Last night's FW Mobility and Air Quality Meeting

Jason and I went to the City of Fort Worth's Mobility and Air Quality citizen meeting last night. It was a fairly encouraging meeting, as the city was actually taking notes about what the citizens do and do not like about the current transportation and air quality situation.

The bad news: way too much of our city is still in denial that we even have a problem. Out of a total city population of something like 600,000 people, about 35 were bothered enough to show up for the meeting. Of those 35, close to 10 seemed to be affiliated with the agencies holding the meeting (COFW, the T, McDonald transportation, etc). So only 25 real, independent citizens.

Now, the very very GOOD news: Of those 25 citizens at the meeting, about 10 were cyclists. Andy and Dave from CAMBA were there. Jim and Kyle from the LMRA cycling club were there, plus Me, Jason, and a sprinkling of other cyclists. Since we were the only real cohesive group at the meeting, everytime a show of hands was made to get a public opinion on an issue, the cyclist opinion was most favored.

SO, as the MAQ planning process continues we need to get even more cyclists to come and represent our views at the meetings. The city of Fort Worth will have to listen to us if we're the only ones talking! Stay tuned, and we'll try to let as many cyclists as possible know about upcoming opportunities to influence public policy...