Fort Worth Transportation Study Workshop - November 5, 2007
Submitted by: LMRA Bicycle Club YOU ARE INVITED!
City of Fort Worth - Bicycle Transportation Study Public Workshop
(Southwest Region)
Where: LMRA, River Pavilion, 3400 Bryant Irvin Rd. Fort Worth, Texas When: Monday, November 5, 2007 Time: 6-8pm
The LMRA Bicycle Club will be hosting the first of four Public Workshops given by the City of Fort Worth Transportation and Public Works Dept.
Don Koski, Senior Planner with the City of Fort Worth, will be presenting plans for city-wide bicycle transportation development. These plans will incorporate feedback received from the online Bicycle Transportation Questionnaire.
Texas Bicycle Coalition will host the Annual BikeTexas Membership Meeting on Saturday, December 1, 2007 in its offices located at 1902 East 6th Street in Austin. The meeting will be held from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., to be followed immediately by a Happy Hour and tours of the new TBC facilities.
In previous years, annual meetings had been held in August at Wichita Fall's Hotter n' Hell Hundred Expo on Friday late afternoon. Attendance at the meetings was historically very light, primarily because of members' focus on preparation for the HHH ride early Saturday morning.
TBC has doubled its office space to 3000 square feet from the previous location on East 5th Street. A storage facility in back includes two large intermodal containers. Bike safety education material kits are assembled in a TBC warehouse two doors away. Improvements have been made slowly over the past year through a very tight cash stream and plenty of staff and volunteer "sweat equity."
Grass Routes efforts for Bike Routes/Lanes: The Plan -- Ask
By Jim Wilson
President LMRA Bicycle Club
Do you live just outside the “Big City”? Do you enjoy bicycling in your smaller town but wish there were some Bike Routes/Lanes in your city? You might live in a community outside Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, or El Paso; a major reason for your choice of residence likely includes the safer cycling. Well there’s more than just reduced traffic in these smaller communities, smaller government and greater emphasis on recreation and quality of life mean you can help bring about greater cycling safety. The first necessary action is the easiest but most overlooked- ASK!
For the second Texas Legislative session in a row Texas Bicycle Coalition has coordinated the “Sine Die Bipartisan Bike Ride”. Legislators and staff from the Capitol laid down their swords and went on a friendly 8 mile bike ride through central Austin on Sunday May 27th. It was the day before “Sine Die” which is Latin for the “final day” of the legislative session.
In spite of the threat of severe thunderstorms, Senator Rodney Ellis, D- Houston, Senator Elliot Shapleigh, D- El Paso, and Representative Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, led the group of capitol professionals on a beautiful urban bike ride.
In addition to TBC staff, Brenda Chuleewah, Mark Stine and Robin Stallings, several local volunteers helped out. Former Executive Director Gayle (Cummins) Stallings, former TBC Education Director Preston Tyree, Austin Cycling Association President Steve Coyle and longtime TBC member Michael Portman participated in the VIP ride.
Legislative Update 5/29/07
The 2007 Legislative session has ended and the Safe Passing bill, SB 248, withered on the vine. SB 248 was one of a couple of hundred bills that did not get a vote on the House floor before the clock struck midnight.
The bill made it through 90% of the legislative process, thanks to the grassroots efforts of Texas cyclists who contacted their State Senators and Representatives. The TBC legislative team, in addition to sending out the familiar action alerts to Texas cyclists, steered the bill(s) to get hearings, through the committee hearings, securing the votes one by one, hundreds of phone calls, pounding the hallways to 180 Senate and Representative offices, answering legislators questions and concerns, preparing research, engaging VIP’s in different key districts to contact their elected officials, fielding dozens of media calls to get the word out about the bill, etc
Only 23% of the 6,190 bills that were filed in 2007 made it through the legislative gauntlet this session. Although cyclists will be disappointed that we did not get the 3ft minimum passing clearance passed into law this time around, it was substantially more successful than in past sessions.
I must admit to my naiveté – I thought “Cyclists in Suits” literally meant cyclists in suits. And I kept wondering how we were all going to ride our bikes around the State Capitol Building in our best “Sunday clothes”. After all, I perspire just thinking hard, let alone riding my bicycle. Our Executive Director, Robin Stallings, had a bit of a chuckle explaining to me that while the dress code is suit and tie we would NOT be riding bicycles that day.
What Cyclists in Suits really means, if there is anyone else out there that thought the same as I, is that people with a passion for bicycling would wear a suit while meeting our Texas legislators and their staff to discuss our concerns regarding issues and bills before the house and senate affecting all cyclists throughout the state of Texas. Many of these issues and concerns would also have an impact nationwide.
TBC
