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Uncut with John McCaa: Rental bikes scattered all over sidewalks

For some Dallas taxpayers, those rental bikes scattered all over sidewalks…might as well be land mines.

For some Dallas taxpayers, those rental bikes scattered all over sidewalks…might as well be land mines.

You’ve seen the bikes. How could you miss them! Two wheelers in a rainbow of colors left behind by renters in myriad places.

But for those without sight, like Eric Burton who has Retinitis Pigmentosa and lives downtown, they’ve transformed once easily traversable sidewalks into dangerous minefields.

Last week, WFAA's Matt Howerton detailed how Burton partially tore his ACL after a too close encounter with a bike left in the middle of a sidewalk.

He’s not the only one. The Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind is a resource center for 150,000 visually impaired north Texans. They’ve been swamped with complaints about dangerous bike obstructions.

The City of Dallas 3-1-1 call center has fielded complaints

Dallas is promising regulations to help…in the fall, maybe by September we’re told. That isn’t good enough.

There are 18,000 rental bikes in Dallas alone more than New York.

The thought that someone like Eric Burton or Donna Miller whose guide dog has trouble navigating the wheeled obstacles must wait that long to walk safely is preposterous.

You can’t be a world-class city when you treat some people, here long before the rental bikes, like second class citizens.

And that is what’s happening.

Look, love the rental bike idea, it will help tourists, but (to mix metaphors…), we should not be willing to throw fellow Dallas under the bus to do help visitors get around.

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