BIKE: Moving back to Austin area

[Dennis Abbott]

Well, I started riding my route on Wednesday.  I'm pretty close over
in Wells Branch and I just shoot through Grand Ave Parkway(long light
under i35) and then take the feeder as suggested to the Target parking
lot.  That parking lot is totally empty in the mornings.  4.5 miles
one-way and I get there 5 minutes quicker than by car.  Lots of cars
to deal with but they are all going about 5 miles an hour.  I don't
see how these people can sit in a car that long.  Return trip is a
little scarier.  Suprisingly Dell has no bike racks, showers cost you
$14 a month, and there is no shuttle to campuses outside of the RR
campus(I need to go to Parmer once a week at least).  If there was a
cap metro bus stop near any part of that RR campus I would live in
central Austin in a second.  There is a bus (495?) that hits the
Parmer campus but then I would still need to get to RR and the Dell
shuttle does not run to Parmer.  If there are any other Dell employees
on this list maybe we could get together and push Dell for a little
more bicycle friendly conditions.  My list would be:
*shower room in every building seperate from externally managed
fitness center(or shower only membership)
*bike racks at each building
*cap metro bus stop at each campus(most likely impossible)
*use political clout to get true mass transit connected to the campuses
*use political clout to make sure that all new construction around the
campuses accomodates bicycles or at least does not make cycling
impossible(is there some state law I could gripe to TxDOT about that
forces bike accomodation?)

Dennis Abbott

PS: thanks for the suggestions Chuck


On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 16:50:59 -0500, chuck_thomas
<chuck_thomas> wrote:
> Hi Dennis, drop me a line when you start riding it.  I take that route
> everyday from North Austin (Lamar & Rundberg area).  I wouldn't
> recommend Greenlawn because as you noted it is rather narrow.  It also
> has a lot of curves and motorists sometimes loose sight of you around
> the curves.  I would recommend instead staying on the feeder road and
> cutting arcoss the Target parking lot then crossing to the sidewalk
> beside WalMart and following that up to the Dell campus.  It's really
> not too bad to cycle through.  The motorists are usually so clogged up
> that they can't move so you end up passing them.  It's hilarious hearing
> people here complain about how stuck they are to their cars and how
> expensive and time consuming it's getting.  They are surprised to hear
> that I haven't bought gas since April, but still they sit in their cars
> and still they complain.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces
> [mailto:forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces] On
> Behalf Of Dennis Abbott
> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 10:45 AM
> To: forum-bicycleaustin.info
> Subject: Re: BIKE: Moving back to Austin area
> 
> OK, I am definitely headed back to Austin to work for Dell.  Let me just
> say that the area around Dell now looks like someone took a Xerox copy
> of the crappiest part of Houston and copied it over to Round Rock.  What
> in the hell are they building all that road for?  Are they going to look
> back in 5 years when petrol is $6 a gallon and say "hmmm, maybe we
> misallocated a few resources over here".  From first glance the area
> looks impossible to bicycle through daily.  I still can't believe they
> built all that road and the possibility of something as simple as a bus
> stop did not even occur to them.  Its not even possible to drive a car
> to Dell, the parking is at its limit.
> While I poo pooed Wells Branch in my earlier post, it now looks like the
> best option.  I can probably cut through Grand Avenue Parkway and run up
> the feeder to Greenlawn.  Greenlawn has no shoulder and the lane is not
> that wide either.  My best bet is to take the lane and arrive at 7:00
> instead of 8:00 in the morning.  Since I will be temporary living for a
> while maybe I can find a good route before I settle down.
> 
> Ya know they could have easily developed that area into a much higher
> density mixed-use development.  The property value would have been
> enormous over time.  What a missed oppurtunity.  That place was a
> pasture 10 years ago.  There is absolutely no regionally-aligned thought
> going into developing the Austin metro area.
> 
> That said I am just stuck on Austin.  I am mentally attached to the
> area.  The first thing I am doing is packing my touring bike and doing a
> trip from Blanco to Fredricksburg to Kerrville back to Blanco.  A trip I
> took right before leaving Austin 2 years ago.  Something good is going
> to come out of Peak Oil in Austin Texas and I plan on being part of it.
> The city has lost its spirit but its still humming along right under the
> surface.
> 
> Dennis Abbott
> 
> On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 10:23:46 -0500 (CDT), cjwyche <cjwyche>
> wrote:
> > @Chuck
> >
> > Stop it. You've ruined my charade that I would be the ONLY nut to
> > commute from 45th to RoundRock (and back) everyday.
> > You are talking about 2hrs and 10 minutes EVERY(week)day out of your
> > life listening to whizzing traffic. At my last job I biked 1hr 15
> > minutes EVERY(week)day, but had neighborhoods and a couple 3+minute
> > hills + a radio to keep me interested and I still felt (but not much)
> > the drain on my other extracurricular activities. 2+ hours? Every day!
> 
> > At least my son is out on his own now so neither he nor my wife would
> > be really missing me.
> >
> > How do you do it?
> >
> > On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 Chuck_Thomas wrote:
> > > Welcome back Dennis.  I too work at Dell Round Rock campus and live
> > > in North Austin.  I bicycle commute 21 miles round trip everyday
> > > year around. [SNIP] We have two cars but the 2nd one is rarely used.
> 
> > > -chuck-
> > --
> > ge||ge   1/2 of cjwyche (see www.io.com/~cjwyche)
> >
> >
> 
> --
> Dennis Abbott
> 902 Estes Dr
> De Pere, WI 54115
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Get on or off this list here:  http://BicycleAustin.info/list
> 


-- 
Dennis Abbott
3501 Shoreline Drive
Apartment 612
Austin, TX 78728