Also another favorite website of mine, WalkScore, is updating its rankings to also provide a transit score for your address as well as a better walking algorithm that uses actual walking distance vs. “crow fly” measurements.  Good stuff and great to see these interesting tools get more refined and more useful to planners and citizens alike.

This GE tool makes me think some other countries are going to have some even more challenging issues in the not too distant future.

 GE Aging Link

What you see in this picture is a bunch of extremely handsome gentlemen, their trusty steeds, and a bunch of extra room on a METRO light rail vehicle at approximately 6:00 AM this past Monday. (Behind the camera: a bunch more gentleman AND ladies with THEIR trusty steeds). Granted, this picture is exceptional for several reasons. Very frequently, there are a lot more people riding these trains, and they would be filling in all those empty spots. Also, several of the people in the picture probably wouldn’t normally be on a light rail train – or awake, for that matter – at 6:00 AM. Most importantly, until very recently you wouldn’t have seen bikes on the trains at that hour at all because they were prohibited for everything but a narrow midday window.

Those days of darkness for transportation alternatives are no more! Those courageous individuals above sacrificed their precious, beloved sleep to celebrate METRO’s new, improved bike-on-train hours: early morning (4:30 – 6:30, for the morning commute), midday (9 AM – 3 PM), and evening (after 6 PM). That’s a substantial improvement, and a lot of people who previously pined for a combined bike/train commute can now experience the metaphysical thrill of being ON a bike ON a train ON a track. The only thing that would be even better (or at least make for a better-selling movie) would be if that track was IN a dream WITHIN a dream. But, my friends, taking your bike onto trains in Houston is definitely no longer a dream.

For more bike-on-transit thrills, check out METRO’s information page: http://www.ridemetro.org/Services/Rail/BikeGuide.aspx

Compare that with some other cities and you can see the real impact.

Wanye County, MI (Detroit)

Cook County (Chicago)

Los Angeles County, CA (LA)

One of the best ways to address this is by providing better feedback to the drivers and now BMW and Audi are sharing their work on the issue in improving feedback directly within the automobile.  The growth of WiFi and networked intersection will continue to make this information more available so it is good to see automakers anticipating the change.

As transportation dollars are harder and harder to come by with tighter budgets for cities and states, using the infrastructure in place more efficiently is one positive step to address out mobility and air quality issues.

I came across this in the Nudge Blog that Rickard Thaler and Cass Sunstein write, building on their book Nudge which you will probably enjoy if you like books along the lines on Gladwell or Freakonomics.  It shows how the City of Gainesville, FL is using signage to share feedback on drivers behavior in the likelihood or yielding for pedestrians in the crosswalk.  It provides a nice reminder that you hope would carry over into future driver behavior.  Apparently the trend is positive in terms of compliance.  Similar trends have been seen in active feedback speed limit signs as well.

Here is the full link as well as another about Bogota and mimes.  Who doesn’t enjoy a good mime story.  Anyone? Bueller?  It is interesting how often their blog touches on transportation related issues but really does make sense given the significant number of decisions that a driver has to make even in the course of a simple trip.

Would be interested in hearing about any other successful transportation nudges you come across.

Nice recent write up by Tom Vanderbilt, author of the book Traffic, in Slate magazine on designing a better stop sign.  It included this link to a great parody video on the development of a new stop sign.  It was not that long ago that stop signs were yellow so maybe we have made some progress.  He also references Gary Lauder’s TED talk which we mentioned previously on this blog.  His article does make some interesting and valid points about the declining effectiveness of excessive signage and the need to think about roundabouts where four way stops exist.

That’s right folks. Friday. If you’ve been reading my blog posts this year about bike commuting to work, and have been thinking “gosh, that guy sure is cool for riding 16 miles to work; I’ve got to try it sometime,” well, this Friday is your day. Or if you’ve been reading and thinking “that jerk sure must be full of himself to write about his bike riding so much,” then this Friday is your day to take to the Brays Bayou Trail and push me off my bike to teach me a a good old-fashioned lesson in humility. Whatever your reason for desiring to hop on your two-wheeled, this is the Friday to do it.

Why? What a question!

It just so happens that May is National Bike Month. Not good enough for you? Well, this week is Bike-to-Work Week! STILL not convinced?? WELL, Mr./Ms. Excuses, how about: Friday is Bike-to-Work DAY! What else could you want? You’ve got the bike-trifecta: bike month, week, and day. Point, set, match.

(Honestly, the weather would have been cooler last month. And the wildflowers would have still been out. But I guess April may still be too cold in some parts of the country to proudly adorn the crown of Bike Month. At least they didn’t wait until July.)

So, will I see you out there on Friday? I’ll be riding. I’m sure some of my colleagues will too. My boss said he’ll walk – I guess we can let that technicality slide IF he actually does it. I’ll let you know.

If you work in Downtown and live out on the west side, you might want to meet up at Memorial Park for the City’s bike-to-work shindig. I’ve done it before; it’s great fun. (Unfortunately, I then had to hop in my car to get to work on time. I also found myself on television when Mayor White was giving an interview and I yelled “WATCH OUT!!” when a biker got stuck in his clip and appeared to be barreling towards our cyclist-in-chief. Hopefully all traces of that video have been removed from the internet. Why do I doubt that.) Mayor Parker will be there, and the City’s great ped/bike staff will too. There’s usually music and loads of free food and goodies. I highly recommend free food and goodies. Information about the event is at the City’s bike and ped website.

Remember, 5 miles to work is roughly 30 minutes of bike riding at a moderate pace. More than half of the US lives within that distance of work – which means there’s a good chance you do too! If you need any help figuring out a route, I’d be happy to help. Use the handy “Contact” button in the upper right-hand side of the screen, and I’ll try to get back to you right away!

See you Friday!

• Houston has so many opportunities for bikeways and trails if we can only execute on some of the plans that exist…we should make this list in the near future
• And speaking of parking and biking…how about this

There. Proof. Actual engineers in actual spandex. This picture is a little misleading however; it was taken on the morning of the second day, and you’ll notice that none of us is simultaneously smiling and sitting down on the bike seat. I found that to be a rare combination on Day Number 2. But you know what? It was still awesome. The whole thing. That thought 80 miles in that “holy cow, I might actually be able to make it 150 miles.” Then the thought at 110 miles that “holy cow, I might not be able to make it 150 miles.” And then making it 150 miles. Awesome.

Oh, and we did pretty well at fundraising as well. Our team fundraising goal was $2,500 – and we crushed it with over $4,000. Thanks to all the generous supporters who not only helped us reach our goals, but more importantly, provided valuable contributions towards finding a cure to multiple sclerosis.

I’d also be remiss if I failed to mention that the picture above doesn’t include the entire TEI Team. Our support staff – Rachel, Martha, and kiddos – and their amazing planning and execution were absolutely essential to making this ride the great experience and success that it was. They drove us to the start, waited for us at the end, took pictures, found a hotel, reserved rooms at the hotel, and all in all made the whole thing possible. Thanks you wonderful gals – you rock!

As for me – the bike commuter – what now? People have been asking me for quite awhile now whether or not I would continue to bike to work after the MS150. After all, in an earlier post I implied that I was biking just to train for the MS150, so now that that’s done, shouldn’t I stop giving my grandmother unhealthy levels of anxiety (she has threatened to slash my bike tires) and settle down into a more “normal” Houston lifestyle?

No freaking way. Biking is too much fun! (Sorry Grandma!)

The MS150 was a good way to get me started. It provided that first initial push to forego the comforts of the automobile and hop on my bike once or twice a week. But now that I know I can ride 150 miles with no more than a little soreness in my nether regions (which is quickly dissipating), my 16 mile bike commute seems downright tame. I think for me, the MS150 was a mental barrier that once surmounted will enable me to bike even more than I was previously. So never fear – your favorite Bike Commuting in Houston Blog (I’m only making that outrageous claim because it’s the only one with which I’m familiar) isn’t going anywhere! And now, gratuitous wildflowers: