Trailblazing Houston Bike Rides

The Houston Bike Trail System: "It's like you took a bag of Cheetos and spilled it on a picnic table.” (Houston Chronicle) A better analogy might be fetal neuronal dendrites trying to connect up into a living viable neuronal network. Until a plan to connect up the existing trails into a network is further along, we have to grow our own dendrites between the Cheetos. Houston has some quite remarkable bikeways like the Buffalo Bayou Trail, Braes Bayou Trail, Heights Trail, and the White Oak Bayou Trail. The problem is to get to them and between them. This blog will try to connect these bike trails to each other to make for charismatic bike rides through Houston.

Bike riders in Houston are a bit like armadillos, trying not to become road kill. The challenge in trailblazing bikeable rides in and about Houston is to find, between the official bikeways, connecting links that are quite untrafficked by cars. This means, when possible, avoiding thoroughfares like Chimney Rock, Buffalo Speedway, Memorial, or Kirby, the obvious straight routes through town, dominated by we, the motorists. Instead, we must cut trails using residential streets, streets which seem pretty much designed to discourage motorist use. The best streets have little traffic, cars parked on the street in front of houses, children playing on the front lawn, or on the street. Sometimes however, we can't avoid the major thoroughfares, so that means riding on the sidewalks. Luckily, there are rarely pedestrians on sidewalks, so it is quite feasible. The problem is that the cars, which don't expect pedestrians, will pull out into the sidewalk right in front of you. Be aware.

Generally, I have only tested these bike rides on weekends, when traffic is particularly favorable. Also, I take a Grant Peterson Rivendell Unracer approach, what might be called "bikehiking". Houston is a different world when seen from an easy rider point of view. And you don't need to be dressed in racer drag to appreciate your own backyard. You rode a bike as a kid. If you are just getting back into it, I highly recommend Grant Peterson's book Just Ride. It may help you not to get the latest, fastest, uncomfortable bike that's unrideable on the potholed streets of Houston, i.e., the one recommended by your bike shop's racing enthusiast.

Houston could be a great biking city - which might help it to become a great city. The bayous, ditches, power line easements and disused railway easements interweave through the city as a hidden and unused biking internet. What will bring this network to life? I wonder.

Notice the List to the right called "1. Bike Rides Around Houston". Start with the Primary Houston Bike Loop to orient yourself.

Nothing is real. Discipline your mind to enjoy the ride...

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Columbia Tap Trail via Brays Bayou Trail

See map on MapMyRide. Always start with the Primary Houston Bike Loop to get oriented and to get access to trails. MapMyRide has an iPhone app that lets you download maps to consult on the ride.
The Columbia Tap Rails-to-Trails trail can be accessed from the eastern part of the Brays Bayou trail past the Medical Center and Hermann Park.
The problem with this trail is that it crosses a lot of streets as it heads downtown. There are not speed bumps to slow down cars. Even on Sunday morning, I had a bit of a close call crossing a street. I must have seemed like a deer jumping out from behind some trees in the Colorado mountains to the sleepy driver.

It is possible to loop around from the Columbia Tap to the Buffalo Bayou Trail through downtown. Working on an elegant solution to that.

 

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