A Big Week for Bicycling in Fort Worth

Let’s hear it for Fort Worth, Texas.

This Texas city is leaving its big brother Dallas in the dust when it comes to bike-friendliness. Just this week, the feds awarded Fort Worth with $1 million for a 30-station bike-share system, which is slated to be up and running next April.

And just yesterday, Fort Worth installed the Dallas region’s first green bike lane. Kevin Buchanan at Fort Worthology has this report:

The green lane opened today at Commerce & 12th. This is green as in, literally, green-colored: the green fill is a safety improvement, and is used on a segment of the lane with potential bike/motorist conflicts due to a turn lane. This is the first such colored lane in the region, and the City of Fort Worth is making plans to use the color fill in other such conflict points, where previously only plain striped white lane markings have been used, to increase visibility and safety.

The $941,728 from the DOT joins $100,000 in local match funds from The T and $260,000 in sponsorships to fund an initial bike share network comprised of 300 bikes and 30 stations in a variety of central-city locations including Downtown, the Near Southside, and 7th Street.

This is a huge step forward for human-powered transportation in Fort Worth, as well as the livability of the central city. I can’t wait to see the system being installed and look forward to the opening.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see these improvements have a ripple effect throughout the region? Instead of calling for a new multi-billion dollar highway every year or two, Dallas would be applying for TIGER funds for a bike-share system. Any day now…

Elsewhere on the Network today: Grid Chicago explains why it’s important for cyclists involved in collisions to always report them to police. Bike Portland looks at how helmet cams, recently featured in the New York Times, are helping cyclists all over the country protect themselves and seek justice. And Bike Omaha reports that since this Nebraska city installed bike racks on its buses, demand has been growing dramatically.