Houston Chronicle Cycling Notebook: Bike coordinator has desire to put out trail fires

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Unlike the Dallas Bike Coordinator, Houston’s Bike Coordinator, Dan Raine, appears to be in favor of bike lanes and bike mobility. Also he still has the job.

Dale Robertson writes, “Dan Raine owns seven bicycles, and he knows most of the bike routes and trails in Houston as well as anyone because he’s on them all the time. In short, Raine is hard core, exactly the kind of rainmaker the cycling community needs on its side — working from the inside.

After five months on the job as the city’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, he’s finally getting his arms around Houston’s 15-year-old comprehensive Bikeway Plan, focusing his attention on figuring out a way to fill in the system’s myriad of gaps and making logistical adjustments for the many changes the city has seen since its conception.”

Link to Dale’s full column at the Houston Chronicle Cycling Notebook.

Austin, Texas BikeO’Haul-ism

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Laura writes at the Austin, Texas BikeO’Haul-ism blog:

“Jonny and I have returned from our travels and back to the busy swing of school and work and school and work and Austin.

I managed to get on a couple of loaner bikes while in Portland. One, a cruiser with a wheel so out of true I thought it might fall off, I rode through north Portland in the ice. The other, a multi-geared road bike made into a single speed through some missing parts (not gears) that was too big for me and had a saddle that swiveled and was affixed to some degree with duct tape, I rode a couple of times all the way across town. Walking it through the Rose Quarter transit center flush with blazer spectators, I was asked by some teenage boys, “Aren’t you afraid to ride that?”
“No,” I lied and biked up Interstate to watch the game at the newly non-smoking Overlook. Needless to say it was nice to get back on my bike.”

According to the subtitle on the blog, “Our mission is to provide a viable option for people to move their home/life/business without the need for a combustion engine. We hope to organize a volunteer collective of human movers, build and provide access to bike trailers, and help others build their own bike trailers. Our idea was sparked by Move By Bike of Portland, OR. We seek to provide fun, community building, and an environmentally sound example of the power of humans moving.”

Read Laura’s full post and other posts.

Bed and Bike America Launched

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One Street, an international bicycle advocacy organization, has just launched Bed and Bike America, a new program bringing more sustainability into the tourism sector by creating an international network that helps bike tourists find welcoming places to stay. Accommodation vendors that meet the program’s requirements can sign up at http://www.bedandbikeamerica.org . The program appeals to all kinds of accommodation vendors, primarily in the US, Canada and Mexico, whether they are hotels, hostels or campsites – fancy or budget. “We want to make cycling tourism in America more attractive – and therefore launching this website is a first step – but definitely not our last,” says Leonhard Sobottka, Project Coordinator for One Street’s Bed and Bike America program.

League of Bicycling Voters – Austin, TX

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Project Catapult Meeting this Saturday!

by D’Amico

5 Projects
5 Months

Would you like to see five significant bicycle projects/programs put in the works in five months? The League of Bicycling Voters would, and we’re going to make it happen.

Attend the first Project Catapult meeting of the year:

Saturday, January 31, from 1-4 p.m. (or however long you can stay)
Bike Texas (Texas Bicycle Coalition), 1902 E. Sixth Street, 78702

Be sure and take the Project Catapult Survey II if you haven’t already. The survey will close on Friday, January 30 at noon. You can find a link to the survey, along with more information on the project, at http://www.lobv.org

Meeting Agenda

I. Project Timeline and Key Dates
II. Review of Survey I and Survey II
III. Review of Proposed Projects
a. Downtown Bike Zone
b. South Austin Bikeway
c. Nueces Bike Boulevard
d. Public Education Program
e. Bicycle Parking Project
IV. Implementation Process
V. Free Beer

All you need to bring is yourself, and a #3 pencil.