“What we’re hearing from many cyclists is that the trails represent a safe alternative to the roads at night,” Riley said.

City Council approved the pilot program in January to keep those trails open 24 hours for cyclists to avoid traffic. Austin Police Department officials said they found about 10 people a night used the trails. During budget discussions in September, council voted to defund the program—which cost about $1 million—for the 2013–14 fiscal year. If the council decided to keep the program running without funding, APD officials said the program would need about nine district representatives to staff trail patrols and would increase APD’s overtime costs.

A district representative is an officer that serves as a liaison between the community and the police department.

Riley outlined the reasoning for keeping the trails open by referencing statistics in the 2012 crime report provided by APD. Riley pointed out that fatal traffic crashes increased by 56 percent from 2011 to 2012, and 29 percent of the fatal crashes were alcohol-related in 2012. Riley also said there were three cycling fatalities in 2012, up from one in 2011.

Tom Wald, Bike Austin executive director, spoke at the meeting in favor of keeping the trails open, explaining there is not a need for such a large police presence for the trails and that the trails are a viable transportation system for cyclists.

“We have a transportation system, and I think we should use it,” Wald said. “We’ve already built it.”

Roy Waley, conservation chairman of the Austin Chapter of the Sierra Group, said he questioned the need for the additional cost and staffing requirements quoted by APD.

“We don’t patrol every street every night, why do we have to patrol the trails every night?” Waley said. “We know that we use our transit system at a certain risk to ourselves; the same is true with our trails.”

The Austin Sierra Club is a volunteer organization that promotes environmental conservation and education.

Joan Bartz from the University Hills Neighborhood Association said she doesn’t believe it is right to put the needs of a few cyclists before the needs of the rest of the community.

“It’s ridiculous that the equity in this city is so far off,” Bartz said. “How can you possibly not see the difference in spending $1 million to service 10 people on the trail at night versus allowing APD to have their DRs out in our areas protecting us, assisting us and helping the citizens prevent crime.”

Riley said all anyone is asking is for APD to include the trails in their regular patrols.

“That is a city management decision, which I think is very unfortunate,” Riley said. “But I respect the authority of our city manager and our police chief to make those sorts of decisions, and I would not purport to have the authority to dictate where we deploy our officers. I respect the fact that that is a management decision, but I reserve the right to express my own personal opinion that I think that is a mistake.”

Mayor Lee Leffingwell said keeping the trails open 24 hours has clear consequences.

“It simply boils down to this: Either this Item 61 is approved, or if [the ordinance] is not approved—as council member Riley has made the motion—what’s going to happen is the DRs will be notified that they are being transferred to trail duty, and there will be an additional $300,000 worth of overtime costs associated with this program through the end of the pilot,” Leffingwell said.

Councilman Mike Martinez said he voted against the measure because he felt that the decision was a “false choice.”

“I can’t support it because I will be labeled as having told the [Austin police chief] that he was wrong, that I want to spend $1 million to patrol 10 cyclists and on and on and on,” Martinez said.