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Bicycle
Austin.info
a project (not an organization) by Michael Bluejay |
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Note that we cover only rides frequented by cyclists who bike for alternative transportation. We don't list any of the typical sports/rec rides. Those can be found on the Austin Cycling Association website, or in the excellent Southwest Cycling News newspaper, available at local bike stores.
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Local Rides Critical Mass (CM) is a fun bike ride through rush hour with a totally spontaneous and random route. Some see it as a protest of cars, others just like to go on a fun ride with dozens of other cyclists. Everyone is welcome, and funky bikes are encouraged. Critical Mass leaves from the Univ. of TX West Mall (Guadalupe between 22nd & 23rd) on the last Friday of each month, at 5:00 pm year-round. There used to be a "mid-month" Critical Mass ride circa 1995 for riders who wanted to follow the traffic laws all the time, but it was discontinued after a few months.
Past CM rides have sometimes included flags, banners, musical instruments, partial nudity, and traffic-blocking. Other rides have been calm and uneventful. There are no rules -- whatever happens, happens. There are no leaders, officers, or organized planning -- Critical Mass just "happens". We've had as few as two and as many as 200 people show up for CM, and the typical number is around 50. Critical Mass started in Austin in late 1993. For about the first year, there was significant police harassment (dozens of police "escorts" issuing petty tickets and making spurious arrests), but after we showed videotapes to the Austin City Council about the shenanigans the cops were pulling, the cops stopped coming to our rides, and so CM has been virtually cop-free since late 1994. Also, most of those arrested or ticketed had their cases dismissed, or won their cases when they went to court. Critical Mass happens in several cities all over the world. The most famous is in San Francisco, where it's been reported that over 5,000 cyclists have participated in CM rides. Here's a link to the Austin Critical Mass page, and the Worldwide Critical Mass Hub. Here's video and commentary about the controversial 9-28-01 ride. Annual Moonlight Cruise This is a huge, unofficial annual ride attracting hundreds of cyclists, and it's been happening since 1983 (according to the fliers). It typically attracts 300-1000 cyclists. It used to meet at Palmer Auditorium, but starting in 2001 it's met at the new Pfluger Bike/Ped Bridge at Lamar & Riverside. We've been unsuccessful in pinning down a guideline for the exact September weekend it happens each year; basically, some anonymous people post fliers at the local bike shops in September. To find out the exact weekend, check with your local bike shop. Remember that a headlight and rear reflector or light is required by State law (and it's crazy to ride at night without lights anyway). By the way, if you like the Moonlight Cruise, you might also like the Moonlight Ramble held in Houston every October. Like Austin's ride, it starts at 2:00 am, but their ride is much larger, with anywhere from 5000-12,000 cyclists. Also unlike Austin's ride, it's not free -- the registration fee is $20.
Other Rides. The focus of BicycleAustin.info is to promote cycling as an alternative to driving, and to support car-free lifestyles. We therefore don't list the kinds of bike rides here where you have to register and pay money and get a t-shirt, etc. Those rides are listed in Cycling News, an excellent monthly newspaper available free at local bike shops and at the Wheatsville Food Co-op (3101 Guadalupe), or you get it mailed to your home when you join the Austin Cycling Association. |
Other Events Bike Month & Bike to Work Day (Every May). In the mid-90's, Austin started having a Bike Week to promote cycling, with bike fairs, discounts at local stores for people who biked there, and a Corporate Challenge to see which business could get the highest percentage of its employees to bike to work on the designated day. By the end of the 90's, Bike Week had grown into Bike Month. By 2000, the City's Bicycle Program, which had done most of the organizing of the event in recent years, decided to no longer organize the event, in favor of devoting its resources to more pressing bike projects (such as putting together a Bicycle Commuting Packet to make available to major employers located on existing, usable bicycle routes). For 2000, local activists over organizing the events. For historical purposes, here are some of the events from Bike Months in previous years. Austin Bike-In Theatre. Every Thursday night until November. Check out the schedule. FrankenBike. Monthly swap meet for bike parts.
Courteous Mass Bike Parade. [This ride was discontinued circa late 2002.] Riders wary of the sometimes confrontational nature of Critical Mass (see below) started an alternate monthly "Courteous Mass" bike parade in November 2001. The motto was "Play Nice". The ride left from the south side of the Pfluger Bridge (Lamar & Riverside) on the second Friday of every month. We started earlyto have some sunlight in winter months, but had a rendezvous point later for people who couldn't make it so early:
Monthly Full Moon Rides. We no longer list the Monthly Full Moon rides. Here's why: These rides are so poorly/randomly organized, there's no telling where or when they're happening. Like Critical Mass, there are no official organizers, so people can (and do) randomly change the dates & locations, causing complete confusion. Ever since I started covering the rides, they (whoever they are) would randomly change locations and dates, and I could never pin anyone down to agreeing on anything. I used to publish a list of full moon rides on the website and I had a complete yearly calendar of the rides every single month in Cycling News, until May 2000 when somebody took it upon himself to change the date and location of the ride. He also didn't bother to tell me about it, or to post about it to the email list, etc. I only found out about it when I saw a flier, advertising a different date & location from what I'd been publishing for months. Typically, the flier contained absolutely no contact information. And when stuff like this happens, readers of the website usually send me hate mail after the fact for listing the "wrong" date/location. So I gave up and removed the listings.
Weekly Midnight Ride. Removed for the same reason as above. If anybody would care to communicate with me about what the hell is going on I'd be happy to list their rides.
Ruta Maya Sunday Rides. (Canceled, as of early 2001. The contact was Eric Anderson.) |
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