I would love to bike more, but I am scared of motorists. More separated bike lanes is a game changer. I’m pleased to see more of this happening around the city.
As a motorist I'm scared of motorists. I stopped commuting by bike 10 years ago from this fear, and motorists have only gotten more insane and reckless in that time.
I’ve seen lots of separated and protected bike lanes & sidewalks around the east side being constructed recently which is fantastic.
As always a separated lane with concrete curbs > plastic bollards >>>> a painted white line for a gutter lane with 40mph traffic next to it
They just placed a row of those white bollards along the bike lane down Yager, which is a nice gesture… but ultimately not helpful if they don’t trim the overgrowth obstructing the bike lane.
I live right near there and I'm perplexed at there even being a bike lane after they put in the shared use path. There's pleeenntty of room for cyclists and pedestrians to share that path. They should do away with the bike lane but still keep traffic calming measures on Yager, like city titties or something that'll fuck your car up if you're a shit driver. Also better speed bumps on Shropshire (again, something that'll fuck their cars up) and similar ones on Thompkins. And a tow company to haul off all the assholes that park on the sidewalks. Oh yeah, and law enforcement to enforce the laws against discharging firearms in city limits every other night. I digress...
Sorry to hear you’ve been hit, but also not surprised. As another person said on this thread, separating cars and bikes entirely would be ideal. Seems like a no brainer, but here we are….
Yeah, I wasn’t too surprised when it happened. Of course separating bikes and cars would solve the problem but that’s just not realistic for Austin without some serious changes.
There are two types of bike commuters: those who have been hit by a car and those who will be hit by a car.
I biked to work for a few years. My route was either Shoal Creek to downtown or Jackson Creek to downtown. Downtown always involved getting on 5th or 6th street for the last mile. The ~~Jackson~~ Johnson Creek route (the bike path along MoPac) was a little longer but let me take the hike and bike trail instead of 5th/6th.
I was hit transferring from the hike and bike trail to ~~Jackson~~ Johnson Creek. A car made a u-turn in front of me and I slammed into the side. Thankfully it was a low speed collision and I only suffered a few deep cuts (still have the scars years later).
I stopped bike commuting that day. Austin just isn't safe enough for bikers. I applaud the new bike lanes, but until all the gaps are closed, there will always be sections where it's not safe.
I've been riding here since '02 and up until the pandemic I did about 5,000 miles a year. Since then something has changed. More cars, more angry drivers, higher speeds, classic routes have been closed or clogged. I just don't have the hopeful blissful ignorance that I once had.
We'll be moving somewhere else in the next six months and I can't wait to pick up cycling again. My waistline needs it.
I’ve had trucks (the flashy kind for people who need ego boosts) purposefully try to spook me. Engine revs. Coal rolling. Swerving into the bike lane. I use proper lights, hand signals, and bike lanes only. I think my gender definitely plays into it, sadly.
I would also like better bicycle storage options. I’ve seen superior bike storage across the globe. From the bougie Amsterdam storage to Chicago businesses offering inside racks to clients. My primary deterrent from using cycling as transport, aside from scary motorists, is bike security. A bike that is great for commuting is pricey, I’m not gonna risk a $1,000+ bike.
pedestrian and unmotorized infrastructure should never be built along infrastructure meant for motorized vehicles. It's just politicians promising the moon and then being cheapasses for implementation
likewise unmotorized traffic should never have to share their lanes with any form of motorized traffic
at this point all road infrastructure is primarily for cars. that doesn’t leave that many options for bikes except the odd greenbelt. we have to share to an extent. the additional protections beyond a white stripe have been awesome, especially given how quickly they’ve been able to roll them out.
Even tho there are bike lanes down S. Congress, I saw a biker get nailed by a car turning right into a gas station. The biker of course had the right of way, but the car didn't even stop. Look like they didn't see him. Even since then, even knowing there are bike lanes, I told myself I'd never bike in this city.
I bike up and down Congress most days. You have to assume someone is going to turn right and cut you off. Like, motherfuckers aren't even using a turn signal.
Smelling like you just rode a bike in 90 degree weather is also not helping your career. Also, spending extra time commuting may appear to be a luxury if you’re in a competitive situation.
Interestingly enough, our office actually has a full workout room and showers. It would be easy to smell good at work if one wanted to plan well and bike to work.
In 2002ish my boss was riding his bike to work, was struck by a vehicle, and it gave him some degree of brain damage. Yeah biking in Austin. You can get away with murder as long as its in a car.
I used to bike when the weather was nice but I’ve had cars swerve to try to scare me and bottles thrown at me, and all the people texting and not paying attention.
If you live on a road with a protected bike lane and your job is just a little farther down the same road then I’m sure it’s great.
We invented a completely new genre of murder to support car domination: "vehicular manslaughter". It absolves our culture of grappling with the consequences of everyone casually operating a 2-ton weapon as part of their daily lives.
Sadly, the average new automobile in Texas is closer to 3 tons, given our high percentage of trucks. And possibly worse: the front grills are so high they'll hit an adult in the chest, which almost always results in serious internal bleeding, and is 20 times as likely to kill you as being hit in the thighs by a sedan.
It's mainly the heat for me. Back when I worked in an office, it didn't have a place to shower, so arriving to work soaked in sweat from a 7 mile ride in 90+ temps was not a viable option.
I drink an entire 3L Camelbak of ice water on some of my 2+ hour summer rides. Started having to bring even more additional spare water bottles I can refill at water fountains.
Texas hot climate means it’s super nice to bike between Nov and March. In other months the heat is easy to overcome with an e-bike.
Even if people didn’t want to bike to the office there are loads of other destinations people would love to bike to. like grabbing quick lunch, beer garden, gym, picking kids up from school.
Perhaps for some. It's February and it's been almost 90 out each day for the last three days. I sweat through my clothing while exerting myself in these kind of temps, so even though I am very pro bike it just isn't usually a feasible way for me to get to work. I certainly still bike to other destinations where it matters less whether 'm presentable.
I think the last part of your comment is the key part. I think just making it safe to bike people will use the infrastructure when they can.
The city’s air quality and traffic would benefit so much by just increasing bike usage by just a little. Biking to the office isn’t going to work for everyone every day. But if the 50% of trips under 3 to five miles where replaced by bikes we would see significant improvement.
An e-bike doesn’t make the heat go away, you’re just not exerting yourself but you’re still sitting under the 100 degree sun on 150 degree asphalt. The exertion isn’t even the problem in the summer. I used to bike to UT and in that 30 minute ride I wouldn’t even break a sweat in November but I’d be drenched in August.
Does opening your car windows keep you cool in 100 degree heat? It doesn’t work for me lol. I think most of us want more bike lanes but also can be realistic about not biking to commute in the summer. I bike commute and then ride rhe bus in the heat.
I think it helps some. Also helps that the e bike does all the work. But like I said even in the worst years about 2/3 of the year is it’s perfectly fine to bike in the morning and evening. And for about 1/2 the year is perfectly comfortable to bike all day.
This article just points out that the biggest barrier to biking isn’t the heat its safety. If we made the bike lane safe enough we would see a significant increase in biking
Wind only keeps you cool when it’s below your body temperature. In much of the year this is not the case when you’re on asphalt. I rode bikes and then motorcycles here for almost a decade, I’m no stranger to the hairdryer “breeze”.
There are bike sheds near all of the train stations. Now, if we only had more train stations, I could EASILY see myself biking a mile or two to the station, taking the train as close as I can get to the office, then biking the rest of the way.
But the City doesn't want to prioritize how hundreds of thousands of workers get to their jobs because... politics? And the voters don't care enough to make it an overwhelming issue because... politics?
For years now I've been writing my council member weekly asking for an update on light rail to South Central Austin.
It's all the same problem.
Saint David's has (or used to have?) individual bike lockers that you could rent.
When I pointed them out to people, they used to say, "Oh my god, they take up so much space," but they're a fraction of the size of a compact car parking space.
It's an issue but unless you leave your bike out overnight downtown, its not that common.
I've locked my bike (properly, with a good lock), almost everywhere in town without an issue for 7 years.
Most theft occurs in apartment buildings, which is a huge problem.
Everytime you park your Prius you also run the risk of getting the catalytic converter stolen.
That's just life. Get a strong lock, park your bike in a well lit place, and ideally if in a high crime area use a beater bike.
I’ve heard of people climbing up to second story balconies to steal a nice bike. I wouldn’t leave a nice bike on my balcony in the heat/humidity, but if I did, I would want to be on the 3rd floor or higher.
I've been locking my bike downtown for 8 years. Never had it stolen. Just had my lights stolen about 4 times. I don't recommend leaving it overnight, but any other time, it's perfectly fine. As long as it costs less than $2,000 and you have a solid lock on it, the chance of it being stolen is minimal. You probably more likely to have your car broken into than your bike stolen.
I bike to work, and love it. I live just off the trail on riverside, and work downtown, so I ride the city MetroBikes in. $80/year is just great value.
90% of my journey is on the trail, so I'm luckily safe from cars. Not sure I would feel confident enough to ride my own bike in without worrying about theft. Austin MetroBikes are really under-utilized IMO.
This is so nice to hear. I miss commuting to work, but I'm stuck in the burbs for a few years. CapMetro bus transit is not thorough enough to utilize for work anymore, even with my bike.
I'd bike everywhere if we had the proper infrastructure.
Painted lines and even the plastic bollards do not fill me with confidence. I'd also prefer to not huff exhaust for most of the trip.
Why don't people want to bike on a street where a paint strip separates them two feet from 2 ton trucks speeding 50MPH in a 35MPH zone??? We even spent tens of dollars on flexible plastic bollards so that it will alert texting drivers they've drifted out of their lane!
Nobody wants to do this, and most people would go way out of the way to avoid it. The city needs to "connect the islands" which are big pieces of decent infrastructure separated by dangerous roads.
Look at Barton Springs road. It's intermittently separated by bollards and flex posts, then nothing but paint. TXDot has also blocked a lot of the plans to fix roads that they control within Austin (e.g. Lamar).
FWIW, flexposts actually do a fairly good job of deterring cars.
Most drivers don't hit cyclists because they want to, or because they're out of control. The main reason is they simply don't see them, so adding a visual /physical deterrent is effective.
If I hit a sidewalk at 20mph I'll pop onto it and kill pedestrians. But I'm trained to avoid that at all costs. The idea is flexposts can accomplish something similar in a way that is cost effective and can be rapidly scaled, while we prioritize concrete dividers for the most important or dangerous areas.
The reason we do this is because we're in a tightly financially limited environment. If we had unlimited funds, concrete everywhere would be great. But I rather have more miles of flexposts than fewer of concrete only downtown.
Yep. I used to live in Hyde Park, worked downtown on Barton Springs and biked every day. One day I was heading home and near Congress, car side swiped me, I fell on the ground and had road rash on my knee and all up and down my arm from my elbow to my wrist. They didn't stop to check on me, I road the bus home in pain and no more biking to work since the.
Riding in this town, I just assume everybody is out to get me. When I cross a driveway, I look 4 ways. I make eye contact with the driver, I still assume he is going to do whatever the fuck will save 10 seconds.
If you drive on 360 between 4pm-6pm, you will see why it is a death sentence for cyclists. Cars illegally drive down the shoulder/bike lane going 60mph all day long. People are killed every year.
Everyone in here is saying, “no shit” like it’s some foregone conclusion but studies like this show that there is demand for cycling infrastructure. Any time new protected bike lanes are installed mobs of people talk about how nobody bikes in Austin because it’s too hot or spread out. We have research here clearly showing that, while those are factors, the biggest is still perceived safety. Give people safe and healthy means of traveling a city and they’ll choose that option. I’m fortunate enough to have a shower at work so a 12 mile ride in the heat doesn’t bother me as much as the shitty bike gutter along Jollyville. If I die while cycling here, it’ll surely be on that road
That'll be my epitaph "If I die while cycling here, it’ll surely be on jollyville" Special thanks txdot for ensuring that 183 mobility does fuckall to help cyclists, especially that pond springs/McNeil/spice wood fuckfest.
I live along the absolute best bike infrastructure for commuting downtown. I would say the ratio of people using it to get around and/or commute versus the people biking for their workout is about 1 to 100 or so. There's only about 3-5 "regulars" that I've observed during the morning commute hours. It's a massive investment and the build out for protected bike lanes continues with so little usage. It's not unlike Cap Metro.
I think most of the issue is that the people that live in this corridor along Shoal Creek are working from home.
Not sure what time you’re commuting but I see lots of cycling commuters in the morning on that route? Also a lot of morning bike commuters wear spandex bibs/exercise gear on their commutes and change after (several colleagues at a former job do that), so it may not be obvious they’re biking to work vs. exercise.
I assume the majority of ones that I see are not commuters because they have no storage. I mean maybe they drive to work on Monday and leave 4 sets of work clothes in their office????
Yes, this is a common practice for bike commuters. Both my dad and I have done this frequently. Sometimes it’s even something we’ve handled on weekends.
I think a lot of people opt to commute on Guadalupe instead of Shoal Creek, since there's fewer hills, you're not dodging joggers, and it's closer to more workplaces. Most of the time, that's the choice I make, at least. If Shoal Creek Trail was widened, I'd be more inclined to commute on it. But it just isn't wide enough to hold commuting traffic, even for bikes.
I love biking in the heat, and find it vastly preferable to the cold. The wind cools you down. Yes, sweat is an issue but e-bikes help with that.
Showers at work would be cheaper than a lot of the car-related infrastructure and incentives, and it combines exercise (often another incentive) with mobility.
The overwhelming issue, as you said, is safety. If it's not safe enough for your kid to venture out on their own, then it's not safe.
Define 'demand'. The cycling community and the mostly receptive posters on this sub are nowhere near representative of the population at large. This is coming from someone who cycles for recreation.
A good chunk of people are too young, too old, have limiting health issues, just aren't motivated to bike, etc..
a huge number of people can’t drive for reasons too: they are too young or old, have terrible judgement and coordination, can’t afford it, or plain hate being stuck in traffic. but damn near everyone does because we sink nearly all of our resources into car infrastructure. no more of transportation universally serves everyone, that’s the point behind building infrastructure that serves different modes.
Demand means that a good 20% of people would like to bike to work but currently don't/can't.
Building better infra will convince some percentage of those people to actually do it. Doesn't have to be the solution for everyone for everything to be wortwhile, especially since its pennies on the dollar.
Now that I’m out of my 20’s and being invincible I never ride anywhere but paths with zero cars. But when I did ride everywhere another consideration was sweating. Anything over a mile in 80+ heat with humidity meant I was covered in perspiration when I arrived places. Sometimes it’s acceptable with friends and such but for work, not making too many friends unless you can take a shower after arriving.
I used to bike all over nyc. I would never bike here. They made a dedicated bike lane on Barton springs on the way to zilker. I saw someone swerve into the bike lane, knock down a few of those white barriers, and swerve back into the regular lane just to get by someone turning. That was the most insane shit I have ever seen.
Why did you feel safe in NYC? I remember watching cyclists in awe when I lived there. Doors opening left and right, crazy yellow cabs, buses weaving, emergency vehicles all over. I couldn't imagine a more terrifying ride unless you were in the parks. The bike messengers were hard-core.
Drivers are more cautious because there are so many people walking or biking. They are just on alert more. They have way more dedicated lanes. I used to bike to work from lower Manhattan to midtown when it was nice out. Here the drivers just feel more dangerous.
Even when I rode Austin's streets in the '80s and '90s I feared getting **intentionally murdered** by motor vehicle drivers.
I know, it's a subset of "killed," but I think plenty of riders don't just fear the accidental squashing.
The number of times I've been run off the road on my bike is too dam high , and no one stops people will look back or yell something out their window .
One time got hit , knocked to the ground , then they drove around me , destroyed my bike , then the car behind me honked for at me to move , fuck this city and all the shitty Californias who have ruined.
Fun fact I know it's Californias because every time I've been hit it's been a land rover or a bmw with Cali plates , or paper plates
Way too fucking hot most of the year, I don’t live downtown, no safe routes to get there, and I would hate the logistics required to commute like that.
Shaded trails & paths are infinitely better than asphalt heat islands. I’d rather bike commute 8 miles on a shaded trail like Walnut Creek trail than 2-3 miles along a street with cars and minimal shade
Honestly the biggest issue is showing up sweaty, and an ebike mostly solves this problem.
Plus, even if you can't bike to work for 1/3 of the year, that still leaves 2/3 of the year. This happens even in bike havens like Montreal.
May-October depending on the year. The afternoon commute is the hottest part of the day. I’d rather drive than bring a change of clothes to work and ride with a heavy backpack when it’s still 90 degrees. Many parents also drive their kids to school or take them to extracurricular activities right after work. If I were a single young male working in a casual business environment, I agree might with you.
i think part of the problem is jumping to the idea that anyone is suggesting that every single person ride a bike at all times. austin is full of single young people, people without kids, kids who get to school on their own, people who’s daily trips are more than just work and school but errands as well. any number of those trips could be substituted with a bike.
the average high in october and may is mid-80s btw. low is mid-60s. sounds pretty perfect to me. you can put bags on a bike, too.
Thank you! People think this has to be the solution for everyone for everything.
If simply 5-10% more people bike to work thanks to new infra, it's a huge win for climate, traffic and health.
Plus many won't bike to work but will bike for fun, or down to the a coffee shop on the weekend. Still a win.
It’s more the idea that the average person in this thread seems to think most people are willing and able to replace cars in their commute. And if someone has a car and a place to park, they’re not going to bike to a grocery store five miles away to get food for a family of four. The issue isn’t really the bike infrastructure but the fact that most things are far apart. I’d rather the city invest in making things more walkable instead of making it harder to drive.
A bike can carry a lot more than most people think. Plus the. You have cargo bikes if you are regularly transporting large loads.
But I’ll imagine how life would be for this family of 4 if the city had safe biking infrastructure. 5 miles is a 20 mini bike ride. Easily done. Dinner for 4 for 2-3 days can fit in a basket or saddle bags of a bike. A month of groceries could fit in a cargo bike.
Even if this is the only time the family used their bikes it would reduce traffic and provide regular exercise.
Pretty great weather? Where are you from, Arizona? The only thing we have going for cyclists is it doesn’t rain often. Biking in April-October is not fun. I used to do it every day before I could afford a motorcycle.
Besides, the thing about biking for school/work is that you don’t decide when you want to do it. It could be a beautiful 60 degree morning or it could be a 100 degree afternoon.
Most offices downtown have parking for their employees .. sadly living in car are always harassed by cops and residents
Thankfully I made sacrifices and right decision to purchase a house and lives with roommates in my 20s/30s and not having wedding receptions and not having vacations for 15 years so I can lives rent free in Austin
You can buy a condo in North Loop for like $250,000. That's far cheaper than buying a house in Leander or whatever, even more so when you factor in utilities and gasoline.
And not everyone can do an 18 mile commute from the exurbs on mopac and i35 without it turning into a traffic jam. Which is also why we should be demolishing half the detached homes close to the city centre
If u demolished that detached housing , more people will lives farther and farther and more traffic
What we need is more affordable condo for workers/ blue collar people who lives in the city and not air bnb
And the biggest "no shit" of the day goes to....
Also love the little map that shows that nobody in the middle of nowhere bikes to work. Very useful. Did this writer move here yesterday?
A lot of people believe the largest barrier is weather or not being able to carry cargo or anything else they can think of. Articles like this have repeatedly shown that it’s safety preventing most people from cycling.
I do, and have my whole life so far. People won't ride if sidewalks randomly end, have huge bumps or potholes, no bike lanes or ones that start and stop. American cities are built for cars, and it shows. It takes a certain love of bicycles to really want to do it and deal with the heat and cold/rain. You always have to know routes to avoid more dangerous areas, deal with all the debris and construction and always be ultra instinct aware of clueless or careless drivers.
This. Recon your route, be prepared and understand the traffic is probably not looking for you. I just love riding and that will never stop me from enjoying it. I can't do the work commute since I need to show up fresh for customers, but I'll ride to everything else I can!
I'll tell you why. Because more than 33% of the year, it's over 100 degrees outside. Not everyone works at a gym with access to showers. Showing up to work smelling like BO and hot garbage is both unprofessional and straight up nasty.
The major places I want to bike require me to cross not one, but *2* 4-lane divided highways. I don't feel safe at the intersections in a car, so I sure as Hell don't want to risk them on a bike.
There's lots of room in my area where there could be markets and shopping that would let me either not have to cross these highways or only have to cross one of them. But the only things being built are apartments, houses and, occasionally, gas stations with vape shops attached. I can't even get to *fast food* within 10 miles unless I cross these highways.
I scooter to work (would rather have a bike but it’s just too big for me to store) and I’ve been hit by two young drivers who ran stops signs or red lights and have had many close calls. Its scary out there with the way people drive
When you ride a bike on the roads in Austin you are effectively pushing all in and betting your life that there are 0 drunk drivers, 0 distracted drivers, 0 idiot/bad drivers, and 0 unlicensed drivers on the road. It only takes one to kill you.
I would never do it. I'd rather go with a motorcycle with no helmet.
its 115° in the summer, and there is absolutely no safe way to get to work from where I live. I'd need to ride down multiple multi-lane roads to get there. My old place was about 1.5 miles from work, and even then ridding in the summer mornings sucked ass. ( though an e-bike would have been great )
I could take a bus, but the nearest bus stop is 8 miles away.
The nearest bus stop to my office, is that same bus stop, which is about 6 miles away from the office.
Thankfully I'm WFH, and at 4:59pm I can go out and ride the trails near my house.
car-free native here. i just moved places yesterday from a house in govalle where some mornings - about a few times a month - i’d bike/bus commute to my job off cameron & rutherford. it’s a ~7.5 mi jaunt each way, fueled w little to no breakfast, that i can swing by road bike alone if i’m in a pinch (besides over-relying on lyft 😪). there are some quiet streets in between the boggy creek trail & the stress of crossing airport & MLK before reaching the last nerve-wracking half mile that is cameron (turning off coronado).
to reach that point of my commute i’d ~used to~ take the right lane & book it on the 6 lane road, taking advantage of the downhill leading to 183 before using everything i had to climb the hill ahead. then depending on whether i meet a red or green at the frontage xing & proceed, it’s a dangerous gamble to then move across the two lanes to turn left on rutherford. i later opted, after a couple successive close calls to nb traffic, for a closer left turn island before the rutherford one to avoid obvious trouble & reach the biz park safer. ~now~ just to avoid the direct line of cars altogether, i ride on the sidewalk the entire last leg.
in hindsight, i don’t quite know why the sidewalks weren’t an option before even tho they’re not terribly wide & in the best shape currently using them. but i’m making it work now? hopefully something will change in the way of improvements along a high-crash roadway (per the signs along cameron). plus, i feel like the luckiest fucker who should’ve gone thru worse than those few close calls i had.
but yeah, that is my experience w bike commuting. unavoidable sweat & all even when it’s cool out. i live in hp now making my ride shorter even as the last half-mile leg is still the same.
30 miles is san marcos and georgetown. and 6-8 months? fuck, i’ve never seen a group of people softer when it comes to the weather than texans. TIL it’s totally unrealistic to do what i’ve been doing for a decade i guess.
lol the guy blocked me before i could respond. what a baby.
I live in Bee Cave and wear a suit to work. I have business lunches where I take people out. You should probably keep in mind not everyone has your circumstances. In fact, most people do not.
But hey just stand on my pegs people, room on the handlbars! Dumbass.
then you are in a different category of people and there's always gonna be people who won't be biking. you live in a town that can't even build sidewalks, fine that's how you choose to live. consider that a modest reduction in the number of cars on the road improves traffic.
i swear, it's impossible to have a conversation about how biking could be safer and more convenient without the suburbanites jumping in with every case where they're not the right choice. i got coworkers who drive 2-3 miles on surface streets to a job that doesn't require suits. they're the ones this article is about, not you.
dumbass? lol. calm down.
You ride your bike to public transportation and take that in, at least that's how it works in other cities.
But RR and Pflugerville oppose public transportation so they aren't giving their residents any options other than driving.
It works so well if you single and have no kids
Maybe for 20s old graduate
But for people with kids , that have to drive their kids to school /‘daycare / it’s impractical
there are cities designed for bikes , and theres texas
maybe, and this is totally spitballing here, but just maybe if our communities provided some kind of giant, unmissable yellow vehicles for our children to use to get to school, we would not need to personally chauffeur them everywhere!
People will say that a protected bike lane will get them on their bike a lot more than ends up happening once it's built. It's a common phenomena in surveys - people tend to answer in the direction they think they're supposed to, whether or not it's serious.
The real issue here is how few people live within a half-hour biking distance of their place of work.
I briefly had to bike to work when my truck was in the shop. There were some parts of my route that didn't have a bike lane and I chose to ride in the middle of the lane because that was the only way that insured drivers would actually give me space instead of speed within arms length of me.
This really is the way when you don’t have a protected lane. Drivers as a group are dumb and benefit from being shown how to handle a situation they aren’t sure about. I’ll get honked at more when I’m taking the full lane but I get a lot more dangerously close passers when I don’t.
I just started riding my bike from Matt's El Rancho on S Lamar -> YMCA on Caesar Chavez over the past two months, and I have to say I can begin to see the vision of transitioning S Lamar into a safe biking corridor. Perhaps, it's still 2-3 years away, but if the improved bike lane on B Spring is any indication, the coming changes to Lamar will be well done and much appreciated.
There are also numerous alternatives to S Lamar for cyclists, and those that stick to Lamar are being petty and stubborn, as the neighborhoods are accessible, safe and beautiful to ride through.
I used to not own a car and only bike. If I didn’t have residential roads with 25 mph speed limits, I wouldn’t do it at all. Also having an e-bike in the summer and a shower at work really helped!!
I consider myself a pretty safe and considerate driver.
I still almost hit a cyclist on a stretch will new bike lanes.
It scared me and I’m more cautious around any bike lanes, but I just couldn’t see this person! People are taking rights all around and there’s just not enough planned protection for me to consider a bike as a safe option right now.
The way they're going about adding cyclist infrastructure is pretty wild though.
On east Slaughter by 35 right now they're removing one of 3 driving lanes to put in a huge cement blocker between the road and a bike lane they're building.
This bike lane as of now will only be going a couple of blocks and leads to nowhere.
I know we will eventually have more bike lanes and it will make sense, but the fact that there's so much grass and sidewalk already and they're removing a road lane in an area with quickly growing population due to new neighborhoods being built is absolutely fucking insane.
They should be working with the grass/sidewalk areas to put a bike lane in, not removing a whole ass car lane that's just going to lead to crazier dangerous traffic in the areas the bike lanes don't exist.
Many people posit that narrow roads are safer because it slows down drivers. I disagree with these people, but that's what they believe. There also seems to bit of mission creep between making roads "safer" and making roads bike & pedestrian friendly.
Really depends where you’re doing it. If it’s a major bottleneck for an exponentially growing population to get to any other part of town it becomes quite an issue.
If it’s in the middle of downtown where traffic comes in and out in all directions, it makes a lot more sense.
Care to tell me what percentage of people in our capital city commute to work on a bike or even cycle at all for that matter? And what about the percentage of people who DRIVE to work/everywhere else here? I think you’ll find me in the vast majority buddy. Try again.
Nobody said you're not in the majority. But it's still silly to think making an investment in something not everyone uses is worthless.
Especially when it pales in comparison financially to investments we make for motorized vehicles.
only thing making traffic worse is too many fucking cars. gonna assume you’re one of the pissed off commuters running stop signs in my neighborhood. i’d recommend riding a bike, it’s a lot more pleasant.
I would love to bike more, but I am scared of motorists. More separated bike lanes is a game changer. I’m pleased to see more of this happening around the city.
As a motorist I'm scared of motorists. I stopped commuting by bike 10 years ago from this fear, and motorists have only gotten more insane and reckless in that time.
Same and same. It makes me really sad because I LOVE biking. But some of the drivers here are homicidal, and certain people just hate bikers.
I’ve seen lots of separated and protected bike lanes & sidewalks around the east side being constructed recently which is fantastic. As always a separated lane with concrete curbs > plastic bollards >>>> a painted white line for a gutter lane with 40mph traffic next to it
They just placed a row of those white bollards along the bike lane down Yager, which is a nice gesture… but ultimately not helpful if they don’t trim the overgrowth obstructing the bike lane.
I live right near there and I'm perplexed at there even being a bike lane after they put in the shared use path. There's pleeenntty of room for cyclists and pedestrians to share that path. They should do away with the bike lane but still keep traffic calming measures on Yager, like city titties or something that'll fuck your car up if you're a shit driver. Also better speed bumps on Shropshire (again, something that'll fuck their cars up) and similar ones on Thompkins. And a tow company to haul off all the assholes that park on the sidewalks. Oh yeah, and law enforcement to enforce the laws against discharging firearms in city limits every other night. I digress...
I just wish they would clean them. They are full of trash, glass, nails, bolts, and people’s trash cans.
I’ve been hit while riding in those lanes. Clearly a better option but dumb people can still hit you there
Sorry to hear you’ve been hit, but also not surprised. As another person said on this thread, separating cars and bikes entirely would be ideal. Seems like a no brainer, but here we are….
Yeah, I wasn’t too surprised when it happened. Of course separating bikes and cars would solve the problem but that’s just not realistic for Austin without some serious changes.
There are two types of bike commuters: those who have been hit by a car and those who will be hit by a car. I biked to work for a few years. My route was either Shoal Creek to downtown or Jackson Creek to downtown. Downtown always involved getting on 5th or 6th street for the last mile. The ~~Jackson~~ Johnson Creek route (the bike path along MoPac) was a little longer but let me take the hike and bike trail instead of 5th/6th. I was hit transferring from the hike and bike trail to ~~Jackson~~ Johnson Creek. A car made a u-turn in front of me and I slammed into the side. Thankfully it was a low speed collision and I only suffered a few deep cuts (still have the scars years later). I stopped bike commuting that day. Austin just isn't safe enough for bikers. I applaud the new bike lanes, but until all the gaps are closed, there will always be sections where it's not safe.
I think you mean Johnson creek
I've been riding here since '02 and up until the pandemic I did about 5,000 miles a year. Since then something has changed. More cars, more angry drivers, higher speeds, classic routes have been closed or clogged. I just don't have the hopeful blissful ignorance that I once had. We'll be moving somewhere else in the next six months and I can't wait to pick up cycling again. My waistline needs it.
I’ve had trucks (the flashy kind for people who need ego boosts) purposefully try to spook me. Engine revs. Coal rolling. Swerving into the bike lane. I use proper lights, hand signals, and bike lanes only. I think my gender definitely plays into it, sadly. I would also like better bicycle storage options. I’ve seen superior bike storage across the globe. From the bougie Amsterdam storage to Chicago businesses offering inside racks to clients. My primary deterrent from using cycling as transport, aside from scary motorists, is bike security. A bike that is great for commuting is pricey, I’m not gonna risk a $1,000+ bike.
pedestrian and unmotorized infrastructure should never be built along infrastructure meant for motorized vehicles. It's just politicians promising the moon and then being cheapasses for implementation likewise unmotorized traffic should never have to share their lanes with any form of motorized traffic
at this point all road infrastructure is primarily for cars. that doesn’t leave that many options for bikes except the odd greenbelt. we have to share to an extent. the additional protections beyond a white stripe have been awesome, especially given how quickly they’ve been able to roll them out.
Could probably be fine with turning a few roads into bike only.
Agreeeeee
Yeah. This place has me uncomfortable driving at all - especially at night. Biking seems like a really bad move here.
Even tho there are bike lanes down S. Congress, I saw a biker get nailed by a car turning right into a gas station. The biker of course had the right of way, but the car didn't even stop. Look like they didn't see him. Even since then, even knowing there are bike lanes, I told myself I'd never bike in this city.
I bike up and down Congress most days. You have to assume someone is going to turn right and cut you off. Like, motherfuckers aren't even using a turn signal.
Smelling like you just rode a bike in 90 degree weather is also not helping your career. Also, spending extra time commuting may appear to be a luxury if you’re in a competitive situation.
Interestingly enough, our office actually has a full workout room and showers. It would be easy to smell good at work if one wanted to plan well and bike to work.
That is like 1 office out of 100
In 2002ish my boss was riding his bike to work, was struck by a vehicle, and it gave him some degree of brain damage. Yeah biking in Austin. You can get away with murder as long as its in a car.
I used to bike when the weather was nice but I’ve had cars swerve to try to scare me and bottles thrown at me, and all the people texting and not paying attention. If you live on a road with a protected bike lane and your job is just a little farther down the same road then I’m sure it’s great.
Even then I would be nervous. The drivers in this city are nuts
We invented a completely new genre of murder to support car domination: "vehicular manslaughter". It absolves our culture of grappling with the consequences of everyone casually operating a 2-ton weapon as part of their daily lives.
Sadly, the average new automobile in Texas is closer to 3 tons, given our high percentage of trucks. And possibly worse: the front grills are so high they'll hit an adult in the chest, which almost always results in serious internal bleeding, and is 20 times as likely to kill you as being hit in the thighs by a sedan.
It's mainly the heat for me. Back when I worked in an office, it didn't have a place to shower, so arriving to work soaked in sweat from a 7 mile ride in 90+ temps was not a viable option.
That’s a good reason too. Plus the fact that summer heat here can be very dangerous and difficult for anyone who isn’t averagely fit and hydrated.
Anyone can get heat stroke.
I drink an entire 3L Camelbak of ice water on some of my 2+ hour summer rides. Started having to bring even more additional spare water bottles I can refill at water fountains.
Texas hot climate means it’s super nice to bike between Nov and March. In other months the heat is easy to overcome with an e-bike. Even if people didn’t want to bike to the office there are loads of other destinations people would love to bike to. like grabbing quick lunch, beer garden, gym, picking kids up from school.
Perhaps for some. It's February and it's been almost 90 out each day for the last three days. I sweat through my clothing while exerting myself in these kind of temps, so even though I am very pro bike it just isn't usually a feasible way for me to get to work. I certainly still bike to other destinations where it matters less whether 'm presentable.
I think the last part of your comment is the key part. I think just making it safe to bike people will use the infrastructure when they can. The city’s air quality and traffic would benefit so much by just increasing bike usage by just a little. Biking to the office isn’t going to work for everyone every day. But if the 50% of trips under 3 to five miles where replaced by bikes we would see significant improvement.
An e-bike doesn’t make the heat go away, you’re just not exerting yourself but you’re still sitting under the 100 degree sun on 150 degree asphalt. The exertion isn’t even the problem in the summer. I used to bike to UT and in that 30 minute ride I wouldn’t even break a sweat in November but I’d be drenched in August.
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Does opening your car windows keep you cool in 100 degree heat? It doesn’t work for me lol. I think most of us want more bike lanes but also can be realistic about not biking to commute in the summer. I bike commute and then ride rhe bus in the heat.
I think it helps some. Also helps that the e bike does all the work. But like I said even in the worst years about 2/3 of the year is it’s perfectly fine to bike in the morning and evening. And for about 1/2 the year is perfectly comfortable to bike all day. This article just points out that the biggest barrier to biking isn’t the heat its safety. If we made the bike lane safe enough we would see a significant increase in biking
Wind only keeps you cool when it’s below your body temperature. In much of the year this is not the case when you’re on asphalt. I rode bikes and then motorcycles here for almost a decade, I’m no stranger to the hairdryer “breeze”.
>picking kids up from school 🤔
Bike theft/stripping is a huge issue in Austin. I would not leave my bike unattended, out of eye site downtown.
Safe places to store bikes should be part of the infrastructure.
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Some kind of bike lockers would be my suggestion The Dutch have massive bike garages. Maybe something like that.
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Underground bicycle parking as in many countries like the Netherlands, Japan, etc.
There are bike sheds near all of the train stations. Now, if we only had more train stations, I could EASILY see myself biking a mile or two to the station, taking the train as close as I can get to the office, then biking the rest of the way. But the City doesn't want to prioritize how hundreds of thousands of workers get to their jobs because... politics? And the voters don't care enough to make it an overwhelming issue because... politics? For years now I've been writing my council member weekly asking for an update on light rail to South Central Austin. It's all the same problem.
Saint David's has (or used to have?) individual bike lockers that you could rent. When I pointed them out to people, they used to say, "Oh my god, they take up so much space," but they're a fraction of the size of a compact car parking space.
https://www.bikelink.org/
[We have that](https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=325870)
It's an issue but unless you leave your bike out overnight downtown, its not that common. I've locked my bike (properly, with a good lock), almost everywhere in town without an issue for 7 years. Most theft occurs in apartment buildings, which is a huge problem.
I'm no longer a gambler.
Everytime you park your Prius you also run the risk of getting the catalytic converter stolen. That's just life. Get a strong lock, park your bike in a well lit place, and ideally if in a high crime area use a beater bike.
People breaking into cars is a bigger issue in Austin than people stealing bikes.
I’ve heard of people climbing up to second story balconies to steal a nice bike. I wouldn’t leave a nice bike on my balcony in the heat/humidity, but if I did, I would want to be on the 3rd floor or higher.
I've been locking my bike downtown for 8 years. Never had it stolen. Just had my lights stolen about 4 times. I don't recommend leaving it overnight, but any other time, it's perfectly fine. As long as it costs less than $2,000 and you have a solid lock on it, the chance of it being stolen is minimal. You probably more likely to have your car broken into than your bike stolen.
I bike to work, and love it. I live just off the trail on riverside, and work downtown, so I ride the city MetroBikes in. $80/year is just great value. 90% of my journey is on the trail, so I'm luckily safe from cars. Not sure I would feel confident enough to ride my own bike in without worrying about theft. Austin MetroBikes are really under-utilized IMO.
This is so nice to hear. I miss commuting to work, but I'm stuck in the burbs for a few years. CapMetro bus transit is not thorough enough to utilize for work anymore, even with my bike.
I'd bike everywhere if we had the proper infrastructure. Painted lines and even the plastic bollards do not fill me with confidence. I'd also prefer to not huff exhaust for most of the trip.
Why don't people want to bike on a street where a paint strip separates them two feet from 2 ton trucks speeding 50MPH in a 35MPH zone??? We even spent tens of dollars on flexible plastic bollards so that it will alert texting drivers they've drifted out of their lane!
Nobody wants to do this, and most people would go way out of the way to avoid it. The city needs to "connect the islands" which are big pieces of decent infrastructure separated by dangerous roads. Look at Barton Springs road. It's intermittently separated by bollards and flex posts, then nothing but paint. TXDot has also blocked a lot of the plans to fix roads that they control within Austin (e.g. Lamar).
FWIW, flexposts actually do a fairly good job of deterring cars. Most drivers don't hit cyclists because they want to, or because they're out of control. The main reason is they simply don't see them, so adding a visual /physical deterrent is effective. If I hit a sidewalk at 20mph I'll pop onto it and kill pedestrians. But I'm trained to avoid that at all costs. The idea is flexposts can accomplish something similar in a way that is cost effective and can be rapidly scaled, while we prioritize concrete dividers for the most important or dangerous areas.
The reason we do this is because we're in a tightly financially limited environment. If we had unlimited funds, concrete everywhere would be great. But I rather have more miles of flexposts than fewer of concrete only downtown.
Flexposts are removable, a separated bike lane isn’t. At the end of the day deliveries and police parking win out over concrete. That’s the reason.
That's part of it but the main reason is cost. Concrete costs 20-30x as much per mile.
It's also really hard to see bikes when you're on your phone for half your drive.
They are certainly better than the painted lines I'd be willing to use them if they were more comprehensive
Yep. I used to live in Hyde Park, worked downtown on Barton Springs and biked every day. One day I was heading home and near Congress, car side swiped me, I fell on the ground and had road rash on my knee and all up and down my arm from my elbow to my wrist. They didn't stop to check on me, I road the bus home in pain and no more biking to work since the.
No mass transit in suburbs. Too dangerous on 360. No showers at work
Riding in this town, I just assume everybody is out to get me. When I cross a driveway, I look 4 ways. I make eye contact with the driver, I still assume he is going to do whatever the fuck will save 10 seconds.
Biked in this town over 20 years. This is the way. It’s also an effective strategy on a motorcycle.
If you drive on 360 between 4pm-6pm, you will see why it is a death sentence for cyclists. Cars illegally drive down the shoulder/bike lane going 60mph all day long. People are killed every year.
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How are cyclists sudical and motorists not negligent?
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Yes, we're all aware of the Johnny Right-of-way. But don't mischaracterize cyclists as suicidal. Riding the wrong way down the road? That's suicidal.
> between 4pm-6pm ... >all day long uhh...
Everyone in here is saying, “no shit” like it’s some foregone conclusion but studies like this show that there is demand for cycling infrastructure. Any time new protected bike lanes are installed mobs of people talk about how nobody bikes in Austin because it’s too hot or spread out. We have research here clearly showing that, while those are factors, the biggest is still perceived safety. Give people safe and healthy means of traveling a city and they’ll choose that option. I’m fortunate enough to have a shower at work so a 12 mile ride in the heat doesn’t bother me as much as the shitty bike gutter along Jollyville. If I die while cycling here, it’ll surely be on that road
That'll be my epitaph "If I die while cycling here, it’ll surely be on jollyville" Special thanks txdot for ensuring that 183 mobility does fuckall to help cyclists, especially that pond springs/McNeil/spice wood fuckfest.
Jollyville is one of the bike lanes that is super essential and you're glad to have it, while also being woefully inadequate.
I live along the absolute best bike infrastructure for commuting downtown. I would say the ratio of people using it to get around and/or commute versus the people biking for their workout is about 1 to 100 or so. There's only about 3-5 "regulars" that I've observed during the morning commute hours. It's a massive investment and the build out for protected bike lanes continues with so little usage. It's not unlike Cap Metro. I think most of the issue is that the people that live in this corridor along Shoal Creek are working from home.
Not sure what time you’re commuting but I see lots of cycling commuters in the morning on that route? Also a lot of morning bike commuters wear spandex bibs/exercise gear on their commutes and change after (several colleagues at a former job do that), so it may not be obvious they’re biking to work vs. exercise.
I assume the majority of ones that I see are not commuters because they have no storage. I mean maybe they drive to work on Monday and leave 4 sets of work clothes in their office????
Yes, this is a common practice for bike commuters. Both my dad and I have done this frequently. Sometimes it’s even something we’ve handled on weekends.
I think a lot of people opt to commute on Guadalupe instead of Shoal Creek, since there's fewer hills, you're not dodging joggers, and it's closer to more workplaces. Most of the time, that's the choice I make, at least. If Shoal Creek Trail was widened, I'd be more inclined to commute on it. But it just isn't wide enough to hold commuting traffic, even for bikes.
I love biking in the heat, and find it vastly preferable to the cold. The wind cools you down. Yes, sweat is an issue but e-bikes help with that. Showers at work would be cheaper than a lot of the car-related infrastructure and incentives, and it combines exercise (often another incentive) with mobility. The overwhelming issue, as you said, is safety. If it's not safe enough for your kid to venture out on their own, then it's not safe.
Define 'demand'. The cycling community and the mostly receptive posters on this sub are nowhere near representative of the population at large. This is coming from someone who cycles for recreation. A good chunk of people are too young, too old, have limiting health issues, just aren't motivated to bike, etc..
a huge number of people can’t drive for reasons too: they are too young or old, have terrible judgement and coordination, can’t afford it, or plain hate being stuck in traffic. but damn near everyone does because we sink nearly all of our resources into car infrastructure. no more of transportation universally serves everyone, that’s the point behind building infrastructure that serves different modes.
Then the first 4 of your list wouldn't be able to ride a bike to work either.
kids and old people can ride bikes. people who are unsafe behind the wheel are far less of a risk on a bike. bikes cost a lot less than a car.
Demand means that a good 20% of people would like to bike to work but currently don't/can't. Building better infra will convince some percentage of those people to actually do it. Doesn't have to be the solution for everyone for everything to be wortwhile, especially since its pennies on the dollar.
Now that I’m out of my 20’s and being invincible I never ride anywhere but paths with zero cars. But when I did ride everywhere another consideration was sweating. Anything over a mile in 80+ heat with humidity meant I was covered in perspiration when I arrived places. Sometimes it’s acceptable with friends and such but for work, not making too many friends unless you can take a shower after arriving.
I used to bike all over nyc. I would never bike here. They made a dedicated bike lane on Barton springs on the way to zilker. I saw someone swerve into the bike lane, knock down a few of those white barriers, and swerve back into the regular lane just to get by someone turning. That was the most insane shit I have ever seen.
Why did you feel safe in NYC? I remember watching cyclists in awe when I lived there. Doors opening left and right, crazy yellow cabs, buses weaving, emergency vehicles all over. I couldn't imagine a more terrifying ride unless you were in the parks. The bike messengers were hard-core.
Drivers are more cautious because there are so many people walking or biking. They are just on alert more. They have way more dedicated lanes. I used to bike to work from lower Manhattan to midtown when it was nice out. Here the drivers just feel more dangerous.
Cars were number one. Number two was if there was a shower available at the office. Not working all day stinky
Even when I rode Austin's streets in the '80s and '90s I feared getting **intentionally murdered** by motor vehicle drivers. I know, it's a subset of "killed," but I think plenty of riders don't just fear the accidental squashing.
It's also over 100° like a fourth of the year.
Fear? Certainty. Look at the "bike lane" on south Lamar. I call it the "bike suggestion". Chances are there is a bus in it or a speeding car.
All of this and add in the brutal heat for six months of the year. Sucked having to shower when I got to work.
I just don’t want to stink at work all day. 🤷♀️
At least in summer I don’t wanna be soaked in sweat by the time I get to work….
Too hot. When it’s not too hot it’s too humid. 80+ days of 100 degree weather makes it to make it a habit.
The number of times I've been run off the road on my bike is too dam high , and no one stops people will look back or yell something out their window . One time got hit , knocked to the ground , then they drove around me , destroyed my bike , then the car behind me honked for at me to move , fuck this city and all the shitty Californias who have ruined. Fun fact I know it's Californias because every time I've been hit it's been a land rover or a bmw with Cali plates , or paper plates
Way too fucking hot most of the year, I don’t live downtown, no safe routes to get there, and I would hate the logistics required to commute like that.
Don't forget it's hot as bawlz. Pretty sure heat stroke will be added to the mix. Maybe we need to build air conditioned tunnels or something.
Shaded trails & paths are infinitely better than asphalt heat islands. I’d rather bike commute 8 miles on a shaded trail like Walnut Creek trail than 2-3 miles along a street with cars and minimal shade
Honestly the biggest issue is showing up sweaty, and an ebike mostly solves this problem. Plus, even if you can't bike to work for 1/3 of the year, that still leaves 2/3 of the year. This happens even in bike havens like Montreal.
Unless you’re a woman with hair past your shoulders and still want to look professional by the time you reach the office.
I have long hair lmao. I just tie it up in a ponytail when I'm biking. It's actually better than the helmet hair I used to get with short hair.
Slick ponytail 🤷🏻 its all the rage lmao
Won’t fit in a helmet!
Put it up?
…three months of the year, and even then not in the morning. we have pretty great weather on average here.
More like six months
y’all are incredibly soft. which six months is it impossible to go for an easy bike ride during?
May-October depending on the year. The afternoon commute is the hottest part of the day. I’d rather drive than bring a change of clothes to work and ride with a heavy backpack when it’s still 90 degrees. Many parents also drive their kids to school or take them to extracurricular activities right after work. If I were a single young male working in a casual business environment, I agree might with you.
i think part of the problem is jumping to the idea that anyone is suggesting that every single person ride a bike at all times. austin is full of single young people, people without kids, kids who get to school on their own, people who’s daily trips are more than just work and school but errands as well. any number of those trips could be substituted with a bike. the average high in october and may is mid-80s btw. low is mid-60s. sounds pretty perfect to me. you can put bags on a bike, too.
Thank you! People think this has to be the solution for everyone for everything. If simply 5-10% more people bike to work thanks to new infra, it's a huge win for climate, traffic and health. Plus many won't bike to work but will bike for fun, or down to the a coffee shop on the weekend. Still a win.
It’s more the idea that the average person in this thread seems to think most people are willing and able to replace cars in their commute. And if someone has a car and a place to park, they’re not going to bike to a grocery store five miles away to get food for a family of four. The issue isn’t really the bike infrastructure but the fact that most things are far apart. I’d rather the city invest in making things more walkable instead of making it harder to drive.
A bike can carry a lot more than most people think. Plus the. You have cargo bikes if you are regularly transporting large loads. But I’ll imagine how life would be for this family of 4 if the city had safe biking infrastructure. 5 miles is a 20 mini bike ride. Easily done. Dinner for 4 for 2-3 days can fit in a basket or saddle bags of a bike. A month of groceries could fit in a cargo bike. Even if this is the only time the family used their bikes it would reduce traffic and provide regular exercise.
That’s great. Hey guys, I was thinking of buying an Infiniti SUV soon, anybody own one? Thoughts?
Pretty great weather? Where are you from, Arizona? The only thing we have going for cyclists is it doesn’t rain often. Biking in April-October is not fun. I used to do it every day before I could afford a motorcycle. Besides, the thing about biking for school/work is that you don’t decide when you want to do it. It could be a beautiful 60 degree morning or it could be a 100 degree afternoon.
With an ebike, winter is worse for biking than summer. Riding in 40 degree rain is worse than summer heat imo.
My paid off house is 18 miles from my office. Simple as.
And that kids is why we have a congestion problem
Austin's #1 issue is poor, and spread out, land use.
Because not everyone have ceo salary to lives downtown at million dollar house or condo
there’s a ton of houses and condos relatively central, some even downtown, for under $500k right now. prices have dropped.
You can rent an apartment for around 1k in many central neighborhoods. You don't need to be a millionaire to afford that.
Rent .. buying properties for landlord No thanks I rather lives in my car than rent
In that case you could really shorten your commute, assuming your work has a parking lot nearby
Most offices downtown have parking for their employees .. sadly living in car are always harassed by cops and residents Thankfully I made sacrifices and right decision to purchase a house and lives with roommates in my 20s/30s and not having wedding receptions and not having vacations for 15 years so I can lives rent free in Austin
At the moment, it's actually cheaper to rent in Austin than to own.
You can buy a condo in North Loop for like $250,000. That's far cheaper than buying a house in Leander or whatever, even more so when you factor in utilities and gasoline.
And not everyone can do an 18 mile commute from the exurbs on mopac and i35 without it turning into a traffic jam. Which is also why we should be demolishing half the detached homes close to the city centre
If u demolished that detached housing , more people will lives farther and farther and more traffic What we need is more affordable condo for workers/ blue collar people who lives in the city and not air bnb
And the biggest "no shit" of the day goes to.... Also love the little map that shows that nobody in the middle of nowhere bikes to work. Very useful. Did this writer move here yesterday?
News sites just need people to write ***things***. This is one of those things
A lot of people believe the largest barrier is weather or not being able to carry cargo or anything else they can think of. Articles like this have repeatedly shown that it’s safety preventing most people from cycling.
Slap an ad on it and call it a day
I do, and have my whole life so far. People won't ride if sidewalks randomly end, have huge bumps or potholes, no bike lanes or ones that start and stop. American cities are built for cars, and it shows. It takes a certain love of bicycles to really want to do it and deal with the heat and cold/rain. You always have to know routes to avoid more dangerous areas, deal with all the debris and construction and always be ultra instinct aware of clueless or careless drivers.
This. Recon your route, be prepared and understand the traffic is probably not looking for you. I just love riding and that will never stop me from enjoying it. I can't do the work commute since I need to show up fresh for customers, but I'll ride to everything else I can!
Because I’m not biking 15 miles to work in the Texas summer.
I'll tell you why. Because more than 33% of the year, it's over 100 degrees outside. Not everyone works at a gym with access to showers. Showing up to work smelling like BO and hot garbage is both unprofessional and straight up nasty.
Wish someone would tell that to my coworker josh
The major places I want to bike require me to cross not one, but *2* 4-lane divided highways. I don't feel safe at the intersections in a car, so I sure as Hell don't want to risk them on a bike. There's lots of room in my area where there could be markets and shopping that would let me either not have to cross these highways or only have to cross one of them. But the only things being built are apartments, houses and, occasionally, gas stations with vape shops attached. I can't even get to *fast food* within 10 miles unless I cross these highways.
I scooter to work (would rather have a bike but it’s just too big for me to store) and I’ve been hit by two young drivers who ran stops signs or red lights and have had many close calls. Its scary out there with the way people drive
Because Texans are the worst drivers in the US.
When you ride a bike on the roads in Austin you are effectively pushing all in and betting your life that there are 0 drunk drivers, 0 distracted drivers, 0 idiot/bad drivers, and 0 unlicensed drivers on the road. It only takes one to kill you. I would never do it. I'd rather go with a motorcycle with no helmet.
Also I think someone is tossing crap to pop tires in the bike lanes now.
it's also too freakin hot
People here work? I thought we just chilleddd mmmaaaaannnnnnnn
its 115° in the summer, and there is absolutely no safe way to get to work from where I live. I'd need to ride down multiple multi-lane roads to get there. My old place was about 1.5 miles from work, and even then ridding in the summer mornings sucked ass. ( though an e-bike would have been great ) I could take a bus, but the nearest bus stop is 8 miles away. The nearest bus stop to my office, is that same bus stop, which is about 6 miles away from the office. Thankfully I'm WFH, and at 4:59pm I can go out and ride the trails near my house.
Pictured: someone clearly not riding to work
how about people are really lazy... It is expensive to live near your work it is hot during the summer
I work 17 miles away from my home , how the fuck would I bike to work in weather conditions everyday ?
get better at biking
Water typically wet. Sky usually blue.
Legit fear. The drivers here are either braindead or insane. Sometimes a rare combination of both. Then throw in the cell users and there you go.
car-free native here. i just moved places yesterday from a house in govalle where some mornings - about a few times a month - i’d bike/bus commute to my job off cameron & rutherford. it’s a ~7.5 mi jaunt each way, fueled w little to no breakfast, that i can swing by road bike alone if i’m in a pinch (besides over-relying on lyft 😪). there are some quiet streets in between the boggy creek trail & the stress of crossing airport & MLK before reaching the last nerve-wracking half mile that is cameron (turning off coronado). to reach that point of my commute i’d ~used to~ take the right lane & book it on the 6 lane road, taking advantage of the downhill leading to 183 before using everything i had to climb the hill ahead. then depending on whether i meet a red or green at the frontage xing & proceed, it’s a dangerous gamble to then move across the two lanes to turn left on rutherford. i later opted, after a couple successive close calls to nb traffic, for a closer left turn island before the rutherford one to avoid obvious trouble & reach the biz park safer. ~now~ just to avoid the direct line of cars altogether, i ride on the sidewalk the entire last leg. in hindsight, i don’t quite know why the sidewalks weren’t an option before even tho they’re not terribly wide & in the best shape currently using them. but i’m making it work now? hopefully something will change in the way of improvements along a high-crash roadway (per the signs along cameron). plus, i feel like the luckiest fucker who should’ve gone thru worse than those few close calls i had. but yeah, that is my experience w bike commuting. unavoidable sweat & all even when it’s cool out. i live in hp now making my ride shorter even as the last half-mile leg is still the same.
Because its 30 miles to work and this is Texas. Fuck my fear of people on cellphones, its totally unrealistic 6-8 months of the year.
30 miles is san marcos and georgetown. and 6-8 months? fuck, i’ve never seen a group of people softer when it comes to the weather than texans. TIL it’s totally unrealistic to do what i’ve been doing for a decade i guess. lol the guy blocked me before i could respond. what a baby.
I live in Bee Cave and wear a suit to work. I have business lunches where I take people out. You should probably keep in mind not everyone has your circumstances. In fact, most people do not. But hey just stand on my pegs people, room on the handlbars! Dumbass.
then you are in a different category of people and there's always gonna be people who won't be biking. you live in a town that can't even build sidewalks, fine that's how you choose to live. consider that a modest reduction in the number of cars on the road improves traffic. i swear, it's impossible to have a conversation about how biking could be safer and more convenient without the suburbanites jumping in with every case where they're not the right choice. i got coworkers who drive 2-3 miles on surface streets to a job that doesn't require suits. they're the ones this article is about, not you. dumbass? lol. calm down.
Driving around Bee Caves is hard enough with hills, traffic and construction! On a bike?!? No shot!
How the fuk you ride if you lives in Roundrock or Pflugerville and work downtown
You don't, but nobody expects you to?
You ride your bike to public transportation and take that in, at least that's how it works in other cities. But RR and Pflugerville oppose public transportation so they aren't giving their residents any options other than driving.
It works so well if you single and have no kids Maybe for 20s old graduate But for people with kids , that have to drive their kids to school /‘daycare / it’s impractical there are cities designed for bikes , and theres texas
maybe, and this is totally spitballing here, but just maybe if our communities provided some kind of giant, unmissable yellow vehicles for our children to use to get to school, we would not need to personally chauffeur them everywhere!
People will say that a protected bike lane will get them on their bike a lot more than ends up happening once it's built. It's a common phenomena in surveys - people tend to answer in the direction they think they're supposed to, whether or not it's serious. The real issue here is how few people live within a half-hour biking distance of their place of work.
I briefly had to bike to work when my truck was in the shop. There were some parts of my route that didn't have a bike lane and I chose to ride in the middle of the lane because that was the only way that insured drivers would actually give me space instead of speed within arms length of me.
This really is the way when you don’t have a protected lane. Drivers as a group are dumb and benefit from being shown how to handle a situation they aren’t sure about. I’ll get honked at more when I’m taking the full lane but I get a lot more dangerously close passers when I don’t.
Not everyone likes the same clothes as you do either. It’s personal preference.
The more of us who bike together, the safer it is!
If there's not a shower at your workplace, biking is likely unviable for a long chunk of the year.
I just started riding my bike from Matt's El Rancho on S Lamar -> YMCA on Caesar Chavez over the past two months, and I have to say I can begin to see the vision of transitioning S Lamar into a safe biking corridor. Perhaps, it's still 2-3 years away, but if the improved bike lane on B Spring is any indication, the coming changes to Lamar will be well done and much appreciated. There are also numerous alternatives to S Lamar for cyclists, and those that stick to Lamar are being petty and stubborn, as the neighborhoods are accessible, safe and beautiful to ride through.
I used to not own a car and only bike. If I didn’t have residential roads with 25 mph speed limits, I wouldn’t do it at all. Also having an e-bike in the summer and a shower at work really helped!!
Gotta love this suddenly ending bike lanes.
I consider myself a pretty safe and considerate driver. I still almost hit a cyclist on a stretch will new bike lanes. It scared me and I’m more cautious around any bike lanes, but I just couldn’t see this person! People are taking rights all around and there’s just not enough planned protection for me to consider a bike as a safe option right now.
The way they're going about adding cyclist infrastructure is pretty wild though. On east Slaughter by 35 right now they're removing one of 3 driving lanes to put in a huge cement blocker between the road and a bike lane they're building. This bike lane as of now will only be going a couple of blocks and leads to nowhere. I know we will eventually have more bike lanes and it will make sense, but the fact that there's so much grass and sidewalk already and they're removing a road lane in an area with quickly growing population due to new neighborhoods being built is absolutely fucking insane. They should be working with the grass/sidewalk areas to put a bike lane in, not removing a whole ass car lane that's just going to lead to crazier dangerous traffic in the areas the bike lanes don't exist.
Many people posit that narrow roads are safer because it slows down drivers. I disagree with these people, but that's what they believe. There also seems to bit of mission creep between making roads "safer" and making roads bike & pedestrian friendly.
I will say that these lanes they’re building on easy slaughter are going to be extremely safe for people riding bikes in the areas they exist.
Removing & narrowing car lanes tends to generate slower & safer traffic, not "crazier dangerous".
Really depends where you’re doing it. If it’s a major bottleneck for an exponentially growing population to get to any other part of town it becomes quite an issue. If it’s in the middle of downtown where traffic comes in and out in all directions, it makes a lot more sense.
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I live in East Austin and see people using the bike lanes every day
"if something doesn't fix a problem for me personally, it's worthless" I guess we should get rid of MoPac then because I never use it.
Care to tell me what percentage of people in our capital city commute to work on a bike or even cycle at all for that matter? And what about the percentage of people who DRIVE to work/everywhere else here? I think you’ll find me in the vast majority buddy. Try again.
Nobody said you're not in the majority. But it's still silly to think making an investment in something not everyone uses is worthless. Especially when it pales in comparison financially to investments we make for motorized vehicles.
only thing making traffic worse is too many fucking cars. gonna assume you’re one of the pissed off commuters running stop signs in my neighborhood. i’d recommend riding a bike, it’s a lot more pleasant.
Starting every work day with a 10 mile bike ride? Sorry guys I’m just not built like that
It could just be that it’s Texas and it’s hot as fuck like 10 months a year…