Today we return to the local cycling situation. Here in the Big O (Sorry if you thought I was speaking of this Big O) we host the World Series every year. Not the big show but of the NCAA variety. For the Big O, it's a Big Deal. It brings a lot of people to town who like to drink a lot of booze and eat a lot of food and pretty much rape and pillage with impunity. Last year was the first year this event was hosted in a new downtown ballpark. A really nice place that replaced an aging relic out south.
With the surrounding, dinning, lodging and entertainment, this new ballpark couldn't be situated better. But Omaha likes to make things difficult. Omaha wants to limit access for pedicabs and horse-drawn carriages to the area around the ballpark. The easiest and quickest way to connect the ballpark to the Old Market, which is the city's dinning and entertainment district, is now being asked to step aside for the overpriced, less efficient 4-wheeled variety of the same transportation. This ban only applies during the World Series.
Not so fast though, the city council has decided to delay the vote on the ban.
This city has a car(d)-on for some reason. How about going the opposite way and banning cars/suvs/buses from the area around the ballpark and giving the fans a pedestrian friendly event. The Old Market area, the Midtown Crossing area, the Aksarben area are developments in Omaha that should be closed to car traffic affording a pedestrian friendly enclave.
Anyway, i hope to see the city do the right thing. I doubt they will, but a compromise is better than a nopromise.
Down in the capital city, the city council did the right thing and left a downtown bicycle lane alone. The lane is not a favorite among cyclists or drivers, as the lane is down the middle of the one way street. But a lane is better than no lane.
I like to link to the comments section of these types of articles as the worst of the pro-car anti-bike zealots make me laugh. See the comment section here (story here).
Ride safe.
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