Commuting - Does anyone commute in Houston?

I have my bike ready for my first commute. Work starts at 10:00pm and I go home at 6:00am. I got my dad's old road bike.

Houston is not one of the better places to commute by bike -- it's one of those spread-out places where the car is king and everyone drives, and many drive badly. The times you would be commuting would eliminate some of the problems with vehicle traffic, and some areas are better than others for cycling. What part of Houston are you in?

to get off topic for a minute, Grendel, what made you choose that name? the only reason i ask, is because i was wondering if you were refering to beowulf or The Grendel, Hunter Rose.

E...

That would be the Grendel of the old English poem Beowulf. It's the name I play under in online Quake 3 games, too. :)

Originally posted by Grendel
Houston is not one of the better places to commute by bike -- it's one of those spread-out places where the car is king and everyone drives, and many drive badly.... and some areas are better than others for cycling....
Well, now, this just about describes every urban area, doesn't it? Yes it is true that you can find a decent commute path really anywhere.

The trick is to stick with commuting long enough to be able to find the best and safest courses. Most beginners I know commute along the same courses as they'd drive when they really should be commuting along sidestreets. As they become more familiar with traffic and as they learn more skills, they can move on to more crowded, though more direct, thoroughfares.

Good luck AlienDroid ... stick with it.

for about a year in '96-'97 i commuted from the Memorial area to downtown Houston about 3 times a week. first it was about 5 miles and then about 3 after i moved closer to downtown... it was a great experience being freed from the car and seeing/watching all the drivers and coworkers fight the traffic and broken-down cars... (i was 2 hours late today b/c my battery was dead and i had to wait for AAA...)

As to Andy's comment:: I agree that Houston is worse than most places b/c drivers NEVER expect a bike on the road and the distances are pretty far for your average commute and becasue traffic is SO bad drivers are often impatient and agressive, thus more likely to be hostile to cyclists (i often had pickup/SUV drivers who would like to rev their engines while tailgating me to intimidate me into getting off the road onto the sidewalk or whatever as long as i was out of their way). That being said, WITHIN the Loop is pretty good for bike commuting, and i can really recommend LIVING and WORKING within the loop and commuting by bike. Of course, a very small persentage of Houstonians live inside the loop... most live an average of 30 miles from downtown somewhere in the mile of paved suburban sprawl...

once you get outside the loop, the roads gets wider, the facilities for bikes worse, and the drivers more impatient (most people INSIDE the loop spend less time in traffic as they live closer to job/school so they're generally not AS impatient)

in Summer, it is challenging to commute w/o a shower at work--- but in your case you start late so that might be less of a problem... and then Fall, Winter, and Spring are all easy commuting times in Houston as it never gets too cold for cycling...

Also, surprisingly there is a somewhat decent set of bike paths throughout most of Houston and many of the outter suburbs. some are good for commuting as very few people use them especially early in the morning --- others are full of pedestrians and kids and rollerbladers so they are more dangerous than the roads -- but i used to ride about half of the morning commute on a bikeway along one of the bayous...

If you're lucky enough and your distance is less than about 6 miles, you should definitely give bike commuting a try... you can almost always find a back way to avoid the most traffic-congested uncycle-friendly areas...

I found a good path to work, on Nasa road 1, which has a bike lane. :eek: OMG a bike lane in Houston, what next? A subway/underground system?

It was awesome this morning, I never got on the sidewalk and noone messed with me.

My commute is only 5 miles, so I went out of my way to make it longer. :D


:beer:

Nevermind, Nasa Road One is good for only a short distance, then the bike lane becomes unusable, and where the bike lane is smooth there are rocks and othe debris everywhere. :mad:

I commute in Houston, 17.5 miles from suburban Copperfield to Memorial City area

I commute in Montgomery county (Lake Conroe area) on FM830. They just repaved the road with a wide shoulder and for now there isn't too much junk on the side of the road. The biggest problem I have is the 20 broken beer bottles per mile to avoid on Monday mornings from all the drunk rednecks that spent the weekend at the lake and roadkill! phewwwwwyyy!

I'll post some commute pictures on our pbase site tomorrow.

Rob
www.pbase.com/robncindi/cycling

No, I wouldn't think about commuting around Houston until they have improved their bike routes. The drivers here are horrible. The city says they have em but they are in bad conditionm (usually litter, cracked or weeds growing over them).

I just started. Spring Branch near the IKEA to River Oaks/Midtown.

That's a fun ride in the dark!!!

I go Westview - N Post Oak - 610 access Rd - Post Oak Blvd - noodle around toward the St. Regis Hotel, along the bus route - San Felipe - Wesleyan

Is that what you do?


I just started. Spring Branch near the IKEA to River Oaks/Midtown.

You'll be waiting a long time. City is broke. Some lanes are ok, some aren't. Sometimes you don't need or want lanes. You want to come in from Sugar Land to Houston?



No, I wouldn't think about commuting around Houston until they have improved their bike routes. The drivers here are horrible. The city says they have em but they are in bad conditionm (usually litter, cracked or weeds growing over them).

No, I like to load up the bike in the truck and just ride in different places on some days. Inside the city limits of Houston isn't the very best. :)