William F. Buckley, Jr. died today. He was often cited as a conservative, but apparently in his 1965 NYC mayoral campaign he had proposed “an elevated bikeway on Second Avenue” and “bicycle lanes on major thoroughfares.”

I just want to remind people that using bicycles as an urban transportation solution transcends a liberal/conservative divide. Bicycles are a pragmatic, functional, and efficient component of a healthy urban transportation system.

Some see transportation bicycling only as a hippie/liberal thing, but only so long as they stay in their caves (and strangely, a lot of people want to stay in their caves).

Sources: Statesman, NY Times, Wikipedia

So, in many central areas of Austin, there has been a growing incidence of break-ins (burglaries) of houses recently. The perpetrators kick in the front door and steal. Unfortunately, this happened to a friend of mine in December. She had been riding the bus to work (at my recommendation - after all it is free for us), and I asked her had she been keeping it up? No. She drove to work. I, perhaps not very consolingly, made the observation that if she buses to work, her car is in the driveway and thus, the thieves will not come, most likely.

As I worried about my own safety after her break-in, I was more reassured since I do bike commute and my trusty but not-often-used car sits in the driveway. I also have a territorial dog, so I figured I’m not a good target!

Keep up the biking or busing and decrease your likelihood of a break-in …. not statistically proven but still fun to consider. (I think the dog thing actually has been proven though.)

There are several upcoming meetings where bicyclists can offer input.

Austin City Council meeting on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at City Hall, 301 West 2nd Street.

City Council will consider two issues of interest to us: (1) Approve the recommendations of the Street Smarts Task Force, and (2) Approve an agreement providing space for the Yellow Bike Project. For people who don’t feel like going to the meeting at 10:00 a.m. and hanging around until late in the evening waiting for a specific topic to be considered, you can go to City Hall and provide a very brief statement at your convenience, at any time as early as three days before the meeting. Mayor Wynn will read everyone’s comments during the meeting. The agenda item numbers will be posted on Friday, Feb. 22.

The Street Smarts Task Force Report can be found on the City of Austin website at http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/streetsmarts.htm

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CAMPO public input meetings:

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization must approve all federal funding to be used on transportation projects in the Central Texas region. The projects up for consideration are posted on their website at http://www.campotexas.org

People should attend one of the four public meetings–whichever one is convenient for you–and the public hearing on March 17, 2008. This hearing is one of the few opportunities we have left when the Transportation Policy Board must accept public input.

COMMUNITY MEETINGS
Austin - Wednesday, February 20, 6-8 p.m. – 505 Barton Springs Road, Austin

Round Rock Public Library – Thursday, February 28, 6-8 p.m.  – 216
East Main Street, Round Rock

Bluebonnet Trail Elementary – Tuesday, March 4, 6-8 p.m. – 11316
Farmhaven, Austin

San Marcos Activity Center – Wednesday, March 5, 6-8 p.m.  – 501 East
Hopkins Street, San Marcos

PUBLIC HEARING
Policy Board Public Hearing – Monday, March 17, 6 p.m.  – University
of Texas Thompson Center, Room 2.102, Dean Keeton and Red River,
Austin

CAMPO will be considering two sets of proposals. The first ones are TIP amendments for 2008-2011. The second set consists of 60 MM project applications for $122.9 million, including 16 bicycle/pedestrian projects for $14.2 million, but only $35.5 million is available for Metropolitan Mobility (MM) funding. CAMPO policy requires that 15% of MM ($5.3 million) be allocated for bike/ped projects.

The projects may be found under agenda items 6 and 7 at the CAMPO board’s last meeting on Feb. 4, 2008. The following list is a partial list of projects being considered. For details, see the CAMPO website at http://www.campotexas.org
SURFACE TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM (STP) METROPOLITAN MOBILITY (MM) PROPOSALS

City of Austin MoPAC Bike Bridge: $2.5 million (Total project cost: $3.9 million) for Barton Creek Bicycle Bridge at Mopac.

City of Austin Del Curto Path: $0.8 million (Total project cost: $1.0 million) for shared use path along Del Curto from Bluebonnet to Lightsey and on Lightsey from Del Curto to Clawson.

City of Round Rock Brushy Creek Trail: $2.4 million (Total project cost $3.0 million) for constructing two trail segments which will complete gaps along the Brushy Creek and Lake Creek trails.

CTRMA Hwy. 183-A Path: $1.2 million (Total project cost $2.5 million) for concrete shared use path along 183-A from FM 1431 to Brushy Creek.

City of Austin Little Walnut Creek Trail: $1.5 million (Total project cost $1.9 million) for concrete trail along Little Walnut Creek from Springdale Rd. to the MoKan RR ROW (near Johnny Morris Rd.).

University of Texas bicycle parking: $46,000 (Total project cost $74,000) for bicycle racks and bicycle lockers on UT campus.

Notable STP MM sidewalk proposals:

TxDOT MLK/FM 969 Sidewalks: $1.5 million (Total project cost $2.0 million) for sidewalks along MLK Blvd. from IH 35 to US 183.

TxDOT Decker Ln./FM 3177 Sidewalks: $1.2 million (Total project cost $1.5 million) for sidewalks along Decker Ln. from US 290 to FM 969.

TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (TIP) AMENDMENTS FOR 2008-2011

City of Austin bike routes: $2.0 million (Total project cost: $8.1 million) for bike routes in the Austin Metro Area.

City of Austin Northern Walnut Creek Trail: $1.3 million (Total project cost: $2.0 million) to construct Walnut Creek Trail.

City of San Marcos Aquarena Springs/Post Rd. Bikeway: $0.7 million (Total project cost: $1.5 million) to construct bike trail between Texas State Univ. and Aquarena Springs.

City of Austin Jollyville Rd. Bike Crossing: $21,000 (Total project cost: $0.8 million) to improve bike crossing at Arboretum Blvd.

City of Hutto Cottonwood Trail, Phase II: $0.1 million (Total project cost: $0.6 million) to construct Cottonwood Trail in Hutto.

Travis County Gilleland Creek Trail, Phase II: $0.1 million (Total project cost: $0.6 million) to construct concrete trail along Gilleland Creek from Pflugerville City Limits to Northeast Metro Park.
Safe Routes to School: Various projects from Cities of Austin, Florence, Taylor, and Pflugerville.

Also notable: City of Round Rock has a project for Wyoming Springs Rd. which does not adhere to CAMPO’s policy requiring bicycle facilities with all projects. The project description says, “Sidewalks for pedestrians and bicycles.” Sidewalks are not among the facilities considered appropriate for bicycles.

The Street Smarts Task Force–a group of some 30 people designated by the mayor and city to make recommendations for promoting bicycling and making it safer–recently concluded its work. The final report is now circulating through city boards and commissions and will be presented to the City Council on February 28. (You can see the final report at the bottom of http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/streetsmarts.htm, although it’s the not the pretty version, which hasn’t been posted yet.)

The task force members had a lot of talent and expertise, although I wonder a bit about the woman who asked pointedly during the second meeting, “Why are we talking so much about bicycles?” I do think the final product is worthy of commendation, which is just the other side of China from condemnation, although it did give men like me a pause to think of a condom nation, with everyone playing it safe. Unfortunately, this report–like so many created by task forces–faces the prospect of withering away in a file drawer, thousands of words carefully crafted just to be laid to rest in a morgue of type, with words questioning themselves in eternity. “Oh why was I born with an ‘i’ instead of an ‘e,’” laments “insure.” Until it’s neighbors “need to” and “the focus” yell, “Shut up ya whiner!” and  the tenant above–”tht”–screams, “At least you didn’t end up a typo!” and “must also focus,” the phrase with the split infinitive cries to be reunited…until the chorus of words and syllables and utterances realizes that it is making no sound at all. Then one day, little Larry Leonard lisps in alliteration “Street Smarts … Street Smarts … Street Smarts ….” as he pulls a copy of the final report from a city library shelf and wonders what they were thinking when they came up with the tagline, “Different Spokes for Different Folks.” Then he wonders why his father wasn’t more like Mr. Drummond, instead of an abusive dullard with callouses (sic) on the undersides of his fingers from six-pack rings, which tugged against the flesh while he waited behind lotto ticket buyers in convenience stores.

Where was I? Anyway, I thought it would be good to take a look at the highs and lows of this 10-month process.
(more…)

Here is a video that runs most of the length of the Minneapolis Midtown Greenway.

I’m posting this to provide inspiration for what Austin’s Lance Armstrong Bikeway going through the middle of Austin, east-and-west, could be like. The Minneapolis Greenway has a lot to teach us about how to make an Austin bikeway a success. Some issues are not directly relevant — in Minneapolis it was important to keep the south side of the trail unobscured so that the sun could melt the greenway snow — some analogies can still be found — an Austin bikeway would ideally be at least partially shaded, probably by trees. Concerns and prevention of crime are significant to any urban bikeway or trail that is just beginning to be used.

The Midtown Greenway Coalition is is a 501(c)(3) non-profit citizens’ group that has provided stability for the project for the last 15 years. Recent major news was the completion of a landmark bicycle and pedestrian bridge over a highway and rail lines. Currently, groundbreaking is starting on a central bike center, which will be immediately adjacent to the greenway in a central location.

I maintain a local bicycle advocacy calendar. The primary sort of events that I have posted are for the City of Austin, CAMPO, TxDOT, and UT Austin. This TinyUrl is helpful when sending the calendar link in e-mails: http://tinyurl.com/2vpnuk

I strongly encourage people to bring to my attention any upcoming events that I have neglected to post. From what I hear, there are interested people who use this calendar to stay abreast of advocacy events in Austin, so let’s make sure that all of the news gets out there.

You can reach me at tomwald@hotmail.com

A designer in Hong Kong has created a new kind of mobile home — on a tricycle! see video

This is an attempt to do a post. This is Mike Dahmus, of “M1EK’s Bake-Sale of Bile”, reporting for duty.

This blog was started in February 2008.  Stay tuned…