Dallas Bike Coordinator, Max Kalhammer, reviews the Dallas Bike Plan. A single charter amendment implemented in the late 70's could hold up the entire plan.

During the Forward Dallas plan, planners from Kimley Horn noted that a major obstacle for implementing a change in city streets was a charter amendment made in the late 70’s that required every block to be notified when changing the street. The problem with this requirement is that a large network plan (ie. Complete Streets plan, Bike plan) could be broken simply by one block not approving the change. This amendment makes the adoption of network plans ineffectual and raises the cost for buildout exponentially as each mile could take years to receive sign-off. New York City’s recent 260 mile bike infrastructure buildout, which has since resulted in a doubling of ridership and increased economics, would have been impossible given a similar amendment.

The Dallas Observer ran a piece today on the amendment and its controversial history.