UTC

I received the following email about an hour ago from the City Staff regarding a UTC meeting tomorrow night that includes some city feedback on the Nueces Bike Boulevard project:

The Urban Transportation Commission is meeting tomorrow, February 9, 2010 at 6:00 p.m at the Austin City Hall, 301 West 2nd Street, Boards and Commissions Room, #1101

The agenda includes an update on the Nueces Bicycle Boulevard. Please see the attached for more information.

You are receiving this email because you have attended one of the Nueces Bicycle Boulevard Public Meetings.

And as to the aforementioned agenda item:

B. Nueces Bicycle Boulevard – Update and Possible Action
Presentation by: Public Works Department Staff

That's all I know about this item, and I'm not sure how it's going to be presented, so if you want to find out bike on down to Town Hall tomorrow night around 6ish and see what's up.

Thanks to A2W for the reminder, this evening is a really big Urban Transportation Commission meeting for two reasons: first up is that it's the UTC's final look at the new Bike Plan Update before it goes before City Council for final approval.

The other reason has been causing quite a bit of hubbub in the local pedicabbing community. Chris Nielson, owner/operator of a lot of the golf carts you see trolling round the 6th St. area on drinking nights, is going to be petitioning the city to allow golf carts to legally operate as ground transportation vehicles, which would then enable him to begin taking money for giving people rides, something that his drivers have already been doing illegally. Not that I really care about the legality of things, but his side-stepping of the rules has been negatively impacting my pedicabbing friends who have jumped through all the city's hoops to attain their status legally, and that's not cool. If you want to know more backstory on all this, A2W wrote a great article on it a few weeks ago. Make sure to check the comments section for all the good juicy bits.

My opinion on the whole golf cart thing is that they may be "greener" than a regular cab, but I really don't care about all that, I just don't want to see a bunch of damn golf carts buzzing around downtown. Yes, I'm taking the intolerant stance. I'm all for weird bikes, trailers, trikes, pedicabs, but there's nothing weird about a golf cart. Realistically I expect the city to start the process because honestly, why not? They've done it for pedicabs, why wouldn't they do it for these things? I just won't be taking a ride on a golf cart, and will be looking for a friend on a pedicab to flag down when I need to haul ass from one side of 6th to the other and my bike's locked up somewhere in the middle.

The whole deal goes down at Austin City Hall (301 w. 2nd Street) from 6pm to 9pm. Anyone is welcome to attend, or even speak their peace if they sign up to do so.