What are Austinite's thoughts on the MS150 bike ride (Houston: neighborhood, construction)

[woodinvilleguy]

So I completed the MS150 bike ride today (~175 miles to raise money for Multiple Scelrosis) that goes from Houston to Austin.

As I was riding, I wondered what people here think about the ride and the affects on traffic that 13,000 bike riders has on the city.

[johnrex62]

I live on FM969 and personally hate all the various bike rides that come down it all spring summer and fall. I had to go to the airport this morning and had to leave an hour earlier just to be sure I did not get stuck behind a pack of cyclists and miss my flight.

It would be okay if there were a different route cars and trucks could take to bypass them, but in the 22 mile stretch between Bastrop and FM973 there are no alternate routes available. This puts the motor vehicle in the position of having to drive 5-10 mph for over 20 miles.

It was even worse last year when that guy jogged from Austin to Bastrop and over 50 cars were stacked behind him for several hours until we got to a little road that circled back to FM969 a few hundred yards in front of him. I guess it scared the residents when suddenly 30+ cars, truck, and 18 wheelers came flying throught their neighborhood at 60 mph to get around that jogger before his entourage closed off the road at both ends and trapped everyone in the neighborhood.

I don't know what other options there are for the cycle events, but it sure is hard on the residents of the area. Especially when there is no public notice of the event outside of the cycling communitiy. Signs did not go up on FM969 for this until Saturday evening.

[woodinvilleguy]

That is interesting that they didn't put signs up until Saturday. I can imagine the traffic nightmare that it causes. I personally was appalled by some of the behavior of cyclists lack of respect for normal riding rules and common courtesy. Typically on the organized rides that I have been on, they are much smaller and the riders stay to the right to allow normal traffic patterns. Sure there are times that cars may need to slow a bit until it is safe to pass but that is typically not the norm. The sheer numbers of the riders in this ride seems like there should be some more logistics involved to let everyone share the road.

[S6Sputnik]

I sponsored a friend from Houston!

[love roses]

I worked with a girl who did that ride a number of years ago. Even then she mentioned some of the traffic problems they encountered.

[Mike78613]

Good for your health and it's for a good cause. Don't mind the negative one's on here. They are just fat and lazy to ride and all they want to do is nag.

Keep it up all (to the ones that all ride)

[OA 5599]

First of all, congrats on completing the ride, it is one large physical feat. I had some minor traffic interruptions when trying to park at UT today, but what really, really bugs me are cyclists on roads in the Hill Country. I was heading out to Hamilton Pool on a particular beautiful day in Feburary, and had to slam on my brakes when I came around a corner and there was a cyclist going 5 mph in the middle of the lane. A few seconds later I heard the screetch of brakes and looked in my rear view mirror to see a Ford Focus narrowly miss rear-ending me.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that I have absolutley no problem with organized rides and courteous cyclists. I'm a runner myself and ran in the 2008 Austin 1/2 marathon, which caused all sorts of traffic delays across town so I sympathize with riders in organized races, and with the cause (MS). However, I really don't like the accident-causing potential cyclists have when they ride in the middle of roads with lots of blind curves that have far too much traffic. I'd rather be in a wreck and risk hurting others or myself because of that....ride on a less-traveled road, or a road with a shoulder.

[woodinvilleguy]

I'm assuming you incident was not from an organised ride? Most riders have the sense to ride on the right 3 feet of the road unless there is some kind of road hazzard. And some of these country roads... are more hazzard than road. :-)

Agree about being safe and sharing the road.

[johnrex62]

I have never seen an accident at one of the rides that frequent FM969, but I have seen plenty of group rides, both organized and impromptu. I have never seen one that does not block traffic completely for miles behind the riders.

FM969 has not had shoulders of any kind until February of this year, and some are still under construction today. Riders have no place to move over on this road and for their own safety tend to use the entire lane and sometimes both lanes on clear stretches.

I do not fault the rider for this choice and if I were able to participate in rides like these I would also use the entire lane on this road, cars be damned. As a resident, however, I resent the inconvience it causes me as a motorist who has no choice but to travel the same roadway that hosts multiples of these events each year as well as innumerable practice rides.

It is not that bad when we encounter a small group of 5-10 riders as we can usually pass them after 3-4 miles, so we are usually not delayed more than 15-20 minutes. The larger groups of over 30 can prevent our passing the entire stretch between Bastrop and Austin unless there is some type of traffic moderation in place by pace vehicles or the pack is limited to smaller groups of riders with controlled spacing between them.

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by woodinvilleguy

I'm assuming you incident was not from an organised ride? Most riders have the sense to ride on the right 3 feet of the road unless there is some kind of road hazzard. And some of these country roads... are more hazzard than road. :-)

Agree about being safe and sharing the road.

I have never seen that sensible rider on FM969. At least not in the last 8 years that I have been driving it.