the sci guy 

So my district rep Greg Travis, for district G - which is basically the entire western corridor between I-10 and Westheimer from downtown to HWY 6, strongly opposed the plan, voted no, and said he didn't support any bike infra in his district at all. I mean, what in the holy f***?? His entire district is exactly the place it's needed - plus it already had terry hershey, memorial park, and buffalo bayou - it's like - what planet do you live on dude???
I'm so pissed.
I'm writing him a letter - a non confrontational one- to tell him he's out of his idiot mind.

Tommy1955

I guess this is what you're talking about. I wonder where the bike plan will go?

Houston City Council approves new bike plan | abc13.com

the sci guy 

Final Report and Maps

It's been available to the public for over a year.
Sadly, not enough people knew about this either - we could have used even more letters and emails and phonecalls to the reps. I'm glad it passed but it took a lot of time.

If you're on Facebook I highly recommend joining the Critical Mass group - even if you don't ride in it (I don't) it's a great page for lots of info.
Also follow Bike Houston on Facebook, and Twitter.

memebag

This happened on Saturday:

Driver accused of plowing down bicyclists - Houston Chronicle

At least two of my teammates where on that route when it happened. Most of us were out at Chappell Hill.

Fett2oo5

Blue Bonnet Express is less than a week away!

... haven't rode in a week. Nervous, but very excited!

the sci guy 

i haven't ridden in over 3 weeks - knee is still in a brace. hoping to try to pedal maybe by thursday this week. if it holds, I MAY try a shorter route for the bluebonnet. but, i may just have to skip it and wait another week. sigh. this sucks so bad. why couldn't i have dislocated my knee in august?

txags92

From what I have heard, Waller cops are now following groups of riders through town and writing tickets any time they ride more than single file. This is counter to the law, which says we can ride two abreast if we are not hindering the flow of traffic. It sounds like pure harassment to me, and I would love to see a bike friendly attorney take them to court. I honestly think the County Judge and some of the other leadership are doing a good job trying to reach out and build some bridges between cyclists and motorists, but there are obviously some others, specifically in law enforcement roles that have decided they are just going to try to harass cyclists to the point that they will stop riding there. I would encourage every rider who is ticketed for borderline stuff (like riding two abreast when there is not anybody else trying to pass) to challenge the ticket in court. The key to any effort to push back is building a case that the tickets they are writing are not legit and are being written to harass, not to enforce the law.


Now if you got a ticket for not stopping at a stop sign, or for riding two abreast when others are trying to pass, well then shame on you.

txags92

Riding two abreast in a lane where you are impeding the flow of traffic is illegal. If there are two lanes going your direction and you are in one, and traffic is light enough that you aren't impeding them, it is legal. It is also legal in a single lane if cars can easily pass. What Waller appears to be doing is just writing tickets anytime riders are two abreast, regardless of the flow of traffic around them.

txags92

As for stop signs, are you asking what the law says or what I do? Law says if your tires don't come to a complete stop behind the line/sign before proceeding, you are breaking the law. I will come to a nearly complete stop so that it is obvious I am able to look both ways and yield to traffic that has the right of way. I don't know the details of who is getting tickets for that, but I believe they are leaning more towards if the rider didn't completely stop, they get a ticket. I have seen the NWCC Zube riders completely blow through stop signs AND stop lights on old 290 at times with no pretense of stopping. I would find it hard to argue against a ticket for those kinds of infractions if an officer decided to write one.

Fett2oo5

UPDATE:
The 2017 BlueBonnet Express has been postponed from April 2nd to April 15th.

Blue Bonnet Express website

the sci guy 

Aye, saw that on FB yesterday. Good news for my knee. Hopefully I'll be able to make it now.

$10 says the weather Sunday is gorgeous.

rickyk76

I hope so. I was hoping to get some miles in on Sunday! (Saturday too, but that's with the kids).

Tommy1955

If you're talking about this Sunday, Channel 13 is calling for a 90% chance of strong storms and a 30% chance of rain late Saturday. I'm gonna try to get 35 to 45 miles in at Hershey Park/George Bush Park Saturday morning. I see the construction of the bike way between Wilcrest & Beltway 8 is almost done.

the sci guy 

Awesome news. I've been off the bike 3 weeks so I haven't commuted to work through there lately. Wonder how long it'll take to fix the stuff west of wilcrest.

memebag

I hope Sunday is beautiful. We have a ride planned from the brewery to Kemah and back. I love that ride. Very boring road, but it goes past a big chunk of my childhood. And there's the Kemah bridge at the turn around point.

txags92

You are likely to be disappointed. Tomorrow is very likely to be ugly. SPC has Houston right in the middle of a bullseye of "moderate" risk, the first time they have used the moderate risk level since February 2008. Pretty unique combination of factors coming together that are likely to produce hail, high winds, tornados, and heavy rain.

Tommy1955

I think you're right which is why I got 53 miles in today at Hershey Park/George Bush. This afternoon, we has 15 to 18 mph winds. This made some of the ride harder especially where riding parallel to Barker dam that runs parallel to I-10.

rickyk76

This is my luck. I was so hoping to get out on the road bike tomorrow since I wasn't able to today and won't have a chance again for a couple weeks. I did get a very slow 7.4 miles with my girls on their very first trail ride though, so I did get some pedal time.

memebag

Well that was a bust. We cancelled our ride on Sunday due to weather and then the storms never came. At least we got some beer training in.

Tommy1955

Yea. Around 4:00 that afternoon, I decided to go out for a quick 15 mile ride so I got a little time in.

Tanstaafl

You made the best decision you could based on the information you had. I'm not going to complain. Here's hoping for good weather on the 15th!

rickyk76

It stormed enough in NW Houston to ruin my plans of riding. Nothing close to what was originally predicted, but still enough to keep me off the roads.

the sci guy 

did 3.6 miles around the neighborhood on Friday, and 4.3 miles around the neighborhood yesterday to test out the knee - can't stand and mash yet, but regular pedaling seems pretty alright.
pretty sure i'm going to try one of the shorter routes at the Bluebonnet Exp this weekend.

the sci guy 

the doc only prescribed 800mg ibuprofen - mostly for the inflamation as it didn't hurt unless the ligaments twinged while i was walking or moving. and i stopped taking that last week. the swelling is just about gone. i don't think there's anything that will make it any better at this points

except maybe heroin.

the sci guy 

if you want to park on the side of the stadium where the registration and start line is (far side of the stadium from entry point), get there early. I will probably try to get there around 7am. It's an open start at 8am, so you can roll out when ready. I usually park, walk to the tables to sign in and stuff, then go back to the car and put my number on and then get the bike out. Then wander back over to meet up with people.
You may regret taking a single speed townie. There are hills on this ride, and it's noted for having some terrible winds. Last time I did it I did the 55, and that shares most roads with the 45, and once you turned North on 359 it was death the whole way until you turned to face south/east again for the last handful of miles.