Category: texas

Houston police ride bikes to enforce 3 foot passing rule

Houston, Texas has a three foot passing rule, which is apparently not well observed by local drivers. Police officer Stephen Klein bought a bike from a garage sale for $45 and began riding.

“You’ll stay to the right but motorists will come by and rev their engines,” he says. “They’ll honk, or they’ll try to get as close as they can to let you know that you shouldn’t be there.”

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Bike patrol enforces San Antonio 3 foot passing law

The city of San Antonio, Texas has had a Safe Passing Ordinance on the books since 2010. The local law requires at least three feet of passing distance when a driver passes a ‘vulnerable user,’ which includes pedestrians, cyclists, highway workers and even people on horseback.

To give this ordinance some teeth, San Antonio bicycle officers are riding through downtown, with other officers in cars following and observing driver behavior. When they see somebody passing too closely, they nail the driver.

Story at WOAI News 4: Undercover bike officers target unsafe drivers.

Rave On

My son attends Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Tex and has finally given up on keeping his old Dodge RAM pickup running. For many months now I have been gently guiding him toward the bicycle as a form of transportation in a town not known for elevation changes.

Of the three bikes hanging in the garage, I gave him the choice of the three. He is built to be a road cyclist with the metabolism of a hummingbird and the lithe frame of an endurance athlete, and while he did choose my favorite road bike, he is not yet comfortable with drop bars.

This morning’s task was moving parts around all three bikes to make him one helluva lean flat bar road bike. Unlike other ‘hybrids’, this one truly is a road bike, with the geometry and road calipers vs. V-brakes (my preference). I don’t know why I didn’t do this before. The good news is that not only will he be saving a load of cash and staying healthier, but the 9 speed group that was on this bike are now on my other bike. No need to go buy stuff!

Wait, it gets better.

My LBS is a mail-order/online house mostly, but has a small showroom with the best peeps on the local scene. As it turns out, while down there picking up the FD for the bike build, the guy who helped me spent four years at TTU and grew up in southeastern New Mexico, making Lubbock a larger city nearby. I am not concerned with my son’s ability to ride a bike, but I am interested in the commuting climate, security on campus, and the bike shops in the area.

He knows the shop owners, the clubs, and the environment. Talk about a sign. I’ll be driving the bike down to Buddy Holly’s hometown in a few weeks and will take an extra bike for a ride down there myself. Lots of pictures to come and hopefully continuing good news of bicycle adventures in north Texas.