Tommy and Billy riding on the sidewalk, pavers, and wherever the hell they want to.

Tommy: Like dude, this East Riverside Corridor project rocks!
Billy: You mean like pop rocks?
Tommy: Funny dude. Let’s lean.
Billy: Let’s what?
Tommy: Your’e so out of it dude!

See Tommy and Billy at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/urbandesign/downloads/e_riverside_presentation_part5.pdf

Oh. Haven’t had any time to review everything, but I’ll start wading through it. What’s it? It’s the East Riverside Corridor Planning project and its latest…phase. See more at: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/urbandesign/riversideplan.htm#five

In a quick fly through, I noted some “separated” bike lanes, meaning separted by curb and pavement, and trendy street lights. Feel free to comment on this plan, if you live on the street of booming dreams.

A big kudos to LOBV’s Tom Wald, who did a fantastic review of Mueller bike facilities and connectivity issues for the developers. Recently I sat in with Tom at the Mueller Transportation Subcommittee, where consultants from ROMA presented responses to his review, including some substantial improvements for bike facilities.

There’s still work to be done…particularly a thorny problem of trying to allow easy and safe bike access across Airport into Cherrywood. But check out the LOBV Mueller page for the latest:
http://www.lobv.org/mueller.

LOBV recently sat in with city planners and consultants for the Downtown planning process. Other bicycle organizations were there as well as part of a stakeholder process. We had some lively discussion, mostly over parallel parking next to bike lanes.

Overall, the planning effort looks really good. But again, we really had to drive home the point that getting bikes out of the door zone and providing direct connectivity to a variety of destinations is a must.

Check out the bike priority corridors and a variety of cross sections for treatment of bicycle facilities at:
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/downtown/#dntnplan (go to “Transportation Framework Plan).

Here at LOBV we strive to stay on top of city notifications, particularly development projects that may need or include bicycle facilities. Unfortunately, that means about 30 plus envelopes in my mailbox each week. What a waste of paper, and postage.

It would be nice if someone who hates this kind of waste would see just how much the city spends on this endeavor–which although worthwhile and necessary–could undoubtedly be improved.

Couldn’t an optional e-mail/PDF notification system (a searchable one at that) be an option. Not sure.

Also stumbled upon the hard copy of this at Mellow Johnny’s this morning while enjoying my free cup of coffee for bicycle commuters: Urban Velo.

Kind of strange, but I’ll let you be the judge. Visit http://www.urbanvelo.org

As you may recall from the forum posts, the City Council passed a resolution directing city staff to look at scooter parking downtown, along with some references to bicycle parking and bike boxes. Public Works responded with an initial analysis, and the issue is expected to head to the Urban Transportation Commission for review in December.

Portland Bike Box

I found these comments odd:

“Bicyclists ahead of motorists in the bike box may impede the motorists’ progress, whether simply by being there, by alteration in signal timing, or both. There could therefore be a reduction in efficiency of motor travel. Use of the bike box may either increase or decrease bicyclists’ travel times, depending on whether they may filter forward, or are prevented from entering the bike box by moving motor traffic (particularly when using it to prepare a left turn). Further research should attempt to quantify these effects, and effects on pedestrian travel times.”

Seems to me like bikes don’t wait in ques anyway, so you might as well stick them up front in a visible, safe place. If you’re prevented from entering the bike box….oh well. You can view the analysis here.

Haven’t been to the Draught House in awhile. But I’m not talking about that kind of pub! Publications…and I’m continually impressed by Momentum, which has a new edition out (some copies are usually around Mellow Johnny’s, or online at http://www.momentumplanet.com).

But the folks at New Belgium, which I drink frequently in pubs, just alerted me to Boneshaker, a journal on bike commuting and utility cycling. I’ve emailed to see how to get a subscription, but I would be interested to hear if anyone has read it.  See: http://wolverinefarmpublishing.org/boneshaker.shtml. I had picked up the publisher’s Guide to Ecstatic Living (GER) at Tour de Fat last year and loved it.

I’ve been somehow sheltered from the mean streets, perhaps by a naivete or maybe even just a dreamy complacence that tends to swallow me up when I ride. But it finally hit the other night, a wave of attacks from motorists that wakened and incensed me.

First, an SUV plowed into a bicyclist on South Congress about 10 yards in front of me. The driver did a stupid and erratic maneuver. Essentially she pointed her car in a 45 degree angle into the right lane of Congress (in front of the cupcake stand at Monroe View Larger Map) then whipped right in a half circle into an angled parking space where her front quarter panel collided with the front tire and flying body of the unfortunate girl who—although she was riding legally—made a bad choice in riding down the middle of angled parking. After nailing the car with her mid section, she bounced off into the gutter.

I slammed on my brakes, dismounted and went to her. She was struggling for air, but she told bystanders she was fine, that her breath was just knocked out. An ambulance came and indeed she was OK, with some road rash and aches and pains.

But get this…after the crash the driver of the SUV came up stood with her hands on her hips looking at the gasping girl and said, and this is a direct quote: “Dang nab it.”

Dang nab it? Couldn’t she say something like, “Oh my God, are you OK?” Then she said, “I thought y’all were on the sidewalk.” Then she gave a false account of what happened to the police. In the end I heard from the bicyclists and the drivers’ insurance company agreed to pay for her bike damage and bike repair.

You’re probably already getting bored with tales from the street, so I’ll keep the rest short. After the crash, I was sitting downtown at 2nd and Colorado behind the white ped line waiting on a red light. A Lexus SUV rounded the corner onto 2nd almost clipping me, and the driver leaned out and yelled “Get out of the street before I run you over you little twerp.” I’ve learned to live with my twerpdom, by the way, but since it followed the crash, I was fuming.

Then behind me, a car honked at two bicyclists riding on 2nd, then squealed by them, at which point the bicyclist yelled at the motorist to get out of his car if he thought he was such a man. He didn’t.
I’m now carrying my cell phone and video camera within in reach. I plan on fighting back, not by actually fighting, but by calling the police, at which point I’ll probably be battling their lack of action on this type of harassment!