I'm resurrecting this blog, which has been silent for almost thirteen years

 In June my wife and I moved into a new David Weekley townhome community just on the western edge of the Energy Corridor. The place is called The Retreat at Oak Park, and it's on the SW corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby, over by Lupe Tortilla and those other restaurants.

For the first time since moving away from Bellaire, TX in December 1992, our home is within the primary local bus footprint of Harris County METRO, and I couldn't be more pleased. The #162 goes right to the corner of Addicks-Howell and Grisby. It's $1.25 a ride, and it takes 30 min to get to Memorial City and 60 min to get Downtown, and no parking headache and cost once there. When I turn 65 next year, the cost will drop to $0.60. My bike goes into the luggage bay bike rack on the motorcoach-style buses used for the #162. 

I was NOT prepared to use luggage bay racks yesterday. I made a mess of it, but got the bike in eventually, with help from another passenger. I should have reviewed the METRO video beforehand, but METRO had it pretty well hidden. You can find manufacturer information at Sport Works, I would just read the PDF manual and you'll be an expert in five minutes.

I can ride my bike to work at the Kirkwood Tower (11757 Katy Freeway) from The Retreat at Oak Park. They have a bike rack and showers access! I do see one other bike parked in the rack sometimes, otherwise it's just me on my in-office days, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Here is my exact route from home to work:

Link to the public map on Komoot.

I'm on the sidewalk on Memorial and Tully. I'm OK with that. A more scenic alternative is to take the Terry Hershey Trail to Dairy-Ashford, then filter through the neighborhood, cross Memorial, and come up Tully. I don't recommend the I-10 sidewalks... too many driveways. 

I only expect to drive to work if the weather is severe (heavy rain, lightning or thunder or icing conditions). If I get caught at work by bad weather, I can always fold the bike up and take a regular Uber home. It's a seventeen year old Dahon folding bike.

Waiting for Uber in front of Kirkwood Tower

I'm putting only a few miles a week on my 2012 Kia, for which I paid a friend $12,600 cash back in 2015. That's a good thing, because it has excessive oil consumption, and I really don't want to have the engine rebuilt. I'm hoping it throws a knock-sensor check engine light, there is a Kia Theta II engine class action settlement which would entitle me to a free new engine. It's strange to think that since the car has only 130,000 miles on it, this may be the last car I ever purchase, if I baby it, and change the oil every six months regardless of mileage. Does that mean I'm permanently off of this unhappy merry-go-round? 

I certainly hope so, because I have far better and nobler plans for my money in retirement than paying a car note. $750 per month is a lot of money. Many people (large truck owners, I'm looking at you) pay more than $1000 per month. That's as much as my mortgage! This Generation Jones (late Boomer) just can't over get over how much inflation has ravaged incomes and budgets since I was aware of things and how much they cost. 

If you have questions or comments, write to me at:

bikecommute.think915@passmail.com 

I know, I know... the links on margins of this blog all need to be updated!

Bus came too close to bicycle rider today (Westchase)

6:58 AM, Briarforest eastbound at Seagler, 11/28/12.

No bus number or plate seen... the bus went by too fast for me

I was legally operating my bicycle eastbound in the Briarforest bike lane, with two red rear lights, a front light, and a rear-facing safety reflector.

The bus came too close to me. The Texas CDL Manual says buses, trucks and other large vehicles should give bicycles at least five feet of clearance. This was more like three feet, which is OK for a small vehicle like a car, but not safe for a school bus with it's strong wind draft.

Buses should at least give 1/2 a traffic lane of clearance.

The bus made a pick-up immediately after passing me. The fact that there was a pending pick-up should never encourage the bus driver to take the wrong lane position with respect to a bicycle or pedestrian. That's "get-there-itis", where getting there is more important than getting there safely.

If he had a pending pick-up / drop-off, the driver should have just waited behind me, I was moving at a good clip, close to 20 MPH.

We had a horrible bike / large truck fatality at Briarforest and Wilcrest a few years ago, let's NOT repeat it, and not with me, please. The bike in that case was overtaken too closely by a large truck, and she got pulled under the wheels, crushed to death, and she died in the street with bystanders holding her hand while she passed.

You can still see the memorial flowers and cross on the NE corner of that intersection.


Peter Wang

REPLY:

"Graf, Nathan J"

Good morning. Chester Glaude is our operations manager, he will review GPS for this area and see if any Houston ISD buses were there (all district buses are equipped with GPS).  Appropriate action will then be taken. If anything further occurs please feel free to communicate directly with Chester.

We apologize that this occurred. Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Sent from my iPhone

Review of the Best Bicycle Taillights in 2012

http://bicycles.blogoverflow.com/2012/03/tail-light-review/

Get Paid To Bicycle Commute! (not B.S.!)

You can get paid to bicycle commute... no, this is not a scam. This is real, and you can start today!

Register at NuRide.com, which is the site officially approved by the Houston-Galveston Area Council for rewarding and encouraging alternative commutes; not only bike, but ridesharing, walking, and transit.

You can log all of your bike rides on the ride calendar, and your earn points, which can be redeemed for discount coupons for many different businesses. It's real money; case in point, 20% off of dinner at Le Mistral French Restaurant on Eldridge. Given that dinner for two might run $100, that's a $20 value. I've enjoyed that one. Also free Kolache Factory, free Jamba Juice, Bike Barn coupons, HEB store credit, the list goes on.

They take pains to protect your privacy. This is a professionally and well-run site. Give it a try, there is nothing to lose and you will get free stuff of your choosing.

Check the batteries in your lights!

Now that it's going to get darker earlier in the evenings, you need to make sure that your bike lights are working fine.

Yes, I did say lights, plural. The law requires that we have a bright front white light and a rear red reflector, but a better practice is to have a red rear light and a red rear reflector. I mean... what if they guy behind you forgets to turn his headlights on? No light to reflect. And, if your light malfunctions, at least you've got a reflector as a back up.

Personally, here is what I use in the darker months; a bright front light, a low mounted red rear reflector & non-blinking light combo device, and a seat mounted blinking red light (PlanetBike SuperFlash). Also, I wear an ANSI-approved highway worker's vest from AlertShirt.com, and reflective ankle bands. One of my bikes has two red SuperFlashes and an amber reflector in addition to the red reflector. Amber reflectors are 2.5 brighter than red reflectors of the same size, according to John Forester, but are not recognized by the law, unfortunately. So mine is there to provide additional support, it's not the "legal" reflector.

Does this sound excessive? It all a lot less expensive than an MRI, emergency surgery, Life Flight ($25,000?) or a funeral.

At the end of the day, I look at my lights before I turn them off. If they look dim, I check the batteries. I also check every 60 days on a schedule.

By "checking" I mean I pull the batteries out and put them on a simple DC voltmeter. If the alkaline batteries are running below 1.4 volts, I replace them. The batteries are still good for non-critical uses, but I just don't like batteries lower than that on my bike. If they are 1.0 volt or below, they are too weak for anything, and get tossed out (new alkalines start out at 1.6 volts or so).

Often, when a light is going dim, one batt is fine, but the other is dog meat. No need to toss both out, just replace the bad one.

For my bright white front light, I run rechargeable batteries, which I top off every week or two. My reason for not running rechargeables all the way around is that I don't want to spend my life charging batteries, yet I want to do something to cut down on battery disposal, so this is a compromise. Charging 4 cells at a time is OK with me. My charger, a Maha conditioning charger, holds 4. I do have some extra rechargeables so I could run the whole bike on them if I had to.

Now you see why the "no batteries needed systems" like on the Breezer Bikes hold so much appeal. For the habitual night rider, they can be convenient. However... they are costly systems, if (when?) the dynamo hubs go bad, then you're out quite a lot of money. Also, you can't move the lights to another bike. Lights are getting better, and it's hard to upgrade a fixed system. Battery lights you can move from bike-to-bike, which I do all the time. I have matching mounts on different bikes, and I just unclip and reclip the lights.

Even with all the lights, though, I don't burn through many batteries. Maybe 8 a year? That's not a big load on the environment, not compared to impact of driving my car.

LED lights are the way to go for entry-level AA or AAA battery lights. Real "bulbs" are old, inefficient technology that will waste your battery money. Now, higher-end "HID" lights with dedicated batteries are not LED, but they are in another price category. They are very bright.

The brightest rear taillight in the world is the DiNotte 140. I don't think I need that one yet. Definitely if gas goes to $15 per gallon someday and I have to bike commute all the way down SH6 with 50 MPH traffic. This one will keep them off my a**.

Please show up for this photo opportunity!

We need ALL cyclists to show up at UH Downtown METRO train stop at 6:00 am on Monday 7/19 to take pictures in celebration of expanded bike hours on the train! METRO Board Member Christof Spieler will be there to meet us.

Looking back on '09

Another year is upon us and I'm reflecting. This time last year I had so much ambition for cycle commuting that I was looking forward to doubling my 2008 mileage. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. My milage for the past year was only 957.52 miles which is 1175.53 Miles short of 2008's total.

What happened? Three things: Health, weather, and work. In 2009 I lost my race with type 2 diabetes. As much as I rode and exercised I could not get control of my blood sugar. Not until I was put on medication and a radical change in diet did it approach normal levels so for a time I just had no energy to ride. As for weather, the last half of the year had to be the wettest and coldest on record. Cold I can almost handle at least into the mid 50's; however, below that I simply don't have warm enough clothing and in sufficient volume to ride consistently. Add rain into the mix and riding became an impossibility. At work, around June I was given additional duty that stationed me away from my office and far across campus from the Rec Center were I have shower privileges. Plus, in order to ride I need access to a changing area before 6:30 am where I'm close to my bike and my temporary station did not open until 7:30 am. So my '09 ride season effectively ended at the halfway point