While the rain put a damper on Saturday’s schedule, the soaking rain cleared up Sunday morning to pave the way for a perfect Complete Streets event down on Knox Street. The vacant lot on the corner of Travis and Knox was converted to “Knox Strasse”, complete with food and retail vendors, a live music stage, Biergarten, and lots of bike parking. The length of Knox Street from the Katy Trail to near Central Expressway was temporarily re-striped for diagonal parking, a center turn lane, and a two-way cycle track on the north side of the street.

Being my own neighborhood, I was thrilled to see this Complete Streets redo to take place, even if just for the weekend. The overall feedback was mixed but as pedestrian advocate, I was thrilled to see the changes. Car traffic was backed up more than normal between McKinney Ave and Central Expressway but the overall street flow was smooth. I think some motorists failed to realize that there was a temporary center turn lane. The cycle track appeared to attract a fair number of cyclists as there was a noticeable number of cycles throughout the neighborhood.

While the weather might have deterred some from coming 0ut, the overall event attracted a great turnout. These are the events that will continue to change people’s perspective in Dallas towards creating a more human-oriented city.