Living car free in Dallas-Ft Worth?
 

I just need some advice from those in Ft Worth area. How easy is it to live car free in north Ft Worth?


I moved from Atlanta where I was happily living car free for about 10 years. I'm looking for a place to live that is within 15-20 miles from Roanoke, where I work, so I can ride my bike. I'm more of a city guy and the town I live in now is nice but I need to be closer to more amenities.

Are there any areas or roads that are better for cycling than others? Are there any roads that I should avoid?

Thanks for your help.

they have a pretty big project where they are gathering commie info and compiling it from all the areas around dallas and working with the city municipalities to improve the use of bicycles relations and trans.
check out dorba.org

Gathering Commie info? Is McCarthy coming back?

Burning Communist Party membership card NOW :eek:

I would think it would be doable. You probably want to look south. Assuming that you work somewhere in the 161 area, 15-20 miles will get you across Keller and well into the Saginaw/Fort Worth/Watauga/North Richland Hills areas so it should pretty much depend on what you want. I know that there are organized rides through that area regularly so it should be ridable.

Cool, thanks for the info.

I tried living car free when I lived in Arlington, and I almost got killed many times riding from Arlinton to DFW to work at FEDEX, people would throw beer bottles at you and call you a looser as they try to run you off the road, that and getting dates without a car was not happening without a car.

XMdude - ouch. Never heard of this type of treatment.

We were visiting and took the DART from Garland to many of the tourist attractions - Reunion Tower, Grassy Knoll, etc. It was great! Didn't bring our bikes though.

This was several years ago, so mabe attitudes have changed now, all I know is you were one big target for the rednecks in their pickup trucks and you took you're life into you'r own hands on that 30 mile ride.

My mother lives in Hurst, Tx. and I couldn't imagine getting from Arlington to DFW on a bicycle. She lives about 4 miles from a DART station and we used it to get to Dallas; lots of bicycles parked there. One guy brought his onto the train; it wasn't that crowded.

Even with the DART, Dallas would be tough to live car-free. It's a huge city, and the DART simply doesn't go everywhere. Admittedly, I didn't try any buses.

I would think you'd have to plan your work, commuting route, home purchase, accessibility to shopping carefully in advance.

I've lived in and in the suburbs of Dallas and spent a few months car-free. It wasn't a problem 99% of the time. Only had a couple of places I went that the busses didn't. If I'd have persued cycling at the time it would have been great. Each individual's needs and circumstances vary so I won't say that it'd work for everyone.

I've lived in Roanoke. VERY different place. Very rural extreme north Tarrant Co. (think north of Fort Worth) and no public transport. Car-free would have been more trouble there and probably still would be but it's growning fast.

From the business part of Roanoke going south gets increasingly less rural. Twenty miles will put you through 2 or 3 cities and nearly into downtown Fort Worth and covers a wide variety of living accomodations from very expensive to run down cheep and at least three different ethnic communities. Fort Worths bus system is so minimal that it may be of no use to the OP. Most of the area is residential with large collector roads. I know that there is some active cycling in the area.

I live about 10-12 miles southeast of downtown Roanoke. In the last 800 miles or so I've ridden I've been honked at twice I can think of maybe 3 times and never threatened. I ride mostly vehicularily on residential roads but will use MUPs if they serve my purpose (not often), the collector roads and shoulders; whatever suits my needs of the moment the best. If you ride predictably, vehicularly and don't try to unnecessarily impede the car's you get along fine. I can't say much about the roads the OP would be using since they vary so widely but I can't imagine that it would be too difficult if that's what he wants to do.

Arlington has had a reputation for being bike unfriendly but I think it's probably improving. They have probably 30 - 40 miles of new nice paved bike trails and more planned. But Arlington is a long way from Roanoke and really doesn't bear at all on the OPs situation.

I have found a lot of variation in both road conditions and drivers attitudes. The only way the OP is going to know for sure what it's like is going to be trying it out.