Who's Who in Austin Biking

Last update: 2013

Amy Babich

A car-free cyclist, Amy is somewhat of a celebrity. In 1995, she started writing letters to the Austin Chronicle complaining about the lack of safe roadways, and the danger andenvironmental destructiveness of automobiles. Her letters have been published in the Chronicle at least monthly (often weekly), and herexample has brought other cyclists out of the woodwork to write in as well -- as well as inciting the ire of angry car-loving letter-writers.Amy's suggestions are sometimes bizarre (movable parking garages?!), but she's living her vision of a car-free lifestyle. She deserves a lotof credit for keeping the issue of cycling in the forefront by her tireless submissions to our local weekly paper. Amy lost her bid for a seat on theAustin City Council in the May 2000 election. Amy is co-owner of Easy Street Recumbents alongwith Mike Librik.

Annick Beaudet

Manager of the City's Bicycle Program. (9-09)

 

Bobby Sledge

Bobby was a driving force behind the League of Bicycling Voters (LBV), a group initially established to fight the local helmetordinance, and which went beyond that by making bicyclists an important political constituency in the 1996 City Council elections.

Charles Gandy

Gandy founded Bike Texas (then the Texas Bicycle Coalition) in the 80's and served as its executive director into the90's. He's a former member of the Texas Legislature and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate. He was aconsultant for the redesign of Shoal Creek Blvd., and many cyclists criticized his plan which allowed cars to keep parking in the bicycle lanes. (9-09)

David Baker

Dave is one of the original founders of the Yellow Bike Project (YBP). He helped start the YBP while he was the manager of Bikes Not Bombs(BnB). Shortly after launching the YBP, Dave left BnB to devote more time to the YBP. Around 2004, he moved out of Austin.

Dave Dobbs

Perhaps nobody, with the possible exception of Roger Baker, is as knowledgeable about the politics of local transportation planning as Dave Dobbs. He's been following these issues for decades, and he knows all about broken promises and the money trail. Dobbs is the Executive Director of the Texas Association for Public Transportation, and is the Democratic Party Precinct Judge for Travis County Precinct 323. (4-00)

David Sully

David has been very active in bicycle advocacy work in Austin, and served on the City Planning Commission from 1994-99.Some of his bike-related accomplishments on the commission are listed below. In 2000 he served on the Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee(along with cyclist Chris Riley, who was elected to the City Council in 2009),which monitors how the City spends the Nov. 1998 bond money. Hehas been a frequent speaker at public hearings, supporting bicycle projects. On the Planning Commission:

• Helped stop the routine granting of variances for sidewalks and street connections.
• Drafted much, if not most, of the commission's Smart Growth suggestions that new subdivisions follow grid pattern streetswith bike/ped connections wherever streets don't connect, with explicit verbage on subdivision plans stating how bike & pedestrian travelwould be carried out within the development.
• Sent the Bicycle Plan back to City Staff to have them add text to describe how destinations can be approached from north,east, south, and west, and what barriers existed if approach is not possible.
• Helped shape attitudes and perceptions in the development and planning community by riding his bike to almost everymeeting he attended. (If he didn't ride, he walked or car-pooled.)

Doug Ballew

Doug Ballew is controversial since he was the person chiefly responsible for pushing Austin's widely unpopular helmet ordinance through the City Council. Ballew also lobbied the local daily newspaper to mentionwhether cyclists were wearing helmets in articles about cyclist injuries. This angered many local cyclists who were trying to get theStatesman to do the opposite, since media harping on whether the cyclists' had helmets on gives the impression that unhelmeted cyclistsare to blame when they get hit, even if motorists are really at fault. Ballew also got the city to censor their link to this website, ostensibly onthe grounds that we advocate illegal activity (we don't), but more likely because he's upset about the fact that we've pointed out in thissection some of his controversial actions in this paragraph. Ballew is currently a Public Health Educator for the Travis CountySuperCyclist Project, a part of the Health and Human Services Department. In this position he educates the public (mostly orprimarily children) about bicycle safety and organizes programs to distribute free or low-cost helmets. (10-00)

Doug McLaren

Doug maintains a website with pictures from dozens and dozens of local social cycling rides.  He also helps moderate the Bicycle Austin email and web forums.  (11-12)

Eric Anderson

Eric is a founding member of the Yellow Bike Project and has been active in Critical Mass. He came up with the idea for the Crosstown Bikeway and lobbied for it extensively, resulting in approval by the City and funding support from the federal government. He helpedorganize the 2-01 Austin Bike Summit. He's also been critical of our website, and took himself off our bicycle email forum.

Fred Meredith  

[Update, 2019: Fred has sadly passed away.]  As editor of Southwest Cycling News print newspaper, Fred Meredith is the person chiefly responsible for informing the public about local cycling news. [Although we hope to rival him with this website. :-) ]   Fred is involved with cycling across a wide spectrum, including being an Effective Cycling instructor, a former participant in Critical Mass (it got too lawless for him), a commuter riding for alternative transportation, and a member of organized rides. The state of Austin cycling would be in a sorry state were in not for Fred.

Gayle Cummins

Gayle is the former director of the Texas Bicycle Coalition, a group which works to promote cycling through advocacy and education,and works for cyclists' rights. When she took over TBC, she made a strong effort to refocus and revitalize the organization.

Jeremy Rosen

Jeremy is the local funky bike builder, and a cofounder of the Austin Bike Zoo. He builds longjohns, dump trikes, high bikes, recumbents, and more. He also offers used bikes and inexpensive repairs.

Keith Snodgrass

Keith is the former director of the city's Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, from 1997-1998. He left the position in Oct. 1998 for personal reasons. During his tenure, his program won City Councilapproval of Part II of The Bicycle Plan (the first effort to improve cycling in the city since the early 80's), and began work onimplementing the plan. Most of the plan calls for new bikelanes and other roadway improvements. He was replaced by Linda DuPriest (seebelow).

 

Linda DuPriest

Moved to Austin in Feb. '99 to take the job of Austin's Bicycle Coordinator, overseeing the city's Bicycle Program. She succeeded Keith Snodgrass ('97-98), who succeeded Rick Waring (95-97). DuPriest kept alow profile, refusing to communicate with the cycling community by posting to the local bike email list, writing a short monthly columnfor Cycling News, or appearing on The Bicycle Lane Radio program (all things her predecessors did). She left the position in Feb. 2004, with an impressive list of improved roadways to her credit.

Leslie Luciano

In 2004 Bicycle Sports Shop created a full-time Directory of Advocacy position and hired Leslie to fill it. Since then, Leslie has worked with local, state, and national groups, and has received Trek's "Advocate of the Year" award in 2009, 2010, and 2011. (more...) (1-13)

Michael Bluejay

Michael Bluejay maintains this website and the web forum, and hosts the email discussion list. He hosted The Bicycle Lane radio program from 1996-1999 and published the Car-Free World newsletter until around 2003.  He doesn't doesn't own a car and doesn't even have a driver's license. (9-08)

 Michael Zakes

Michael Zakes owns Waterloo Cycles  and served on the City's Urban Transportation Commission from 1998-2000.

 

Mike Dahmus

Mike is best known for his informative and well-informed transportation blog. He was appointed to the Urban Transportation Commission in March 2000 by Councilmember Daryl Slusher, then removed by Slusher in Feb. 2005, probably because Dahmus was critical of the commuter rail proposal for being overhyped. Fellow UTC member Patrick Goetz said of his efforts, "As far as concrete action goes, Tommy [Eden] and Mike have done more to further bicycle transportation issues in the last couple of years than everyone else in Austin combined times 4." (more...) (2-05)

 

Mike Librik

Mike Librik is an adamant cycle commuter (doesn't own a car), and a driving force behind the Bicycle Advisory Council. He also sits on the City's Parks and Recreation board. He owns Easy Street Recumbents along with Amy Babich, and hosts "The Right of Way", a radio program about car-free lifestyles on KOOP 91.7fm (every other Monday at 6:45pm). (3-00)

Patrick Goetz

Served on the City's Urban Transportation Commission as a consensus appointee, until being replaced by the City Council inJuly 2008. Served on the Triangle Traffic Committee in '98, and organized to repeal the helmet ordinance with the League of BicyclingVoters in '96-'97. (9-08)

 

Preston Tyree

Preston is past president of the Austin Cycling Association, a staff member of the Texas Bicycle Coalition, a certified Effective Cycling Instructor, and a participant in a government-funded program to develop a nation-wide bicycle safety education curriculum for the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.

Rick Waring

Rick was the first director of the city's Bicycle & Pedestrian Program, from around 1995-1997. During his tenure, the program got Part I of theBicycle Plan passed by the Austin City Council.