HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Houston’s city council members will make a big decision about a construction project in Third Ward on Wednesday. It’s designed to improve drainage and safety in the area, but people who live there said they never signed on to this.
The project involving the county, the city, and Texas Southern University has already started on Blodgett. It takes a four-lane road down to two, with the addition of bike lanes on both sides. The county is footing most of the bill for construction. Precinct 1 has agreed to consider pausing construction to redesign the project, but that would come at an $8 million to $9 million cost for the city.
One of the main problems when it comes to planning cycling infrastructure in the RGV is thinking in projects i/o structural policy. Separate pieces of cycling infrastructure usually make no sense. Networks of cycling infrastructure do make sense, but require long-term thinking. pic.twitter.com/sf6c8JixHN
Bring your extended family, ride HHH and have a friend take your family picture in front of the HHH Clubhouse (104 Scott across from the start line). https://t.co/xvgbT001xtpic.twitter.com/rLbv5H7MbQ
During the night the Watopia Three Little Sisters route popped in my mind and I thought I would ride it today. But after looking at the route profile I wanted a little less climbing. Looking at the upcoming events I saw the ZHCC Sandy & Dandy ride starting at 12:30 and chose it. The ride used the Makuri Islands Fine and Sandy route for 60 minutes. My only previous ride on this route was December 18, 2022, going 19.94 miles in 1:24:41, 3 laps. I didn’t think of that when I anticipated riding 3 laps in 60 minutes today. I rode 14.58 miles today, just over 2 laps. I climbed 600 feet. One lap was 6.6 miles with a .1 mile lead-in before lap 1. ZHCC chose the Zwift gravel bike for everyone. I wouldn’t call this route a gravel one but there were several sections of sand as you can see in the video. 34 or 35 Zwifters rode in the group.
Climbing wasn’t the big item on the route but it began not long after the lead-in up a short hill and down to ride .42 miles to the first real climb circling around to get up on the bridge over the road just rode. It seemed longer than .45 mile and gaining about 65 feet. I slowed to single digit speed. Over the peak the descent lasted .41 miles and then back up a hill to a flat top then down again with rolling terrain back for another ride up to the wooden bridge and over the road. This time the downhill and rolling roads took a different direction for 2.01 miles. At that point the ride went up hill for .47 of a mile topping out at 83 feet. From there the ride went over roads from early in the ride. The SportTracks image below shows the route profile better than Strava. There were two sprints: Boardwalk and Tidepool. The blue section in the middle of the profile shows the lap breakdown.
The Trail Conservancy will work on three restoration projects along the Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail in 2023.
In the spring, the conservancy will begin construction on the Rainey Street trailhead, a project meant to encourage playing in nature, said Andy Austin, Trail Conservancy board chair-elect.
Schematics for the trailhead include secret paths, a grass maze, a sand pit, stepping stones and boulders.
The conservancy will also begin gathering permits in 2023 for the Holly Project, a site located west of the decommissioned Holly Power Plant at Festival Beach in the East Cesar Chavez Street and Holly neighborhoods. The project will realign the trail and restore native plants and a wetland habitat along the shore. The project will …
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Even though 2023 just started, it’s already shaping up to be a deadly year on the road for riders. In Harris County, two people on bikes and one person on an electric scooter have been killed in crashes so far. The two most recent incidents involve drivers who police said took off.
The first deadly crash of the year involving a cyclist happened in East Downtown on Jan. 9. Houston police said a speeding motorcycle driver collided with a man on a bicycle on Palmer Street near McKinney Street, killing them both.
Investigators said the motorcycle driver was going very fast, too fast for city streets, when he slammed into the man on the bicycle. …
The ride will begin 8:00am Harris Community Center, 401 North Alexander Street, Belton and will travel along the bike trails and road… https://t.co/DoUmEshd7s
We'll ride about 25 to 35 miles with at least one rest stop along the way. This is a leader led ride and our speed will be around 12 to 15 mph. No one gets left behind. Come… https://t.co/6c4Bu7xEsb
I ended January biking indoors on Zwift. I was on a bike ride every day in January. Today I chose the Watopia Triple Flat Loops route for the distance and the limited climbing. No group event, just a free ride but not alone. Almost 16,000 fellow Zwifters in Watopia. Outside the “cold” temperature of 43, cloudy and wind from the north at 12 mph ruled out the road ride. The last time I rode this route was last year on October 24, 2022. Overall I rode the Triple Flat Loops 5 times. Today I rode 21.22 miles and climbed 515 feet. For some reason SportTracks shows the elevation gain for the other 4 rides at 324-326 feet but Strava reports 515 feet.
The Tour de Zwift published the new Scotland routes for stage 8. I forgot about that stage and thought the TdZ finished after 7. I look forward to riding in Scotland.
1-31-2023 SportTracks All Rides On Watopia Triple Flats
ZwiftInsider.com’s route basics shows a 1.5 mile lead-in and the route at 21.1 miles. On the free ride the lead-in must not happen. As I started the ride the next 4.67 miles was mostly flat. I think I gained 3 feet in the first 1.7 miles. At that point the first climb went up about 54 feet over .5 mile and then back down. The descent and flat lasted 2.45 miles. After that the next 7.54 miles was up and down topping out before the descent and valley of 3.02 miles. From there to the finish it was uphill gaining a whopping 50 feet in 2.85 miles. My “pace partner” showed up one time on the final sprint and I beat him to the line by a few seconds. ZwiftInsidr.com shows three different sprint points.
Zwift recorded two new PR’s on the same sprint while Strava didn’t. Strava did report this one, 2nd fastest time on Rebel Route: Triple Flat Loops (1:10:18).
January biking was the most miles rode since I’ve kept GPS records. This graph from Strava using the Stravini app shows January miles from 2011 through 2023. Red in the right column is how many miles that year is less than 2023.
1-31-2023 Strava Year Progressions YTD Miles
Below SportTracks shows the activity for January. I rode 356 road miles (my goal was 300) and 341 Zwift miles. 11 road rides and 20 Zwift rides.
