Bicycle Austin forum

Not only is there a huge cultural difference in Japan, there are huge differences in liability law.

On my first deployment to Iwakuni we had two Marines, drunk and fighting off base. The fight migrated onto the tracks of the local commuter train just in time for the first southbound of the morning. The train had to stop so that investigators could work two fatalities. After adjudication, the U.S. government was found liable not only for the damage to the train but was required to compensate all the commuters for being late or missing work.

We could learn much from them.

wow...sorry I shared it

I won't bother with any more.

if you are only going 4-ish miles west and your destination is actually on 290 you should be fine...most of that segment has shoulders if memory serves...

just be aware of debris which TXDOT refuses to do anything about

I'll parrot Doug, it comes down to what you want to spend your time on.  One of the reasons I'm discontinuing my blog. 

Will another step up?  Maybe, but in the end I don't believe it will matter unless the "community" truly gets behind the web site, Facebook-reddit forums...whatever form it takes.

I wouldn't count on YBP taking up the slack.  Volunteers only have so much time, and they are few.

As for whatever comes out of the merger of LOBV and ACA...I don't hold much hope.  I may be wrong, I often am.

Good point on charitable contributions from other than membership fees.  I was focusing mostly on membership because that's really what Austin is lacking.  Both current organizations, along with the state organization (Bike Texas) are anemic when compared to the more effective advocacy groups in other cities.  Less than 2000 people are members of either Austin group combined, and there is some overlap. 

Imagine what might happen in Austin if we had 10,000 members (San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, et al).

Any merger discussion/effort needs to address this issue.  How to draw membership and/or contributions to expand both advocacy (including political endorsement/lobbying) and charitable efforts.

The membership difference isn't that much...certainly nowhere close to an order of magnitude...BA is somewhere around 500, ACA something like 1500. 

As an example for how this could work I would look to Cascade Cycling Club.  Non-profit advocacy/political organization that has an associated 501(c)3 education foundation.

I don't believe that the big draw for ACA membership is the charitable aspect.  I could be wrong.  I often am.  But it was not the reason I joined.

To their credit they did install significant number of bike racks adjacent the obstruction...I mean bus stop.  Perhaps CapMetro thinks this should be a terminus for southbound bicycles.

In all fairness what options were available?  Once CapMetro decided to route (cram down our throats) MetroRapid (oxymoron) on Guadalupe this kind of design was inevitable.  And is it so much more crappy infrastructure than the Red Line terminus station downtown? 

Whether it be garbage cans, parked cars, delivery trucks, miscellaneous cars parts and junk, au pairs and strollers...whatever obstruction you find...bike lanes in this town are revealed as so much useless paint.

m1ek,

I saw that Saturday as I rode downtown early in the morning.  Was thinking about writing a blog post about it and I have the same concerns. The cement island is placed exactly in the bike lane. When I encountered it I didn't have any trouble as there was no traffic and I could just take the lane adjacent to the bus stop.

But on a busy day we're now asking cyclists to do something that we've asked them not to do:  pass the bus on the right.  Not only that but we have now put them in conflict with people exiting and entering  the bus.  This is asking for trouble.  The cyclists choice is this case is to try to merge into traffic to pass on the left, wait for the bus breathing nice fumes or slalom between peds.

Tim