Comment on Texans?

Graffito, or a Comment on the Intelligence on  the Owners of the Lot Bordering This Wall? This Appeared this Week - in "Pure, Sweet, Bedford, Texas"

One thing I learned while living in California is that graffiti begets MORE graffiti. Apparently, they haven't learned that SOCAL lesson around North Texas. You see, back in January, I posted THIS odd post about some comment that was mysterious to me.

THIS week, another appeared on the same wall to keep the first one company. The owners of this now vacant lot; until recently a motel, haven't caught on to the notion that y'all have to be VIGILANT to keep graffiti from completely taking over otherwise nice and polite walls. It's something that even those in NEW YORK CITY seem to know.

Apparently, an Admonition from January that Has Been Followed-Up...

Doing Our Best

Keller, Texas MUP, showing why it's worth riding, this time of year.

North Texas isn't noted for fall color. We just don't have the Maple trees that beautify the New England States and some of the eastern Canadian Provinces. Our Oak trees just sort of turn a mud brown and the leaves fall off, leaving the trees looking dead. Nor do we have the palm trees and long daylight hours that our friends living south of the 31st parallel enjoy. We've got no snow skiing resorts (he sheds a tear, here). We've only got, as far as I know, one custom frame maker in Dallas.

Still, sometimes it's not so bad around here. We're getting more daylight than the frozen northlands and we're getting more fall color and less humidity than Alligatorland. As the guy at the gym said to me, just the other day, "you know, except for the ocean and the beach, it's just like San Diego today!"

Besides, how many of y'all outside Texas know the pledge to the Texas flag? I have to admit, the place grows on you a bit after a while.

More of the trees along the Keller, Texas MUP, in the late afternoon, looking brighter than in real life.

PS: Yes, the bike lanes in Keller are just as nice as those in Bedford, though sadly enough, Keller seems to favor the Bott's Dot approach over the safer dashed line convention favored by Bedford.

Bikes are Like Cars Only Littler

Way back when, I used to "show" my Jaguars, especially Felix. I'd get serious about detailing the car about a week before a show. It'd start with washing, which combined with the basic glaze and wax, took most of the first day. Various other items followed, including waxing the windshield with carnauba wax. For those that have never entered councours d'elegance - it's great if you are a masochist. Where else do you pay people to tell you how lousy your car is?

Well, the principle is exactly the same for detailing a bike. If you want your ancient steed or newer mount to look its best, learn a little detailing magic. Check out an auto detailing book from your library - almost ALL of it will apply to a bike.

NEVER let anybody in your family throw out an old toothbrush again! They're great for cleaning hubs, and chains, and all sorts of other items your fingers are too big to get into. Buy Simple Green in the giant economy size at Costco. Heck, you can use it on your car, too. Go to Pep Boys and look through the potions & lotions department. Got some faded rubber? Back to Black will make it look new. Got some bolts that want to rust? Meguiars has a host of products that will help. I favor Final Inspection myself. Those tires look dowdy? Just a smidge of tire shine on the sidewall, carefully wiped off will make them sharp.

Best of all, instead of a week, you can have your bike looking like something Mary Poppins would approve of ("practically perfect in every way") in just a day or two instead of a week. Bikes ARE different!

NOTE: The picture at left was my skewer "before." The picture at right was the same skewer after the paint pen took its first swipe. Now it looks "done." The Ritchie pedals also look pretty sweet now.

Give me a few days and I could even make Frankenbike pretty enough that a thief would take a second look - hmm, we could carry this detailing thing too far!

Practice for the Bike Lanes to Come

Mannytmoto of BFOC posed a thought via email that I've been considering - how to deal with bike lanes at intersections, as well as other places crossing traffic occurs. I have found the advice to "ride as if the lines are not there" to be less than useful, because those lines influence motorist travel patterns - and also police behavior. While I don't accept PM Summer's interpretation of Texas Sec. 551.103* as making use of bike lanes mandatory (shown here) in Texas, I also wouldn't have thought it was perfectly OK to totally ban bikes from streets the way that Hunter's Creek Village did. I'm just a guy that rides from where I'm coming from to where I'm going to. Bike lanes are just another characteristic of the route.

BTW, completely avoiding bike lanes is usually a practical option for a commuter who knows the local roads, and even in Seattle, I was able to avoid the really dopey bike lanes with little difficulty. The approach I'm about to describe mainly applies in those cases where there's a bike lane at a traffic choke point.

Rather than ignoring bike lane paint, it seems more realistic to treat a bike lane as another, narrow traffic lane, albeit one that is at risk to crossing movements, such as here .

Anyway, here's how I'd treat an intersection where I was NOT planning to turn right. At point A, seeing that traffic in the main traffic lane was clear after a quick head check, I'd signal a left turn, preparing to move left out of the bike lane into the "through" lane. I have done this on the bike lane on North Tarrant Parkway. Despite motorized traffic traveling at around 45mph, motorists have proven uniformly decent about letting me move left into the traffic lane from the bike lane. This was somewhat of a surprise to me at first, since there's a cyclist clearly getting out of "his" space and into "theirs." I think you'd see similar behavior after a point A signal. My only explanation is they're perplexed by a cyclist signaling a left (lane change) from that bike lane and they do the safe thing and hang back. For all they know, I'm about to make a full left turn from the RH bike lane. In effect, I take advantage of their fears of silly cyclist behavior to facilitate a safe and low stress lane change. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MOTORIST BEHAVIOR TO UNDERSTAND.

At point B, I execute the lane change, giving a nice "thanks" wave to the motorists that let me in. Then I move left through point C, to the center of the lane at point D prior to the start of the intersection. Point D just happens to be at the spot where the induction sensor or traffic camera will be triggered by me if it isn't triggered by the following cars.

After clearing the intersection, I'd signal a right turn prior to moving back into the bike lane. If I'm lucky, I stopped behind a car or two at the intersection - I've got no trouble keeping up with them until we're clear of the intersection and those behind me don't get too anxious until open space develops in front of me.

A similar sequence would cover bike lanes that end, or bike lane debris, or door zone bike lanes. Clearly, in the really BAD bike lanes, I might wind up riding in the main traffic lane the whole way. I might feel a little guilty and get honked at but, to update the nursery rhyme "18 wheelers can break my bones but honks will never hurt me."

The only real down side to this over current riding is that extra lane changes are needed. Every lane change is a chance for a mistake, just as when driving a car, but that risk seems far preferable to getting dragged under the rear wheels of a bus or truck that made a right turn across the bike lane. Often as not, motorists treat the bike lane as "inviolable" right up to when they turn. This seems to be the case even when the bike lane is dashed near the intersection rather than striped clear up to it as is often the case.

*551.103 Operation on Roadway.
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), a person operating a bicycle on a roadway who is moving slower than the other traffic on the roadway shall ride as near as practicable to the right curb or edge of the roadway, unless:
...
(4) the person is operating a bicycle in an outside lane that is:
(A) less than 14 feet in width and does not have a designated bicycle lane adjacent to that lane; or
(B) too narrow for a bicycle and a motor vehicle to safely travel side by side.

PS: One reference I found very interesting, was CommuteOrlando's comparison of a busy street before and after a bike lane was put in. That post is here. Keri Caffrey didn't move out of the lane at intersections as I'm suggesting, but there were only minor intersections in the video. Still, she'd have been at risk had one of those passing vehicles decided to make a right. As I recall, the right to use the main traffic lane when it's the safe place to ride is more clear cut in Florida than in Texas. Lucky for me, we tend to have less little cross streets than Orlando has.

Vehicular Cycling isn't Advocacy

Sometimes you find stuff that makes you reconsider. In this case; "Bike Friendly Oak Cliff." I visit BFOC on occasion. I find that I cheer for some of their posts, such as when they drag bike racks away from the scrap yard to help populate Oak Cliff, shown here, while others make me think, "what a load of ___." I take a skeptical view of what I consider an unwarranted faith in bike lanes, and in politicians wanting to experiment on cyclists to burnish their "green" image.

Recently, BFOC did a post, shown here, on new Portland Cycle tracks. Contrast it with the post on the same subject from CommuteOrlando, shown here. I commented at BFOC, suggesting that such things would be better kept away from my neighborhood. Then came a thought provoker, in a counter comment, from BFOC kahuna mannytmoto:

mannytmoto
September 1, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I can cite hundreds of bad examples of poor car lanes as well, and only yards outside my door. Same for sidewalks, many of which bring very few pedestrians, does that constitute a failed system on the whole? Specifically, the merging of Davis and Fort Worth Avenue is “a bad joke”. As far as your neighborhood, I would direct you to Fort Worth’s recent 2015 plan which announces 470+ miles of bicycle infrastructure, and is far closer to you than Oak Cliff.
I understand exactly where you’re coming from as a Vehicular Cyclist, but the reality is, it simply doesn’t bring anyone out on bicycles. I like to note League Instructor, Paul Dorn, who has not only read and trained under Forester’s Effective Cycling, but is qualified to teach the class:
“I’ve written in the past about the welcome demise of vehicular cycling (VC) among bicycle advocates. As a practical approach to individual cycling, VC makes great sense: “drive” your bicycle as if it were a vehicle, claim your space, signal your turns, ride with traffic.
However, as a basis for bicycling advocacy, VC is negative, pessimistic, and counter-productive. Essentially, VC proponents conceded bicycling’s marginality and didn’t believe the roads could be changed to better accommodate cyclists. Instead they encouraged bicyclists to accept their minority status and adapt to roads designed for high speed vehicle traffic.”

I read it, and then I read it again. I couldn't really find anything I actually disagreed with more than just quibbling. Remember, I did "Yeti" recently. VC is not a basis for bicycle advocacy any more than vehicular motor vehicle operation would be as a basis for wanting freeways. VC is merely the sound practice when operating on roads under law, and it happens to be pretty durn safe even though it contradicts what most people believe about bikes & cars. But advocacy? Probably it is worse than ineffective in a fearful society. On the other hand, I DO feel that freeways should be built consistently with vehicular operation principles, and pedestrian and bike facilities should also be built in accord with proven traffic principles (it would be a stretch to use the term "vehicular" in connection with pedestrians, but they ARE traffic nonetheless). Let the Europeans be the ones to experiment on unsuspecting cyclists.

I think, and I suspect mannytmoto agrees, there's room for all when it comes to facilities (my personal favorites are bike racks and smooth pavement). Personally, I can think of MORE low cost facilities that make things better for bikes, for other road users, and for pedestrians than anybody can afford.

For example, consider the photo at top, shot yesterday afternoon in North Fort Worth. Yes, that's a fence between that cul de sac and the collector street & sidewalk (Coffeetree Drive). No, there's no passage at all through that fence. You can't see it in the photo, but there's an elementary school a tenth of a mile ahead on the left. It cries out for a path. The school has a fence all around it too, but somebody has cut a couple of the bars so kids can squeeze through. If I lived in that cul de sac, I'd use a little path like that. If I was biking locally, I'd bike more often (well, maybe in my case, I'd bike with exactly the same frequency). If I were a kid, maybe my parents might not feel they had to drive me to school - I could WALK. It's SO SIMPLE. Doohickie ID'd a similar situation here. Just make something like the photo at bottom; taken in a Keller subdivision three miles away. John Allen talks about making community connections for pedestrians and cyclists here. Keri Caffrey talks about it here (there were at least four other good ones so go search the blog). Such facilities DO attract people to biking. Also, and importantly, they don't make things difficult for people (motorized and non-motorized) operating under vehicular rules. Giving without taking away avoids backlash.

As a second example, consider that advisory signs telling two wheeled vehicles how to trigger traffic signals (bicycles and motorcycles) are rare as hens' teeth. Putting up such signs (and painting "sweet spots") sends a reassuring message to cyclists, as well as a "bikes belong" message to motorists in addition to their proper advisory function. They might also reduce red light running. Along my commute route, I KNOW how to trigger the lights and, when they can't be triggered, I have alternate routes. How many people out to ride for the day for the first time in 20 years are going to know? They should succeed, not get frustrated waiting for a light that will never change. Nobody should have to read this blog to learn secrets of triggering traffic lights.

Such things are simple, cheap, and are rarely seen, in Dallas or elsewhere (sorry mannytmoto, not even in Portland). Such things WOULD encourage people to come out on bikes. Unlike some proposals, they don't take from one class of road user to give to another, nor do they invite motorist backlash against safe and legal bicycle operation on the roads due to a mistaken impression that bike lane lines are there to keep bikes "over there." On the contrary, they support the notion that bikes ought to be EVERYWHERE. Oak Cliff could certainly use improved ways for cyclists and pedestrians to get across the freeways, railroad tracks, and the river. Let's get some of the stuff ALL cyclists can agree on done. As ChipSeal has noted, perhaps what we need are better advocates, or at least ones that get the meat & potato work done instead of the fluff. Money's short enough that we can't fund all the simple little projects that EVERYONE interested in bikes can support - we can always tackle the expensive, glamorous ones after we sort out how to get our money's worth from them...

Frankenbike Gets OFF a Lubbock Road

I took Frankenbike along to visit Texas Tech in Lubbock. Look at the photo and you tell ME why I did a little riding on the sidewalk. Fortunately these "B" items were very localized and did not extend onto campus. Speaking of which, they've got bike lanes all over campus, combined with "Share the Road" signs. What does THAT combo mean? On the other hand, motor traffic ran about 15mph so I just went with the flow, other than telling my daughter I spit on the TTU bike lanes (I think it's the ChipSeal influence).

And yes, I rode very slowly on the sidewalk. On the way back, I just rode north until I saw a road without bricks. I don't like riding on bricks. Come to think of it, they're not fun in a car, either.

Bicycle Paint Touchup

Chandra; over on GreenComotion, got a bike paint owie, shown here.

One thing I learned from the Jaguar concours circuit, showing Felix, was how to make paint look its best, whether on the body or in the engine compartment. Bikes are a snap in comparison. One of the BEST things you can have in your collection of bike "fixit at home" stuff are tubes of appropriately colored paint. Less well known is that paint will also come in applicators that work a lot like felt pens - only with real paint. Just the trick when you notice a scratch 10 minutes before "rags down" arrives.

If my SRAM derailleur gets scratched, out comes the black paint pen and it looks like brand new again - and corrosion won't get hold of any bare metal. I can even match semi-gloss with a deft application of alternating black gloss and black flat paint. When corrosion got hold of the shifter bosses on the road bike, after proper cleaning & priming, the red paint pen made it look decent (though not perfect - these bikes are not for show, after all, but I'm after that 10 cents per mile target).

Wally World sells some of the colors. Gloss white, red, and black. A good hobby shop can get you set up with more. I suspect that if you're really A-R, you can get custom paint made up in a paint pen to match your metallic green or purple bike paint. Try here , here, or here to get started, though I've not tried these places. Or, if you're Rantwick - hot pink. If you happened to be someone named "Chandra," the stock Testors green, shown here, or the Sanford 63604 shown here; looks like neither would be an exact match, but either would make things look better while you search for a "perfect" color. Either's a bargain at under $4.

If, on the other hand, you're working with a Frankenbike, don't waste the money. Keep the corrosion away by riding so often that the rust doesn't have time to get hold of you. No need for therapy quite yet!

Advocacy, Schmadvocacy

The picture to the left might look vaguely familiar.

Cycle*Dallas, here, used its parent on Friday to illustrate the perils of narrow bike lanes, omitting to mention that the line did NOT indicate a bike lane, but was a designated "bike route," of the type Dallas has used for years, albeit with a confusing white line.

On the other hand, Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, notably enthusiastic bike lane fans, yesterday used it here to propose some expensive-looking European scene.

Myself, I'm with Rantwick, and mainly want SMOOTH (or is it "schmouthe" in Canadian?) pavement, as demanded here. However, just this once, in honor of opposite viewpoints all using the same picture, I'll join my compatriots and give MY OWN fantasy take on this exact same scene, thanks to Photoshop.

In MY road, in contrast to the BFOC road, I didn't cut lane capacity in half - and their bricks show they were not reading this post. What's more, my stuff is in ENGLISH!

In MY road, in contrast to the original, I deftly erased the sneaky white line so no one gets confused about paint rules, thus heading off a whole series of Cycle*Dallas posts. I also moved the dashed line over a couple of feet to the right (maybe I ought to have moved it over still another foot, but you get the idea). I know PM likes that idea, though he was so paint-focused he forget to mention it. Happiness is a warm, cozy lane that not even an idiot thinks anybody ought to share. Hey, wasn't that the notion behind people on bikes getting fond of paths & bike lanes way back when? We'll just call this an "extra wide shared bike/car without all the green paint" lane. Or EWSBCWATGP Lane for short.

The motorist, seeing my "you get the general idea" warning sign language (I'm an engineer, not a warning sign writer) got Photoshopped over to the left lane. Most cyclists, seeing the "gutter hazard," move at least a smidge further left than normal, and the rest think "well THAT'S a statement in the obvious." Maybe we can use some of the savings on creative murals, such as discussed here. In this scenario, the guys I worry about are my concrete guys. For them, maybe an advisory sign too far ahead to see - WARNING - TRUCKS MAKE WIDE RIGHT TURNS. Something, anyway - we don't want bikes getting gummed up in the wheels, as described here. My Photoshop skills left me inadequate to deal with the sidewalk. You'll have to imagine potted plants, street vendors, and street musicians over there.

For the ORIGINAL article and its sequel, click here and here. Personally, I think it's worth a read. Y'all need to go out riding more - this obsession with paint fumes is a little suspicious...