Known as the ‘friendliest city in America’ there are people in Lubbock who say the city needs to be a little bit more friendly to cyclists. The City of Lubbock Engineering Department held a conference with the Metropolitan Planning Organization to discuss the progression of their bike plan.
Local bike groups and shops have stayed in communication with the city throughout the course of the past few years in the hopes of improving things. Owner of DFC Cycle & Fitness, Greg Davis has brainstormed some different ways that the roadways can be more accessible for cyclists.
“Most of the north/south bike lines are very limited, they are very close together and they parallel each other on the same part of the city,” said Davis. “We’ve got a city that is really lacking in infrastructure and bike lanes..we have a lot of bike routes and the bike routes are good as far as routes go but they are really not well marked and most people don’t understand that they are there.”
Davis suggested for the City to form some kind of bike boulevard, from one side of the city to the other that is relatively uninterrupted, formed through the collector streets. Other local bikers like Keith Burt, has been biking through the city for 40 years. He said there are some streets that are safer than others.
“Marking the major streets where there’s no other way to get through. University, Indiana, Slide, Quaker, Slide, Quaker around the loop,” said Burt. “All of those major entrances under the loop should be marked with some kind of sign and or stripes, or both.”
