Ft Worth bicycle advocates are excited about the city council’s unanimous approval of a bike plan that will radically expand the bike infrastructure. This north central Texas city of 700,000 sprawled over 300 square miles in Tarrant, Wise, Parker and Denton Counties plans to expand the bike network 10 fold and otherwise work to encourage bike use.

As Kevin Buchanan of Forthworthology reports:

At last night’s Fort Worth City Council meeting, a mass of bicyclists turned out in support of the Bike Fort Worth plan, which the council would be voting on adopting and implementing. Groups from the newly formed Bike Friendly Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Bicycling Association, and the LMRA Bicycle Club joined individual supporters to express their enthusiasm over the proposal. Supporters took many forms, male and female, from the hipsters to the sports riders to daily commuters to families with kids.

The plan received enthusiastic endorsement from the council, especially Councilmembers Joel Burns and Carter Burdette. Finally, Mayor Moncrief also spoke out strongly in favor of the plan, saying that Fort Worth deserves real transportation alternatives.

The Fort Worth City Council unanimously voted to approve and implement the ambitious Bike Fort Worth bicycle transportation plan. After the vote, there was a standing ovation from the entire council chamber.

Read the details at Forthworthology: City Council unanimously approves Bike Fort Worth plan.

Besides radically expanding the miles of bike lanes and bike paths, some of the more important and useful aspects of the new Ft Worth Bike Plan include:

• Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Program will be created in city government to manage implementation of the bike plan. The city will also designate a Bicycle Coordinator. A citizen Bicycle Advisory Committee will be the liaison providing input to city government on cyclist needs.
• Bike Fort Worth website will be created for a one stop shop on bicycling resources in Ft Worth.
• Plan performance will be measured through bicycle traffic counts, opinion surveys, and counting miles of paint and pavement.
• Bicycle crash data: Bike Plan planners received data from the Ft Worth police on bike crashes, but discovered the data was incomplete and useless for planning purposes. Policies will be changed to provide better, more complete information on bicycle street safety.
• Traffic signals: Calibrate signals to detect bikes, road markings directing cyclists to the location of loop detectors, and green phase timing lengthened to give cyclists enough time to cross an intersection.
• Bridge design guidelines requiring wide outside lanes when the bridge is one “a proposed bikeway.”
• Bicycle Parking: Bike racks should accommodate “U” locks and provide two points of contact for a bike frame. Ribbon racks are discouraged. New city government office construction will incorporate bike parking in the design, and showers & lockers will also be designed into new government buildings. Planning & Zoning codes will be modified to include requirements for bike parking in new developments (currently, Ft Worth has no bike parking requirements in the city code).
• Bicycle safety education: The city will encourage the school districts serving city residents to provide bike safety education for children. Safe Routes to School program participation will be expanded. A bike map with safety information will be printed. The city will promote bicycling for transportation through events. (Sadly, the onus seems to be on the cyclists to stay safe; there’s no mention in the plan on educating motorists on their responsbilities.)
• Enforcement: Better enforcement of speed limits, red lights, wrong way riding, and reckless driving & riding. Police will be trained on “the rights and responsibilities of cyclists and motorists.” Police will also receive training on common bike / car crash types, and given guidance on crash reports so more detailed data analysis can be done.
• Proposed new traffic ordinances include 3 foot passing law, anti dooring law (What?! Texas already doesn’t have a law like this? It’s in the Uniform Vehicle Code.) No parking in bike lanes. Specific prohibitions on right hook and left cross crashes. Ban sidewalk riding in high pedestrian traffic zones.
• Bike fleet for city staff use.

You can read the entire Forth Worth Bike Plan here.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when the impatient motorist honked at the lane taking cyclist, and the cyclist turns out to be a police officer? Something like that happened as well in in the UK.

A road rage teenage driver repeatedly targeted a cyclist and left him fearing for his life.

Nine times [18 year old Benjamin Harrison] almost mowed down [cyclist Martin] Melvin, aiming for him on the pavement, striking his handle-bars, forcing him off his bike into trees, threatening to kill him and hurling stones and coins at him.

The victim had no escape route and had no choice but to continue his journey on the almost deserted road, the court heard.

The cyclist in this case happened to be police inspector Martin Melvin, who was cycling home from his job at the Burnley police station last summer. He reported the assailant’s car registration information. When Harrison was arrested at his parents’ home, he asked the arresting officers, “Can I not just apologise?”

Benjamin Harrison’s sentence: Nine months in jail, suspended for two years, with 12 months supervision and 100 hours unpaid work. He was banned from driving for two years and must pay £750 costs.

Read more in the Lancashire Telegraph: Burnley road rage teen targeted cycling police chief, via the informative and amusing Treadly and Me.

See also UK CTC encourages cyclists to report bad drivers.

Props to her: she made the front page of the Chicago Tribute (online edition) because she rides her bike in the snow, although she’s not quite sure what to think of it.

The annual “Mountain Charlie Challenge” pledge ride the big fund raisers for the schools in my town, Scotts Valley, CA, through the Scotts Valley Educational Fund (SVEF).

The event offers you a choice of 100K or 50K routes. Both rides start and end at Skypark in Scotts Valley. The 100K Metric Century (62 miles) climbs to the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains via Mountain Charlie Road, winds through wineries and beautiful redwoods, then travels through Corralitos, Aptos, Santa Cruz then up Branciforte Road for the return to Scotts Valley.

The 50K Half Century (32 miles) has less challenging climbs and travels through the redwoods, has a rest top at a vineyard, continues on to Aptos and returns to Scotts Valley.

Both routes offer beautiful scenery, ride support, lunch and refreshments. The rides are followed by a family luncheon at Skypark with great music.

The ride takes place Saturday, April 24, 2010. Registration check-in starts at 7:00 a.m. for both routes. The 100K mass start is at 8:00 a.m. with a second start at 8:15 a.m. for the 50k.

To register, print and sign the registration form and this liability waiver. The SVEF also seeks sponsorship and volunteers; click here for details.

Trivia: “Mountain Charlie” is not a mountain, but the nickname of Charles Henry McKiernan (Think “Grizzly Adams”). Charlie was one of the earliest European residents of the Santa Cruz summit area. He’s most famous for surviving an attack by a California brown bear in 1854. The grizzly crushed his skull, but another hunter got help for Mountain Charlie, and he would eventually marry the woman who nursed him back to health. California grizzlies were extinct in the Santa Cruz mountains within 40 years, and extinct from the state (and the world) by 1920.

Mountain Charlie cut a track from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz; the portion from a bit north of the summit down to Scotts Valley would become the McKiernan Toll Road, and his cabin at the summit became a stage coach stop. The 7 mile portion of that road which still exists is now “Mountain Charlie Road” — a rough, steep, poorly maintained single lane road that roughly parallels Highway 17 from north of Scotts Valley, across the summit (where it crosses Highway 17) and down to Old Santa Cruz Highway.

Ascending on Mt Charlie Road (like the SVEF Mountain Charlie Challenge) is a pretty decent ride; the road is so bumpy that descending isn’t too fun. Here’s what the road looks like from my bike: