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...


Friday, June 7, 2013

Bill to use land under powerlines to connect Houston Bike Trails

This is a no-brainer. If you know anyone working for Centerpoint Energy who can help, ring them up.

For more info

Bill moves ambitious bike trails plan closer to fruition

Map showing Utility Right of Ways in Houston

By Mike Morris

May 3, 2013

 

An ambitious vision to create a grid of "bicycle interstates" across Harris County using the idle land under more than 100 miles of power lines moved closer to reality this week.

 

With the approval Wednesday of the Texas Senate, and earlier passage by the House, a bill allowing hike and bike trails to be built in utility right of way now awaits action from Gov. Rick Perry.

 

The bill had stalled over questions about how much liability local electric utility CenterPoint Energy should face for opening its land for recreational use. Bill author Rep. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, first filed it in 2007 to mirror the laws of many states that waive all liability for landowners for recreational uses, but he said the measure has improved through compromise.

 

The bill, which applies only to Harris County, would make CenterPoint liable only for a serious injury or death caused by its "willful or wanton acts or gross negligence." It also would grant the utility expedited appeals and enable it to require partner governments to provide insurance to cover its litigation costs.

 

North-south trails

 

"We are really, really pleased to have finally put the ball across the goal line," Murphy said. "Now, we can start building these trails that are sorely needed at a fraction of the cost."

 

Though CenterPoint spokeswoman Alicia Dixon said there are 923 miles of right of way in the county, including 410 in the city of Houston, Murphy said about 100 miles run under large transmission lines, which make the most sense for trails. Brad Parker, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which helped negotiate the compromise bill, said there are 142 such miles of local right of way available.

 

"If you think about our bayou system, they run west to east, not a whole lot of north-south," said Mayor Annise Parker. "Using utility easements will allow us to vastly expand the opportunities for hike and bike trails and put some really critical connectors north-south."

 

Houston voters last fall approved $100 million in bonds to expand the city's trail system along bayous, to be combined with private and grant funds as the $205 million Bayou Greenway Initiative.

 

'This is the answer'

 

"What is so important about this is (that) these, along with the bayous, will serve as our bicycle interstates," said cyclist Tom McCasland, director of the Harris County Housing Authority and former lobbyist for the Houston Parks Board. "For those people who don't want us out on the busy roads, this is the answer. Let us ride these, and then we'll jump to the side roads to get to our final destinations."

 

Houston Parks Board Executive Director Roksan Okan-Vick said the bill would help put under-utilized land to good use. She said there is much to be done, however, from signing agreements with CenterPoint and determining which utility corridors make sense to funding the trails.

 

County Commissioner Steve Radack has greatly expanded parks and trails in the 24 years he has represented west Harris County. He said it is unclear precisely what CenterPoint will want in its agreements, and whether it will charge for use of its right of way.

 

"It gives the opportunity, if it all works out, to be able to have an incredible system of trails," Radack said. "Potentially, it could be a great thing, but it doesn't mean it's all going to work out to be the coup that some people think it could be."

 

Dixon said discussions have envisioned governments agreeing to build and maintain the trails.

 

Clark Martinson, a cyclist and general manager of the Energy Corridor Management District, said his group's plan for west Houston includes a north-south utility corridor west of Beltway 8 that would go from Brays Bayou all the way into Bear Creek Park.

 

Safer routes

 

"There's an amazing number of people that are riding the existing trails. This just opens up safer routes for more neighborhoods," Martinson said. "With these utility corridors, we'll be able to tie in neighborhoods that are north of I-10. It gives closer-to-home, safe routes for families, too, not just the commuters."

 

Tom Compson, of Bike Houston, said the extension of a trail along a north-south utility corridor that parallels the railroad tracks through Memorial Park and the Galleria would allow a safer route for Galleria bike commuters, keeping him from "taking my life in my hands" in the bike lane on Wesleyan.

 

"It's very encouraging," Compson said. "I don't think you could find a bike advocate that would be opposed to it."

 

Though a spokesman said Perry will review the bill when it reaches his desk, Murphy said his staff has been told the governor supports the item.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news...hp?cmpid=atfpm


 

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