Dallas' bicycle mode-share up 220% in 2009.

According to the League of American Bicyclists, Dallas experienced a 219% increase in bicycle mode-share during my last year as Dallas' bicycle coordinator.

Unfortunately, Texas' most 'Bicycle Friendly' city, Austin, saw it's mode share go down 21%. The Lance Armstrong cycle track didn't seem to help.

What does it all mean? Not much, because this survey that the LAB likes to tout (the American Community Survey) is very unreliable and prone to wild year-to-year fluctuations. These numbers do confirm the trend showing Dallas doubling its mode-share over the last decade, although the 219% figure is only a correction from 2008's number being an outlier showing a drastic decline. Are these numbers great? No, but they are in keeping with benchmark cities devoid of a captive major university, such as Houston, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and San Antonio.

But this we do know: population density always trumps paint application, and propaganda and honesty reside in two different spheres (hint: K-Street in Washington DC is well known as a propaganda source).

Reference post.

Struggle.

“To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.”
-- George Orwell

Education never works as well as facilities... when you refuse it.

As approved by the City Manager, a current bicycle-inferiority advocate Councilmember and the rest of the City Council. But they're going to keep those bike lanes clear of trash and glass (and parked cars). Teaching and expecting personal responsibility is never popular, but magick always is.

The Revenge of the Scotsman

I attached the $10 MD-80 camera with 3M industrial "velcro-like" mounting strips. The trans-dimensional time-warp and reality shifts of the original mount have all but gone away.

Yeah, I know. Time for a drive train tune-up.

A salute to my maternal Scots heritage.

This is a test of a $10 (airmail postage paid) "spy cam" from Hong Kong. The Square Heads on my dad's side of the family like technology, the Scots on my mother's side like cheap. The results of this mixed heritage can be interesting (and entertaining).

Bicycle Facilities Advocats

Spoken for truth. Meow.

The honor of the thing.

“I feel like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. To the man who asked how he liked it he said: ‘If it wasn't for the honour of the thing, I'd rather walk.’ ”

-- Abraham Lincoln

GM@5.

How to be a bicycling cockroach.

Ignore almost everything you see and or hear in this video. But do notice the presence of parallel drain gates in the very gutters you are urged to ride in (with a demonstration of a dangerous swerve in front of potential passing traffic).

Whole Bridge Cataloged.

It is finished (except for the decking and the approaches and a bunch of other stuff).

Half a bridge, half a bridge, half a bridge onward!

This video shows the first span of the bridge for the Santa Fe Trail leg of the East Dallas Veloway being erected. The second span was supposed to have been erected last night (if the rain and lightening didn't prevent it). The Santa Fe Trail will soon be complete, linking Deep Ellum with White Rock Lake, and the White Rock Creek/Lake Trail. The Santa Fe Trail will also continue on as part of the East Dallas Veloway, extending north another five miles to tie into the Cottonwood Creek Trail and continue under the High Five interchange of Central Expressway/I-635.

I'm still pretty proud of it.

Which would you rather discuss?

A splash of Selzer.

THE SELZ CASE REVISITED – AN IMPORTANT DECISION FOR THE NATION’S BICYCLE OPERATORS

By, Steven M. Magas, Attorney at Law

In the summer of 1999 I was asked to become involved with a young man who had received a traffic ticket for “impeding traffic” in Trotwood, Ohio. Little did I know that the case would ultimately garner international intention, cause buckets of emails to be sent to the City of Trotwood, and generate an appellate court ruling that is extremely favorable to the nation’s cyclists!

Read the entire post here.

The League of American Bicyclists and the Texas Bicycle Coalition (along with the aggressive commentary from an Austin Cycling Association board member and League Cycling Instructor), for some inexplicable reason, are all saying the Bates case is different from the Selz case, and it doesn't deserve our support. Really? And that would be... why?