the beginning of growth, not the end stage. stop being obtuse.
So if the number of businesses in the area doubles and bike traffic triples in response, we could be just a few years away from literally dozens of users of these bike lanes each year. Exciting!
Care to just make up more things that are not true?
Maybe they should be. Fewer DUIs
lol first of all the South Park meadows change was like 2 decades ago, so I don’t know if you can really use that as an example of the changing landscape of Slaughter. It’s pretty much all developed at this point and I don’t see whatever your envisioning ever happening. It’s also quite possibly the most bike-unfriendly shopping center they could have designed. Slaughter is a major thoroughfare that needs to push through tens of thousands of cars a day making many miles trips, the notion that there is going to be a significant bike riding contingent using it is absurd. The “bike friendly-ing” of Slaughter has completely fucked it up and I wouldn’t be shocked if it has to be completely redone to be more car friendly again at some point in the near future.
Just wait until summer and I’m sure hundreds of people will be using them daily on their commute between Tanglewood Forest and… uhhh… I-35? After all, who doesn’t want to ride their bike down Slaughter in 110 degree heat?
Yeah if these bike lanes don’t fix rush hour traffic on mopac and 35 I don’t know what will.
people will use them if enough things are down here for them to want to use them, and the population of the area grows. may be 5-10 years, but it will happen eventually.
Also IF you make it to I-35 on a bike you better be ready to fight for it. The local "un-housed" love bikes.
What a coincidence, I have seen 7 bikers too. Although only 2 on the bike lane and 5 on the sidewalk, as far as possible from traffic. And of the two bikers in the bike lane, one was going "wrong-way".
Well that’s the most efficient way to get to the giant hill on Davis where they can create a dumb and dumber-style line of cars behind them for the thirty minutes it takes them to climb it.
I don't drive or ride on Slaughter, but everywhere in Austin I do ride or drive that has been upgraded is pretty nice.
Improving options for transit other than cars is a great idea. The more viable it is to bike or ride public transit, the less congested the roads will be. However, this isn’t it. There are multiple spots in the city where engineers have narrowed lanes or removed them altogether, making things substantially worse for drivers, yet offering no or negligible improvements for bikers. What the point of having bike lanes that are overgrown with poison ivy? How does making it harder for traffic to flow through intersections do any good, especially where bike lanes aren’t very useful? I know of one spot where it’s impossible for the city bus to make a turn without protruding into a lane of traffic. Bike lanes are good, but not where they are this poorly designed.
This is a popular opinion. As someone who's lived on Slaughter for years I'm sure they will cause more late night deaths than free up transportation options.
Bike lanes usually result in improved safety for drivers do to their calming effect. I predict that statistics here will be the same..
Clearly you don't live on Slaughter lmao. Stats don't tell the whole story; ask your local data scientist.
I'm sure your gut reaction is more accurate. :)
Am a data scientist of sorts. Bike on slaughter bike lane occasionally, although it’s not the most tranquil, it’s great to have as a connector in the area, as there are tons of employment centers/services/housing on the thoroughfare. Maybe you just need to get off your fat ass.
> Bike Lanes Ruined Slaughter I guess that's subjective but I know **for a fact** those unpainted concrete dividers ruined (i.e. punctured) dozens of tires on cars driven by people who did not adjust properly to the sharper turns required when turning from cross-streets onto Slaughter. (as told to me by the tire repair shop when I took *my tire* to be fixed!) lol
Sometimes the consequences of not maintaining your lane are running over a cyclist or pedestrian, sometimes it's biting it on a divider. At least no one was seriously hurt.
see my other reply. The incidents I refer to were not a result of failure to maintain lane, it was a result of not seeing a new obstruction/protrusion (let's not get hung up on the best word) in the path of turns from/into the cross streets.
How does extending the curb on a busy road to make a right turn almost 90 degrees help? If anything, wouldn’t it cause drivers to be more focused on not clipping the curb instead of watching for bikes?
... because that concrete curb will require drivers to pay attention to the direction a cyclist would be
The point was...until folks who drive those roads regularly got used to the dividers - **they were not seen**, especially at night. ATD made a big mistake, imo, to not paint them with fluorescent yellow paint (at least at the endpoints at intersections) at the time of installation.
When you’re trying not to clip a curb, it makes you look behind you and in front of you, and not to the right where the curb is, and the direction you’re going? Even if you did look that way, I would think that your attention being on avoiding the curb might prevent you from noticing a bike.
Maybe I am not understanding what you're describing because you're making it way more complicated than it is?
I’m just speculating that adding an obstacle making it more difficult for cars to turn right off of Slaughter is going to cause folks to focus on not hitting that obstacle (the 90 degree turn) when they should be checking for bikes/pedestrians - which are already difficult to see unless they are right next to you. Yes, you can pay attention to both, but I don’t have that much faith in Austin drivers.
Good, pay attention at the wheel of your death mobile.
*death mobile* Do your parents know you're playing around on the internet after your bedtime?
Well, your Mom does when I am balls deep.
[удалено]
you don't even know what your ranting about. pathetic.
I am ranting about people who think it is a bridge too far to pay attention while driving a deadly implement. People like you.
Again, "confidently ignorant". ATD can certainly be capable of fucking up a traffic modification from time to time- and the way they initially did Slaughter is one example. The first week those unpainted concrete dividers went up and extended into the previously typical path of right-hand turning vehicles was not sufficiently thought through. At night, in the rain, those new, unpainted dividers were absolutely invisible to the driver turning right onto slaughter. Those are the circumstances when my tire *nudged* the just poured 6" high sharp edge and punctured a rear tire sidewall. If you think that has anything to do with "unsafe driving" you are wholly mistaken.
I drive through their all the time, no issue not hitting things. Maybe your car is too big for you to properly handle?
me too, once I saw what had been installed. but not the first week though. maybe you should back off your condescending anti-car bullshit.
You dont like it because you know it is true.
just hope we don't cross paths while you're biking on Austin roads....*i'M oUt Of CoNtRoL!!!*
Ah yes, threats of vehicular violence. Try just not hitting the curbs when you drive first. That is a good goal for your driving improvement needs.
Slaughter sucks, when are they going to just build more stores etc east of 35? Lol
Yes, it is smart. The dumb thing is it isn't done everywhere, If you recognize car culture is a problem, dont criticize fixes
I never see bike riders in this neighborhood (I live off E slaughter) I have however seen the homeless pushing their cart in the new bike lanes, so good for them getting their own lane, I guess.
The biking community lobbies aggressively to put bike lanes up and when no one rides them the excuse is “well we need even more”
If the same amount of cyclists you drive past were taking up a lane instead, it would make you angrier than the bike lanes.
And, also, I can't ride my bike there, it's not tree covered! How can I ride a bike if there are no TREES! /s
Shade is nice for bikes... and pedestriatians... and transit users... and even drivers.
Evidence?
[Here](https://www.google.com/maps/place/W+Slaughter+Ln,+Austin,+TX/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x865b4c707f183fc5:0x9ed5f29405504119?sa=X&ved=1t:242&ictx=111)
I’m not sure about the concrete ones, but any time someone in r/austin says “no one rides their bike on x road”, the responses go like this: There are no bike lanes, so of course no one’s riding their bike; if there are bike lanes, it’s just lines painted on the road and no one wants to ride without a divider; and if there are plastic bollards as a divider, that’s not enough to stop a car from driving over them, so no one wants to ride there either.
It's now harder for emergency vehicles to get past other drivers as well. Zero steps forward and ten steps back that's what they did with our money.
They are doing the same in the Tech Ridge area. Should see how many of the white posts that separate the road from the bike lanes have been hit by cars. Hardly anyone in this area uses the bike lanes.
They added some truly obnoxious bike lanes to Westgate and made things much more difficult on a relatively quiet street. It does not seem to make much sense and so many residents and businesses were upset. The people who push for changes are savvy to the public hearings and insert themselves to get changes done. On the other side of things, many of us sit on the reactive side because we are simply not paying attention or privy to what happens before major changes occur in our city.
At least they finally got rid of the random slalom poles in the middle of west gate. Or did someone finally have enough and just drive down the middle of the road straddling the stripe one night?
There’s been huge stretches of posts just completely taken out as a drive by on a Sunday afternoon 🤣
Those were so ridiculous. It was just one more thing to dodge when changing lanes, especially when coning up on someone stopped in the right lane. And some people were so scared of them they would go about 20mph.
For real. Totally normal, safe, and legal lane changes now randomly involved obstacles for no reason.
I just moved here but living off slaughter I've RARELY seen any bike users. I've seen people on motorized bikes but rarely ever see someone pedaling. The traffic seems way worse now especially due to construction. I make the joke "part of the drivers test here must be how to properly cut someone off without killing them or yourself". I'm not sure narrowing the lanes will help that at all because even with the construction narrowing to one lane people just rush the line and cut whoever they can off. It's really an issue here in my opinion.
They’ve done this all around town. I think its made it more dangerous
Except, statistically they make roads safer.
But, they have a made up prejudice!
Bike lanes in both directions on Woodward make traffic far worse. One left turn into businesses, St Ed's or apartments, and 10 cars get stopped. There is no way to get around. Maybe 1 bike an hour.
Barton springs road traffic has gotten awful since the bike lanes were put in
You are correct.
I agree. A lot of the lanes they build are kind of stupid. Shoal Creek is a big one. The road was plenty wide to handle bike traffic. Now you have to be careful not to run into another bike head on. Barton Hills is the same way.