brewrider

I'm trying to find some information on Garland's designated bike routes. I've seen some sparse signs on Duck Creek Dr. and Glenbrook, but that's about it. I'm wondering if there are other streets with this designation, and if there is a map somewhere. The city has nothing at all about it on their site. Anybody know?

Toadie

Have you tried the bicycle feature on Google maps?

brewrider

Yep. It doesn't exist on the map.

bergerandfries

brewrider, before the DORBA site was pulled offline, I had been working to find an advocate in Garland to take this to the city. Garland is the furthest behind in the metroplex for both trails and on-road infrastructure (and even plans!). Unfortunately, until the political will exists to do something in Garland, cyclists will be the invisible transportation in the shadows.

brewrider

Hey Mike, we (Johnny Guzman and me Jared Cook, plus anyone else who wishes to help) are actually trying to do something about that. https://www.bikefriendlygarland.org One of my goals is to create some centralized maps of workable routes and existing infrastructure. I created an end to end map of Garland's largest trail (Duck Creek Greenbelt) because there just didn't seem to be one in existence. I'm wanting to map out these so called "Bike Routes" also. So far as I can tell, there's just one. It is very long though, and winds it's way pretty reasonably through the city. Looks like the furthest point north is on Apollo, and the furthest point south goes to Duck Creek Dr./Rowlett Rd. I've asked the city if there are others, but I have not gotten a response yet.

bergerandfries

Awesome Jared, I will make sure I redirect my DORBA contacts that live/work in Garland to BFG to close ranks.

brewrider

So we took this "Bike Route" from end to end through the city yesterday. It's a perfectly doable ride...if you have some basic riding skills and confidence on the road. Otherwise, it would probably scare the crap out of casual riders. I wouldn't blame them either. There's a lot to be afraid of riding in Garland traffic! Johnny almost got creamed by a pickup truck doing about 40 running his stop sign. If I were in as good of shape as he is, and was tailing him more closely, I wouldn't be typing this.

I finally got a response back from the city about these "Bike Route" signs. I asked them if there were other designated routes in the city, and if there were any maps in existence. The response really didn't answer my question at all. They said that the signs were pre-existing and they are working on a new bike route to connect Richardson, Garland, and Mesquite. I think that means, "someone put those up a long time ago, and we have no idea why or what they were doing, but don't count on them being there in the future." Besides that, the new "route" they are talking about is really an off street trail. The new Mesquite-Garland-Richardson Bikeway will be a great thing in it's own right, but it wasn't exactly what I was asking about.

We definitely want to get the attention of the city, and give as much input and feedback as they will let us. It sounds like at this point, nothing is written in stone as far as the bike plan, so this is a great time to get started.

StephenH

In "The Greater Dallas Bike Plan Map" book, they only show a route on Glenbrook from Centerville to Beltline road. (Meaning, it doesn't exactly follow the marked bike route, and ignores the Duck Creek Drive portion.).

By the way, Hi. I live in Garland, discovered your blog yesterday or day before, and left a message there somewhere.

Another route, if you care to piece it together:
Start, say, at Don Johle's Bike World. Head north on Robin, the street behind the shop.
Turn left at Frontier, right at Stagecoach, watch the ridge on the centerline on Stagecoach.
Cross Oates, then take the first right, then the first left, to Gatewood.
Turn right on Gatewood, then turn left on Mayflower.
Cross Wynn Joyce, continue to a tee at Colonel.
Turn right on Colonel.
Cross Broadway, go to a tee at Country Club.
Turn left on Country Club, cross Centerville and Miller Road.
Turn left on Beverly, go down the hill and turn right on Curtis.
Take Curtis to a tee at Davidson Drive, turn right.
Signs should say "Road Closed", or did last time I was through there. They closed the road, but built a short connecting trail in its place, take it through there.
Turn left on Commerce Street.
Cross Hwy 66 and continue north on N. Country Club. The light at Hwy 66 won't trip for bikes, push the walk button.
Continue up to Pleasant Valley Road, turn right.
Now, you can go where you want to up there. But that's been my route to get to that part of town. You can work your way over to Firewheel Mall pretty easily. You can go on out Pleasant Valley Road, turn right on Elm Grove Road, and work your way back in on Rowlett Road. Be ready for some traffic somewhere on the way back in on that route.

Now, another little trick.
Supposing you take Glenbrook all the way north to Beltline. Merge onto Beltline, then take the first right, the first left, and the first right, which puts you on Century Park, then go on out to Apollo and turn left. So far so good. The problem is that Apollo makes a jog at Garland Road, which is not a good riding road. So turn right on Spring Creek, left on Webb. Continue down Webb, it dead-ends into a school parking lot, ride right on through and you come out on Spring Creek again. Turn left, go across Garland Road, and you're back on Apollo for some clear sailing. Apollo makes a jog at Jupiter, turn at Star Trek Lane instead, and you just cross Jupiter instead of going up it. You can take Bowser Road up to Arapaho and continue on over into Richardson, or take Glenville up to Campbell and head west on it. I rode my Worksman front-loading tricycle over to one of the Richardson rides on this route, got in 43 miles or so when I was done. I've also ridden down to White Rock Lake, then up north on the trail and roads to Arapahoe, then back in on this route.

brewrider

StephenH, this is gold! I'm going to create some maps based on these routes. This is what we want to start collecting from the local Garland riders.

BTW, based on your blog comment, I'd bet we live less than 1 mile away from each other.

tcs

In some Texas cities and towns you'll still find the old 'bike route' signs that were put up during the bike boom of the 1970s.

texdjw1

I ride my bike to work acoss from UTD on Waterview in Richardson from near the Lowes in Garland. Mars to Crist. Crist to Apollo. Apollo all the way to Galaxy, using the trick above. Galaxy North to Collins, west on Collins to Municipal west.From there you can either cut through the hospital parking lot and go North on Canyon creek or follow municipal to Melrose and go west on Melrose and then North on Waterview.
I haven't had to many problems with traffic as in most spots I am easy to pass.