Posted: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 04:05 PM - 12,069 Readers

By: Pam LeBlanc

If you've pedaled a bicycle around Austin lately, you might have noticed something: You're not alone.

More folks, it seems, are turning to two wheels when it comes to getting to work, running errands or just having fun.

And it's no wonder. Austin has nearly year-round cycling weather, terrain that ranges from pancake flat to steep enough to make a mountain goat smile, weekly social rides and bike races, and a growing array of infrastructure designed to make it easier to travel by bicycle.

We have 166 miles of bike lanes and more than 4,500 city-installed bike racks. Austin Yellow Bike Project operates a community bike shop. In February, Austin hosted the North American Handmade Bicycle Show. Lance Armstrong, arguably the world's greatest cyclist, lives in our midst. And now the city is eyeballing a bike share system like one recently installed in San Antonio, in which people can check out bikes from public stations downtown.

But exactly how many people are cycling? We can guess by looking around that it's more than 10 or 20 years ago, but we've never really know by how much.

Until now.

Last fall, as part of a $100,000 study funded by the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the city of Austin, the Texas Transportation Institute purchased and installed two permanent bicycle and pedestrian counters - one on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway bridge over Shoal Creek and another at the Lance Armstrong Bikeway bridge over Waller Creek.

Those counters, which count passersby automatically with infrared sensors, show that on average, a total of more than 1,100 bicyclists cross those two bridges daily, with peak traffic on Saturdays - numbers so high that they surprised even Greg Griffin, a senior planner at CAMPO. Numbers spiked to about 5,000 bicyclists per day during the music festival portion of South by Southwest. Toss in pedestrians and the daily average doubles.

"There are city streets that don't have that many cars in a day," Griffin said.

The Texas Transportation Institute study also included baseline, manual counts of cyclists and pedestrians at 15 locations around the five-county region.

Among the busiest locations for cyclists included in that study? The Lance Armstrong Bikeway at Third Street, where 108 cyclists per hour passed during peak hours; Speedway at 38th Street, where 102 cyclists per hour passed; and Shoal Creek Boulevard at Stoneway Drive, with 98 cyclists per hour.

The City of Austin has done a single long-term, site-specific cyclist count - on the Pfluger Bridge. That study showed that 362 cyclists crossed the bridge on Aug. 22, 2001, compared with 528 cyclists on Feb. 17, 2010, an increase of 46 percent over nine years, or about 5 percent per year. (Conservative estimates because the first was taken in the summer and the second in the winter.)

All the new statistics will help CAMPO and the city plan for bike and pedestrian improvements the same way they plan for other modes of transportation.

"We want to know what volumes are so we can see what improvements are having effects and which are not working so well," Griffin said. "This time next year we'll have a year's worth of data to compare."

That data also will help CAMPO officials measure how Austin is doing in its effort to boost the percentage of peak period trips taken by bicycle or walking from about 7 percent in 2009 to 12 percent by 2035.

One thing that's helping is infrastructure designed to make cycling easier. Among the most recent improvements?

• The extension of Pfluger Bicycle and Pedestrian Bridge over Cesar Chavez Street.

• Installation of painted bicycle boxes, which allow cyclists to move to the front of the line at an intersection; sharrows, or shared lane markings that alert motorists that bikes may share the lane; bike lanes that are painted green where they cross vehicle lanes; and "bicycles may use full lane" signs.

• A new 12-foot pathway that crosses Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360) at U.S. 183, connecting to Jollyville Road.

• Bike lanes on Exposition Boulevard, along Barton Springs Road, at East 51st Street at the Interstate-35 overpass and along Lake Austin Boulevard.

Two other big bicycle projects are still in the works.

The final stretches of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, a six-mile east-west route through downtown, should be done by the end of the year. The route, made up of off-street concrete trails, on-street striped bike lanes and on-street signed bike routes, will extend from Veterans Drive at Lake Austin Boulevard to the Montopolis Bridge at U.S. 183.

And the city's first bicycle boulevard, on Rio Grande Street between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 29th Street, is scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

Turning Bike to Work Day into every day

Once a week for six or seven years, I'd snap a toaster-sized box packed with clothes to the back of my bicycle, climb aboard and pedal the 7.5 miles from my home in Allandale to the Austin American-Statesman offices on Congress Avenue.

Then, last May, I went hog wild.

Spurred by my participation in last year's Commuter Bike Challenge, a contest hosted by Bicycle Sport Shop to see who took the most trips by bicycle, I became a woman obsessed.

I rode every day that I could. I biked to the post office, I biked to lunch, I biked to my friends' houses. I pedaled to swim practice, too. If I wasn't traveling out of town, I hopped on my bike to go everywhere that I could.

The contest changed the way I thought about bicycling. Riding became a part of my daily life.

I didn't plan the days that I rode to work, I planned the occasional day that I didn't bike to work. I embraced my rambles alongside Shoal Creek and into downtown.

About the only trips I didn't take by bike were ones to the grocery store (I just couldn't fit a week's worth of grub into my bike trunk), long trips or those not easily doable by bike. I write the occasional car review, which requires me to leave the bike at home now and then, and I travel a lot for my job, too.

Still, I went from filling the gas tank of my car from once a week, on average, to about once every two months. My calf muscles got strong and ropey. I learned how to comfortably cycle in traffic.

I averaged nearly 250 miles per month on my bike. In all, I tallied about 3,000 miles biking to work and to do errands in the last year.

The things I've seen! I've pedaled behind Thong Guy, who wears nothing but a string bikini as he bikes around town. I've befriended a gray polydactyl cat and a flock of chickens that live along my route. I've stopped for sushi at a food trailer I pass every day. I've biked in sunshine and rain, in temperatures from the 30s to above 100. (I'll take the cold any day.)

The one constant? Traffic never matters.

Whether MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) is clogged or not, my commute takes about the same amount of time - 35 minutes coming in, 45 minutes going home.

I'm lucky, and I know that bike commuting doesn't work for everyone.

I have a shower available at the office. I have access to a company vehicle in case I have an emergency. My commute is mainly along hike-and-bike trails and roads with marked bicycle lanes. And the distance is right.

But in my last year of full-time commuting, I've realized that if you make a commitment to doing it, it's easier than you think. There are plenty of side benefits, too. I'm more fit, I keep one more car off the road and I roll into the office with a smile on my face.

From accident to safety campaign

Al Bastidas got hit by a car while cycling in 2002, incurring injuries so traumatic he was hospitalized a month, needed five surgeries and had to quit his job as a design engineer.

He was reminded how lucky he was to survive four years later, when Gay Posey-Simmons was killed while cycling along Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360).

Jarred by her death, he painted the words "Please Be Kind to Cyclists" on a sheet, hung it from his van and drove slowly up and down the road where she'd been hit by a vehicle pulling a trailer. Then he, his wife and daughter hand-painted 60 signs imploring motorists to be nice to cyclists and planted them along popular biking routes.

Now yellow-and-black "Please Be Kind to Cyclists" bumper stickers can be seen on vehicles all over the city and beyond, and Bastidas has turned his simple message into a grass-roots nonprofit organization that works to increase harmony between motorists and cyclists.

Bastidas, a former triathlete, hopes his signs remind motorists that bicyclists are on the road.

"Whatever you're doing - talking to your kids in the back seat, playing music, talking on your cell phone - stop that until you pass the cyclist. Be in the moment," he says. Increase your tolerance, too. "That cyclist in front of you is a human - a doctor, a teacher, a mother - not just a cyclist."

He encourages cyclists to respect motorists and obey traffic laws, too.

Please Be Kind to Cyclists needs donations to continue its educational push through videos, billboards and public service announcements, he says. For more information about the campaign, to make a donation or buy "Please Be Kind to Cyclists" bumper stickers, T-shirts or cycling jerseys, go to www.bekindtocyclists.org.

Safe commuting tips

from the League of American Bicyclists

• Ride on the right.

• Be predictable. Avoid sudden swerves and stops.

• Be visible. Wear bright, reflective clothing. Use lights and reflectors in low-light conditions.

• Follow and obey signs, signals and pavement markings.

• Signal when you are turning or stopping. Look over your left shoulder for traffic before you make a move.

• Yield to pedestrians.

• Watch for road hazards such as broken glass, gravel and potholes.

• Position yourself appropriately. On wide roads, ride 3-4 feet to the right of cars in the traffic lane; on narrow roads, stay just inside the traffic lane so vehicles must partly cross the middle line to pass. (This removes the temptation to squeeze by you.) For turns, work your way into the proper lane 150 feet early. Stay at least a foot away from curbs, where debris accumulates. Allow enough room for a car door to open when passing parked vehicles, and never weave in and out of traffic between parked cars.

• Ride defensively and respectfully.

Hop on the bike all May

May is National Bike Month. In Austin, highlights include a community garden bike tour on May 1, a poster exhibit and Bike to Work Day on May 20. For a calendar of all activities, go to http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/rideyourbike/.

Ready to ride? Bicycle Sport Shop is asking people to "Commit to Commute" during Bike Month. Participants pledge to get on their bikes more often and tell others why they're pedaling more. Go to www.bicyclesportshop.com.

The Commute Solutions website at www.commutesolutions.com estimates how much you are spending to drive your car, factoring in a car's depreciation, taxes and insurance.

*  Story Contributed by: Pam LeBlanc