- HISD Seeks Final Bids for Law Enforcement HS Before November 14 Decision [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- JPMorgan Chase Tower’s Sky Lobby Closed While It Gets New Gensler-Designed Look [Prime Property]
- Harris County Treasurer Says Sport Teams Shouldn’t Get Free Ads on Buses [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Metro Running Safety Education Program To Avoid Accidents When New Light Rail Lines Open [KUHF]
- Critical Mass Leaders Trying To Make Ride Less Intrusive To Motorists [KUHF]
- Warehouse District Unveils Artist-Made Parking Meters [Culturemap]
- Heights Student Honored for Proposal To Turn Unused Train Tracks into Pedestrian Trails [The Leader]
- Urban Land Institute Names Finalists For Its Real Estate Development Awards [Prime Property]
Photo of the Medical Center: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Why are they allowing the Critical Mass douches break traffic laws? They’re not a permitted and police escorted parade, they’re an unruly mob. If they block my way and the light turns green, I’m gunning it.
Wellllll …. I like at least one of the Warehouse District’s artsy parking meters (the “chained-down” meter). I hope we taxpayers didn’t pay for this experiment.
I listened to the critical mass piece and was annoyed at the wild sense of entitlement these law-breakers have. Apparently when they ride through lower income areas, people cheer them on and pull out lawn chairs to watch. So the leader helpfully suggested that the rest of us could do the same and take 15 mins. to look around while they rode by stranding us in our cars. It is a little odd that they keep insisting bicycles having the same rights as cars but apparently aren’t governed by the same laws. You ever hear of cars running a red light because it would be ‘inconvenient’ to stop?
“This inaugural collection of four sculptures was commissioned for $5,000 per piece.”
Just because you’re an artist doesn’t mean you work for free.
A high school guy wins a 13-county competition for proposing that unused train tracks get turned into hike-n-bike trails? What is this, from 1990?
And I didn’t know that the Nance St. area is now called the Warehouse District. Did they make a deal with the EaDo people to sell them their old name? With these cool parking meters, maybe they’ll decide to upgrade their name one notch too with an acronym like WaD, or better yet, The WaD.
I think we should get a pool going on how long it will take after the new lines open for the first T-Bone train crash. Who will METRO blame it on then since all of the other crashes are always the automobile’s fault and not METRO?
The Chase skylobby remodel looks stupid. Replacing the granite flooring with wood and carpet is a dumb idea.
Nance St. area, around Last Concert etc., has been called the Warehouse District since at least the 1980s.
@sriram
You’re really missing the whole pt of this exercise. If Houston would provide better and safer means of transportation for bicyclists, they wouldn’t have to resort to measures like this.
In addition, they aren’t hurting anyone. Yes, you are inconvenienced. But how is this any different than when a highway is closed down b/c of bad wreck? It gets a lot of ppl stuck for more time than they budgeted for. That’s it. SH*t happens.
Finally, I’d be willing to say that most if not a vast majority of cars that run red lights do so b/c they don’t want to be ‘inconvenienced’. How else to you explain it? They obviously don’t want to wait 3-4 minutes of their life at the light so they run it.
A high school guy wins a 13-county competition for proposing that unused train tracks get turned into hike-n-bike trails? What is this, from 1990?
Seriously; also, my idea was better: Houston should revamp its port so as to gain the vessel traffic that can’t use Galveston in light of the 1900 storm damage. I think it could really propel the City into the next century. Should also position us well for the oil and gas industry when they get that gusher at Spindletop under control.
@Sriram
As an avid bike rider (without a car) who lives in town, I find all the complaints about Critical Mass amusing. I am inconvenienced every time I ride by drivers who fail to respect my rights on the road. I avoid 75% of all roads because they are not bike friendly and I’m afraid of getting run over by a Tahoe from Katy looking for a little bit of the city life.
Drivers get all fumed and calling for people’s heads over having to spend 10 minutes at a light, one night a month in a small part of town when it is mostly deserted. Wha wha wha! If it was every week or everyday then I might understand but currently I couldn’t really care less.
You should just be happy we aren’t discussing adding more lanes to every freeway in Houston. How would that affect your commute?
How do bike riders (without cars) contribute financially to the building and upkeep of our roads and highways??
They don’t pay gasoline/fuel taxes.
They don’t pay registration fees.
HHH- I notice you are desperately trying to compare Hypocritical Asses to vehicle drivers. When was the last time you saw hundreds of selfish car drivers purposely breaking the law by hijacking an intersection preventing others from traveling freely? I’ll answer that for you. Never. Yet it’s somehow acceptable for them to do it? Uh, no.
I laugh whenever I see someone trying to defend these selfish clowns who seem to think traffic laws and common courtesy doesn’t apply to them. They think they can do whatever they want because they have safety in numbers. The gall.
Everyone lay on their horns the entire time you are held at an intersection by these selfish hypocritical asses as your own form of protest. They deserve it.
Oh the irony of trying to raise awareness of respecting laws regarding bicyclists while purposely breaking the law and pissing drivers off to do so. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Nice how the Crital Mass guys was that they purposely refuse to publish the proposed route so you don’t have the option of avoiding the area.
Or maybe the fact that they kept telling us over and over that we should just sit back and ENJOY watching it and “get out a lawn chair” like the po’ folks do in certain parts of town.
These guys came across as smarmy entitled jerks.
Yes Houston has tons of bike-unfriendly roads and drivers who don’t play nice by bikes. How’s running a red light an appropriate response to this? You aren’t actually suggesting that we view critical mass as a Rosa Parks of bikes? So if hypothetically Houston was bike-friendly, there would be no mass rides and everybody would go back to being law abiding bicyclists? Not that it matters, but I frequently bike for pleasure too.
@HypocrisyAbounds
Thanks for the laugh. I like the mental image of you laying on your horn (really hard) and shaking your fist! That’ll show’em! Listen to my horn you “selfish clowns” or “selfish hypocritical asses”! I’m mad that I have to sit here for 10 WHOLE minutes. That’s 600 seconds I’ll have you know.
There are a million cars on the road everyday and people like you get so stinking mad about 2000 bikers for 2 hours a month. I’ve never ridden CM but I can tell you that people getting worked up over 10 minutes would only encourage me more. CM doesn’t cause any harm. If you want to whine and moan about 10 minutes at a light then I don’t have any time for you. There thousands of better things the COH and HPD can work on besides a hundred people wearing out their horns and shaking their fist.
@sriram
Its not a response to the unfriendly roads and drivers. I was simply stating that everyone is inconvenienced. Bike riders are inconvenienced every single time they ride a bike and a very few subset of drivers on the last Friday of the month are also inconvenienced for a brief period of time. No War Crimes. Not a civil rights issue.
No need to get a lynch mob for having to sit at a light for 10 minutes in the very oft chance you run into CM during the two hours a month it takes place.
I skateboard on the roads all the time (given that most of the time I’m only going 1 or 2 miles if that). I haven’t and an issue “sharing the road”. In fact, I can normally get around quicker on skateboard than in car.
HHH- Did you hear a whooshing sound as my point when flying over your head? We should not be trapped at an intersection at all. Not 10 minutes. Not 1 minute. Not 30 seconds. Who do these selfish fools think they are anyway? Some of us aren’t so quick to wuss out and let them dictate what the rest of us do like you are apparently fine with.
I am going to start my own critical mass. A CM of walkers/runners on trails and pathways. We are going crowd the trails so that bikers have to stop and wait on us instead of wizzing past yelling at us. I love how bikers want respect from cars, but give no respect to pedestrians.
@HA
If you don’t want to be trapped, get a bike a join the party. I’m sure you’ll have much more fun than going through life all pissed because you had to wait 30 seconds that one time.
Or learn tolerance one night a month and rest at peace with yourself and the biking community.
@REX
I do think riding on sidewalks is a problem and I avoid it at all costs. But it is a tough spot when most riders are scared to ride in the street (as they should be).
I used to be an avid cyclist. Eventually, after being broadsided by a hulking Cadillac on the so-called “Memorial Hike & Bike Trail”, I gradually retired from riding on Houston streets as much. More recently, I’ve retired from walking to work in the Galleria area. So … I would agree that some kind of mania affects drivers here, but it isn’t limited to them. It affects the population at large, including cyclists, as Rex pointed out. I’m not holding my breath, but I hope we can all heighten our awareness and learn to slow down, enjoy our lives more, and also not endanger our brothers and sisters moving around using their preferred methods of transportation.
I’ve been “inconvenienced” by funeral corteges and presidential and other bigwigs coming through my regular routes without any warning or permission from me, so drivers, grow up.
As to the CM organizers, they do come off as a**holes, but most cyclists are not and just want to share the road safely. Perhaps CM could pay for police escorts like funerals or parades do.
I have to agree with HypocrisyAbounds that the CM supporters simply don’t get it. It’s not like the wait would become acceptable if it were 2 mins. The issue here is having to wait at all seeing as how it’s illegal and stuff. If you have issues with cars not following laws note down the license plate and file a complaint. I consider myself a bike person but I wouldn’t want to be associated with this sort of childish reasoning.
Censorship. Nice.
KTRK and KHOU covered the CM ride tonight and judging from their respective facebook pages, the bikers are not getting a lot of love.
Looked like (on TV) a lot of police officers were used to keep the group in line.
If this bunch is just interested in riding the streets of Houston at night, they could find other streets. For my dime, they are more interested in making trouble for vehicle drivers.
I say make them pay a fee to register their bikes. That fee should be high enough to compensate for their not paying fuel tax. Otherwise, they are using the roads and not paying for the upkeep.
Get a group of pedestrians together and at every light, fill the cross walks until the light turns red, blocking the bikes from moving until they have green
HPD needs to arrest anyone on a bike in a CM ride who runs a red light. Impound the bikes, and make the process as painful as possible.
There are a lot of jackasses among the Critical Mess riders.
There are also a lot of jackasses among the commenters on this forum.