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A city bike plan

12.05.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

Cycling in Austin from Citizens for Transportation Choice website.
Cycling in Austin from Citizens for Transportation Choice website.

With the growing number of cyclists, cities will have to adapt to increased strain on their infrastructures as bikes and motor vehicles compete for space. In Austin, the city is considering a new bike plan. It calls for some interesting additions — most of which make perfect sense.

  • A north-south and east-west dedicated bike “boulevard.” This would probably be a bike lane added to existing major thorofares, but the hope is that more people will choose to cycle if bike lanes are available on busy streets.
  • Prohibiting parking in bike lanes, and making them tow-away zones.
  • Requiring bike lanes on all new roads, and adding them to existing roads.
  • Full time funding for the city Bicycle Coordinator (this has been an easy target for budget cuts in the past).
  • A permanent Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission to make sure the city keeps meeting the needs of cyclists.
  • A timetable to make sure these things get done in a timely manner.

Heck, these kinds of improvements could probably be made in cities all across the country. Austin grew rapidly during the 1990s, and that growth catered more to cars than to alternative or mass transportation. We have some catching up to do.

Today, I signed a petition encouraging the City Council to adopt such a Bike Plan. I’m looking forward to riding in a more bike-friendly city.

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Categories // Community, Commuting Tags // bike lanes, infrastructure

Be the first one to wave

11.27.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 7 Comments

While out for a quick morning ride, I noticed a lot of other cyclists trying to get some miles in themselves. But I also noticed something I’ve heard others mention recently — not a lot of them acknowledge other cyclists.

I get a kick out of it when I meet another rider, and we exchange a wave an a smile. In most cases, I’ve never seen the other person before, and probably won’t again. That makes it just that much more pleasant.

Back in my jogging days, I’d always wave and say “hi” to other runners. Just by being out there, pounding the pavement, they had a connection to you.

Biking seems to be that way more often than not, but lately, there are a lot of nots.

Today I wore my cheapest, plainest jersey and shorts. Maybe other riders thought I was too unsophisticated to waste a wave on. But whatever the reason, I got fewer waves today than usual.

And it’s not just the guys done up in the pro kits. Guys in cargo shorts and t-shirts can ignore you just as easily.

Come on, folks. Help build the biking community. When you pass someone headed in the opposite direction, be the first to wave. It’ll make them feel good, and you’ll have done your good deed for the day. If they’re grumpy, or shy, and don’t wave back — so what? Just keep waving.

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Categories // Community Tags // wave

The international blog audience

06.25.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

Back in my junior high school and high school years, I used to listen to broadcasts from around the world on shortwave radio. One of the statistics I kept was a record of how many foreign countries I had received.

Shortwave radio is now passé, since most of the international broadcasters stream their programs over the Internet. But I find I’m collecting countries again, among folks who find this blog and spend a little time here.

I was astounded a few months ago when Bike Noob drew its first comment from overseas, from Brazil (Olá, Renato!). That was followed by other commenters from Germany and Singapore.

Site Meter, which I use to track visitors to the blog, uses little flag icons to show where visitors come from. I get a kick out of seeing flags of countries that haven’t been here before.

For each numbered link in “detail,” Site Meter tells you the name of the ISP, the operating system and browser, and what pages within the blog visitors started and ended their visit.

And, for every 100 visits to the blog, Site Meter displays a pie chart showing what percentage of those visitors come from given countries:

This example is a bit unusual, in that U.S. visitors tend to account for 75-85 percent of Bike Noob’s page views. Australia, the U.K. and Canada often alternate in second place. In the above example, those countries’ numbers are a little higher than average, which is usually closer to six percent each.

As of today, I have had visitors from 46 different countries around the world. While I treasure every overseas visitor, I delight in getting page views from “exotic” locales, such as the U.A.E., Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Malaysia. I hope you are able to understand my idiomatic English.

I have spoken before of blogs as being part of an online “conversation,” and I believe that my experiences here bear that out. Individuals from any part of the globe can get along. It’s their governments that make things difficult. Let’s keep the conversation going. Ride, post, comment, repeat.

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Categories // Blogging, Community Tags // Blogging, countries, Site Meter

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