8th May, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
May is national bike month, and Bike to Work Austin has a list of 10 great reasons why you should try to bicycle more:
1. Meet your Neighbor – Bicycling allows you to see the world on more of a human level (rather than being strapped into a metal box to get around). Stopping at a stop sign and pulling up next to a cyclists lets you chat, meet your neighbors, and perhaps even fall in love.
2. Stay fit – Bicycling burns calories, gets the heart going, and tones muscles.
3. Keep Money in Your Pocket – Gas prices are only increasing – not to mention the average American spends 17% of their income on transportation. Cycling allows you to take a big chunk out of that and use it for other things, like healthier meals, new cycling clothes, or contributions to your favorite bicycle advocacy organization. Instead of paying for car insurance, registration, and gas taxes, think about spending your money locally at small businesses.
4. Grow the Local Economy – By reducing our need for oil, bicycling allows cyclists to spend more money locally. Many bicycle-related parts are made in the US, and bicycle shops are often owned and staffed by local employees.
5. Create more jobs – When we grow the local economy and spend on bicycle-related infrastructure, we create more local jobs. Bicycle infrastructure creates 11 jobs per million dollar invested, versus building road infrastructure, which only creates 8 jobs per million dollar invested.
6. Keep the Air Clean – Bicycling does not produce any greenhouse gases and reduces your carbon footprint.
7. Reduce your impact on local roads – Motor vehicles are heavy. Their weight can eventually wear away roads, create pot holes, and other maintenance needs. Bicycles (even with a rider) are significantly lighter, and have less of an effect on the roadway, allowing the City to save money by having to do less maintenance.
8. Reduce congestion – Bicycles take up less space than cars. When choosing to ride your bike, you are one less car driving on the roadway, which means those people that have not learned of all the benefits of riding are still benefiting from less wait time, and shorter lines at intersections.
9. Improve the Quality of Life – Slowing down, breathing in the fresh air, and enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of Austin is quality. If you are stuck in a motor vehicle, you can’t appreciate any of these things.
And Last but NOT Least
10. Have FUN! Have you ever bombed down a road on a bicycle on a cool morning? What about navigated traffic efficiently, effectively, and safely? How about riding with your significant other or friends to dinner on bicycles? These are just some of the joys that happen when you bicycle.
Check out the Bike to Work Austin website for more great tips! Also, this link on their page has a great list of biking events during the month of May, like “the Yoga ride” and a list of places that will be giving out free food (I noticed Blue Dahlia Bistro) during bike to work day, which is next week, May 18th.
20th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I have one more update about free food around Austin today if you bike to work today: the Chipotle on 8th and Congress is also participating. Here is the info they sent me:
This Friday, in honor of “National Bike to Work Day,” Chipotle Mexican Grill on Congress (located downtown) will host a FREE food event for guests who ride their bicycles to the restaurant during the hours of 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. All guests need to do is show up on their bike and the restaurant will give them a burrito, order of tacos, salad or burrito bowl for free. No strings attached.
Enjoy!
12th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
The Statesman had an article today noting that the city has updated its bicycling map of the city:
This edition has user-friendly enhancements to provide way-finding for all levels of bicyclists. Roadways are color-coded into high, medium, and low comfort categories, street grades are coded as mild, medium, and steep, and separated paths are clearly marked. Another key feature is a safe riding guide that explains common traffic maneuvers, signaling, and basic traffic law.
As always when the Statesman publishes any article relating to bicycling, whether it has to do with a cycling death, Lance Armstrong, new bike lanes, etc., the crazies come out of the woodwork and leave ignorant comments about how “90% of cyclists ignore the traffic law” and veiled threats about cyclists deserving to be hit by cars. It’s pretty sad to read these comments from what is supposed to be a progressive/green city. I digress, but my point is, don’t read the comments unless you want to be agitated!
Anywho, you can check out the new map, which really is quite handy for helping you figure out safe routes for errands and your work commute, from the city’s website here. It’s pretty detailed and hard to read on a computer though, so you may want to pick one up at a local bike shop, where they sell for $2.
11th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Mark your calendars for next Friday, May 20th for Bike to Work Day. There are several free food options:
- Whole Foods and REI are teaming up that day to offer free breakfast foods from 7AM to 9AM at either Whole Foods location if you ride your bike to work that day. Plus you can get complimentary minor adjustments made to your bike while you’re there. Check out more info here.
- Stop by Luke’s Locker between 7AM and 9AM and between 4Pm and 7PM for free food and drinks. Check out info about that event here.
- Wheatsville Co-Op will have free food from 7-9AM. Find more info here.
Look for updates as I find out about more spots to grab free food on May 20th.
29th October, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The ABL has this article today, which says that:
Austin City Council approved a deal Thursday with the Texas Department of Transportation to build 10 miles of new bicycle lanes.
The city and the state are each cutting a check for $569,500, for a total project cost of about $1,139,000, according to city staff.
The state money came from the federally-funded Transportation Enhancement Program, officials said.
Read more: City of Austin building $1.1M in bike lanes | Austin Business Journal
4th October, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman has a short article today which says that in 2000, 73.6% of Austinites drove themselves to work alone in a car, compared to 72.7% in 2009. While there was a slight decrease in those 9 years, it wasn’t much progress. However, if you include carpooling as a “bad” form of transportation and lump it together with driving to work alone, then in 2000, 87.5% were traveling to work that using one of those two methods, compared to 83.1% in 2009, a 4.4% change. I happen to think carpooling is much better than driving by yourself though, so I think the 73.6% to 72.7% is more telling. The article points out though that any decrease in percentages of workers driving themselves to work was negated by the increase in population:
Given the 19.7 percent increase in Austin workers over those 10 years of survey numbers, the actual number of people driving alone or carpooling increased from about 309,000 to almost 356,500. The people driving by themselves made up all of that increase and then some (total carpoolers decreased).
21st July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
The Ciy of Austin beat out Portland, Oregon; Greensburg, Kansas; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Boston, Massachusetts for VH1′s Do Something Award in the City category. The award show was held on July 19 to honor young people’s commitment to social change. Austin won the award because it is “leading the nation in car sharing programs and encourages biking as a primary form of transportation.” Way to go, Austin!
7th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
VH1 is putting on the Do Something Awards, which, according to their website, honors young people’s commitment to social change. Different categories of people and organizations will be honored, and Austin is nominated in the City category for encouraging “biking as a primary form of transportation.” Flex that Texan pride and head over to their website to vote for Austin.
20th May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day, and not only will you be greening up your commute and getting some fun exercise, but there are also three opportunities for free food, so don’t miss out! In the morning, plan on taking a few minutes out of your biking commute to get some free breakfast at several locations around town, including Whole Foods, City Hall, Wheatsville, the Coffee Bean, and Mellow Johnny’s. For lunch, be sure to bike over to the Chipotle on Congress and 8th for a free burrito, bowl, salad, or order of tacos between 11 am and 5 pm! Then, if you’re still feeling hungry, grab an afternoon snack at one of the Austin Public Libraries handing out free goodies to cyclists. Happy biking and eating!
17th May, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Just a little reminder that this week is Bike to Work Week and Friday is Bike to Work Day! Here’s a link to a lot of helpful info to make your commute easy and safe, and don’t forget to reward your cycling-to-work self with free breakfast and snacks and free Chipotle on Friday!
30th April, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
May is Bicycle Month, and Austin is partnering with several community organizations and businesses to promote bicycling to work, to school, and for fun. Here’s what you need to know to get in on all the biking excitement:
- Today, from 11:30 to 1:30 at the City Hall plaza, the city is throwing a kick-off party with live music, food from Pita Pit, and all the info you need about riding your bike.
- Bike to Work Week is May 17 -21. If you haven’t already, try out a bike commute this week–it can help you wake up, get in shape, and be kind to the environment all at once. Here’s a helpful booklet with suggestions on how to be safe and make the most of your two-wheeled commute.
- Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 21, and several businesses will be providing free breakfast and afternoon snacks to bicyclists. Free food!
- Need a helmet for your new commute? These local bike shops are offering a 20% discount on all helmets during Bike Month!
- And if you’re up for some friendly competition, consider signing up for the Austin Commuter Challenge. Teams or individuals earn points by making trips by bike, regardless of distance. Any trip you would normally spend in the car counts as a point: biking to work, to the store, to the pool, etc. Sign up on the website or at the kick-off party today at City Hall. Today is the last day to sign up, so get on over there and get to biking!
9th April, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Bicycling Magazine recently listed its top 50 bike-friendly cities in the country, and Austin ranks in at number 11! Click on the other cities on this map to read more about them, or just click the arrows to go through the cities in order of their ranking. And here’s that link to our city’s Bicycle Master Plan again, if you want to read about how Austin is planning on becoming even more bike-friendly.
8th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
The Austin Chronicle has a nice update of the Bike Boulevard plan, in which it states, “much of the traffic calming and other devices intended to benefit bicyclists have been moved from Nueces Street, as originally proposed late last year, and over to Rio Grande Street.” The plan is meant to provide a corridor for Austin bicyclists to get in and out of downtown safely. The cycling community is divided in its support of the changes which city council will consider May 13th.
11th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
The Chronicle had this really interesting and well written article about the city of Austin’s bike plan, which included a lot of information I was unaware of. For example, did you know that Austin has a bicycle program manager? And that Austin has a total of more than 131 miles of bike lanes, with a goal of having 750 miles? Or that since 2007, Austin has been recognized as a silver level bicycle friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists, a ranking which only 23 U.S. cities met? (10 cities ranked as gold in 2009 and three ranked as platinum (Portland, Boulder, and Davis, California.))
Check out the Bicycle Master Plan for more info about Austin’s goals.
10th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Austin is one of 150 cities that will be a part of Google’s new bike routes map service. Google Maps already provides directions for people traveling by car, public transit, and walking, and now it will provide directions for bicyclists as well. The bike directions are formulated to avoid steep hills and congested intersections and to utilize dedicated bike trails (which will appear as dark green lines), roads with bike lanes (light green lines), and roads without bike lanes that are safe for cyclists (dotted lines). Google employees will be showing off the service at several events during SXSW, including the Mobile Social Event on Saturday.
4th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
According to the Austin Chronicle, the city’s Public Works Department unveiled the results of a study done by HDR Engineering, which predicted what the proposed Nueces bike boulevard may do to traffic. The report claims that whether the bike boulevard is built or not, many of the intersections on the boulevard will be congested and experience delays. For more details, check out this article.
22nd February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
There has been much discussion about making Nueces Street more bike-friendly in an attempt to divert bicycle traffic away from car traffic and to provide a safe, non-hilly street for cyclists. This plan, originally proposed by City Council in its bicycle master plan, has sparked controversy among business and home owners on the street who claim that the bike boulevard would hurt their businesses and decrease their home values. If you’d like to take part in the discussion, there will be a public forum on Wednesday, February 24, at 6:00 pm at Pease Elementary School. Check out the Statesman’s article for more info.
