Well, it's not a Austin blogger post without a gratuitous Dallas slam... BTW, I'm sitting in my office in downtown Dallas after commuting by bike from my home (8 miles) on the Dallas MUTs (I've never, ever, heard them called 'nature trails').

Hehe, well, I lived in Dallas for 17 years and did *a lot* of bicycle commuting / riding back in the early to mid 90's (for the most part, I rode from Turtle Creek / McKinney Ave <-> Coit and Arapaho 6 days a week for nearly 5 years). I was nothing but a roadie at the time, looking down on those poor schmucks who were mountain biking (that's one thing I really didn't like about Dallas; too much emphasis on "what you had" and not on "how you rode," but that might have changed since then (I've been in Austin for the last 11yrs but it's even pretty clique-ish here)). At the time, I was averaging nearly 200 miles a week in commuting / training (I was living the dream of qualifying for the Atlanta games in '96... :) and most of that on the busy Dallas streets (primarily Oak Lawn / Preston) and the training was primarily with the guys from Richardson Bike Mart and a few times with the Chili's pro team around White Rock and out on the northern Plano roads.

I really didn't ride mountain bikes back then and I would agree with you that they really aren't "nature trails" but they were some of the few "trails" that were separated from traffic which made it safer for the cyclists. I'm not slamming Dallas; just comparing what I saw there to what is available down here. There are some truly great trails here in "downtown" Austin and even better trails scattered throughout the city and outlying areas.

Currently, here in Austin, there's been a lot of debate about how we Austinites would like our city to develop with the crushing growth that has been happening. A lot of us would like to keep the greenspaces and trails as we feel that they are a defining characteristic of this city. Otherwise, Austin really does run the risk of becoming a city much like Dallas or Houston (car friendly and a lot of sprawl). If a Starbuck's drive-thru at a strip mall is my cup of tea, I would certainly move to Plano/Dallas as it's already there. I don't need Austin to follow that path. That's not what I love about this city. In fact, it's the relative lack of those "amenities" that I like (but don't get me wrong; there's a Starbuck's about 2 miles from where I sit typing this... Next to a pool hall of all places... :)

And take heart in knowing this isn't your typical Austin blogger Dallas slam. I've got 17 years of experience to base it on! Thanks for leaving your comment!

I thought lane-splitting was illegal in Texas.

Yep, it is... But what I didn't mention in the post was that I had already been waiting near 5 minutes in traffic the way you're supposed to and, to be honest, I was getting physically tired of trackstanding the bike. I always stop for lights and stop signs and ride my bike just like I drive a car but, and I know it's not an excuse, these people in front just weren't moving and those of us behind missed 2 light cycles when I decided to go around. Everyone in line was getting frustrated and I think most people, in a similar position, would have done the same. Hell, I've seen people on motorcycles and scooters do worse things.

So does that excuse the action? Absolutely not. But would most reasonable people do the same? I'd argue most of them wouldn't have even waited through one light cycle much less sit out in traffic behind the cars. I take great care to project an image of what a cyclist should be doing (and I have been known to call out others for breaking those rules) so I deserve to be called out on this. Thanks for the comment...

Austin never feels safer than when there's a big storm that knocks out all the traffic signals. Courtesy automatically returns and all parties behave safely. It's also safer at many intersections for pedestrians to cross in the middle of the block (the right-turn thing is very dangerous for people on foot).

I posted such on Chronic: but the Urban Transportation Comm. has discussed some like radical options--but has no hope of our not-so-radical council listening. Why should we learn from the Europeans...they've only been designing civil solutions for a couple 1000 years?

No really...if we cared about safety-we'd at LEAST have implemented longer yellow light times, like 30 years ago.

Well, I'm glad to see people have brought this subject up in the past. I swear I thought I was nuts as I couldn't find a reference anywhere. But it makes sense for it to be brought up in the Urban Transportation Committee. Thanks for the info...

I also agree with you about the European attitude. They don't worship the car as much as we do here or extend the "proximity rights" to their SUV-sized hunks of metal quite like us Texans. I would love to see at least some of our intersections turned "friendlier" as I'm a regular bicycle commuter and I'll put it this way... I rode for almost 5 years, 6 days a week in the heart of Dallas traffic (Turtle Creek <-> Richardson on Preston Rd.) and only once came close to being hit by a car. In the 4 years I've been commuting here (only doing it 3-5 times a week), I've been hit twice (both by SUV at the same intersection; Red River and Cesar Chavez) and almost hit 3 other times at other intersections (2 of those at Barton Springs and Robert E Lee). Each of those times I was crossing with the light and got smacked (or almost smacked) by someone running the light well after it changed. And it's not like I spend a whole lot of time on the road (my route stays mostly on bike paths and trails).

I don't know what's in the water here in Austin but it just seems like people don't drive well down here and if you're a cyclist or pedestrian, get the f*** out of the way. So it seems like a good move to me to extend the *only* traffic rule in some intersections to be "pedestrians and cyclists have right of way... End of story." Thanks for reading and leaving the informative comment!

You are not too late to weigh in on the conversation. The council voted to use the light for a 60 to 90 day time period and then evaluate the effectiveness.

So, there will be a trial period and then some changes to the system before complete installation.