Tag Archives: Denton
Got a bike trailer? Help Querencia move, this Saturday
Got a cargo bike or bike trailer? If so, you’re invited to help the Querencia Community Bike Shop move across town this Saturday at 2PM. They’re finally moving out of the backyard on Hickory and relocating to 411 E. Sycamore, which some of you may know as Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios.
You can RSVP to the Facebook event.
They’re desperate for trailers, let me tell you. Word on the street suggests that they will buy food and beer for anyone who arrives with a bike trailer, and the bigger the better. Anyone in DFW, for that matter.
Their move will be highly visible, as they cart hundreds of bike frames, tools, and parts through the Denton square to get to the new shop location. Even though the gentlemen at Little Guys Movers offered use of a large truck, QCBS hopes to move as much as they can by bicycle. But they can’t do that without your help, because these poor saps only have two child trailers and 2 cargo bikes.
Want to become a champion? Email info@qcbs.org and let them know you’ll bring a trailer and help them move!
we have to admit
Denton gets a little bike-friendlier every day. We just noticed that Lucky Lou’s on Hickory St added a new large bike rack, moved the existing rack over, and added some really thoughtful amenities: public air pump, seat covers. This is an awesome surprise. All those cyclists spending $.50 for air from the 7-11 can now air up for free at Lou’s! Just remember who showed you the love.
We will reward Lucky Lou’s goodwill by buying drinks and relaxing on the porch! Salut, friends.
Querencia permanently closes Hickory St shop
The Querencia Community Bike Shop all-volunteer nonprofit announced today that they’ve closed their Hickory St public shop after almost 1.5 years of being open almost every weekend. Many of our readers/writers overlap as volunteers there, and we are extremely excited about the relocation to a large leased space adjacent to the Rubber Gloves music venue. If you’d like to help with the construction and/or move, email them at info@qcbs.org. Thanks for a great year on W. Hickory, QCBS, the community repaired a LOT of bikes.
This seems crazy, but I’ll actually kind of miss having this in my backyard. However, the large new location will offer more secure storage, expanded public shop hours, and a home RIGHT NEXT to the coming A-train station.
It’s been great, y’all. Our Hickory street shop has housed our bikes, tools, and open shop days nearly every single weekend of 2009.
As all good things must end, we are officially closing this shop while we complete construction and the move to the new shop on E. Sycamore, next to Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios.
Want to help with construction? Great. Drop us a line at info@qcbs.org, and we’ll find something you can do to help. We’ll be working on shop every saturday until we’re done, and we don’t expect this transition to take more than a couple weeks. If you have a generator or stick welder we can borrow, we’ll thank you forever!
Our immediate goal is to build a storage shed in which to put our tools and perishables, and then we’ll need to move everything to the new location. We’ll definitely need help with moving, so you’ll hear us announce an official moving party date soon.
In the meantime, go enjoy a nice ride for no reason in particular. It’s the best kind.
Council votes to fund Loop 288 pedestrian/cyclist bridge
At a city council meeting on tuesday, members voted to allocate funds for a pedestrian bridge to connect the Denton Rail Trail across the south Loop 288 highway.
Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, authorizing the City Manager to execute an Advance Funding Agreement for a project using funds held in the State Highway 121 Subaccount in the amount of $1,165,145.00 between the City of Denton, Texas and the State of Texas for construction of city pedestrian bridge on the Denton Branch Rail Trail at Pecan Creek and Loop 288; authorizing the expenditure of funds therefor; and providing for an effective date. The Mobility Committee recommends approval (3-0). The Parks, Recreation and Beautification Board recommends approval (6-0).
Denton’s Park’s and Rec department offers similar news of the Loop 288 bridge, and they also mention a Robertson St bridge:
Pedestrian and bicycle bridges on the Denton Branch Rail Trail across the Pecan Creek tributary, between Prairie and Robertson streets and over Loop 288, have been tentatively funded as part of the Regional Toll Revenue Initiative funding from the highway TX 121 project. CIP bond funding of $260,000 for the Prairie/Robertson Bridge will be used for the 20% match to the toll road funds to complete the $1.4 million project. The project may start planning and engineering in December and be incorporated into the DCTA Rail Commuter line construction as the trail is being constructed. Agreements with TXDOT have been completed. Agreements with DCTA and NCTCOG are being developed for approval by each agency.
Denton Fat Alleycat race – May 1
If there’s one thing that all cyclists have in common, it’s a love of food. Not just any food, but good, hearty, rich, down-home cooking. Local race promoter, André J. “Frenchy” Rheault, explains how he came up with the Fat Alleycat concept.
Back in the mid 70’s, when I was working as an air traffic controller at Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring, TX, I was constantly managing complex and takeoff situations, and it gave me a knack for managing risk. Once my lawn business became my main job, I missed that excitement and energy of safely guiding all these complex elements, so I immediately thought, “why don’t I give cyclists a chance to do what they really want: ride really fast between checkpoints, and eat an enormous amount of rich, heavy food. You have all these Clif bars and energy spazzoid drinks, but cyclists completely miss out on the simple enjoyment of ribs or brisket, pints of refreshing ale, the wonderful delights of everyday Texas living. Once I mentioned this idea to my good friend, Lance Armstrong, and he told his good friend, world hot-dog-eating champion Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi, we knew the race would be an international hit and attract serious BBQ aficionados and lycra-clad athletes in droves. As a charity benefit, Lance’s cancer foundation has agreed to manufacture 80,000 BBQStrong bracelets to give away to the expected massive crowds.
After filing street closure permits for various roads around Denton, Frenchy teamed up with local BBQ eateries to design a route between all the checkpoints with maximum gluttony. Starting in South Denton at historic Sweet Y BBQ, the racers have 45 seconds to consume 2 pounds of Grill Masters Choice Smoked Ribs and 2 heaping bowls of mustard greens. Then they begin the race by sprinting on full stomachs to From Tha Heart on South Elm, where they must consume 24 linear inches of delightful sausage. Then, racers climb 2,000 vertical feet to reach Roosters BBQ on Industrial st. Race officials will oversee the two key points of the Industrial street stop: racers must consume a foot long loose-meat po-boy, and 3 pints of Franconia ale at Dan’s Silverleaf. Back on the ultra-light carbon fiber race bikes, grease-fingered cyclists will lay back in the saddle for an endurance stage all the way north to Babe’s Chicken. Once in Sanger at Babe’s, riders will suck down two servings of chicken fried steak and a plate of coconut meringue pie. Back in the saddle, the route winds north to finish in Valley View at Big Fatty’s Spanking Shack. The riders will waddle inside and devour the infamous “El Farto Grande” monstrosity, a macabre culinary weapon of Ricky, the BBQ chef.
Note to prospective racers: pre-race protein-load steak dinner is at 9PM the night before at Prairie House, just east of Denton. All racers must weigh in at the start and finish to prove that they gained at least 2% of total body weight during the race. Reasons for disqualification include vomiting, using silverware, or eating any national chain fast food during the race. Digestive supplements, including Tums and Rolaids, are grounds for race license revocation, and blood-doping lab analysis will search for trace elements of banned substances.
Cyclist Input Hearing recap
Last Monday eve, 54 citizens showed up to give input to the city Engineering staff about cycling infrastructure in Denton. 54! They included all age ranges and walks of life: parents with children, seniors, middle agers, college students, etc. We noticed the pastor of First United Methodist, Rick Leisner (Jacobs Group consultant for the Downtown Plan), Brian Lockley (head of Planning), Parks and Rec director Emerson Vorel, Police Lieutenant Tom Woods, and council members Dalton Gregory and Jim Engelbrecht. In other words, people in power were paying attention to the input we gave.
City engineer Clay Riggs kicked off the meeting with a presentation on the general state of cycling facilities in Denton, a several page survey on what types of facilities cyclists prefer, and then he got to the heart of the meeting: blank maps! At several tables around the room, citizens used markers to draw desired bike routes on large city maps. I noticed similar routes on most of the maps, and major arterials in central Denton were all similarly marked as desirable for facilities.
Clay Riggs came across as straightforward and interested in citizen input, as quoted in the NTDaily:
We want an increased use of bicycles, and we want people to be safe doing it. The city staff wants your input. We want to know what you want in bicycle facilities.
Riggs mentioned that the city wants to hire a bicycle consultant after the existing infrastructure has been assessed. He also explained that as drainage and utility easements are upgraded, he hopes that bicycle/pedestrian paths can be included.
After the route mapping session, Clay turned the microphone over to citizens, who made articulate and compelling statements supporting Denton’s new interest in cycling accommodations. Up first, local mom Amber Briggle and her daughter Gracie made the case for bike facilities that accommodate all user types, including children.
All of the speaking citizens expressed dissatisfaction with the WOL’s (Wider Outside Lanes), and all citizens spoke in favor of striped and separated bicycle facilities. Longtime Denton cyclist Ken Royal talked about the disparate trail segments around town and his wish that they should all be connected. I mentioned that Austin engineers Nathan Wilkes and Jason Fialkoff are a great, willing resource, and they’re implementing great facilities at low cost. We at BikeDenton are happy to share any contact info and research with city staff. Denton citizen, Joe Gregory, offered to take the staff engineer on a ride around town to experience the streets from a cyclist’s perspective.
In general, Clay Riggs of Engineering seemed genuinely interested and willing to work with the cycling community to improve facilities in town. Emerson Vorel, Director of Parks and Rec, stated that a way to fund cycling infrastructure would be through the CIP bond election process, a cycle which is due to come up soon (and is apparently overdue).
After the meeting, city engineering staff is to deliver results from the input hearing to the city council, and early in April we can expect a city council work session to discuss how they’d like to pursue improved cycling infrastructure. All in all, this is a really good sign that if citizens continue growing cycling interest and advocacy, we could see some real potential for positive change.
We’ll post details on the followup council work session when we know a solid date.
Bike NX35
Reasons to bike or walk the NX35 music conference this week:
- Our friends at the Querencia Community Bike Shop are providing free bicycle valet service for the free Flaming Lips concert at the county fairgrounds on Saturday. See below for bike route.
- Parking will be worse than scant at all venues and around downtown
- After 5PM and on the weekends, UNT has tons of free parking lot space, and you can leave your car there and bring a bike or walk. See the rules for details on which lots require permits when.
- Burn off all those food and beer calories. Seriously.
- Biking NX35 will greatly reduce the automobile emissions which contribute to our “F” air quality grade.
- Biking NX35 will calm car traffic, thereby reducing crashes and making it safer for everyone.
Things to remember when cycling in Denton:
- law requires a front white light and red rear reflector
- respect stops signs and red lights
- don’t ride on the courthouse square sidewalks, it’s illegal
- lock your bike, duh
- call for pedicabs at (940) 312-8298
- yield to pedestrians
Bike Routes to NX35
- UNT Welch parking lot to Flaming Lips show bicycle valet at Fairgounds: map
- Flaming Lips show to downtown square venues: map
- downtown square to Rubber Gloves venue: map
Cyclist Public Input Meeting – Monday, March 22
After a couple of recent cyclist input meeting reschedules, the Denton city engineering staff have committed to a March 22 (Monday) public input meeting for cyclists. When I say cyclists, I don’t just mean people who already ride bikes. I also mean people who would ride bikes if they felt more comfortable on the roads. As far as I can tell, the listening staff work for the Streets engineering department, and if bike lanes, sharrows, and cycletracks are to be built, these folks will be planning and doing the work. The purpose for this input meeting is so staff can deliver our input + staff’s conclusions to city council in early April. That council meeting in April will set the tone for future action and any kind of cohesive planning. Ideally, if Denton city council calls for a Bicycle Master Plan like Fort Worth, then staff could design facilities to match the guiding document.
The timing for this input hearing is perfect. We are one year from having a commuter train station downtown, and we have about 40,000 college students at two university campuses. Our roads inside Denton cannot expand to accommodate our rapidly growing population. Denton is out of federal air-quality compliance. Neighborhoods and the square are oft concerned with parking woes. Denton neighborhoods want improved bike/pedestrian connectivity across town and safe routes for children to get to school. The inertia for Denton’s bike/pedestrian discussion is very real, and at least half the city council and the mayor believe in this cause.
If you care about this topic, this is THE time to make your opinion heard. This may be the first time in the city’s history that staff has held a dedicated cyclist input meeting, and we shouldn’t let it go to waste.
7PM Monday, March 22, 2010
Denton Civic Center
321 E. McKinney St
Safe Passing editorial
Today, city councilman Dalton Gregory published a Safe Passing article in the Denton Record Chronicle.
The Safe Passage Ordinance establishes a clear standard for a safe passing distance of 3 feet (or 6 feet for commercial vehicles) that applies only when road conditions allow. Texas already requires motorist to pass at a safe distance. This ordinance simply defines that distance.
The ordinance is written to protect “vulnerable road users” meaning a pedestrian, runner, physically disabled person, child, skater, construction and maintenance worker, tow truck operator, stranded motorist, equestrian, and person operating a bicycle, motorcycle or unprotected farm equipment.
In addition to general explanation of such an ordinance, he covers Safe Routes to Schools and crash reduction statistics.
A 2001 study shows that 25 percent of all trips in U.S. metropolitan areas were a mile or shorter.Forty percent were shorter than two miles.Two thirds of children who live within a mile of school travel there by car.
Texas reimburses school bus routes only for students living more than two miles from their school. Limited funds are available to pay for buses that keep children living closer than two miles off of dangerous routes.
A comprehensive plan for pedestrians and bikes can reduce the number of dangerous routes and position us to apply for federal funding for Safe Routes to Schools to help pay for new bike lanes and sidewalks.
In a study spanning 23 years looking at 15 streets with bike lanes and 15 similar control sites without bike lanes, results showed a 25 percent reduction in total crashes per mile and a 19 percent reduction in crash rates. Designated bike lanes on roads calm traffic and make roads safer for all users.
Fewer auto trips result in less road congestion, reduced auto emissions and cause less wear and tear on roadways.Biking and walking are the most affordable way to get from place to place.“Active transportation” alternatives result in more active lifestyles and healthier people.
Finally, Dalton brings in the historic Denton context and ties it to the push towards a master bike plan:
Dating back to at least 1995, Denton resident surveys and city planning documents have called for policies and facilities that accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians.
Maybe the Safe Passage Ordinance can help continue the dialogue and be part of a comprehensive plan that includes a master plan for bike lanes and trails, safe routes to schools, safety education, and better facilities for bikes and pedestrians.
