Bike Month is in full swing!

Ever since yesterday morning we've been celebrating that special time where the City recognizes how much it loves cyclists, so that we can feel good about ourselves and overlook the fact that it's still a rather rough place to actually BE a cyclist. Nevertheless, I appreciate the token. Yesterday I participated in the "Political Pedal", in which all the members of city council, the running candidates, the mayor, and several other public officials are invited to ride with the community, and if we're lucky a couple of them actually show up. This time around we were actually graced with the presence of Police Chief Art Acevedo, one of the other Commanders (I forgot his name unfortunately), City Council place 1 candidate Chris Riley (anybody surprised here?), and finally a representative of Brewster McCracken's campaign. And that's it. Hella lame turnout, but whatever. A couple other city employees made it though, including the superstars of Austin's Bicycle program Nathan and Nadia. The ride was well-attended by the cycling community, and included a rather wide cross-section including a recumbent, several rec riders in their helmets, and a decent number of the regular ATXBS crowd, including my boy Boone on his fixed gear tall bike.

The ride was short, slow, and rather pointless, as we were only on the actual street for less than I mile (I'd estimate) and spent the rest of the time riding on the Lance Armstrong Bikeway. If we have our city officials attention, why not take them on a ride down a real street to show them what groups of cyclists have to deal with? Immediately before the ride the organizer expressly dis-invited any scofflaws or people who ride in the Critical Mass style, which was rather entertaining for those of us regulars. Neverless pretty much everyone behind the police chief (who rode at the front) treated every stop sign as a yield, and the two-abreast business was disregarded entirely, thank Jeebus. I'm glad to see that even the responsible riders knew when to bow to common sense. The after-ride event was much cooler, with several of the candidates or their representatives speaking on behalf of their campaigns, and free snack food and beer samples for all. It was nice meeting a lot of the movers and shakers in the bike political scene, and seeing some faces to put with the names I'd recognized from various emails and forum discussions. After everyone spoke the crew I showed up with split, and somehow managed to drag Chris Riley with us. I don't know if it was just fortuitous timing, but eventually we parted ways and our ride headed to the spiral hill to chill and enjoy a beautiful Austin evening. That wasn't the end of our riding, but that's the end of my recap because I have a race to get to. If you want to see what happened you should go check out the pictures in A2W's Political Pedal gallery.