No biking today in southeast Texas. Fog, rain and some more fog.

Bicyclist injured in hit-and-run wreck
By Dale Lezon        www.chron.com
A 58-year-old man was critically injured in a hit-and-run wreck as he rode his bicycle on a road in northwest Harris County late Tuesday night.

The collision occurred about 10:10 p.m. in the 13200 block of FM 529 when the bicyclist rode his bike into the eastbound lanes of the road, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The driver, who struck…

Helping the much needed medicine go down…..
by Laura Scagno             Austin Ridge Riders

You can’t please all the people all the time. In many cases, you just do what is right and sit back until the dust settles. That being said, we send our sincerest thanks to Jake Carsten and Jenny Abraham of the Subaru/IMBA Trail Care Crew for hosting the Better Living Through Trails presentation and conducting the trail building school over the past weekend (February 11-12, 2012).  …

Spoonful Of Sugar
by Jake and Jenny        www.imba.com
Trail closures and reroutes. It can be a sticky topic. You certainly can’t make everyone happy all of the time. Inevitably, when you make the decision to shut down a section of trail because it’s unsustainable or unsafe, you will be shutting down somebody’s favorite stretch of trail. When you do decide it’s best to close something down, it’s best to try your best to replace it with a reroute that will provide as many or more smiles as the section you’re closing.

We and our hosts, the Austin Ridge Riders, faced this very issue on our project this weekend. Walnut Creek Park is a very popular trail system in metro Austin and very heavily trafficked by mountain bikers, hikers, runners, and off-leash dog walkers. It’s a wonderful in-town recreation resource, but it’s being loved to death. The heavy traffic, drought-deluge cycles, and numerous unsustainably routed fall-line trails have led to ongoing maintenance issues on sections that hold…

Who made the decision as to the 2012 IMBA Trail Care Crew Project at Walnut Creek and why?
by chardog                 Austin Ridge Riders
There has been some talk on BikeMojo regarding the trail work completed at Walnut Creek over the weekend of Frebruary 11-12. I wanted to share this response from members of the IMBA Trail Care Crew regarding the location and project selected.
Charlie
VP Austin Ridge Riders

From the IMBA TCC
The IMBA TCC took the time to provide this detailed explanation of the rationale, considerations and approval process involved in the trail project. Once again, thanks to the TCC crew and all the great volunteers on this and every trail project:

We analyzed five different potential trail projects with the Ridge Riders to be a part of the IMBA Trail Building School. After much deliberation and with input from the park manager, we identified the reroute / reclamation of the 4-way fall line intersection as the project providing the most learning potential for volunteers, and the most overall positive improvement to…

Let’s Talk About Switching Up Your Bike Type
by Darryl            lovingthebike.com
We’re back with another installment in our “Let’s Talk” series, and this one is about switching up the type of riding you do.  As always, this post will be totally built by you and I’ll simply provide a few words and a video to get you started.

We want to hear your thoughts and comments about changing up the kind of riding you do.  If you’re a roadie, do you ever get out on a fixie or urban bike?  How about you mountain bikers….do you ever do any other type of riding?  Whatever your main type of cycling is, let’s talk about the times you get out for other types or…

Austin Bike Culture Calendar Events: 2/16- 2/22/12
by elliott            Austin on Two Wheels
Here’s a quick run down of recommended events for the coming week from our comprehensive calendar of all cycling events. As always, if there is an event you know about that’s not on our calendar contact us, and we’ll add your event on and possibly add it to the weekly round up.

Thursday, February 16
Thursday Night Bike Polo
5:00 PM, Metz Park, 2407 Canterbury St
The Austin Bike Polo Club’s holds 3 hardcourt matches a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, at Metz Park. All bikes and skill levels are welcome and spare mallets and balls are available if you don’t have any. …

Viva! Streets Community Info Meeting Tonight
by elliott            Austin on Two Wheels
Austin is finally jumping on the ciclovía bandwagon with the proposed first one dubbed Viva! Streets scheduled for this May. The event will close East 6th Street to automobile traffic and reclaim city streets as public space for people. Tonight is an information session on the event. …

First pedals
by katiejo            Austin on Two wheels
There is a special set of circumstances that accompanies biking with children in tow. The streets seem kinder, the traffic slower, and the world smiles with us. The light heartedness of childhood is contagious.

Remember the first time you took your bicycle out with out your parents? I do. I was 5 years old. My 9 year old sister and I had permission to ride across our neighborhood to deliver a school fundraiser order that had arrived. Think tins of popcorn and small girls. This was before Girl Scouts were considered child labor and junk food. Small town in the 80s, families let their kids loose on the peaceful streets without a blink of an eye. I have so…

Some Exciting News
by dickdavid        Bike Friendly Richardson

Bike Friendly Richardson is pleased to announce that we have just submitted the application to have Richardson considered for a Bicycle Friendly Community designation!

This was an idea that we had had for a while and last November, Jenny Rilling took it on as a project. With the help of City staff, we made it happen. The Bicycle Friendly Community program is administered by the League of American Bicyclists. With all the bicycling improvements in recent years, and more to come, it was…

Councilman honored by bike group
Denton Record-Chronicle
Austin-based bicycle advocacy group BikeTexas recently honored Denton City Council member Dalton Gregory as a champion for cyclists during a transportation conference in San Antonio.

Gregory received the BikeTexas Champion Award for outstanding elected officials as part of the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference.

“Denton is moving quickly to create real solutions to air quality issues, traffic congestion, the obesity epidemic and economic competitiveness by improving cycling conditions and safety, thanks to leaders like…

New funding for Safe Routes to School program
www.policeone.com
Last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation renewed a three year grant totaling $2,999,725 to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership (SRTS). The funding made available to the program will allow SRTS to continue programs across the nation that encourage students to walk or ride bicycles to school and live healthier lives. The program provides funding for a wide variety of activities that include projects that make routes leading to and from schools safer and more accessible. Law enforcement officers and police agencies are encouraged to be a part of these programs within their community in…