As seen over on the qcbs.org site, Querencia concluded its first ever Bikes-To-Kids program last week on Thursday, and they have some pictures of the excellent artwork made by the 4th and 5th grade Art Club students.
Bikes To Kids : Thursday 2:30PM
This week, the Querencia Community Bike Shop is putting on a Bikes-To-Kids event at Tomas Rivera Elementary in SE Denton. The children from the after-school art club have been working on drawings and essays about bikes. The top three winners will receive free bikes from Querencia and free helmets from the Denton Police Department. The awards ceremony is open to the public, 2:30PM, in front of the school next to the marquee.
Aggressive Dog Alert : Duncan/Lakey St
For the first time, I wished I had pepper spray within easy reach.
I’ve been chased by dogs in every part of Denton, but never have the dogs been this aggressive, tireless, and persistent. Usually dogs stop at their territorial boundary, and usually dogs get tired/discouraged. For three miles these two cujos didn’t give up. THREE crazy miles.
After a delicious (heavy) breakfast at Old West on Dallas Drive, we rode back on Duncan/Lakey through SE Denton, since the rail trail is closed. Just after crossing the (closed) rail trail, two large, black, snarling, foaming-at-the-mouth dogs ran out and after us from a house on the West side of Duncan/Lakey. As they snapped at Renee’s feet, I emptied a whole bottle of water in their faces, which they didn’t mind. One managed to bite a few mouthfuls of Renee’s pannier bag.
I think they came from one of these houses in the 976 block of Duncan:
Then, the unthinkable. They never turned around, they never backed down, and the never ran slower. I led them off across SE Denton all the way to Mckinney, and let them chase me instead of Renee. With the dogs snarling and literally snapping at my heels, I did about five laps around the Denton Police station until I could explain the ordeal to a patrol officer in the back parking lot. By then I had finally outpaced the dogs, no easy task on a 50+ pound xtracycle, and the dogs trotted off into the field along the commuter rail line.
Animal Control doesn’t work on Sunday, and the officer didn’t think AC could catch these cujos, so be warned: There are aggressive cycle-hating/chasing black dogs on Hill St. If you encounter them, ride FAST and call the cops/animal control. Update: Renee left the police station after I did and saw the AC truck circling near the station, so I guess they did come out on a Sunday.
Yeah, I kept the delicious Old West omelette down.
Former Dentonite Hit and Badly Injured in Austin
From http://helpian.tumblr.com/:
On the night of Saturday October 17th, while riding his bike home, a car hit Ian Mcdougall, guitarist of our band Riverboat Gamblers. He sustained some pretty heavy injuries including a broken hip, a broken wrist and hemmoraging under the skull along with many lacerations, torn ligaments, bruises and and scrapes.
He was rushed by ambulance to Brackenridge hospital in Austin and stayed in the ICU for 2 days before being moved into his own room where he is undergoing physical therapy while awaiting the results on X-rays and MRIs as well as a deluge of other various tests.
That being said, the prognosis is better than we had first thought. We are happy that he is going to be ok and that he is alive and with us. Unfortunately, not only is he in for a long recovery and is in a lot of pain, but he will be celebrating his birthday in bed with hospital food.
On another unfortunate note, there are a pile of bills currently gaining a Mt. Everest-like summit from all his hospital expenses. We set up a PayPal account for our band mate and friend to try and help him get on top of the debt and focus on his recovery. His PayPal account email is ian.gambler@gmail.com. Anything you can afford to give will be greatly appreciated by Ian and his family. Thank you all for your support and we wish Ian the speediest of recoveries.
NCTCOG Oct 21, 2009 recap
So I made it to another NCTCOG meeting yesterday, and there were a couple interesting presentations I’d like to mention:
- TXDOT just opened their program call for “Transportation Enhancement” project submissions. They have about $70 million to give out, and bike/ped programs will get top priority.
- I didn’t see any representatives from Denton present at the meeting. Contact your council member and mayor if you want to encourage participation.
- Caveat: TXDOT will give priority to shovel-ready projects, so if Denton’s planning department doesn’t have a proposal ready, we won’t have a good chance at getting funding. You can call them at (940) 349-8541 and ask that they submit application to TXDOT.
- Remember this opportunity, because next time you hear “we’re broke” as an excuse to not improve Denton’s bike/ped infrastructure, you’ll know we missed a chance at federal funding.
- The program call closes in December.
The federally-funded program supports transportation-related activities that promote the quality of the environment through aesthetic enhancements associated with transportation.
Projects should go above and beyond standard transportation activities and be integrated into the surrounding environment in a sensitive and creative manner that contributes to the livelihood of the communities; promotes the quality of the environment; and enhances the aesthetics of our roadways.
Eligible projects must demonstrate a relationship to the surface transportation system through either function or impact. Project nominated must incorporate one of the following 12 categories:
- Don Koski, respected planner for Ft Worth and BFOC interviewee, has left to work for the Federal Transit Administration. Could this bode well for public transit in DFW? We’ll see. He was the chair of the NCTCOG bike/ped committee, so we’ll see who replaces him. He’s left an impressive standard in Ft Worth to uphold.
- Dave Carter of Richardson gave a presentation on their Bicycle Route Masterplan. It’s a great start, and they worked hard with the community to include all angles. The Canyon Creek HOA, stakeholders at Richardson Bike Mart, and cyclists were all included in the planning for this since 2007. There are only a couple dedicated bike lanes, but it’s a start.
- I liked Dave’s candid admission that post-WWII planning has been negligent of non-car transit.
- Dave presented pictures of the Custer Rd bike lane, and it’s pretty interesting because it allows parking in the bike lane. Now, that lane appears to be 11′ wide, so it may turn out to work just fine. I’m skeptical, but I could see how this might work ok.
- If you look at this diagram, you’ll see that the City of Richardson is just fine with a 10′ car lane, an 8′ parking lane, and a 4′ bike lane.
- Denton’s traffic engineer, Bud Vokoun, uses totally different math, as seen at the controversial Oak/Hickory bike lane proposal, which was tabled and shows no signs of reappearing.
- I am flabbergasted that the suburb (Richardson) in which I grew up is executing more progressive transit planning than Denton. Is that because they’ve sprawled to capacity and are now looking inward for improvements? When will Denton catch up/wake up?
Southridge Neighborhood Requests Pennsylvania Bike Lane
At last night’s city council meeting, Southridge resident Sarah Richey addressed the council to request a bike lane for Pennsylvania Drive. With support from others in Southridge, Sarah requested the city council to take action and respond to the request.
Pennsylvania is quite wide for a residential street, but it also lacks sidewalks. Children attending Sam Houston Elementary off Teasley must walk or ride in the street to get there, and Sarah’s request aims to change that by having a dedicated space for cyclists and pedestrians. She’ll be checking back with the City Manager’s office in two weeks to inquire whether any action has been taken.
Cyclist Injury Trend Shows Infrastructure Need
wreckage from hit and run in Denton
From a MedIndia article, Dr. Jeffry Kashuk:
Look at all the safety factors that have been incorporated in automobiles and streets and highways. If even a percentage of that kind of investment went into safety vis-a-vis bike paths and community infrastructure, we would protect people from major injury.
Anthony Brown, MD, writes a very interesting article about a growing trend in cyclist abdominal injuries in the US.
Bicycle injuries in the US have become more severe and there has been a marked increase in chest and stomach injuries.
Moreover, despite greater public awareness, helmet use has not increased and head injury rates have not fallen.
“There is a paucity of studies looking specifically at bicycle injuries,” lead researcher Dr. Jeffry Kashuk, from the University of Colorado, Denver, told Reuters Health. In the last several years, greater environmental awareness, economic downturns, an emphasis on fitness, and other factors have fueled greater bicycle use in the US.
The study indicated that 1/3 of all bicycle injuries (at least those which make it to the ER) had a significant head injury. While they don’t explicitly say that the other 2/3 are all abdominal injuries, it seems implied.
The severity of injuries and time spent in hospitalized for bicycle injuries tended to increase in the past decade, according to the findings he presented Tuesday at the American College of Surgeons annual meeting in Chicago. The number of chest injuries rose by 15 percent, while abdominal injuries increased threefold over the last 5 years.
Dr. Jeffry Kashuk points out that cycling injuries are trending toward older age, and he notes that injuries are affecting commuters more, as opposed to recreational riders. On one hand, it’s great that more people of all age groups are commuting. On the other hand, doesn’t this indicate a need for increased cycling infrastructure?
Kashuk:
“Although the public is very enthusiastic about bicycle use as a means of transportation, we think that infrastructure has lagged behind in the US,” he explained. “The government is pushing bike days, and rebates for bike use. Communities are putting in bicycle kiosks.” However, there is only limited data to show that “we have bikeways to support this increase in bike use.”
What Do Women Want (in order to cycle more)?
BFOC just linked to a thoughtful Scientific American piece about a correlation between gender roles and cycling prevalence.
“If you want to know if an urban environment supports cycling, you can forget about all the detailed ‘bikeability indexes’—just measure the proportion of cyclists who are female,” says Jan Garrard, a senior lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and author of several studies on biking and gender differences.
This is fascinating, and I wonder if they have the data broken down by age? In any case, it’s a well-rounded case that supports drastic need for cycling infrastructure. As this study says, we should have “improved mobility options for everyone”.
Denton is easy to ride because of its relatively small size, but Denton can also be difficult to ride because automotive transport is exponentially prioritized over people-first transit. That will only change if the citizens demand that people be prioritized over cars, a concept that I think the Denton square is struggling with right now.
E.C. Pendry, Fort Worth Highwheeler
Thanks to Remington for the link:
See more Texas Highwheelers here.
First ever riding of the US Capitol building stairs!
Cycling Parents Killed in San Antonio
(Photo: Tom Reel/San Antonio Express News)
Summary from Erik Ryberg of TusconBikeLawyer:
Folks, that is a photograph of seven year old Kylie Bruehler. She is at a funeral service to bury her parents, both of whom were killed last week when a driver veered onto the shoulder and drove his pickup truck into them.
They were riding together on a tandem.
The local news reports that “investigators say there are no charges on the driver. They believe this was an accident and that somehow the driver lost control of his truck.”
Texas’s governor recently vetoed a law that would mandate a safe passing distance for cyclists, saying it was unnecessary.
This is one of the saddest, most senseless cyclist killings I’ve ever heard of. If it’s manslaughter when the driver is drunk, then isn’t it manslaughter when the driver is distracted or texting or adjusting the radio? MYSA News has run a few followup stories, like this one and this one, detailing Texas cyclists’ outrage at the lack of state legal protections. Remember Denton resident, Nick Magruder, who was hit and run earlier this year, narrowly escaping with his life? It didn’t make the newspaper headlines or blotter, and it also didn’t make the Traffic Safety Commission agenda. Like most pressure for positive change, unfortunately it often takes tragedy with fatality to bring attention to where it’s needed the most.
BikePortland just ran a story on this and readers from all over America are commenting.
Rest in peace, Gregory and Alexandra Bruehler.
Photo courtesy of Michelle Mondo and Eva Ruth Moravec of MYSA News.
