Texas Bicycling News Digest February 6th 2018

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Dockless bike share? Proceed with caution

BY RYAN YOUNG | www.dailytexanonline.com


Another year, another disruption to the way you move around Austin. This time, it’s called dockless bike share, and it goes something like this: Take B-cycle, the bike-sharing system we already know and love, and get rid of the stations and docks. Just let anybody park their rented bicycle anywhere.

And now, Austin City Council just approved a one-year pilot. What’s going to happen? Maybe we should look to other cities, where …

Dragonslayer 2018

Desert Nomad | www.bikemojo.com

When: Sunday November 18th, 2018 at dawn. Ending 13:30:00 hours later. Rain date of 11/25/2018.
Where: Russell Park trailhead, Lake Georgetown TX
What: Ride up to three laps of the Goodwater loop maintaining minimum 4:30:00 per lap cut off times. Riders completing laps earn the chance for swag.
How: Any non-motorized bicycle. 100% self supported.
Why: Because it’s there

$20 to enter. Registration will open this summer. Maximum 100 riders. It will fill up fast.

Same format as last year. Same route as last year. Come out and test your metal.

Surveillance video shows woman struggle with her killers outside gas station

By Courtney Fischer | abc13.com

Investigators say two men on bicycles pulled up to a gas station on Bissonnet near Leawood. At some point the woman was shot.

More than five hours after the deadly shooting the whole gas station was still taped off.

The detective on the scene described the incident as a vicious murder. It’s something you don’t hear from investigators every day.

The shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Monday night. …

Dallas needs bike-share

Philip Kingston | www.dallasnews.com

Dallas needs bike-share. Our air quality is terrible — 13th worst air quality in the nation (but our best ranking ever). Our highway and street networks are snarled, a condition that will worsen as we continue to grow. Our 33 percent obesity rate places an avoidable strain on public health resources and costs all of us money at Parkland. …

Video: DeSoto PD: Officer pulling weapon on citizen on bike ‘concerning

David Goins | www.wfaa.com


DeSoto Police responded Tuesday to what it called a “very serious” interaction, after an officer drew a weapon on a citizen over the weekend.

DeSoto Police Chief Joe Costa said the contact between the unnamed officer and …

Dallas’s rush into bikeshare turns controversial

fox6now.com

DALLAS, Texas — Dallas suddenly has the largest bikeshare network in the United States, but its growth has triggered a backlash in a city with little history of bicycling.

With more than 20,000 bicycles, Dallas’s fleet dwarfs those of traditional bike hotspots, such as Portland, Oregon, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, Washington, D.C. and New York.

Dockless bicycles, which don’t have to be returned to a station or locked to a bike rack, …

Bridge agreement brings traffic fears in southwest Fort Worth

BY SANDRA BAKER | www.star-telegram.com


FORT WORTH
Although a yet-to-be signed agreement between Benbrook and Fort Worth says both cities want “to forever prohibit” public access to a planned emergency access bridge over the Clear Fork of the Trinity River, opponents of the project say they are still not convinced that’s the case. …

Michael John Bruckner

Beverly Vaughn | www.timesrecordnews.com


Michael John Bruckner, 75, of Wichita Falls, passed away on Sunday, February 4, 2018.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. on Thursday, February 8, 2018, in Lunn’s Chapel with Rev. Tom Medley officiating. Interment will follow in Lancaster, Texas. Arrangements are under the direction of Lunn’s Colonial Funeral Home.

A son of the late Virginia (Shank) and Edward John Bruckner, Michael was born on October 11, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. …

He participated in athletics until slowed by a muscle disease since 1994. Prior to this, he ran twelve 26.2 mile marathons, several triathlons, and a 121 mile bike race from the Texas Capitol to College Station. …

Denton Discusses Bike-Sharing Regulations

By Scott Gordon | www.nbcdfw.com


The Denton City Council on Tuesday discussed a pilot program requiring bike-share companies to get a city permit and follow strict rules to avoid bicycles littering sidewalks and rights-of-way.

The permit would last nine months, limit companies to a certain number of bicycles each, and …

Rules of the road: Bike rental companies soon will need permits to run in Denton

Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe | www.dentonrc.com

The Denton City Council laid down new ground rules for bike-rental companies doing business in the city and jotted down a few more rules for themselves during ethics talks Tuesday afternoon.

The council’s work session began at noon and took about 90 minutes on each topic. The ethics talk was the council’s third major …

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Intermittent Fog and Rain Indoor Bike Ride

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Intermittent fog and rain this morning moved my bike ride indoors to the Cycleops Fluid trainer. It was dry there until I started sweating from the workout. It was a shame since the temperature outside was a nice 72 degrees when I finished. Now that I am done the rain appears to have moved away but the roads are still damp to wet.

Before the workout I watched the Colombia Oro y Paz where it was hot and dry. No leg warmers or jackets in sight as the racers followed the course. This is stage 1. The commentary was in Spanish and the video was very good though the graphics of how far along they were was lacking. It was calling me to Columbia away from the weather here.

Back to intervals on the trainer. My legs felt dead but I managed to do 8 intervals trying to hit 24+ mph for a few seconds. For an older guy (59+12) I think my lungs held up but panting ensued after backing off the sprint.

Wednesday’s forecast calls for a high of 49 so I will be back inside.

SportTracks Indoor Workout Summary

SportTracks Indoor Bike Workout Summary

Texas Bicycling News Digest February 5th 2018

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Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference

texastrailsandactivetransportation.org


The biennial TTAT Conference brings together those involved with bicycle, pedestrian, and other active transportation and recreation modes from around Texas and the world. Presenters share current information and examples from the active transportation field, and spark inspiration to continue striving to make things better in each of our communities. The conference focuses on issues of economic development, health, safety, and many other topics relevant to advancing active transportation and trails. …

Bike Sharing Is Doomed to Fail in Most American Cities

Tracey Lindeman | motherboard.vice.com

Dallas’ chaotic experiment in bike sharing is a case in point.

In Dallas, where just 0.2 percent of the population commutes by bike, at least five competing dockless bike-share companies are flooding the city with more than 20,000 brightly colored bikes. Hardly anyone appears to like or use them—at least not properly. …

Near As I Can Tell:A boy and his bike

by Michael Thomason | www.palestineherald.com

In a small town just like ours, a little boy was born to a family who owned the local variety store. He could have just as easily been born to a family who didn’t own a variety store, but there you go; it wasn’t his fault or by his own effort, he just was.

Bright and shiny items of all sizes, shapes and colors filled the shelves, all seemingly designed to catch his eye. There were toys and tools and mixers and blenders and mowers and fishing reels; sewing machines and thread and thimbles and scissors; just everything under the sun. The boy was fascinated …

Deadline This Week for Dallas Bike Companies to Clean Up

By Ben Russell | www.nbcdfw.com

City staff will begin confiscating bikes Friday if they are deemed an “obstruction or hazard.”
This week is the deadline for the five dockless bike share companies in Dallas to clean up their act before the city begins to confiscate their bicycles.

Last month City Manager T.C. Broadnax wrote a letter to the rental bike companies operating in Dallas – LimeBike, Ofo, VBikes, Spin and Mobike – which informed them that as of Friday Feb. 9, the city “may be left with no choice but to …

How Some Bike-Share Companies In Dallas Have Responded To City’s Warning To Clean Up

By Molly Evans | keranews.org


Last month, Dallas officials gave the five bike-share companies currently operating in the city a deadline of this Friday to get their two-wheeled troops in order.

City staff met with the companies on Dec. 7 to discuss operational expectations. Instead of improvement, Dallas officials said they had seen the situation “deteriorate.” The city estimates there are …

Bandera Road’s future — tree-lined boulevard or elevated highway?

By Bruce Selcraig | www.expressnews.com


A freeway fight is brewing in Leon Valley.

Folks in the small city on the Northwest Side might call it a heated discussion, but when the Texas Department of Transportation recently rejuvenated plans to put an elevated four-lane freeway on top of its main drag, they started choosing sides. …

… TxDOT has proposed various options, including a $40 million “superstreet” approach (like the existing U.S. 281 north of 1604, soon to be replaced), partial “flyovers” of a mile or two, and the one seemingly favored by the state agency, a seven-mile elevated freeway connecting Loop 410 to Loop 1604, with new bike and pedestrian lanes at street level, which would cost an estimated $350 million. …

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Motobecane 700HT MTB Out of Retirement Bike Ride

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I didn’t ride yesterday ( Sunday) because the streets were damp, the sky overcast and the temperature not that inviting. Instead I worked on my mountain bike putting the pedals on, airing up the tires, adding the Garmin speed sensor and cadence sensor and cleaning up the bike. My plan was to ride the Motobecane 700HT today leaving the Blue Norcross AL mounted to the Cycleops Fluid Trainer. There is nothing wrong with the Blue but I didn’t want to remove it from the trainer, put the rear axle back in and mess up the setup. I have added a mount for the PowerPod to the Blue Norcross AL so when the weather gets warmer I can record power readings. No mount on the Motobecane 700HT for the PowerPod so no power readings on today’s ride. This is the first bike in since early 2017 on the Motobecane 700HT MTB.

The weather wasn’t that inviting but I wanted to get some miles outside. I started at 12:36 pm with the sky overcast, 60 degrees and a 10 mph wind from the southeast. Riding on the trails wind is not too much of a problem but I didn’t ride that many miles on trails. Because the temperature was right at my lower threshold I added to my wardrobe: leg warmers, shorts, long sleeve thermal jersey, regular long sleeve jersey, wind breaker jacket and full finger gloves. After biking I don’t think I would have changed the clothing setup. I was comfortable but not over dressed.

Biking in Kingwood I went past some homes that were flooded during Hurricane Harvey last August. One area, Deer Cove, on Woodland Hills Drive south is still getting homes back in shape. This area probably had close to 20 feet of water, maybe more. Fences are washed away and homes are being repaired. They may need to be elevated. Some of the trails still show damage fro the flood.

After biking 19.5 miles I finished at 2:28 pm. The temperature warmed up to 61 but the sky was still overcast and the wind unchanged.

Mileage goal for February is 345 miles.

Tuesday’s weather will a few degrees warmer with a 60% chance of rain.

Strava ride summary

SportTracks Ride Summary

SportTracks Bike Ride Summary