You are hereJason's thumbs up/thumbs down - Blogs and Bike-ways!
Jason's thumbs up/thumbs down - Blogs and Bike-ways!
Occasionally I can be somewhat opinionated. Today's one of those days. I went out for a pretty awesome lunch in the deep, dark recesses of South Austin, and while out I decided to swing around the corner to check out The Veloway on my BMX. Following the signs I hopped on Mopac for the short distance down to the turn into Circle C/the Veloway/the wildflower thing. By that point I'd already made my mind up on the Veloway as a facility for cyclists, but I wouldn't let that dissuade me from actually experiencing its' majesty.
The Veloway itself is like a two-lane one-way bicycle highway to nowhere. It's smooth, wide, and has a few nice rolling climbs and descents. Zipping around the 3.1 mile look took me about 10 minutes on the BMX, a lot of which was coasting down the incredibly smooth surface. I had a blast riding, but was struck by what a bummer it is that such an awesome facility would be tucked so far away from the majority of the people who would use it, those of us ON BIKES! By making the access highway-only (65mph speed limits), they remove all but the most ardent cyclist from getting to it by bike, even if they decide to make the long journey down past Slaughter Ln. Sorry Veloway, you're nice and smooth, but I've gotta give you a big thumbs down. What's it they say? "Location, location, location!" Yours is balls.
Now for my thumbs up. I just found out about the Professor's B-List, a local blog about "Bikes, beer, books, bars, breakfast tacos, beards, bananas... Bela Lugosi", basically all the awesome things that start with "B". As a big fan of all of the above, I couldn't help but dig this blog from the get-go. There isn't a ton of content up yet but the author, Professor Conti, does offer some rather well-written commentary on the Austin bike community drawn from his own unique perspective. Specifically he was one of the dozen riders who stayed on the access road during last month's Critical Mass. Reading what he had to say was kinda cool since I was up top during that period of time.
Honestly this blog is so good I'm kinda surprised I didn't find out about it sooner. I'm definitely gonna be keeping an eye on it.
That's my thumbs up/thumbs down. Only not in that order. I figured if I'm gonna hate, I might as well show some love too.
the only thing the veloway is good for is intervals. i'll go there when I feel lazy and I am working on my bike and need a place to ride where I can fall over at and not get ran over or laughed at.
that ACA ride sounded fun. hopefully i can make it next time they ride out to McKinney. that is a great ride.
-Jessica
bike nerd fo' life, yo
It's nice to know it's being read AND enjoyed. I really appreciate it!
... it had to be somewhere (or it could just not exist, of course.) And it's not a small thing, so they can't just put it downtown or Hyde Park or somewhere else that wouldn't be `balls'. It's only about three miles from my house, and while the easiest way is to take Mopac for a bit, it's a part of Mopac that's not too unpleasant to bike, so I'd say it's pretty convenient to me. Unlike a lot of things that go on in town ...
Of course, it's close, but I don't go there very often. It's just not that interesting. It's a nice track, sure, but I like to go somewhere interesting, and a fixed 3 mile track just doesn't qualify more than a few times.
In any event, Circle C had a lot of input into it's creation and location. Of course they were going to put it somewhere close. In general, Circle C doesn't care about Austin cyclists ... unless they live in Circle C.
I agree that it had to go somewhere, but since the City of Austin spend over $350k on the thing I figure it should have been built within the city limits. These days it falls inside Austin's borders (due to involuntary annexation), but when it was built with Austin tax monies originally earmarked for urban bicycle infrastructure, it was outside the limits in the brand spanking new Circle C subdivision.
Here's what the Chronicle said about the money spent back in 1996, before the annexation:
I still stand by my thumbs down, now not only due to the location, but also due to depriving taxpayers of what they originally payed for. Lame.
... so you don't get to say it sucks because it's not in Austin :)
I agree, thumbs down, but just for different reasons. The location is great! It's just not worth the trip more than a few times, even if the trip is short ...
I joined one of the ACA rides down to McKinney Falls yesterday. Including the ride to the starting point, 44 miles. That was far more intesting than 15 laps around the Veloway, even if the falls themselves were pretty underwhelming. Or if I wanted to go mountain biking, the greenbelt is approximately as far from my house as the veloway ... but it's a lot more interesting.
Things like the veloway are fine if you believe that bikes don't belong on the road. And if you believe that they're toys and shouldn't even be used to go from point A to B, it's even better. Of course, most of the people who read this site don't believe either.
yeah you gotta put that shit on a bike rack and drive down south if you wanna go to the veloway. major bull.