|
Welcome!
We
cover bicycling as transportation, with an
emphasis on Austin, TX, USA.
We
don't cover biking for recreation, sport, or
charity.
Bicycle Austin is a volunteer project (not an
organization) by Michael
Bluejay.
Advertising revenue supports local cycling
advocacy.
|
Email
List & Web Forum
The best way
to stay on top of what's going on is to
sign up for the email list.
Every day the posts from the
web forum get sent to
the email list, so by signing up for the
email list you won't miss anything --
you'll see all the email posts and all the
web posts.
I'm asking people to voluntarily
make their posts on the web
forum instead of the list. Those posts
will get automatically sent to the list
anyway. And by posting to the web forum,
we can make our discussions easily
readable by any web surfer, not just to
those on the members-only email list.
|
Current discussions
Dell Round Rock from between Braker and Rundberg / Lamar and 35 last post: 7/3 @ 3:48
Howdy, 'yall.
I've been commuting to work (Dell) mostly using the 35 frontage road for the last few weeks, taking Lamar to Parmer, and...
July 4th @ 1pm: freedom XXXtravaganza with Austin Yellow Bike & co. last post: 7/2 @ 13:55
July 4th, starting at 1pm in Wooldridge Square Park (9th and Guadalupe),
-Invincible Czars perform Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture...
24th St. west of Speedway closed 7/6-8/15/09 last post: 7/1 @ 16:20
[quote]-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [bikeut] 24th Street Closure
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 14:26:04 -0500
From: Cortez,...
5th & Lavaca hit-and-run 6/23/09 last post: 7/1 @ 15:35
http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story/APD-Driver-who-hit-cyclist-fled-the-scene/PglTqCOIwEGo-4puwQc0gg.cspx
[quote]APD: Driver...
"Cyclist injured in downtown accident" at 5th & Nueces last post: 7/1 @ 15:27
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/05/22/cyclist_injured_in_downtown_ac.html
[quote]Cyclist...
League of American Bicyclists disses non-helmeted activists last post: 7/1 @ 14:46
New York magazine did an interview with actor Matthew Modine, who runs a bike advocacy organization, and who had this to ...
Rail Right of Way Safety Reminder and Tips last post: 6/26 @ 14:31
Capital MetroRail trains are traveling more frequently and at higher speeds along the 32-mile line from Leander to Downtown Austin....
Tickets to ride: more citations last post: 6/24 @ 22:49
A couple of evenings ago while bicyling south on Guadalupe near 46th I was pulled over by an APD officer and given a moving violation...
KVUE stories on bicyclists not stopping at stop signs last post: 6/24 @ 11:15
"Some cyclists claim police crackdown on running stop signs"
http://www.kvue.com/video/index.html?nvid=374004&shu=1
"Cyclists ignoring...
city council gives a bicycle to outgoing mayor, Will Wynn last post: 6/23 @ 10:18
The gift from city council to outgoing mayor, Will...
"Man charged with hitting cyclist on service road" last post: 6/18 @ 13:19
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/060909kvue_i_35_crash-cb.64bb53b1.html
[quote]Man charged with hitting cyclist on service ...
"Bike Fall Lands Gov. Perry at Hospital" last post: 6/17 @ 19:49
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/090609_perry_bike_accident
[quote]Bike Fall Lands Gov. Perry at Hospital
Updated: Tuesday, 09...
"Austin cyclist shot in back" last post: 6/17 @ 19:27
http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stories/060909_kvue_austin_cyclist_shot-tg.664ff61c.html
[quote]WATCH: Austin cyclist shot in back
06:08 AM...
When bike lanes make motorists attack. last post: 6/16 @ 15:40
Ok so that's a slight exaggeration. I wasn't "attacked", merely harassed.
I was doing loops of Shoal Creek and Great Northern on an ...
Austin police allow bike theft last post: 6/16 @ 12:02
My locked bicycle was stolen Dec 19 from the rack at 24 Hour Fitness, Hancock Center, and the police, who were in the vicinity and ...
is carsharing a viable transportation alternative in Austin? last post: 6/15 @ 16:10
This survey will be used in part of a University of Texas research program. It takes only about five minutes and is likely to have an...
What stuff do you haul? last post: 6/15 @ 10:01
Someone pointed out this cartoon http://yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2008-03-17 which makes me wonder--what is the stuff that people ...
trek r200 at Salavation Army South for 399 last post: 6/15 @ 3:30
It looks brand new.
It was there at 11:00 AM on...
Times Square in NYC goes car-free! last post: 6/15 @ 3:03
Hello from NYC. While I was here, the city closed Times Square to cars! I'd like to say I had something to do with it, but that was just...
City Council vote on Bike Plan, June 11th last post: 6/12 @ 13:55
So, does anyone know how this will work? Last time, everyone showed up and spoke, but no vote. This time they will vote, but I don't see...
Bicyclists
cheated out of bond money!
On March 7, 2006, Raul Alvarez asked
the city to reveal how the $150 million in
city bond money for transportation passed
in 2000 (Proposition 1 back then) has been
spent so far. I got the results of his
request in response to my own recent
similar open records request made to
reveal how our bond money had been
spent.
This bond money was supposed to be
allocated in portions at $15 million a
year for ten years. So far $84 million has
been spent with $66 million in
transportation bond authorization yet
remaining.
Guess where the first five years
worth of Austin bond money went? The
first $67.2 million ALL went for SH 130
right of way, and not a penny for any of
the the other things promised to the bond
voters on the ballot! Meanwhile those of
us who live inside Austin are additionally
paying a lot for Williamson County toll
roads, like SH 130, via our Travis County
property taxes.
In the last year, for the first time,
some of the $150 million has been used for
other purposes like widening roads (to
widen roads like one that leads to SH 130
for example), but not a penny has yet
been spent for the promised bike
projects, although $10 million was
recently proposed in response to Alvarez's
request (with about $5 million so far for
sidewalks). If you read the
Chronicle article, you will see that
$20 million was being promised for bike
and ped projects just before the election.
The exact ballot language and more
background on these bonds is below.
To me, this kind of tightly held
information and bait and switch bond stuff
is proof of why we need to pass the Open
Government charter amendment, Prop 1.
-- Roger Baker, May 6,
2006
|
|
Upcoming rides &
events
Want to get your event
listed below? Just post
it on the web forum and it will show up here
automatically 30 minutes later. Be sure to
include the date & time of your event in the
title, so that shows up too.
July 4th @ 1pm: freedom XXXtravaganza with Austin Yellow Bike & co. (posted 7/2)
May 21 @ 6pm: Bike Plan council vote & Yellow Bike birthday party (posted 5/19)
The Ride of Silence - Wednesday, May 20 7:00 PM (posted 5/13)
PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE Bicycle Drive-In in Downtown Austin - May 23! (posted 5/12)
Bike The Vote! Early Vote Rally on Sunday (posted 5/2)
World Naked Bike Ride - TODAY! (6/14) (posted 6/14)
LOBV News ... Political Pedal and Early Voting Rally (posted 4/27)
Earth Day: Kids encouraged to get to school under their own power (posted 4/22)
The 15th Annual Armadillo Hill Country Classic (posted 4/14)
Austin Cycling Association Celebrates Bike Month (posted 4/14)
Site
Updates:
- Endorsed Chris Riley for City
Council.
- Overhauled the site design, putting the
menus at the top, and adding the most important
resources and external sites to a sidebar on
every page.
- City to consider allowing cars
to park in bike lanes on
Exposition.
- Added forum topics and events to the
front page.
- Belatedly added Lance Armstrong's shop,
Mellow Johnny's, to the Bike
Shops page.
- Added a note about MN cops confiscating
bikes of kids without helmets, to the
justice
page. Will they confiscate cars
when drivers aren't buckled up?
- Updated "Who's usually at fault in
car-bike collisions" on the No
Justice page
- Added the 8/08 KEYE story which
effectively
blames cyclists for the increase in car-bike
collisions, with zero supporting
evidence
- Cyclist
solves her own hit and run.
- Added a new cycling injury lawyer to
What to
do if you're hit or
harassed.
- Added a link to the 311
online form to the front
page.
- Lubbock driver gets only
probation for hit-and-run killing of
cyclist
- Updated the Austin
bike laws page
- Added a
PDF of "tickets" to put on cars
parked in bike lanes.
- Added Quick Links to front page, updated
govt.
& city
govt. pages
- Added historical info about the
City's failure to spend bike project
money properly
- Linked to the "No justice" article
in the Austin Chronicle, from our No
Justice section
- Our Open
Letter to Dr. Crocker, who supports
the helmet law
- Added The Peddler to the bike
shops page
- Added a route from
Austin to Elgin
- The Yellow Bike Project launches an
Austin
bike culture wiki
- Another drunk driver kills
another cyclist
- Adult
helmet law probably dead
- Law
professor faces no penalty for intentionally
hitting cyclist with her car
- Updated the City
Council page
- Hit-and-run
case in Garland, TX
- New helmet law being considered (see at
right)
- Added our
endorsements for the May 2006 city
council race
- Added details about cyclists being cheated
out of bond money (above)
- Driver who ran red light and hit two
cyclists not
ticketed.
- Created a new page about the
ACA's advocacy on the Shoal Creek bike lanes
issue
- Two April
car-bike crashes, one
fatal
- Added FrankenBike
to the events and
used bikes
pages.
- Teenagers
throwing stuff at cyclists near Shoal Creek
Blvd.
- Linked to a new
route for IBM to downtown.
- Council set to screw cyclists over Shoal
Creek Blvd.
- Updated the list
of bike shops
- Looks like the Lamar
Bridge might get finished after all.
- Eric Anderson reports on cyclists' success
in mitigating the redesign fiasco on the
Riverside
Drive project (Jan.
2006)
- New update on how bike facilities were
omitted in the Riverside
Drive project
- Added
the law about administrative suspension of
driver's license for DWI offenses to the
laws covering
motorists page
- Linked to a new, safer route to Bastrop on
the Routes
page
- Our endorsements
for City Council
- Added more to the never-ending Shoal
Creek bike lanes debacle
- Added another North
Austin route
- Exemplary
police response to harassment of a
cyclist
- North
Austin bike routes now has its own page.
Plus added a couple of routes.
- Added Patrick Goetz's encouragement for
cyclists to be effective advocates by joining
the Urban Transportation Commission.
- Redesigned the site, nobody noticed.
- Added a
failed statewide helmet bill from 2003.
- Reader-recommended
locks
- Added a route
to Ben White and I-30
- The Lamar
Bike/Ped bridge might actually be
finished
- Yet another hit &
run
- Hit &
Run on Michael Passman
- May
19 newsletter posted
- Costs
of car ownership updated
- Map
to San Marcos
- Guide to Touring
- How
to Rewire Christmas Lights to Run on
Batteries
- Natural
gas buses may be no better than diesel
- An online store selling electric
scooters
- New section on bike
lanes
- More news about the Shoal
Creek bike lanes mess
- Triggering
traffic signals
- Why is
there no justice?
- Keith
Vick's fatal collision
- TXDoT's 25-year
transpo plan
- Another North
Austin route
- Eric Anderon's status
report of roadway projects
- Older
updates....
Take the
survey.
BicyclingLife is conducting a survey of
cyclists and cycling. You can help by taking
the online survey.
older
news...
|