A Greener City: S.A. has a fragmented network of bike lanes

 But on Hausman, like many San Antonio streets, the only practical way to get to that library is by car.

With no striped shoulders on the narrow road, some residents complain Hausman is dangerous for bicyclists, despite the City Council’s approval in April 2005 of a bicycle master plan. The plan requires the city to consider bike lanes or off-road bike paths for all suitable streets.

Bicycle advocates applauded the measure when it passed. But in a cubicle nine floors above the City Council chambers where the new policy was ratified, Abigail Kinnison, the city’s first and only full-time bicycle coordinator, has struggled to make the plan work with a budget this year of $60,000.

“I can’t add bike lanes to something like Hausman without acquiring (right of way), and that’s way outside of my ..... funding limitations,” Kinnison privately lamented to a colleague in an April 7 e-mail, three months before submitting her resignation last week as the city’s bicycle coordinator.

In the face of soaring gas prices, millions of Americans suddenly are facing hard choices about a comfortable, air-conditioned symbol of independence — the car.

Local policymakers often tout the benefits of bicycling as a pollution-free way to travel that saves gas and promotes exercise. But the rhetoric fails to reflect what bike advocates say is the reality — many parts of San Antonio aren’t safe and appealing to bicycle commuters.

Interviews and a review of city records reveal the following difficulties:

The city is failing to comply in some cases with its own bike master plan. Kinnison has privately complained that streets such as Hausman Road are good candidates for bike lanes, but there’s no money to install them. Kinnison declined to say if she’s quitting out of frustration with the job. She leaves her post Aug. 8.

Since Kinnison was hired in March 2005, San Antonio has added more than 50 miles of bike lanes and paths. But many lanes end abruptly and it will take years to complete the fragmented network.