SpiderMike

A Texas state senator from San Antonio is trying to get SB238 through the state senate. The bill will basically ban cycling the way some love it now. Farm roads with underdeveloped shoulders would be banned from groups of more than 3, with the current write up. If that is not bad enough, the groups could only ride single file. Oh it gets worse. This bill will give local authorities to dictate what other roads can be banned. The part that is insane, is it will require cyclist to wear a slow moving vehicle triangle on their back. With that the fine line between bikes being pedestrians is gone. There has been much opposition already to force the bill into a pending status this year. If you,or you know someone, that lives in Texas, write your state officials. To learn more on this there is biketexas.org

Rich

Hi Spidermike (interesting name!)

That's a crazy bill to pass through..sounds like the guy is a complete nutter!

In the UK at the moment, we're not allowed to ride on 90% of the forest/woodland tracks because of the foot and mouth outbreak! I can see why they'd do this, but I can't understand the reasoning in Texas!

Fingers crossed it gets thrown out!

Rich

MichaelW

What are farm roads in Texas? Ive driven on unpaved rural roads in Idaho. Is that what they mean?
In the UK we have a network of country lanes. These are narrow paved lanes that form a network all over rural UK, and are fantastic for cycling on. In many parts of the country, there is no such thing as "off road", its all paved winding lanes.

mike

What do you expect from an oil state where the government is bought, paid for an owned by oil money (can you spell B-U-S-H?).

Bicycling is the only alternative transportation other than walking in Texas. It is no wonder they want to rope up the only alternative to automobile transportation.

Let us know who to write to and we will do it. We might not be from Texas, but our voice can still be heard.

I suppose the tourism industry has some voice in Texas. Maybe we can approach it from that angle.

Hunter

Farm roads or as they are caled here, "FM" or farm to market. Litteraly they are paved roads mostly two lanes that go from farms to access to the market. "CR" or county roads are the unpaved ones. Here in the Hill Country they are everywhere, and this is where I ride.

HogWild

From the Texas Bicycle Coalition's web site at www.biketexas.org:

SB238 is dead for this session!
On Friday May 11, 2001 SB238 by Senator Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) was left pending in committee on the last day for bills to be reported out. That means that this bill is finished for this session.
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For those of you living in the San Antonio area, I urge you to remember SB-238 when Jeff Wentworth comes up for re-election...

The TBC is one of the most active bicycle advocacy groups in TX, and deserves a great deal of the credit for initially bringing the issue before the public and lobbying against this bill in Austin. Since the Texas legislature only meets every two years, it will be at least 2003 before it has a chance to come up again.

Since you've read this far, let me also say that this has actually been a fairly successful legislative session for bicyclists in Texas. Rick Perry (Dubya's replacement as governor) signed The Matthew Brown act, named after an 11-year-old boy from Plano (north of Dallas) who was killed while riding his bike. The law provides funding for a Safe Routes to School program funded through TxDoT. The program concentrates on encouraging young people to walk or cycle safely to increase youth fitness and reduce congestion.

Other language in the bill requires the DPS to track bicycle accidents that result in death, injury or property damage. It also includes language that allows a bicyclist to take an entire lane if it is less that 14 ft wide, as well as clarification of the laws regarding electric bicycles and the use of a red light instead of a reflector.

c~

LittleBigMan

Bicycling is also a major competitor to public transportation in many large cities, as I see it. I can cycle 14 miles to work faster than I can take the bus.

What seems a "no brainer" for us cyclists, i.e., the blatent efforts by cowardly business entities to crush road cycling, or otherwise subtly manipulate cylists of the road (can you say, "bike path?"),
is often really hard for the average motorist to believe or understand. But let's not wait until we are restricted to cycling indoors for a $20 fee before we fight back.

Rich

Let's hope the bill doesn't come to light and this senator isn't elected next time!!!!

Thoughts are with you guys in Tx!

Rich

JonR

I'm relieved that this bill is dead for now. It's been on my mind ever since SpiderMike posted the first notice about it.

"The part that is insane, is it will require cyclist to wear a slow moving vehicle triangle on their back," wrote SpiderMike in that post. Has anybody been keeping up with the Taliban lately? They want to force Hindus to wear patches of colored cloth as a badge. Also, remember the Stars of David and the various colored triangles unacceptable minorities were forced to wear in Nazi Germany? It made me shudder to read about this "slow-moving vehicle" thing.

In the first place, anybody can tell a bicyclist is a bicyclist. It's fairly obvious. No kind of added insignia is needed. This has to be based on wanting to degrade cyclists' self-esteem.

Let's hope that this bill is down for the full count, and that this--er, [i]Senator[/] is not re-elected. What happens in Texas, or Missouri, or any state, can happen anywhere else.