Thanks to everyone to called and wrote to the Austin City Council to voice concern about the calendar games being played with the Downtown Bicycle Boulevard briefing and to ask for public comment on the staff recommendations. I just heard from Rob D’Amico, President of the League of Bicycling Voters, that Councilmembers Chris Riley and [...]
Posts under ‘Opinion’
City staff to cyclists on Bike Blvd: We don’t want to hear from you anymore
UPDATE: An A2W reader sent me an e-mail asking me to clarify a point in this post. The decision to put items on the City Council agenda is done at a managerial level above the City of Austin Bicycle and Pedestrian Program. ——- In a move reminiscent of some of the slimier actions taken by [...]
Looking at the value and ROI of bicycle advocacy
Does advocacy get new people on bikes and if not, what will? May is Bike Month, and in addition to all the special rides and bike shop discounts, our local, statewide, and national bicycle advocacy groups are front and center highlighting the need for good infrastructure and encouraging us to get on bikes. Locally, this [...]
The Auto Industry’s true colors: Creeps and Wierdos
No Friday Film Fun today. Instead, I cannot resist posting this auto ad brought to my attention by Copenhagenize. The ad which ran in Canada a few years ago was a more radical departure from the automotive industry’s usually more subtle attempt to make alternative transportation less appealing than throwing down tens of thousands of [...]
Opposition to Nueces Street Bike Boulevard bring up same misleading concerns at UTC meeting
Critics of bike blvd make factually incorrect statements in calling for delay or removal of bike boulevard. Plus an update on the free swim policy at Barton Springs Pool. Tuesday night, the City of Austin Urban Transportation Commission met to review the current progress on plans to create Austin’s first bicycle boulevard on Nueces Street. [...]
A New Year, a new mindset
More to learn from Copenhagen on making a city bikeable for all I have spent a lot of time in my professional life trying to sell Texans and Austinites on a vision of life that does not center around the car. Whether it was sharing cars, using a bike for everyday errands, or riding rail, [...]
Yet more great new bike infrastructure ideas from Copenhagen
Inspiration for the Copenhagenization the rest of the world With the Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen remains very much in the news especially on the bike front. As a city with a dominate car culture until the 1970s, Copenhagen pulled back from the gasoline induced sprawl most of the Western world embraced and now has 37% [...]
Vehicular cycling versus bike lanes: why they are both right, both wrong and why bike boulevards matter
Thoughts on where we’ve been and where we are going ahead of tonight’s Bike Boulevard Open House As Austin prepares to experiment with the concept of bicycle boulevards, it is important to remember where bicycle infrastructure has been and why bike boulevards are really important in the goal of creating a city where large numbers [...]
Thoughts from the road: Preparing for $20/gallon gas
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we loaded up the car (rental car in our case) and headed to Lubbock to see the in-laws. During this trip, I began reading “$20 Per Gallon“, a book about how our world will change with the inevitable rise of oil and gasoline prices in the coming years. I’ll do a [...]
Wanting more cyclists on the road? Look to what women want
A recent Scientific American article suggests that if we want to get serious about getting more people riding bikes for transportation we need to focus on the needs of one group in particular: women. The article quotes several reports that show cities and countries with high bicycle usage also have a near equal male/female usage [...]
