Thanks to tireless input from the Dallas community far and wide, the Bike Plan is nearing completion! Here you can review the draft document, leave your feedback, and learn about the process, the components, and the next steps below.

This plan is not just about building infrastructure—it is about transforming the way we move, live, and experience our city, paving the way for a Dallas that is healthier, more vibrant, and united through safe, sustainable mobility options.

The Bike Plan focuses on developing a safe, connected bike network that serves all people that have to, choose to, and want to bike.

This updated Bike Plan aligns with many initiatives outlined in our city's other plans, including the Dallas Strategic Mobility Plan’s call for a clear roadmap to implement bike projects that enhance safety, accessibility, and equity across the city.

The Bike Plan focuses on some of the least-safe areas by analyzing road design, demand for nearby destinations, and how best to accommodate vulnerable road users. The recommended network of bicycle infrastructure was developed by assessing the map of recent bike collisions, the Vision Zero High-Injury Network of roads where the most incidents occur, and the Level of Stress of various route options.

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A safety analysis considered the locations of bike-involved collisions throughout Dallas, focusing on locations with a higher frequency of collisions that resulted in a severe injury or fatality. The latest available data for use came from the TxDOT Crash Records Information System for the 5-year period of 2014 through 2019.

In addition to this spot collision analysis, the City’s existing Bike High Injury Network assessment (from the Vision Zero Plan) was used to identify the roads experiencing higher than average collisions of all types. This analysis helped identify the roadways with existing safety problems, further guiding the selection of bike facility type and priority for proposed improvements.

A standard measure of bike rider comfort is the Level of Traffic Stress (LTS). Bike riders are typically less comfortable as vehicle travel speeds increase, or when there’s inadequate dedicated space for cyclists.

For instance:

• A separated shared-use path typically has a low LTS.
• However, a 4-foot-wide bike lane directly adjacent to a 45 mph-posted speed travel lane has a higher LTS.

The LTS metric was used to evaluate all roadways (local street, collectors, and arterials) that may support bike travel (even shared lanes). The higher the existing LTS on a roadway, the greater the consideration for a physically separated bike lane to be constructed.

Making our streets safe for all users is the highest priority. When we design streets to be safe for all users, on all transportation modes, for all ages and abilities, we all come out ahead together.

What Dallas realized in the development of the Strategic Mobility Plan is that Dallas stakeholders envision a future city with connected nodes (employment centers, neighborhoods, shopping and dining centers, schools, and parks) with a variety of ways to move between these destinations.This plan provides that framework of connectivity.

The Dallas Bike Plan provides safe streets for more than just the bicycle riders among us - this space will also be available for

• scooter riders,
• skateboarders,
• rollerbladers,
• and more.

In fact, even wheelchair users gain more mobility and independence when a bike lane is available to get groceries, pick the grandkids up from school, or walk the dog.

Dallas residents young and old, who may not own a car or be able to drive, will have the ability to get to school, visit friends, go to sports practice, meet up for lunch, and run daily errands more easily. Most of all, there will be space for all ages and abilities to get around more freely!

As our city continues to evolve, businesses open and close, neighborhood populations change, school attendance changes, and the pressures on each road evolve with those changes.

A lot has changed since the 2011 Bike Plan. A focus on equity is one citywide change that is now reflected in the Bike Plan's prioritization for infrastructure and implementation.

This plan also takes a close look at neighborhoods with:

• health challenges,
• socio-economic challenges, and
• the most pressing safety concerns.

Dallas wants to prioritize areas with the highest need for multimodal networks, connections to destinations, and safe streets.

The equity analysis conducted for this Plan sought to discover where the people who may have the highest need for multimodal transportation options live, emphasizing historically under-served communities.

The equity analysis relied on large-scale, publicly available US Census data. The various equity and health factors were combined into a composite score based on US Census Block boundaries. The composite score helped to identify areas where targeted improvements in bike facilities would benefit socioeconomically disadvantaged communities.

Key takeaways from the analysis:

• High-need areas are primarily in southern Dallas, often near highways and physical barriers, with the highest concentrations in South Central and Southeast Dallas.
• The safety analysis shows that bike-involved fatalities and severe injuries are disproportionately concentrated in high-need areas and locations with poor health outcomes. Nearly a third of bike fatalities and severe injuries occurred in high-need areas with the poorest health outcomes, indicating a need for bike infrastructure in these underserved communities.
• Without connections to light rail, existing bike infrastructure limits access to active transportation options, impacting access to employment centers and limiting job opportunities for residents.

Working towards a more equitable transportation system requires prioritizing funding for bike facility improvement in areas with a greater concentration of disadvantaged populations.These areas were considered when developing the recommendations for this bike plan and received additional scoring for the project prioritization process, ensuring that future investments deliver benefits to areas with the greatest need.

When we analyze the city as a whole, there are some short, simple trips in every neighborhood that some neighbors could easily take by bike. In fact, 40% of trips made are less than 3 miles (that's a 15-20 minute bike ride!)

Maybe your short biking trips could be just

• to a nearby grocery store for a few things,
• or to dinner at a local favorite spot with friends.
• Maybe the kids' school or a park is so close it would be a dream to be able to bike there with the kids.
• Or maybe a short trip to visit a relative or friend nearby.

The scenarios are different for everyone but there are some commonalities. What if, for you, it was suddenly a bit more convenient to bike somewhere rather than to drive and park there?

Not everyone's ready to make that short trip by bike. But if it were easy enough and safe enough, maybe, suddenly, it's an idea to consider! That's latent demand.

This latent demand is typically assessed through a review of bike trip generators and attractors, similar to an origin and destination analysis for vehicular trips. For the Bike Plan, a three-mile trip length was used. These short (3 miles or less) trips make up 40% of all trips in Dallas.

Areas with the highest potential for residents to take short trips are often nearest to the locations that generate those trips, such as dense urban environments or in areas adjacent to mixed-use or retail developments. Areas near rail stations have the added advantage of leveraging the rail network, making a much greater area of Dallas available within a short bike ride and train ride!

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The Vision: We aspire to a multi-modal Dallas that has a bicycle system for All Ages and Abilities connecting people to the places they want to go. We envision more people traveling by bicycle or other micromobility devices for short trips.

Dallas has made significant progress in creating a multimodal transportation system that works for everyone through the adoption of several initiatives, including:

• Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan (CECAP)
• ForwardDallas 2.0 Comprehensive Plan
• Dallas Racial Equity Plan
• Vision Zero Action Plan
• Complete Streets Design Manual
• Dallas Strategic Mobility Plan

Building on these initiatives, the Bike Plan serves as a roadmap for building out an interconnected bike network that enhances safety and accessibility across the city.

A comfortable, interconnected bike network increases the likelihood that residents and visitors will choose to bike for some trips, which in turn improves air quality, reduces the number of cars on roads, and creates a more livable community for everyone.

Over the last two years the Bike Plan team reached out to the people of Dallas at a handful of community events, hosted over a dozen virtual and in-person meetings across the city and gathered over 6,000 comments!

The extensive public engagement process was crucial for developing the Bike Plan, emphasizing community involvement to help address existing bike travel concerns and ideas for future improvements.

The Bike Plan is, at it's core, an ACTION plan. How do we get it done? We prioritize projects, get creative with funding sources, and engage the community as the city continues to evolve.

Want to digest the full document? Skip to a specific chapter or read it cover to cover.

Comments will be addressed and edits made to the final plan before taking to City Council for approval in May/June 2025.

We'll let you know when the Bike plan is scheduled to be heard at City Council, so you can tune in or come speak!

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