Biking around Dallas. As bad as you think? Specifically…
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Biking around Dallas. As bad as you think?
Specifically biking for transportation, to get somewhere. Or scootering, skating, whatever. I'm not about to tell you it's _good_, but I will tell you that for many parts of town, it's more possible—even pleasant—than you might think.
The last several months I've been working on a project with Dallas Bicycle Coalition to identify a city-wide network of (relatively) low stress bicycle routes: trails, quiet residential streets, shopping center parking lots, the occasional sidewalk, any paved surface where you're not likely to be mixing it up with lots of fast-moving cars. _Decent_ bike lanes, not lousy ones (most here: lousy). The best places to cross a freeway, or a monster like Loop 12. All of these routes should connect, otherwise they're not very useful. And they should be ok for someone riding alone, any time of the week, on any type of ultralight vehicle, from inline skates to a beefy fat tire bike.
Thanks to some cycling advocates in Denver who built the platform, the Dallas map is available here https://www.bikestreets.com/tx/dallas/ , and via a nice app called Bike Streets which gives you turn-by-turn directions while riding. You can use it for free. (If you find it useful and have the means, they'd appreciate you donating a few dollars per month.) The app has a 'flyby' feature which lets you preview the whole route, and it'll show you if there's any known bike parking near your destination, which is another project I've been working on. It has features for adding suggestions and reporting problems. I've been trying my best, but I'm sure people, maybe you, can improve on things. Richardson Bicycle Coalition and Walkable Arlington are also adding coverage there, so it's not limited to Dallas proper. And I'm still working on expanding and improving the Dallas network, so if there's nothing in your part of town yet, tell me and I'll work on it.
If you've ever thought about riding your bike somewhere instead of driving, or tried Google Maps' biking directions and been demotivated/horrified, see if Bike Streets can find you a route. In many cases the result can be surprisingly ok, and non-life threatening. Certainly not the most direct, but on a bike that matters way less than when sitting in a car. Of course some parts of Dallas really are hopelessly car dependent, but it's not as many as people think.
#local
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Specifically biking for transportation, to get somewhere. Or scootering, skating, whatever. I'm not about to tell you it's _good_, but I will tell you that for many parts of town, it's more possible—even pleasant—than you might think.
The last several months I've been working on a project with Dallas Bicycle Coalition to identify a city-wide network of (relatively) low stress bicycle routes: trails, quiet residential streets, shopping center parking lots, the occasional sidewalk, any paved surface where you're not likely to be mixing it up with lots of fast-moving cars. _Decent_ bike lanes, not lousy ones (most here: lousy). The best places to cross a freeway, or a monster like Loop 12. All of these routes should connect, otherwise they're not very useful. And they should be ok for someone riding alone, any time of the week, on any type of ultralight vehicle, from inline skates to a beefy fat tire bike.
Thanks to some cycling advocates in Denver who built the platform, the Dallas map is available here https://www.bikestreets.com/tx/dallas/ , and via a nice app called Bike Streets which gives you turn-by-turn directions while riding. You can use it for free. (If you find it useful and have the means, they'd appreciate you donating a few dollars per month.) The app has a 'flyby' feature which lets you preview the whole route, and it'll show you if there's any known bike parking near your destination, which is another project I've been working on. It has features for adding suggestions and reporting problems. I've been trying my best, but I'm sure people, maybe you, can improve on things. Richardson Bicycle Coalition and Walkable Arlington are also adding coverage there, so it's not limited to Dallas proper. And I'm still working on expanding and improving the Dallas network, so if there's nothing in your part of town yet, tell me and I'll work on it.
If you've ever thought about riding your bike somewhere instead of driving, or tried Google Maps' biking directions and been demotivated/horrified, see if Bike Streets can find you a route. In many cases the result can be surprisingly ok, and non-life threatening. Certainly not the most direct, but on a bike that matters way less than when sitting in a car. Of course some parts of Dallas really are hopelessly car dependent, but it's not as many as people think.
#local
source
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