Here is a copy of the email I just sent to Julia McCleeary, who is the senior planner for the City of Fort Worth's Bike Fort Worth Plan:
 
 
Julia:
 
Today is National Bike to Work Day, so it seemed a fitting time to write this. I live in Crowley and commute to my job on McCart Street in Fort Worth. I ride to work more often than I drive. I wanted to comment on what I think is the single biggest problem that commuting cyclists face here. It's the lack of slow speed routes, especially in suburban Fort Worth. You do give this a mention in your plan, but I think it should be emphasized much more.
 
You can find a map of my route from work to home on Bikely at: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Crowley-Commute-return2 . The biggest problem with this route is the eastbound stretch on Sycamore School Road. The right lane is full of impatient drivers who are trying to turn into the apartments just before Crowley Road, and many of them become irate with me because of the few seconds I delay their arrival home.  
 
A better route for me would be this: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Crowley-Commute-return . It goes through slower speed neighborhood roads, and avoids the higher speed, less bike friendly Sycamore School Road. But, unlike google maps shows, Risinger Road and Carolina Drive don't actually intersect. They both dead end with barricades, just one city block apart. I'll repeat that: DEAD END, BARRICADES, ONE CITY BLOCK APART! If you zoom in on this intersection in google maps, then switch to satellite mode, you'll see what's really there. If I want to use this route, I have to walk my bike a block, around barricades, over rock piles, through mud and shoulder high weeds. A one block long bike path would fix this, and provide a low speed route to get from Fort Worth to the wide and smooth shoulder of Crowley Road.
 
You can find neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood just like this. The bike friendly, low speed, neighborhood roads dead end just short of connecting to anything, forcing bike riders to use higher speed, higher traffic roads to get anywhere. This is the biggest single obstacle to safe destination based bike riding in Fort Worth that I have found, and should get the highest priority in any bike plan, I believe. Take a look at maps of suburban parts of Fort Worth, and see how many areas don't quite let you get anywhere on neighborhood roads. Short bike paths connecting these neighborhoods would be less expensive to build than long, elaborate bike paths, and make the most difference in improving bike riding in the city.
 
I hope you'll take a close look at this, and give it consideration as you move forward with the Bike Fort Worth Plan. Thanks for your efforts.
 
Bud Baker
Crowley, TX
 
 

Bud,
Great letter.  This is the same poblem with biking in Carrollton.  None of the neighborhoods are connected except by large high speed multi-lane roads.
Richard