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Deanna and I spent another weekend moving and we're mostly done.
Here's a couple of photos of the new place.
This is a shot of the front deck and main room. Click the image to see a larger version.
This is a shot of the main room.Click the image to see a larger version.
The house is not only nestled in among the beautiful Coast Redwoods (also called California Sequoia, properly Sequoia Sempervirens) but it was constructed from the same back in 1928.
We're very excited about this move :-)
Hi Mannytmoto. Some interesting comments here–not sure I fully understand or agree with your perspective on all of them.
I certainly agree that Dallas will be a nicer place when we can raise awareness and get more butts on bikes. I am all for this, and think that most cyclists agree, whether “VC” or “PC”. (I am stuck somewhere in the middle).
I already think that Dallas is a safe place to ride, and it will only get better as drivers become more and more accustomed to sharing the road with people on bikes.
I moved here from NYC, which as you know has always been a very pedestrian oriented city and is making great progress making the streets even more “complete” — working to increase quality of life, largely by human-centric as opposed to car-centric urban design and planning.
Based on my experience, I would say without hesitation that riding in the street (in a VC manner or not) in Dallas is safer than riding in a bike lane in Manhattan.
Now I am not by any means opposed to bike lanes, and other dedicated facilities, but I also think that it is important to recognize them for what they are and what they really afford in terms of safety. To not do so is foolhardy. A quick look at Transportation Alternatives interactive map of pedestrian and bicycle crashes and fatalities (http://www.crashstat.org/) will quickly dispel the notion that bike lanes will prevent a car from hitting you and possibly killing you. They may or may not make things more safe, but they certainly won’t stop a moving vehicle. The maps show well over 1,000 bike crashes in my old neighborhood, and one of those dots is mine. I can attest that getting hit by car is not fun.
Also note on these maps that the majority of the crashes occur at intersections not, mid-block. That’s not to say that there are not dangers mid-block. On average I would say that when riding in the bike lanes there, I would be forced out of the bike lane and into “traffic” at least once a block. On some blocks it was impossible to even ride in the bike lanes. Now obviously NYC and Dallas are completely different environments and a comparison isn’t necessarily fair. My point is simply that the concept of life in the bike lane may be different than the reality.
What will you say when Dallas has it’s first rear-ender fatality in a bike lane?
If we have bike lanes it will happen. I suspect that’s when agitation for fully separate facilities will begin. Bike paths with barriers. You can see this in NYC and other cities around the world which have had dedicated bicycle facilities for some time. They have recognized the inherent limitations of bike lanes and being committed to dedicated facilities, have moved toward bike PATHS and other forms of separate or barrier protected infrastructure. If we are going to learn from them and follow their good example, why not start there? Why repeat their mistakes?
The catch of course is that it is highly unlikely that there will ever be enough federal and local funding allocated to create and maintain enough of a dedicated bicycle infrastructure to make it practical for folks in Dallas (even in “urban” Dallas as you define it) to get around using bike lanes/paths. I wish that this were not true, but I fear that it is. Presumably we’ll be using a mix of bike paths, streets with bike lanes, and streets without bike lanes.
I fear that we’ll see a lot more “infuriated” drivers once we do have bike lanes. I suspect that we’ll be hearing a lot more, “Get out of the #$%$$# street!” from motorists who will erroneously view bike lanes as the ONLY acceptable place for cyclists, even if there is no bike lane present on that particular street, or if the bike lane is unusable or blocked (which will be common).
And of course once we start spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to create bike lanes, I suspect we’ll see the pro-car/anti-bike folks really organizing and agitating to have those funds spent on things like pot-hole repair and highway expansion, and some of them will not drive “friendly.”
You note that you are interested only in serving what you call “urban” riders, and you seem willing to do so at the expense of other Dallas residents. It would appear to me that the “fearless long commuters” as you call them are actually quite fearful that what you are seeking–a very limited network of bicycle infrastructure in YOUR neighborhood–might make it more difficult or even illegal for them to go about their daily lives.
It would be a shame if this proved true, particularly if that limited infrastructure did little to actually improve safety. If as you state in the last two sentences of your comment above that it is as simple as increasing awareness and safety, can’t that be done more effectively through means other than infrastructure?
It seems to me that we could accomplish the goals of increasing awareness and safety through EDUCATION and ADVOCACY more effectively than through infrastructure (and at a much lower cost). After all, the goal is to change human attitudes and behavior–to sell cycling as a safe, normal and appropriate option. (In my opinion, infrastructure without education is asking for more trouble).
As I have said in comments on Cycle*Dallas, if we as a city are going to make infrastructure changes, I think we should start by enhancing our existing bike route system with painted sharrows (bike graphic) on the roads. Not to indicate cyclist lane position, but to make clear to all road users that a given street is a designated bike route. This would clearly communicate to motorists that bike are legitimate road users, without pigeonholing them into the gutter. It would be education and advocacy–in the form of paint on the asphalt.
I guess you hit a nerve as I’ve typed much more than I expected to, so I will close with some kudos to you. BFOC has done some fantastic things. I am psyched to see you guys salvaging bike racks, mobilizing local folks and businesses, and organizing rides. Thank you and keep up the good work!
