If you’ve not checked out the site Path Less Pedaled, get yourself over there post haste. Starting last September, Laura Crawford and Russ Roca started an epic bike ride across America, taking tons of pictures and writing about the bike culture they have encountered along the way. They essentially sold everything they owned and travel with what they can carry on their bikes.

Laura and Russ started in Oregon and are currently in North Carolina. They spent an extended stay in Austin in April including joining us for one of our Spring Social Rides. The Path Less Pedaled put together this slide show video of their travels (Austin shots around 3:30) which should inspire all of us to check out of the rat race and tour with our bikes, whether for a long weekend or a sabbatical year.

While the weather is still hot, there are also signs of fall. Combine UT football and cyclocross with family cook outs and the 4 day Tour of Austin Race, and you have the unique summer-fall transition of Labor Day weekend. There’s lots to do, but regardless whether you want to race or join the now award winning Thursday Night Social Ride, get out on your bike this weekend!

Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. Thanks to Jason at ATXBS for letting us know about some events we couldn’t find elsewhere. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.

Thursday, September 2

Thursday Night Bike Polo
5:30 PM, Eastwoods Park, 3001 Harris Park Ave
The Austin Bike Polo Club’s weekday match. All bikes and skill levels are welcome and spare mallets and balls are available if you don’t have any. Check out our article on bike polo for more info.

PURE Austin Fitness Driveway Crit Series
5 PM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Weekly Thursday night road racing through October that takes place on the closed car-free driving course at the Driveway. Races include Cat 3/4 women’s and juniors race at 5:00, Cat 4/5 at 6:10, Cat 3/4 at 5:30, Pro/Cat 1/2/3 at 6:45 to choose from. Races registration $20. Full and 1/2 season passes available. USA Cycling annual or one day license required. One days for sale at race.

Thursday Night Social Ride
7:30 PM, Fiesta Gardens
Now winner of two 2010 Best of Austin Awards! The large weekly ride from the Facebook group Social Cycling ATX that popularized social cycling in Austin. Meet up at 7:30, ride at 8:00.  Read our article on the weekly ride.

Friday, September 3

Tour of Austin, Day 1: The Brad Houston Law Pole Position Time Trial
4:30 PM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Riders seeded in reverse order of registration per category. First to register goes last in respective category. First rider off at 4:31PM. Last rider off at 7:45PM. 30 second intervals. Course is 4 miles. Two laps of full course plus part of service road. Course includes two short out of saddle hills, 4 straightaways, and multiple tight turns. While TT bikes are allowed one would probably be better suited to ride a road bike with aero wheels and maybe some clip on bars.

Fabulous Friday Fixed Gear Alleycat – Shoal Creek Time Trial
6:30 PM, Capitol Grounds
The first Friday of the month means Fabulous Fixed First Friday alleycat races. Bring $5, a bag and a fixed gear bike to race. Prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place.

Saturday, September 4

Tour of Austin, Day 2: The Mellow Johnny’s Shop House Classic
8:00 AM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Day 2 is Crit racing at The Driveway kids to Pro/Cat 1 categories.

Mellow Johnny’s Scout-A-Ride: Hill Of A Ride
8:30 AM, Mellow Johnny’s, 400 Nueces St
Saturday mornings spent exploring City of Austin bike routes finding new neighborhoods and ways to get around on your bike.  This is week’s theme is Hill Of A Ride. This ride will take you through great neighborhood routes with wonderful views and a few awesome hills thrown in for fun! Our pace will be about 12 mph. It is hot out so be sure to bring plenty of water/sport drink for the ride. Remember to park in the street if you are driving to the shop. Come by at 8:00 for coffee. Helmets required. Ride organizer: Stephanie at eileen@mellowjohnnys.com. Continue reading →

Yesterday, I shared a campaign going on in England to lower the speed limits on residential streets to 20 MPH. BikePortland also picked up the story and shared this striking image on stopping distances of a car in ideal conditions if a child suddenly jumped out in the street.

Going up to just 25 MPH increases the stopping distance by 40 feet compared to 20 MPH while the 35 MPH common on neighborhood arterial roads is over 140 feet longer and due to reaction time does not even begin braking until after the stopping point of 20 MPH is reached. At 35, you would have already run over the child before braking begins.

BikePortland points out that the World Health Organization has gone so far as to endorse the lowering of speed to 20 for just these reasons.

Running over someone or getting out of your neighborhood 10 seconds slower? Decent humanity would call for the latter but our current road engineering favors risking the former for expediance.

The Twin Cities friends who put on the 30 Days of Biking in April are at it again for September hoping to double the 500 participants they had this spring. Their site challenges you to ride your bike every day this month whether it’s the daily commute, a century ride, or around the block. If you feel moved, Zachariah Schaap and Patrick Stephenson ask you to share via Twitter your experiences.

Here are the rules:

The only rule for 30 Days of Biking is that you bike every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures online. We believe biking enriches life, builds community, and preserves the Earth.

My wife, Amy, participated this spring and wrote about it in a 6 part series. Give it a read to get inspired.

Register for the 30 Days of Biking here.

StreetFilms recently shared this film from England where there is a concerted effort to reduce the vehicle speeds in residential streets to 20 MPH. Proponents argue that the slower speed makes the streets more welcoming to pedestrians and cyclists, reduces fatalities, and increases property values. They make a compelling case including some heart wrenching footage of a child being hit by a car. The human price of speed hardly seems worth the saved few seconds.

20′s Penty For Us from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Currently, most Austin residential streets outside of neighborhood arteries are limited to 25 MPH. Unfortunately in England as here, the government has provided limited funding for physical traffic calming devices such as medians and pinch points (though it seems there is always money found for that next highway expansion or overpass, eh?). This is a step in the right direction but one wonders how much signs alone can accomplish.

What you think? Should we move residential speed limits down to 20 MPH? Is doing so without the accompanying traffic calming effective?

In the last few years, cycling has been flourishing in our city. The combination of gas price volatility, a vibrant social cycling scene, and more and better bike infrastructure has yielded a growing number of people choosing two wheels to get places. Unfortunately, the road to progress is rarely straight and sometimes bends back on itself before moving forward again.

Take these recent stories:

Cyclist convicted of reckless driving for riding in the road

Ellis County police seemed to have had it out for cyclist Reed Bates, aka ChipSeal, when they ticketed him for reckless driving for having the audacity to ride his bicycle on a public road. Bates wanted his day in court to explain that while there was a shoulder on the road in question, he is not required to ride in it if conditions are unsafe. It was reported the judge admitted that Bates had the legal right to be there but somehow it did not apply in this situation. On August 18, the judge found Bates guilty of the crime of riding his only form of transportation on public roads. Bates is planning an appeal the decision and is asking for financial help in this effort.

Bartonville passes measure to make cycling groups obtain permit to ride

Apparently cyclists are akin to the Red scare in Bartonville, Texas where in June the City Council changed their ordinance to require groups of 10 or more cyclists to obtain a permit from the City of Bartonville under city race and rally permit requirements. Image you and eight of your friends are riding to Barton Springs for a swim or downtown for some music and you run into another friend on the way. Your little social trip (potentially taking 10 cars off the road by the way) would quickly turn into an act of civil disobedience in Bartonville. I’m all for non-violent protest, but a Saturday morning training ride or a ride to the swimming whole shouldn’t be a crime. I realize most people think of speech when they think of the 1st Amendment, but free assembly is part of these rights as well. The Founders said nothing about the right to free assembly being limited to the drivers of automobiles.

BikeTexas has jumped into action to prevent further ordinances such as this one by putting together an online petition against bike bans.

Developers to cyclists: Go away until we need you for a photo op

With all the movement towards New Urbanism in development circles these days, you would expect a new golden age of cycling to be occurring. When the rubber meets the road however, we see a different story. During the debate over the Nueces Bike Boulevard, we hear from several land owners who wanted high rise density on the street but only if it meant as much capacity for cars as possible. Does anyone see a problem with quadrupling the number of people living in northwest Downtown without moving a substantial number of people away from single occupancy automobiles?

A couple weeks ago, local land developer club the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) came out against this fall’s transportation bonds which include funding for vital bike/ped projects because it does not include enough “vehicular traffic relief”, i.e. roads for cars. Never mind that moving more people to bikes is vehicular traffic relief. Luckily, the voters of Austin will be the deciders on this and usually RECA’s endorsement is a guide for the rest of us to vote in the opposite. Continue reading →

The Dario Pegoretti movie D’Acciaio (Of Steel) by Ben Ingham is screened today only for free on the Rapha website.

An interesting movie about an iconic, if opinionated, framebuilder in the Old World mold.

Earlier this week, I mentioned cyclocross season will be starting up again on September 7 with the weekly Dirt Derby series. Look for some cyclecross fun at the Texas Custom Bicycle Show as well, and hopefully some enterprising chaps will start up the underground alleycross races again. We’re no Portland, but cyclocross is on the rise in these parts.

To get you warmed up for fun in the mud and beer ups, take a look at this trailer from the 2005 documentary Pure Sweet Hell. The film appears sufficiently grainy to get the vibe of ‘cross. Unfortunately, this film is currently out of print so you’ll have order on Netflix or get lucky at Half Price Books to see the whole thing.

Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. Thanks to Jason at ATXBS for letting us know about some events we couldn’t find elsewhere. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.

Thursday, August 26

Thursday Night Bike Polo
5:30 PM, Eastwoods Park, 3001 Harris Park Ave
The Austin Bike Polo Club’s weekday match. All bikes and skill levels are welcome and spare mallets and balls are available if you don’t have any. Check out our article on bike polo for more info.

PURE Austin Fitness Driveway Crit Series
5 PM, The Driveway, 8400 Delwau Lane
Weekly Thursday night road racing through October that takes place on the closed car-free driving course at the Driveway. Races include Cat 3/4 women’s and juniors race at 5:00, Cat 4/5 at 6:10, Cat 3/4 at 5:30, Pro/Cat 1/2/3 at 6:45 to choose from. Races registration $20. Full and 1/2 season passes available. USA Cycling annual or one day license required. One days for sale at race.

Thursday Night Social Ride
7:30 PM, Fiesta Gardens
The large weekly ride from the Facebook group Social Cycling ATX that popularized social cycling in Austin. Meet up at 7:30, ride at 8:00.  Read our article on the weekly ride.

Yellow Bike Benefit Show
8:30 PM – 10:00 PM, Red 7, 611 East 7th Street)
A concert benefiting Austin’s Yellow Bike Project. Music from Sour Notes, The Boxing Lesson, White Rhino, She Sir, and  Searching For Signal

Friday, August 27

August Critical Mass Ride
5 PM, West Mall UT Campus
This bike jamming ride is designed to shout to the world that bikes belongs and occurs on the last Friday of the month. You never know what will happen, but don’t miss this foundation of the Austin bike culture we know today.

Saturday, August 28

Mellow Johnny’s Scout-A-Ride: North X Northwest
8:30 AM, Mellow Johnny’s, 400 Nueces St
Saturday mornings spent exploring City of Austin bike routes finding new neighborhoods and ways to get around on your bike.  This is week’s theme is North X Northwest. We roll faster but expect about 12mph average pace since we are in town. Today’s 22 mile ride will take us through wonderful bike friendly Austin neighborhoods like Old Enfield, Tarrytown, and Allendale (and most hills have been removed for your riding comfort). Come by at 8:00 for coffee. Helmets required. Ride organizer: Stephanie at eileen@mellowjohnnys.com.

FrankenBike #61
10 AM- 4 PM, Crown & Anchor Pub, 2911 San Jacinto
Austin’s semi-regular bike parts swap is back. Need a saddle or set of pedals to finish off that project bike? Have a box of never used or lightly used bike parts in the garage your significant other wants you to get rid of? Frankenbike is your answer. Stop by for a bit or stay all afternoon to hawk you wares. As always, admission is free, recycling great stuff is priceless.

The BP Protest Ride AND Epic Water Balloon Fight
8 PM, Lamar Blvd Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge
The revelers at Brizm Nation are putting on this protest ride ending with a balloon fight. Bring banners, paint your hot bod, wear your best oily scrimp and charred sea turtle costumes. They will hit up one of the LAST FREE SWIMS at Barton Springs, so bring your swimmy trunks and/or jorts and then… an EPIC WATER BALLOON FIGHT!! At a secret, yet poignant location!

Continue reading →

Numbers from New York City should be death knell to vehicular cycling policies

The New York City Department of Transportation recently released its 2009 Sustainable Streets Index report with the most definitive proof yet that good cycling infrastructure is a huge part of getting people to use bicycles as an alternative to cars. The report shows that since 2003, there has been a 126% increase in people using bicycles to commute (transit saw a 12% increase in the same time). This dramatic jump coincides almost exactly with the City’s move to build lots of great bicycle infrastructure including divided or protected bike lanes, bike paths, and the taking back of road space from automotive traffic for public space.

With its high density, mixed use buildings, and great transit system, New York seems like a place where bicycle use should be a no brainer, yet it took carving out space for people at the expense of cars for the increases to occur. The numbers before these changes were flat or of modest, incremental increases.

Along with presta versus schrader and helmets versus bare headed, the debate on the need for bicycle infrastructure has been common in the cycling community. For the second half of the 20th century, vehicular cycling was the dominate theory on accommodating cyclists (if they were thought of at all.) VCers said bike lanes and paths were not only unnecessary but made things more dangerous and would not increase the number of people cycling. This had the added benefit of complimenting the dominant engineering thought of the time which was to make road construction conform to the need of the automobile at the expense of all other modes of transportation or living.

These numbers from New York City should be the death knell for vehicular cycling and a guide for cities that want to get serious about getting people out of cars. Outside of the enthusiasts and early adopters who will put up with a hostile environment, most people need dedicated space to feel comfortable and treated like an equal on the road. Slowing down cars, making public space, and making divided space where cars cannot physically drive are all necessary to make significant in-roads in getting more people on bikes.

Bicycling is UP again in the Big Apple! from Streetfilms on Vimeo.