Tag Archives: bicycles

Dallas ends its scooter experiment

Posted on September 10, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Over in Dallas, never started in Houston. Tis better to have scootered and stopped than to have never scootered at all. That is the consensus of a handful of Houston proponents of rental scooters as they watched Dallas this week … Continue reading →

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Bike lanes coming to Shepherd/Durham corridor

Posted on July 18, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. Houston officials with some regional help have nearly solved funding a $100 million rebuild of Shepherd and Durham that adds bike lanes, wider sidewalks, improved drainage and new concrete to one of the most car-centric corridors within Loop 610. … Continue reading →

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Here come the electric bikes

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. Houston’s growing bike share system will jump into over-drive in the coming months, fueled by $250,000 in Harris County funds that will put 100 new electric bikes on city streets. An amended plan by Harris County Precinct One Commissioner … Continue reading →

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Driving may be down, but traffic fatalities are not down as much

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a bit of a conundrum. COVID-19 can keep millions of Texans at home and cut vehicle travel roughly in half in many cities, but cannot keep hundreds from dying on state roads — continuing a stubborn trend of carnage … Continue reading →

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City moves forward on Vision Zero

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Tuesday adopted a plan that aims to end traffic fatalities and serious traffic injuries in Houston by 2030. The “Vision Zero Houston” plan is considered a significant step in the city’s mobility strategy and will … Continue reading →

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A call to embrace scooters

Posted on August 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Chron business writer Chris Tomlinson is a fan of scooters. After years of riding bicycles in traffic, I’m comfortable riding a scooter on the street where they belong. I find them a convenient and environmentally-friendly alternative to automobile congestion. But … Continue reading →

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San Antonio bans scooters from sidewalks

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Speaking of where scooters do and do not belong: Dockless electric scooters can’t be ridden on San Antonio sidewalks, per a new City ordinance that went into effect Monday, but many say they’re concerned about how well it will be … Continue reading →

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Biking and breweries

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Actually, this makes perfect sense. This started off in the gray area between a good idea and a bad one. Two years ago, Jason Buhlman and Brian Kondrach got about 30 of their friends together for an afternoon of two-wheel … Continue reading →

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Yeah, scooters are going to come to Houston

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

The question is when, not if. [E]ven though there’s a growing interest in alternate forms of transportation, you still can’t rent a scooter in Houston. Maria Irshad, assistant director of the City of Houston’s Parking Division, said Houston’s infrastructure has … Continue reading →

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Happy (bike) trails to you

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Trails connecting to trails. It’s a beautiful thing. With roughly four miles of new trail in the neighborhood along Sims Bayou and a electric transmission route, officials in southern Houston’s Five Corners District as well as park advocates said they … Continue reading →

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Metro’s driverless shuttle finally debuts

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Nice to have good weather. TSU’s Tiger Walk isn’t just for pedestrians anymore. The region’s first autonomous shuttle to carry passengers debuted Wednesday along the tree-lined walk, the center of the Texas Southern University campus. Operated by Metropolitan Transit Authority, … Continue reading →

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We’re already on the next generation of scooters

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

And of course, they’re coming to Austin. Already home to thousands of electric scooters, many of them crowding downtown sidewalks, the Central Texas city will be the first to experience a new generation of shareable electric scooters from an Oxnard, … Continue reading →

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Here come the e-bikes

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

To Dallas. Uber is about to jump into Dallas with a brand-new rent-a-ride for this market: rechargeable electric bikes. Jump, which Uber bought in April for $200 million, has filed an application with Dallas City Hall to bring 2,000 stationless … Continue reading →

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“The Rise and Fall of Dockless Bike Sharing in Dallas”

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Amazing story. Several dockless bike-share companies first converged on Dallas last August after promising local officials that their services would come at no cost to taxpayers, and the impact was immediate. The dockless feature allowed bike-share companies to distribute its … Continue reading →

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Uber scooters

Posted on July 15, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Somehow, you knew something like this was going to happen. Uber is getting into the scooter-rental business. The ride-hailing company said Monday that it is investing in Lime, a startup based in San Mateo, California. “Our investment and partnership in … Continue reading →

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Scooters come to San Antonio

Posted on June 26, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Beware, y’all. Electric scooters started popping up on the streets of San Antonio early Friday morning as part of an initiative by Los Angeles-based scooter-sharing company Bird to provide an alternative mode of transportation, mostly for those downtown. The scooters, … Continue reading →

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Let’s kill fewer pedestrians and bicyclists

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Crazy idea, right? Houston officials will find the 10 most dangerous intersections in the city and make safety adjustments where possible following a series of fatal bicycle crashes in 2018. Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the initiative on Bike to Work … Continue reading →

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Ellis puts up money for city’s bike projects

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

I like this plan. Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis on Monday announced a one-year $10 million commitment to bicycling projects in Houston, in the hopes of jump-starting the city’s transformation into a bike-friendly place. “Working together, we can … Continue reading →

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Bike plan finally gets approved

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Long time coming. Houston has a bike plan. Though there’s no clear plan to pay for it and ongoing concerns with exactly where the planned trails and lanes will be located, City Council approved the bike plan on Wednesday morning. … Continue reading →

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Bike plan vote delayed

Posted on March 11, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

What’s another two weeks? Houston’s long-term plan for improving bicycle routes around town will wait a couple more weeks after a handful of elected officials voiced various concerns. City Council members Greg Travis, Michael Kubosh, Steve Le, Mike Knox and … Continue reading →

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The long-term future of public transit

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

By “long-term” I mean by 2050 or so. For an agency that’s spent decades guiding freeway expansion, it was a stark admission for members of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s transportation policy council. “Future growth and the resulting travel is expected … Continue reading →

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Uber pulls driverless cars from San Francisco

Posted on December 24, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Score one for the California DMV. Uber pulled its self-driving cars off San Francisco’s streets Wednesday after the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked their registrations, effectively ending the company’s controversial pilot program after just one week. The move marked … Continue reading →

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The Complete Transportation Guide To Super Bowl LI

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

For which the tl;dr version is don’t drive in or near downtown if you can at all help it. More than 1 million people are expected to converge on downtown Houston during the week leading up to Super Bowl LI … Continue reading →

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More bayou bike trails

Posted on December 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. Laying out the particulars for a new trail section along White Oak Bayou, Chip Place saw something out of place where the trail crossed the Heights Hike and Bike Trail near T C Jester. It was the stairs connecting … Continue reading →

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Next B-Cycle expansion approved

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Expansion of Houston’s bike sharing system is pretty much in high gear after City Council on Wednesday signed off on a $4.1 million plan to roughly triple the number of bikes and kiosks. With the agreement in place, local … Continue reading →

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Next B-Cycle expansion announced

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Houston’s bike share system, Houston B-cycle, will more than triple in size over the next two years, adding 71 stations with 568 bikes. The expansion will be paid for with federal grant dollars. “The expansion of the … Continue reading →

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City bike plan finalized

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here it comes. Bicycling advocates – fresh off finalizing a plan for Houston’s bike future – face the challenge of getting formal city approval of their ideas as they incrementally piece together what could be a $500 million investment. Changing … Continue reading →

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Uptown BRT construction officially begins

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go. Crews are relocating trees in preparation for two years of construction, starting in July. The Uptown Dedicated Bus Lanes Project will unfold in three phases, moving from north to south and starting with the West Loop to … Continue reading →

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My vision for Metro: Buses

Posted on May 31, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve said before that I would have some suggestions for new Metro Board Chair Carrin Patman and her team as they take their places. This post is where I start sharing those suggestions. The idea is to focus on proposals … Continue reading →

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Meet the toucan light

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

The first of its kind in Houston, though maybe not the last. The new traffic signal suspended above Appel at Yale and Seventh is a first for Texas, but also an adjustment for residents – some of whom are unsure … Continue reading →

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What do you do with a problem like I-10?

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From a conversation that Cite Editor Raj Mankad conducted with Andrew Albers and Ernesto Alfaro, who co-teach a survey of landscape architecture at the Rice School of Architecture. Mankad: Let’s come back to I-10 and the failure of its… Alfaro: … Continue reading →

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The Purple City plan for I-45

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Check it out. Should a major freeway plan consider the needs of cyclists? Of transit riders? And if we’re going to tear down and reconstruct the entire downtown freeway network of the fourth-largest city in America, shouldn’t the final result … Continue reading →

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Electric bikes

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t know. Hundreds of local residents over the weekend strapped on helmets to ride motorized bikes as a way to showcase yet another way for Houstonians to traverse the city’s often congested streets. The free promotional rides at Rice … Continue reading →

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More on the draft bike plan

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the Chron. The Houston Bike Plan identifies $300 million to $500 million in improvements aimed at encouraging cycling and bringing more accessibility to every corner of the city via paths, off-street trails and safer lanes where cyclists share the … Continue reading →

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