Urban Guerilla Biking

Now that the weather has begun to cool down, I am switching more and more to road biking instead of putting in TITS (time in the saddle ) time out on the road.

The only book of suggested rides and trails I have been able to find so far is a book entitled "Biking in Metro Houston" but unfortunately, the authors did not venture very far west of Beltway 8 or south of Highway 59 except when they got down into the Rice University and the area around the Houston Zoo. This leaves the entire western and south west third of the greater Houston area unmapped and unexplored. Hence the urban guerilla biking aspect.

And Urban and Guerilla it is indeed. In this area there are no bike paths, or at best, a simple foot wide area designated by a white line on the far right side of the road, not in the non existent gutters but as good as , and given to disappearing at unexpected distances usually in the middle of the busier traffic areas. In short, so called bike paths in this area are not to be trusted or relied on.

Having biked in Europe for years with clearly designated bike lanes and drivers who are accustomed to having bikers on their right, I am accustomed to riding in and around traffic. The big difference, of course, is that Houston drivers are not used to bikers and seem to take it as a personal affront if I pull up beside them on the right at a light, especially if there is a right hand turn lane and I am on the left of the driver turning right and on the right of the driver going straight. They also seem mightily offended if I dare to be on their right as they drive down the street and have to pass me. I am careful to ride far enough to the right that no one has to swerve around me out of the lane to pass me. Never the less at least one driver in ten seems to feel obligated to screech to a halt, honk, pointedly pull out around me, flash me a finger or swear at me before taking posession of "their" lane again.

I am also careful to ride on larger roads outside of peak traffic times. In Houston this is sort of a moot point as there is rarely a time when the roads are not full of traffic. I aim for the relatively emptier times between 9-11 AM and 1-3 PM which at least avoids some of the heavier traffic times. Of course this means that I am fighting delivery trucks, surburbanites in their Hum VEEs, SUVs, Suburbans, and the ever present, outnumbering the human population pick up trucks, not to mention school buses and regular buses. It's just that are a few less of everything.
This also means that I rarely ride in the cool of the morning when it's hot, or before the daily winds pick up morning and afternoon. I plan to make a t-shirt that reads "road biking in Houston= heat, humidity, headwinds and horrible drivers." It's a pretty apt description.

So as I plan my rides, I try to pick a new route or direction of 20 or so round trip miles, always hoping to find that perfect combination of ; a wide roadway with a decent smooth gutter instead of a choppy ragged black top edge and a deep ditch, a time when it is still cool and windless and a time when the drivers are all busy somewhere else. Fat chance!

One interesting aspect of biking anywhere in Houston is the number of cultural conclaves that I pass through on any ride. A recent 30 mile ride going west out towards the far edges of Sugar Land, north towards Katy, east back towards Houston and then south again towards home took me through white suburbs, white do dah suburbs, white do dah enclaves, a Spanish/Mexican area complete with street names, open country with cattle and pig farms, and back into a Vietnamese area, followed by an obviously black neighborhood complete with a couple of prepubescent males yelling at me to "get off the street bitch" and lots of souped up cars with ear deafening base on their stereos and past a series of Mexican, Oriental and Middle Eastern butchers and eateries all featuring Halal meat and multi lingual signs which for some reason also included an Oriental language other than Vietnamese.

As a contrast the bike ride I took with Phil yesterday was actually on a bike path in George Bush Park. This meant it was free of auto traffic and suburban signage and clutter. The ride can be done along the top of the Barker Dam or alongside on a bike and hike trail. It circles the perimeter of the park with only a short distance which is shared with road traffic. Actually all but about the last 3 miles of the 11 mile circuit can be done on paved path and road edge, with only the last bit being done along the dam top, a two lane pack gravel trail.

We ended up going mid afternoon in brisk 60 degree temperatures. As always, no matter which direction we were riding, the winds were in our faces but fairly light, at least in terms of Houston. The trail emcompasses the reservoir/swamp which makes up the start of the Buffalo Bayou, a large ditch which travels west to east across Houston to the ship channel. Alternating wet lands and scrub fields make up the majority of the landscape inside the dam, while suburbia rings the outside of the area. Some of the leaves were colored, but the majority had already fallen and the were a lot of bird sounds alternating with absolute quiet and isolation from anything remotely resembling city guerilla biking.

So maybe I have found a new solution. The circuit of the park is only about 11 miles, but if I remember from other rides in the area, the distance to and from the park is a doable 12 or so miles so in the future, I will explore riding to the park and doing the circuit as a recovery from the guerilla biking required to get there, and to gird myself for the guerilla biking required to get home.