The first step toward making things better is asking a good question. At a meeting last week the city’s bicycle-pedestrian coordinator, Dan Raine, asked for ideas as he works on Houston’s long-term plan for bike transportation. This account of his public call for advice was recounted in this story by Dale Robertson in his cycling notebook in the Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/thingstodo/6235642.html So in the spirit of realistic optimism, here are my ideas. They’re the product of my rides in Houston. Or at least riding in the parts of Houston where I know routes that are reasonably scenic and safe. The goal is simple: open up as many miles of safe routes for bikes as fast as possible at the lowest possible cost. The strategies: 1. Find low traffic routes on existing streets and paths that are linked by spending on creating safe passages through bottlenecks and building bridges through the city’s isolated subdivisions. Right now there are too many marked paths on scary, narrow, busy streets. I think of getting past Interstates when I think of bottlenecks. Consider getting past 59. There are ideal routes over the series of white bridges linking the Montrose and the Art District neighborhoods. But things get tougher as you head west. There is a bike path crossing at Wesleyan but this lane on a tight, busy thoroughfare is potholed mess. I wonder if it’s possible to convert the sidewalk there into path side enough to accommodate bikes and walkers next to a large retail development that’s going in. It's time to turn the talk from Developers about creating "pedestrian friendly" multi-use" projects into action. 2. Creating maps online that distill the knowledge of bike riders on how to get around this town’s many obstacles. This would save the cost of putting up bike route signs, which seem to bother some Houstonians who seem to think bikes routes bring in the rabble. This town is home to a couple really useful communities here: Regular bike riders collect little useful bits of information. For me it’s that Sewanee allows safe passage from the Braes Bayou bike path to West University via a pedestrian bridge over a bayou that otherwise would force riders on to a busy street. There’s got to be a lot of other tidbits like it out there. This would also highlight bottlenecks where a relatively low-cost project could open up a useful route. There’s a community of experts in Geographic Information Software. These computerized mapping skills are needed to find a way to automate the process of inputting these little bits – perhaps like a wikipedia where volunteers can enter their bits and others can check it. The other goal would be a map that’s searchable. So a bike rider can enter beginning and end points and get the safest route. Or perhaps it will show routes passing historic houses or favorite watering holes. And since he asked for it I’ll even post it as the city’s web site and see if it’s noticed: www.publicworks.houstontx.gov/bikeways/masterplan.htm Now I just hope he’s listening. What do you want to see in the city’s long-term bike plan?