11 replies to this topic

[John T Roberts]

A few days ago, the Corps of Engineers announced that as of October 1, they will no longer allow bicycle and pedestrian access to South Holiday Park.  This is due to several things, including the retirement of the previous park ranger, and violations of the rules to use the park.  Access to the lake road is very important.  Cycling through the park leads to more country roads further to the southwest.  Many of these country roads beyond the lake have very little traffic and are safe.  If access to South Holiday Park is closed, that forces a cyclist to ride on US 377, which is very dangerous.  Cyclists have been killed using the highway.  The other alternative is Aledo/Iona Road, which is becoming more heavily congested with traffic as more homes are built toward Aledo and beyond.  These roads are not safe.

 

The Fort Worth Bicycling Association's Facebook page has some good discussion on the matter.

https://www.facebook...hBicyclingAssoc

 

You can also sign a petition to keep the park open.  The link to the petition is here:

https://chng.it/Vg9ypkwNF8

 

[FunkyTownTay]

Signed

[John T Roberts]

FunkyTownTay, you should feel lucky that you had the opportunity to ride the road.  I don't like the idea of closing it down to cyclists.  The people who are violating the rules of the park are giving all of us a bad name.

[Stadtplan]

I read a comment on the petition site that said, "...I talked with the Corps and was told large groups of cyclists are riding through the park at high speed, not stopping at the gates, not showing passes, and disregarding traffic rules."

 

I believe the posted speed limit is 20mph.  If they do allow cyclist and pedestrians back, how would they prevent this from happening again?

[TLA]

Petition signed. I’ve never biked here, but the idea of limiting places pedestrians and cyclists can go (especially in rare Texas public land) doesn’t sit well with me.

This reminds me of my wife’s story, her 1st grade class being punished as a whole, when one kid misbehaved.

John, Since this involves a Federal entity, I would encourage the petition creators reach out to Kay Granger’s office. This is the type of non-partisan community issue Reps offices like to help with (Talking generally here). Hopefully, will be easy to solve with a bit of pressure from above.

[rriojas71]

signed

[John T Roberts]

For the record, I signed the petition before I posted it here.  Kay Granger and Betsy Price have already been notified.  All of the bike clubs in the city are starting to organize against this change in policy.  I also realize that I did not post all of the reasons the Corps wanted to close South Holiday Park off from bicyclists and pedestrians.  Since the FWBA is the largest club, we have been working with the Corps for many years to keep the park open and we have been policing ourselves when we are out there.  It appears that a few bad apples are spoiling it for the rest of us. 

[John T Roberts]

The Fort Worth Report has jumped in with a story about the closure:

https://fortworthrep...-benbrook-lake/

 

So did the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

https://www.star-tel...e277387828.html

[Stadtplan]

Army Corps, cyclists to meet over planned Benbrook Lake bike trail closure

https://fortworthrep...-trail-closure/

[John T Roberts]

The results of the meeting are that the park is going to remain open to cyclists until January 1.  This will give everyone more time to possibly find a solution.  Juan Salinas II has the story in the Fort Worth Report.

 

https://fortworthrep...-to-early-2024/

[Stadtplan]

Popular road at Benbrook Lake to stay open to cyclists due to ‘passionate’ community effort By Harriet Ramos

Read more at: https://www.star-tel...l#storylink=cpy

[John T Roberts]

With my connections to the Fort Worth Bicycling Association, I have known about this for a few days.  Not posting is also a product of working overtime and being very busy with holiday things.