The city of Plano is reminding the motorists of the streets that they share the roads with bicyclists. New bike signs have been placed along the roads to help the riders. In 2009 and 2010 more than 50 bikers were injured on the streets. To avoid this from happening again Plano has approved $315,071 in new signs. These signs help both riders and motorists.
“The signs are a huge advantage to bicyclists and finally warn the people driving on the roads,” junior Meikala Figueroa said.
There are three kinds of signs that have been placed on roads. One of the signs indicates that the bikers may use a full lane. This helps the bikers know the appropriate time to leave the sidewalk. It also reminds the motorists that riding bikes on streets is legal and to watch out for them. The other two signs consist of a number on them. This number indicates the route they are traveling on. Some of the signs also consist of an arrow directing them in the right direction to continue the route and the bike mileage they should be following.
“I think the routes are organized in a logic way to help the rider get where they are going in the easiest way possible,” Figueroa said.
The route numbers on the signs are part of the new on-street bicycle route system. The routes guide the bikers to recreational trails, schools, libraries recreation centers, dart bus stops, shopping centers, and places of employment. These routes focus on taking the bikers along roads that have less traffic such as residential or collector streets. To figure out which route to take, the city of Plano has submitted on-street bicycle routes to Google. The routes cover 168 miles of total roadway in the city. The routes also connect to Allen, Carrollton, Dallas, Frisco, Murphy, Parker, Richardson and The Colony.
“My mom and I feel way safer biking on the roads with the new signs reminding the cars they share the lanes with us,” junior Lynzi Hochberg said.
By placing the signs along the roads of Plano they are helping the cities bicyclists. The city of Plano is hoping to avoid mass amounts of injury from bicyclist and motorist accidents.
“It’s great that Plano is working to fix the issue,” Hochberg said.
