The Austin City Council Thursday approved a pilot project designed to help cyclists and drivers share the road.
“I’m hoping these new tools are going to help educate, and dictate where on the roadways cyclists should be and how drivers should drive around cyclists,” explained Annick Beaudet with the city’s public works department.
The BRAND SPANKING NEW Bicycle Master Plan is 98% ready. Annick and Nadia Barrera are diligently working on getting that last 2% nailed down. Feb 9th or 10th it goes for internal city review of the draft to look for conflicting items with other master plans/utility plans, etc. The public gets to check it out at an Open House on March 9th, location TBA. They’re also going to distribute hard copies to all the public libraries, and make it available on the city website.
Eighty miles west of Austin, the Texas Hill Country is a scenic, uncrowded region of wooded hills and clear, spring-fed streams that offers some of the best road biking in America’s Sunbelt, especially fall through spring when most northern states are buried in snow. The two top cycling areas are, first: the network of low-traffic backroads that web the hills around Fredericksburg, a town founded by German pioneers where biergartens and German culture still flourish; and second: the spectacular 100-Mile Mountain Loop in the western Hills where it’s more like Switzerland than Texas.
In a single week, this author’s favorite bike tour takes you exploring the most exciting and rewarding roads in both areas (see Resources). While pedaling the full length of the 100-Mile Mountain Loop you will ride for miles through the canyons of rivers like the Frio and Nueces, and wind along high ridges like Horse Collar Bend, the highest road in the Hill Country.
Then I recommend you spend three full days cycling the rolling hills near Fredericksburg, where one loop ride takes you to Enchanted Rock, a huge pink dome of bare slickrock. On another, you cycle to the Willow City Loop, famed for its stunning panoramas and blazing displays of bluebonnets each spring. Both rides take you through the heart of the Hills, past stone and log farmhouses built more than a century ago by German pioneers, and through miles of open range where herds of
sheep and goats often wander on the roads.Motels abound in Fredericksburg, which is an excellent place to overnight, as are Kerrville, Laekey, Rock Springs, and Junction. State parks with campgrounds also exist near most overnight stops. My recommended route will have you pedal
nearly 400 miles, with an average day’s ride of 55 miles, all on paved roads. Though it’s possible to ride the Hill Country year-round, the best times are spring and fall — mid-March through mid-May, and mid-September through mid-November. Resources: The website www.tourvelo.org/txhills.html covers every aspect of Hill Country bike touring, including maps, when to go, state park campgrounds, overnight accommodations, caveats, and a complete day-by-day tour itinerary with a route description.
–Norman Ford
BikeHouston acknowledges that METRO applied to FTA recently for funding to buy a large number of light rail vehicles. Our preference was that these vehicles would have been spec’d for vertical bicycle hangers for the cabin interiors; however, we do not want to fixate on this decision. The bicyclist community wants to work together with METRO in 2009 and beyond to make the Houston region more mobile, greener, healthier, and more sustainable.
Specific topics and projects for 2009 we would like to see addressed.