David Byrne and company at a lecture on the state of cycling in Austin. (iPhone photo courtesy of fellow Austin Cycling Meetup member, Cinda Christian)
One of the many great things about living in my newly adopted hometown is the truly amazing cycling culture. I found this week alone two world class events in which to immerse myself. As a spinal cord injury survivor I’ve had running and equestrian pursuits – both of which I jumped headlong into – shot down by medical advisers. So a few years ago I decided the passionate childhood memories I had for biking all over town with my friends on the weekends might hold the keys to my desire for lifelong fitness. And like anything I’ve undertaken with any seriousness the opportunity to keep learning and to create community around a common passion is one of the best things about it.
So last Sunday I invited my newly created neighborhood cycling group to join me at a lecture by David Byrne of the Talking Heads entitled Cities, Bicycles and the Future of Getting Around. He was also promoting his new book, Bicycle Diaries. Meeting some new members whom I hadn’t ridden with yet we grabbed a coffee and joined several hundred people in a line around the historic Paramount Theatre downtown. There’s something about hanging with people – even complete strangers – that share a passion that’s life affirming.
Byrne a lifelong cyclist has seen a lot on two wheels as he’s toured, and is a passionate advocate for using a bike for transportation. He brought an interesting slide show of things he’s stumbled upon in the four corners of the world that one might miss from a car. The other great news is that the forum was meant to inspire advocacy and cycling as a green lifestyle. Byrne’s fellow presenters included League of Bicycling Voters, President Rob D’Amico; City of Austin’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Director, Annick Beaudet; and architect and urban planner Jana McCann.
Each speaker shared their unique take on where we stand as cyclists in Austin. D’Amico, in particular presented a hilarious, but sobering look at where we’ve been compared to where we are in terms of city support. His quirky slide presentation included photos of some of Austin’s original bad boys of cycling advocacy back before they were organized. Nude biking through town in protest and flash mobs at various political forums were all they could do before cyclists were considered anything but “fringe” elements and cycling was embraced by the city as economically important.
We’re in good numbers now according to Beaudet. 1.5% of Austinites in general and 3.5% of Central City resident commuters use a bike. And the city’s ambitious plan to do much better (5% citywide by 2020 and 10% of Central City by then) is being supported by efforts such as a PSA featuring Austinite Lance Armstrong, a bicycle “boulevard,” and complementary bike services on the bridge into downtown.
A few days after this inspiring platform – after which I certainly hit the pavement early the next morning – I was invited on an impromptu ride with Armstrong by some new friends from Austin Cycle Camp, sponsors of the LIVESTRONG team I’ll ride for on October 25. It was a rather spontaneous development planned on Twitter to celebrate the day he was diagnosed with cancer. Not as imposing, or so I thought, as a planned competitive ride, right?
I guess I should have been daunted by my very first downtown street cycling jaunt being undertaken in the company of a seven time Tour de France winner, not to mention a hundred other serious cyclists who have miles and miles and months of conditioning on me. But alas that’s not the way my life goes. When a unique and intriguing opportunity presents itself I jump in with both feet. It’s just what I do.
Our seemingly intimate little group (if 100 people and a news crew could be called intimate) met Mellow Johnny himself at the bike shop he co-owns by the same name – one inspired by the French “maillot jaune” meaning yellow jersey. In short order we were off.
Ironically just yards from our launch a fellow rider crashed right in front of me. I barely had time to stop before hitting her but immediately did so in order to lend aid. As she lie bleeding (later found to be less than serious, thank goodness) I thought to myself that this was probably the best thing I could do in light of the fact that I was clearly outclassed in conditioning and proper equipment for a road ride. I unknowingly invested in a classic hybrid commuter bike to give me more versatility for also riding trails and found out the hard way – see below – that it sucks for speeding through traffic lights and up hills if you’re not in super condition!
My immediate thought was that I would gladly stay behind so that the more advanced cyclists I was with, for whom the ride with Lance was a real golden opportunity, could go on ahead. And I was stunned when moments later they also dismounted and insisted on staying behind with me to assist the injured woman. Although surprised I shouldn’t have been. The guys at Austin Cycle Camp are some of the most genuinely helpful cycling advocates I’ve met in my few weeks as an Austinite. They use the internet to great efficiency in organizing rides and their weekend workshops are geared to building skills and safe cyclers. And they rock just about anything in Austin related to cycling. So if you ride in Austin be on the lookout for their colorful jerseys.
As we all stopped to help calm the rider whose greatest injury seemed to be her dignity, we realized, thankfully, that Austin PD’s downtown bicycle officers were just yards away. An EMS bus was en route in short order. About that time Lance’s follow car, who also stayed behind to check things out, hit the road to rejoin the masses and our little group remounted in hot pursuit. It only took about six blocks for me to become aware of the limitations of riding the wrong kind of equipment on a ride with any kind of pace. So after falling far enough behind to warrant giving up on being with the group I decided to go back and see if I could provide any kind of support to the injured rider whom we’d left in capable hands. Being an advocate for people in need is a role I feel far more comfortable in than that of hard core cyclist…yet.
Her wounds tended, her pride restored, my charge went off to work alone feeling the ride I offered her wasn’t necessary. Nevertheless I felt useful if for nothing else than maintaining vigil with her. Being alone and wounded is not something I would wish on my worst enemy.
This week has been full of new friends, great inspiration and lots of learning. What a wondrous new home I’ve found!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I follow a variety of blogs on-line to test the waters of current opinion from pop-culture to hardships of our troops and their families (and a lot more in-between). I must say that this is the first time I have ever seen the term “nude biking” used together in one sentence. This certainly helps that local battle cry of “Keep Austin Weird” http://www.keepaustinweird.com.
On-the-other-hand there is nothing weird at all about promoting “green transportation” and a healthy life-style. To that end more and more cities and spending moneys for cycling byways. The trick, for lack of a better word, is parking those bikes. Sounds odd, I know, but think about it. Those bikes need a place to park too and not much real estate is devoted to this in Austin (even on the UT campus). It’s kind of like going to a 50,000 seat stadium and there’s only two bathrooms (for men and women) with ten stalls in each. OPPS!
I hope these cycling advocates in Austin have the foresight NOT to overlook this small but significant point. The more parking dedicated for cyclists the more likely others will commute finding a variety of savings which will become intrinsic over time… nude biking notwithstanding.
Rest assured that this is being considered. Byrne even displayed photos of the spaces he recommended in downtown Austin for such. And also showed a photo from China, I think, of a several stories tall rack of bikes in a public setting and a bike parking “room” in a Japanese building supplied with dual-storied storage racks. Way cool!
Allison, God bless you. I was in with the group from AC2 right after that lady crashed and trying to catch the main group. When we pulled up at Pleasant Valley, I noticed you were missing and I’m sorry that the pace went that quick. It wasnt too long after that, Maria and I also dropped back and decided to turn around. 4 of us retraced our route back to MJ’s having wound up doing about 20 miles total.
So despite only having seen Lance briefly, it was a fun little ride and I got to meet the great folks of AC2. Hope to see you at another bike event sometime. I will check your neighborhood group rides and try to meet up sometime.
Sean, nice to “meet” you! Thanks for the concern. I was in a crowd full of strangers aside from Maria at MJ’s the other day. I appreciate your saying hello! The 20 miles would have been just about right for me if the pace hadn’t been too hard to keep up with my heavy bike. (I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I’d only been training about three weeks!) Yes, AC2 rocks. Welcome to the group. Keep me posted by email what you’re looking for in the way of rides. I”m trying to mash several together now due to special requests emailed to me by group members. Hope to see you soon!
Sounds as you’ve found a good home to be alive in great. So if you do this nude thing well; I wont go there. The few months I was stationed in San Diego the streets and outlying urban areas were great cyclist turff and many wonderfull people. My new Fugi mountain bike was state of the art named Yellow Jacket, for it was that super safety YELLOW with Black detail, coool. Im happy for you to have found a group of riders that you enjoy and have a connection with. The lady that took the tumble well; I suppose thats just another of more to come. Be carefull its so easy to zone in a care free mind set where adventure and companionship cause; in my case; (Makes the world go away) enough for today. God Bless ,Gregory. [see you at Twitter]