by Steve Hayward

I spent a few minutes riding my bike around Amarillo High School this morning to see how the new street design worked. The old design on Fulton was four traffic lanes, two each way. The new design is two traffic lanes with a center turn lane and bike lanes on the outside.

Not only was the traffic a little light, but it was flowing very well with no delays. Having only one lane of traffic each way, there was no aggressive driving and speeds seemed lower than last year. Due to the bike lane, the cars were six feet away from the curb, making walking on the sidewalks safer. It seemed that everyone -- motor vehicle operators, pedestrians and bicyclists -- won, except for the aggressive drivers.

I also rode along Fulton when school let out. There were two motorcycle police officers at the intersection of Justin and Fulton. I noticed that only one car was stopped. After talking to the officers for a few minutes, they seemed a little frustrated that there were not more speeders. At Puckett Elementary I saw parents pushing strollers and walking to pick up their kids, something that we did not see much of last year.

It seems that the bike lanes alone have slowed traffic around the schools. This was predicted by the bicyclists. Not only are narrow traffic lanes more effective in calming traffic than speed humps, but they are much more pleasant and give part of the road to pedestrians and bicyclists.

Now that we are reclaiming our streets, we are getting a walkable community back. Streets are for everyone, not just for cars!