Cycling is catching on in Texas

[shyguylh]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Please give us some good examples where cyclists have been licensed and what positive outcomes have come by it. Also do you realize that most cyclists already have a driver's license, so do those get an exemption? It is 90% the same as driving a car with a few different rules and it is not the same as handling a motorcycle at highway speeds. As far as I'm concerned basic bicycle safety should be taught in public schools and there are organizations like Bike Texas that train teachers to do exactly that.


Also please note that Houston up until a few years ago required the registration of bikes, but that this was dropped as it wasn't enforced. It came out that the mayor, Bill White, an avid cyclist did not have his own bike registered.

Houston getting rid of law that made criminals of most kids - Houston Chronicle

Exactly. The hatred for cyclists that pops up in particular places is just irrational and over-the-top, and totally misplaced. I'm an avid cyclist and know full well I have every right to be on the roads, and go through great pains to stay out of the way as much as possible. I don't owe anyone except maybe the police an explanation for how I do so either, and that INCLUDES if I "roll" through a stop sign when no one's coming from the other direction anyway.

Law or no law, that's no one's business but the police officer's, and most aren't going to bug and pester a cyclist over such trivial matters anyway and for good reason--99½% of the time, when a cyclist does this, it harms nobody. With that law and the zillions of others, it's obvious the laws are tailored towards the physics & such regarding cars, not bicycles (or walking etc), and anyone that thinks the laws are supposed to be enforced and interpreted EXACTLY the same for a bicycle as a car is being totally illogical and not even thinking at all. Moreover, even if you think that cyclists are being a bunch of free-loaders (which they're not) or that they're clinging to their childhood or such rubbish (really, you know I used to jump in the pool when I was a child, so does that mean I'm "clinging to my childhood" when I jump in the pool now?), that does NOT give you the right to go around running into them and thinking that they had it coming to them.

"We tell children not to ride their bicycles in the street for a reason." Oh really? Guess what, I was riding my plastic Big Wheel on the 55 mph road right in front of my house when I was 8 years old. Granted, that road could easily go 3-5 minutes without a car, but it was not a "Slow, Children Playing" 25 mph cul-de-sac with speed bumps on it either. No one thought anything negligent about that. I certainly don't think it's irresponsible for a child to ride their bikes on a 25 mph "Slow Children Playing" road with speed bumps on it, and that there are "Slow, Children Playing" signs erected tells me that children are presumed to be playing on such roads and that anyone driving through there should do so with the expectation that children will be playing and to watch out for them.

Where we come up with the idea that children are just supposed to totally 100% stay off of all roads altogether is beyond me. I can see it for busy "commuter" roads with cars passing by every 2 seconds or such, but on secluded rural roads and residential streets in the city, get out of here--telling children that they can't play on those roads at all is just nuts. I think we can credit "rat-runners" for that, people who love taking short-cuts through secluded back roads on their way to work instead of sticking to the 4-lane highways designed for the large volumes of traffic. Technically there's no law against it, but I think people who make a point to live on secluded back roads do so with the idea of getting away from huge volumes of traffic, and I think people on their way to work ought to show a little respect and stop it already with the back-road shortcuts.

[TexasHorseLady]

I don't hate cyclists - as I noted earlier, my husband used to cycle to work way back before it was "cool" to do so. I DO think that with use of public roadways comes responsibility, and I do dislike the cyclists that resist that idea with all their might - much like I, a former biker chick back in the dark ages, resent motorcyclists who ride in such a way as to give bikers a bad name. It's not because I DON'T like motorcycles but because I DO; same with bicycles.

Expecting someone who is using a vehicle of any kind on the public roads to be licensed is no indicator of "hatred". If anything, it's according them respect by considering them to be adults and equal in rights and responsibility to motorists and bikers.

Licensing, to someone upthread who mentioned Houston's experiment with registering bicycles, is not registration, and would be handled on a state, not city, level, just as driver's licenses and motorcycle licenses are.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by ReppingDFW

Nothing is worse than being stuck behind a cyclist during rush hour and not being able to pass due to all the traffic and all the cars behind you changing lanes to pass as well.

I think an alien probe might be worse.

Originally Posted by recycled

I though Texas was one of those "small government" radical republican states. So Texas needs some "big government" rules to tell some cyclists that they need to take a riding class, need to be insured, need to be registered, and need to wear correct gear at all times?

I don't know of any Republican who wants "no" government, but I know many who want "small" government.

If this doesn't make sense to you, get out your dictionary and look up these two words: small, no

Originally Posted by LiveUrban

Tell your local government to add bike lanes or separate paths where necessary. We need better separation between cars/bicycles

Exactly.

In Houston, we are in desperate need of more bikes lanes, sidewalks, walking paths, etc.

Originally Posted by xsatyr

Trailers actually wear down the road... Should pedestrians pay to walk on streets?

I have a 4 x 8 folding utility trailer that gets used about once a year. I'm guessing that a person who regularly rides his bike DOES cause more wear on the road than my registered trailer. Additionally, when I pull my trailer that once a year, I get slightly less mileage which translates to me paying some extra gas tax toward road repair.

[shyguylh]

The reason cars have all the regulations and registration requirements & such is due to many things: the huge number of traffic deaths per year and the huge amount of wear & tear they inflict on the roads are probably the two biggest reasons. Bicycles impact both in far lesser ways. Heck, it would be just fine with me if 95% of the regulations and such involving cars went away too, but the large number of traffic deaths per year inspire a lot of the regulations that exist.

There is no reason for non-cyclists to be hating on cyclists, especially when they're not harming them in anyway. There is no reason to be griping about how cyclists are supposedly "bumming off of motorists" or such. No one was griping about this years ago, where is the sudden urge to do so now coming from?

To be frank, I think it's envy somewhat. Seriously. I recall bicycling in Tucson when I lived there, and seeing people become angry when I was able to get to the front of the line at a stop light, which actually was the position that had the least negative impact on traffic, because I was out of the way vs being in line with other cars. My reply--such is a natural advantage of a bicycle and not something due to cheating or anything, and I also felt like I somewhat earned that right due to how bicyclists require manual physical exertion to power their forward movement. I theorize they also were upset at how we cyclists didn't have the same headaches with parking spaces, we could find the bike rack or a tree and lock up there.

Well so what? I'm supposed to feel guilty about that? Well I don't, and don't see why I should. Regardless, if you want the same advantages, you're free to bicycle as well, it's not my fault you choose not to.

Regardless, it does get out of line. I recall a guy once screaming at me as he passed me, and as I often did, I replied not with a "up yours" or curse words, but by laughing and blowing a raspberry. (As I saw it, it was better to do that than to flip someone off, it would basically show that they failed in their attempt to make me angry.) I had done nothing to cause him any problems, he CHOSE to react that way. He actually pulled over and was threatening me, at which point I picked up a large rock and said "if you choose to attack me I will be forced to defend myself." It helped that this went down right in front of a person's yard who witnessed the whole thing and saw his aggressive behavior and told him to leave me alone or she'd call the police. He left at which point we conversed, with me thanking her and speaking on how we cyclists encounter that sometimes and it's simply not called for.

Really, we're no enemy of anybody, especially when we keep to the right and make a point to stay out of the way, as I always do.

Your anger at bicyclists who are NOT impeding traffic is most totally displaced and it's ridiculous, and it makes you look like a total fool and a jacka`s-s. Enough. As long as I stay out of the way, it matters not whether it get around in a car, van, bicycle, or a pogo stop. Mind your own business.

[SavingHawaii]

The thing that really grates my goat is these ladies on horses who think they flat-out own the public paths, cutting off bicyclists just trying to go past them and running pedestrians off the path. People end up paralyzed or dead in needless equestrian accidents. I demand registration, taxes, insurance, 100+ hours of state-certified horse safety instruction, and ruthless police crackdowns on these scofflaws.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by SavingHawaii

The thing that really grates my goat is these ladies on horses who think they flat-out own the public paths, cutting off bicyclists just trying to go past them and running pedestrians off the path. People end up paralyzed or dead in needless equestrian accidents. I demand registration, taxes, insurance, 100+ hours of state-certified horse safety instruction, and ruthless police crackdowns on these scofflaws.

Be interesting if it actually happened. What actually happens on the equestrian trails in the area (in public parks; there are few if any equestrian trails in the city) is that some bozo on a bike (that is not intended for the public roadways) comes barreling over a hill and freaks out the horses and causes injury to the rider. (In one case, out in Point Reyes in California, said cyclist laid down his bike when he saw the horses and slid under one of the horses, between her legs, freaking out all the humans involved while the mare just watched him and his bike slide under her belly wondering what the crazy monkeys were getting up to now).

That being said, horses are a legal means of transportation in the State of Texas. But very few people ever ride them on public roadways other than out in the country or in parades or rodeo trail rides, due to the risk of injury by crazy drivers and cyclists of both persuasions.

Nice try, though.

[LiveUrban]

May bike events around Austin:
Austin Post | Austin News & Information


Census reports many more people bike commuting around the country, Austin's bicycle-use rate growing rapidly:
Census report shows more people commuting by bicycle | Fit City | www.austin360.com