I attended the Tuesday Bike Night last week and snapped some photos. Drew and Owen are actively curating the rides, often giving out hand-printed flyers to the first attendees. Tomorrow night they start a month-long sprint series at secret locations each week.
This ride has existed in different forms over the last few years, and I was amazed at the attendance last week, considering school was out. It seems like people (who ride) are staying in Denton during the summer, more than ever before.
That’s me, at Querencia, after a chilly day of volunteer work.
I never write about myself on this blog. It never felt right, because I thought BikeDenton was a faceless news source. Well, it ain’t true. It’s not faceless, and as deeply as my own life is woven into Denton’s bike culture, I can’t pretend to be an outside observer. Meeting people and trying to document bike culture has become big part of my life, in a way I didn’t predict. Before I started BikeDenton, I started volunteering with Querencia in 2007. Back then, Querencia was a community bike concept pursued by a passionate group of UNT and TWU students. I spent a few previous years traveling outside Denton to play music, and I came back home really wanting to put in volunteer time somewhere that made a difference. Querencia was that place.
That was four years ago. In 2011, Querencia needs new blood. It needs new volunteers perhaps more than ever, to survive and flourish. I think there’s been a perception that the shop runs itself quite well without outside help, and that couldn’t be further from reality. Leaders are getting tired, people get busy, lives change.
Querencia will take volunteers of any skill level, and just having someone to greet visitors is invaluable. We haven’t had anyone do that in a year, since the shop was in my backyard. I’ll cut to the chase: If you want to give back to the community, and you like the idea of doing something bikey, Querencia needs you. The community needs you. The shop is built, stocked with tools, kind of organized, registered with the IRS as a 501c3 nonprofit, and has some money in the bank. You can step up, hold reigns, have ideas and make a difference in your community. It took us years to get the paperwork through the IRS, build the shop, and amass the collection of bikes and parts. All of that hard work is a torch that’s waiting to be passed on.
We meet once a month and talk logistics and schedule our shop coordinators for the next 30 days. If you want to get involved, come to shop on Wednesdays 5-7PM or Saturday 3-5PM. Go to qcbs.org for more info.
Last week on May 6, Hilari Oller was riding home from work at 2AM when she was hit-and-run by a car on W. Oak St near Welch. She says she was in the right lane, when a car hit her left side from behind so hard that the car mirror broke off, cutting her arm open and severing arteries in the process. Eighteen stitches later, she was released from the hospital, found the broken mirror on the road, and she made a police report. The driver is still at large.
Last October, UNT teaching fellow David Gonzalez was struck only a block away. Despite a 2009 city initiative to put in bike lanes on this stretch, the proposal was tabled by the former Traffic Safety Commission. Now in 2011, the city Bike Plan routes look to have steered clear of this part of Oak St, citing fear of backlash from the historic Oak/Hickory neighborhood.
On May 14th at these locations, you can cast your vote for city council candidates. Early voting runs through May 10 at the Joseph A. Carroll Building (401 W. Hickory) or the new Denton County Administrative Complex (535 S. Loop 288). Some of us like the ritual of voting on election day and will enjoy a nice ride to our polling location.
If you don’t know which district you live in, put your address in at this handy map.
This year, instead of doing a candidate questionnaire, we’ve chosen to recognize the candidates who’ve made bike-friendliness a high priority, not just a talking point.
1. Kevin Roden – District 1. Via his ThinkDenton site, he’s covered bike-related topics, and he’s attended recent formal and informal bicycling input meetings for the city Bike Plan. He’s a strong advocate for walking, biking, and public transit. He really, really wants safer streets for his young children, who’ll soon be able to bike. He understands the class divide in transportation planning: not everyone can afford to drive, so we especially need to encourage biking and walking in poorer areas.
2. Dalton Gregory – District 2. From the beginning of his current term, Dalton championed biking and walking working for a year to get the Safe Passing ordinance approved. He communicates directly and often with cycling citizens, and he’s in favor of trails expansion (the number one citizen request for Parks & Rec). Dalton has been known to measure road width to see if bike lanes will fit. Seriously.
3. Jim Engelbrecht – District 3. You might not know this about Jim, but he helped save the Rail Trail last year when the city considered taking it from DCTA (along with money), and not rebuilding it so they could spend the money somewhere else. Jim worked behind the scenes to prevent that from happening. He’s listened to cyclists and supported bike-friendly initiatives, and he recently told the city that they should start counting people on bikes, so they can understand the ridership and measure changes.
Honorable mentions:
– Mike Sutton – District 3. At the DNA forum, Mike seemed generally in favor of bike accommodations, and he says that although all of his employees bike to work, about half have been hit by cars. He voluntarily created the city’s first on-street bike parking stall in front of his business, Big Mike’s Coffee Shop.
– Derrick Murray – District 4. At the DNA forum, Derrick said that bike and pedestrian accommodations are part of the overall road funding woes, and money should be allocated to fix roads and create separate paths for people walking and biking. A runner himself, Derrick applauded the recent Safe Passing ordinance and said some people on the roads are very inconsiderate. He mentioned that Southridge residents want sidewalks and bike lanes.
I could describe what each of the candidates said last night in support of improved bike accommodations, but there’s a bigger story here: 8/9 spoke in obvious support. One gave sort of a non-answer, but the big picture was that nobody opposed a bike-friendlier Denton. Two years ago, the bike accommodation discussion fell flat during the same forum. Two years before that, it wasn’t asked. By comparison, the forcefully relocated Quakertown community lived with unpaved, undrained dirt roads for forty years before forward-thinking women fought for street improvements.
Bike-friendliness has traction; it’s woven into the dialogue between our citizens and city. Stay tuned for some portraits of candidates who’ve championed bike-friendly causes, because we’re not doing a candidate questionnaire this year. The champions stand out, and actions deserve more recognition than words.
I found this on my commute home from work. When traveling at a human speed; you notice the little things.
It used to be me, driving around with tools falling out of my car. Now I’m riding my bike and finding tools in the road.
Full circle?
The Wald basket has a functional elegance that’s rare for something so affordable. Almost any other method of carrying stuff will cost you more. A rack and panniers, a saddle bag, a huge messenger bag. Since 1905, Wald has been making bike stuff in the US. Yeah, that’s right, before the Ford Model T came out.
Having front basket storage has been incredibly handy these last few weeks, and I’ve kept my camera, snacks, lock, and any other commonly-grabbed items in it. On the xtracycle, I can’t complain that I need more capacity, but I can appreciate having storage within reach while riding.
Cheers, Wald.
Just another moment from a thousand commutes.
Click to embiggen:
So that was good. Not amazing, but the Bike Plan appears to be moving forward. The turnout was modest, maybe 40 people, but perhaps fewer than the input meeting from 2010, a similar event that preceded this plan initiative. City engineer Noreen Houseright introduced Wednesday’s meeting, and consultant Kevin St. Jacques explained the goals of the plan, saying “If you see people out riding bikes, that’s a sign of community vitality.” Water Utilities director Jim Coulter spoke to the crowd about funding and timeline, describing the short, medium, and long term goals. Jim’s straightforward support bodes well for the plan, as Streets/Traffic is under Water Utilities in Denton. Similar support from other departments like Planning and Parks & Rec could really make the bike-friendly push well-rounded with bike-parking requirements downtown and trail building. As Ft. Worth follows through on its ambitious bike plan, we call attention to the fact that it was championed by their Planning department.
Cyclists again (like 2010) marked desired destinations and routes on city road maps, and at separate tables they talked with members of the Bicycle Plan focus group. See the proposed route map here, which includes a curious gap on W. Oak St in the historic neighborhood. Previous conflict was caused by a city plan to widen the traffic lanes, which would squeeze out either parking or bike lanes, and that created a polarizing divide between the neighborhood and cyclists. Recent conversations with neighborhood residents indicates support for bike lanes, especially since they help calm traffic, as long as the lane widths stay the same (or shrink) and parking remains intact.
Below, you can see the citizens’ spending priorities ranked with yellow stickers, with bike-lane expansion as the overwhelming top priority.
The city also showed maps with of potential bike and pedestrian paths crossing under I35E, which would have to wait till the $4 billion TXDOT I35E expansion plan receives funding. A few large suggestion sheets showed citizen comments for increased bicycle and vehicle enforcement, education for drivers and cyclists, and a recommendation for the city to hire a full-time Bicycle/Pedestrian coordinator.
While the meeting was good overall, it mostly covered street accommodations for bikes, and didn’t address bike parking or signal timing, two common requests from cyclists. Water Utilities director Jim Coulter explained that the short range plan would include restriping, signage, and bicycle accommodations in ongoing projects like Mayhill and Bonnie Brae. Longer term plans would include CIP and grant funding and an expansion of the city’s Mobility Plan.
With city council elections nearing in May, and the possibility of having even more council members supporting biking and walking, the Bike Plan will move forward.
Per an official release this week, the City of Denton will host a public input meeting for the “Pedestrian and Bicycle Accommodation Plan” next Wednesday, April 13, at the Civic Center from 5:30-7:00PM. City staff will present a preliminary bicycle route map, and citizens are encouraged to give input. As far as we can tell, this is the only official input meeting for the Bike Plan, so don’t miss this opportunity to help shape Denton’s bike-friendly future.
The inclusion of pedestrian-related input is a surprise, so spread the word that this meeting won’t apply only to people who ride bicycles. Facebook event for RSVP.
