Texas - Safe cycling in Plano

Hey Texans. I'm very familiar with Plano/McKinney/Frisco/Carrollton, but only in the sense of driving it. I'll be spending a week down there, will be driving with the bike in the trunk, and would like to get some miles in while I'm there. Where's the safest/best place to ride? Not hardcore roadie, but prefer road riding to MUPs. My experience down there in Plano is that I did not see many cyclists on the road, and not many bike lanes. Any advice is welcome!

Well, part of the equation is where are you staynig while in Plano? There is a great MUP that runs from the parking lot at 15th and I75 (NW Corner with the Blackeyed Pea and Borders Books) well up past Preston. Doing a round trip is a decent casual ride and the scenary is outstanding for a Texas MUP, lol.

I live in Wylie and I ride up into Plano and Richarson all the time. Park is a good road to ride, but the bridge at 75 is a bit steep if you don't like hills/climbs. It's short though.

There is a MUP that runs from UTD in Richardson down to Renner and down to Alma. If you take Alma across to the Collin Creek Mall and then down across 15th you can meet up with the path I spoke of earlier. From RBM at Campbell and Coit it makes about a 25 mile round trip.

You can also come out on 544/14th st and ride East toward Murphy/Wylie. Lots and lots of roads to ride out this way, but you are looking at some good mileage to get out here and back. Well worth it though.

When are you going to be here?

The better/best routes I have tried are from the PBA (Plano Bicycle Association) web site. These people have mapped the best roads and have different routes for whatever amount of mileage you care to do any given day. The only trick I have found with them is to get out early in the morning before traffic really gets going as some of the roads they suggest can actually get very congested in certain areas.
My personal preference is for the Road Routes as laid out by Richardson Bike Mart. Especially on weekends the traffic on the roads they mapped out is light and they are a good mix of hills and flats to give you a really good workout. I wanted to see different scenery after a while so I mapped out some alternate roads to use and added them on to the existing Bike Mart routes. Lots of nice suburban neighborhoods in east Plano, Parker, Murphy, etc. Just be sure to print a map or carry a GPS device. I got lost a few times and put in more miles than anticipated but sure enjoyed the sights. YMMV.

Up post is good advice, when I lived in Plano I used the PBA website and built from there. If you end up east of 75 up in Allen, be warned that the roads are not all indentified well, and do not always correspond to the routes online (like one will only have FM122, and when you get there it will have a name instead). So if you have time you need to drive the route 1st or have a GPS with you.

If you do go north of Plano into Allen/McKinney, I will say I much prefer the area to the west of 75. Once you go east, as a cyclist by yourself, you will quickly be on narrow country roads with high speed traffic. West of 75 you can stay in residential/mix use areas that have wide roads and lower speeds.

If you're not restricted to just Plano, you can always have a nice ride around White Rock Lake (10 miles/round trip) in Dallas. Not far from Plano and, in my opinion, always well worth the trip. :)

If you're not restricted to just Plano, you can always have a nice ride around White Rock Lake (10 miles/round trip) in Dallas. Not far from Plano and, in my opinion, always well worth the trip. :)

You can even take your bike on the train and ride the Dart Rail Down to Mockingbird Station. http://www.dart.org/riding/bike.asp

Well, part of the equation is where are you staynig while in Plano? There is a great MUP that runs from the parking lot at 15th and I75 (NW Corner with the Blackeyed Pea and Borders Books) well up past Preston. Doing a round trip is a decent casual ride and the scenary is outstanding for a Texas MUP, lol.

I live in Wylie and I ride up into Plano and Richarson all the time. Park is a good road to ride, but the bridge at 75 is a bit steep if you don't like hills/climbs. It's short though.

There is a MUP that runs from UTD in Richardson down to Renner and down to Alma. If you take Alma across to the Collin Creek Mall and then down across 15th you can meet up with the path I spoke of earlier. From RBM at Campbell and Coit it makes about a 25 mile round trip.

You can also come out on 544/14th st and ride East toward Murphy/Wylie. Lots and lots of roads to ride out this way, but you are looking at some good mileage to get out here and back. Well worth it though.

When are you going to be here?
Chisholm Trail (North and South) about 10 mi together round trip.
http://pdf.plano.gov/parks/Chisholm_Trail_North_West.pdf
http://pdf.plano.gov/parks/Chisholm_Trail_South_East.pdf

Bluebonnet Trail (East and West) intersects Chisholm Trail.
http://pdf.plano.gov/parks/Bluebonnet_Trail_East.pdf
http://pdf.plano.gov/parks/Bluebonnet_Trail_East.pdf

Link to other trails in the area:
http://www.co.collin.tx.us/living/recreation/trails/trails.jsp

Route from RBM through Chisholm Trail and Back:
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/richardson/221573720211

These are Mostly on MUP's last one has some road riding but isn't bad on a Sunday morning.

"but the bridge at 75 is a bit steep if you don't like hills/climbs."
The poster is from Colorado. He'll probably make it over the bridge okay.

My normal route is out East Fork Road back in Sunnyvale. I think this is also a RBM route, leaving from Poteet High School in Mesquite. You can circle on down south of the Mesquite airport and make a 30 or 40 mile loop or longer. Look up the routes for the Mesquite Rodeo Ride at the south end of that section. (There is a section of Lawson Road that is now closed to through traffic, but you can walk a bike around the barricades, so no problem.)

At White Rock Lake, there are biking paths, often paralleled by roads. If you're going faster than 15 mph or so, it's oftentimes better to use the roads, due to pedestrians on the trail. There are also multiple routes around there, so you may be zipping along and all the sudden, all the other cyclists are going that-a-way. The White Rock Creek trail goes from the lake up to 635, and you can meander your way on north on roads. If you take the obvious route around the lake, there's minimal hills. For more workout, check where the hills are around the lake; that's where some of those other cyclists are going.

There are MUP's in Plano, but on some of them, you'll have to stop every block or two where you cross a road. Or if the weather is nice, you'll have people out walking dogs and stuff that get in your way. So you either go fast on the roads or have a slower ride on the MUP's.

Back last spring, I rode a 107 mile permanent that started in Plano, so if you're into randonneuring, you can look up a few rides.

If you're not restricted to just Plano, you can always have a nice ride around White Rock Lake (10 miles/round trip) in Dallas. Not far from Plano and, in my opinion, always well worth the trip. :)

For that matter, you can take Chisholm/Bluebonnet to just west of Coit Road, then turn south. Not sure if it's all MUP, but Meanering Way will get you to the north end of the White Rock Trail, where you can continue south to the lake. A round trip from 15th to White Rock Lake and back would be probably 35-40 miles.

Sorry, not a road warrior...