The Informed Drinker: In the Beginning, There Was Rum
Why We Don't Like You: Texas A&M Aggies
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Weekend Music Preview: Woven Bones Tour Kick-Off [Beerland / Friday]
Thief Nabs $10K Flagship Trek Bike From Mellow Johnny's
Government Recalls Cars and Cribs [News Bits]
Austinites love their bikes. And we don’t just mean the Lanceophile, weekend warrior yuppie types who gear up in spandex to tie up automotive lanes, but just good ol’ bicycle riders. You know, people that know how to go to the grocery store and only buy as much food as they can pedal home. People who head down to the local pub for a few pints and then navigate the sidewalks home. People who get a discount at The Daily Juice. Austin is quite conducive to daily cycling, depending on where you live. One does not want to take I-35 on a bike (although we did meet a girl on the Congress street bridge a few weeks back pedaling from Lovejoys to her house…in Buda!), but if you live within a few miles of the city center and can manage a few hills and some sweat, we've got it pretty good. In an article on Slate.com today, Outside magazine correspondent Bill Gifford examines the pleasures, benefits, liabilities and possibilities of using a bicycle as one’s only mode of transport. We wonder, what has your experience been as a cyclist in Austin. Do-able or no? Between the bus and your bike, is that all you need?
In related (and sad) news, former Austin mayor Bruce Todd is in critical condition at Brackenridge hospital following a terrible bike accident Sunday. Todd was out riding with his cycling association near Lockhart. Todd flew over his handle bars and suffered severe head injury and broken bones. Doctors are also monitoring Todd for brain swelling, of which there appears to be none. Todd was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, and the emergency room doctor said the helmet saved Todd’s life. So, please, please, please, folks, wear your damn helmets. Todd has full range of motion in his lower body and the family is “cautiously optimistic” for a full recovery.
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I am proof that you CAN forget how to ride a bike. So I don't. But sometimes I wish I could.
anyone happen to see the critical mass documentary on pbs this weekend? of course you didn't.
yea, i saw it just after i finished watching "End of Suburbia" with friends. smug voices get heard a little less than they'd like, mehtinks.
Obligatory Critical Mass Story:
Back in the late nineties when I was younger and anarchistier I went on a few CM rides. The first one was on halloween, and as usual there were several topless girls riding. A kid ran one stoplight on his bike and cop pulled him over to give him a ticket. That's when one of the topless girls started yelling "Jack Off! Jack Off! Jack Off!"
Naturally I thought she was calling the cop a jack off.
Not so.
She was pointing at the driver of a car stopped at the light. Dude had his pants down and was spankin it right there in the drivers seat. The cop had to stop ticketing the kid on the bike, put on his rubber gloves and pull the perv out of his car and arrest him. With topless girls on bikes yelling at them both the whole time.
That's my Critical Masturbation story.
deloosh
We should set a reader/writer goal of having at least one masturbation story to go with every Austinist post.
that comment was so good i had to jerk to it. ok.
Dude, bike helmets don't do shit. Seriously.
http://mdahmus.thebaba.com/blog/archives/000043.html
(I have a couple more articles relating to bike helmets, but in past experience the comment will be rejected if I post two links, so just go to my main page and enter "helmet" in the search field).
every Wednesday is BIKE NITE @ the b-side lounge & tap room...
$ 2.75 pints.. but only if you pedal..311 colorado..
http://austin.craigslist.org/bik/113364238.html
i love this town!
Actually I did watch that doc with my mom. she was shaking her head the whole time, "these people are weeeeird." haaa. Although really, the documentary has some pretty biased stuff in there. Whenever they had a voice-over for the letters sent to the Chronicle they would use this educated, soothing voice for Amy Babich and other pro-CM writers. Then the people complaining about CM would be read with the most ridiculous back-woods angry hick voice. It was pretty hilarious.
I use my helmet whenever I ride. Last year I fell after my chain came off and landed right on my head and really really believe the helmet kept my skull intact. Although I have to say, I get less respect on the road from drivers when I'm wearing my helmet. I think when I'm just in street clothes they're move afraid to say anything to me than when I'm with a helmet or in athletic gear.
As far as biking in Austin, I've had a few really bad experiences. Some lady in a huuuuge black SUV followed me up Lavaca yelling for three blocks to "get on the fucking sidewalk." Then she tried to angrily cut me off by turning right in front of me. Unfortunately she chose to turn at a one-way street, the wrong way, and I caught up in time to cut back in front of her and give her the peace sign. suckaaaa.
Also, I live north of the river and work on South Lamar and the damn Lamar Pedestrian bridge adds about ten minutes to my commute. It's great for joggers and people biking for a work-out but sucks for bicycle-commuters. To get from Lamar (going South) onto that bridge requires crossing over two lanes of traffic, carrying your bike over the railway tracks, and stopping at two more intersections. I've started to just go out of my way and cross over the S. 1st street bridge.
the Lamar pedestrian bridge is awkward in the way it is set up, should probably extend over ceasar chavez but have access from both n. and s. sides of that street. south 1st bridge forevah!
christi and odam,
Oh, don't get me started. The bike/ped bridge was supposed to go all the way across CC and Sandra Muraida, under the railroad, and rejoining Lamar at the southeast corner of Lamar and 5th.
Short story: Costed too much; they bid it in two parts; then the Seaholm redevelopment plans fucked it up, and the current long-range plans now have it crossing CC but then going through the Lumberman's project at street-level with some stop signs and pedestrian traffic to deal with, then going under the railroad at an imaginary fairyland not-yet-build underpass connecting to Bowie Street. Then you get to try to get back to Lamar on 6th without the benefit of a traffic light. YAY!
I keep meaning to write about this, but get sidetracked by helmet idiots.
christi and odam,
Oh, don't get me started. The bike/ped bridge was supposed to go all the way across CC and Sandra Muraida, under the railroad, and rejoining Lamar at the southeast corner of Lamar and 5th.
Short story: Costed too much; they bid it in two parts; then the Seaholm redevelopment plans fucked it up, and the current long-range plans now have it crossing CC but then going through the Lumberman's project at street-level with some stop signs and pedestrian traffic to deal with, then going under the railroad at an imaginary fairyland not-yet-build underpass connecting to Bowie Street. Then you get to try to get back to Lamar on 6th without the benefit of a traffic light. YAY!
I keep meaning to write about this, but get sidetracked by helmet stuff. Suffice to say - if you think it saved you, go ahead and think so, but there's no evidence you're any better off wearing a bike helmet than a fuzzy hat.
Obviously I thought better of "idiots", but TOO LATE! Damn you, insufficiently quick stop reflex.
Pendostanets!
THIS IS AN AWESOME SONG
Don't you like it?