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BS. Try bike commuting in DC/Northern VA or Atlanta. We may not have bike lanes but plenty of neighborhoods and side streets that make Dallas a good place for bike commuting.

I ride my bike everywhere. I don't drive. I actually find the city quite easy to ride in. LeeDog is right about the neighborhood streets.

I'd say the main thing that makes Dallas one of the "worst American cities for cycling" is the fact that most people seem to use their cars to travel short distances, often a mile or less, when it would make more sense to walk or ride a bike.

Also, bike lanes are overrated, as they lead to more dooring incidents and collisions at intersections.

LeeDog,

Dawdling around in a neighborhood is one thing, but actually quickly attemtping to go somewhere like work, is extremely hard.

I ride from Oak Cliff to downtown Dallas, and it always takes me longer than it should because I'm avoiding the major roads since they're not bike friendly, plus I can never find a place to lock my bike up once I get there.

I have bicycling friends in DC that say it's much easier getting around there than in Dallas. Reference:
http://tinyurl.com/5327tq

I've been biking to work lately and it's been relatively easy. Granted, I live in Expo Park and work Downtown, but even getting to Lower Greenville is a piece of cake. You can take side streets all the way with just a few hairy intersections to cross (Munger is scary). I think the lack of proper bike racks is a problem but I've been surprised about how much gas $$ I've been saving. And it's fun. Now if only they'd install a shower at my office! At least people aren't getting their heads smashed in by delivery trucks like they are in, say, Brooklyn.

It would be a better city for everyone if the cyclists would actually follow the rules of the road like car drivers have to.

Chris, I agree, but I actually know & follow the rules, and this seems to confuse drivers. To me, that demonstrates the idea that drivers are not used to seeing cyclists behave.

Besides, tons of drivers refuse to even slow down at stop signs too. There needs to be more respect all around for our fellow humans. For the most part, I try to ride predictably and I try to avoid inconveniencing anyone. I expect the same consideration from drivers.

Jason,

I commute to work as well. From Beltline Rd in North Dallas to downtown, 29 miles roundtrip. I lived and bike commuted in Northern Virginia as well. Fortunately I had bike paths I was able to use. If it weren't for those, it would be death march. DC proper is relatively easy to commute in, but the surrounding areas are dangerous. Anyone interested in bike commuting can get plenty of advice here:

http://www.dorba.org/phpBB/viewforum.php?f=20

I was visiting Dallas last summer and biked around for quite a few days. Being in my old territory of Plano made biking a cinch - I just used the concrete walking trails in the parks to get around. It was remarkable how much territory you could cover, quickly. I was familiar with the area, but even in areas that I wasn't (like places that had been built since I moved away) I just stopped, looked at the intersection or address of wherever I'd ended up and punched it into a map program on my Blackberry: instant "you are here." But once I ventured into Addison, forget it. Many locations there are just too remote and too far from one another. It's designed for CARS, period. The sides of the roads often don't allow enough room, especially in heavy traffic. I got last-second honked at quite a few times...scary (and I bicycle in Manhattan all the time with few problems). The streets and sidewalks in most of the shopping centered/malled/apartment complex intersections of Addison and North Dallas (one inevitably bikes on the empty sidewalks) are too unpredictable and in no way bike-friendly. There area few bike-friendly pockets I think...but they aren't well connected (I thought the Katy Trail--closer to downtown--was nice for biking, but I found it was hard to use it to get anywhere, it's often elevated from the main roads, with no signage as to where you are, and it often lets you off in mysterious back parking lots of apartment complexes). I also used the DART trains to get my bike around the city--quite nice! I found this did indeed work, if I was taking my bike to an area I knew I could use it. The DART stations themselves were quite bike-friendly, as far as getting around and accessing the roads to and from them (can't remember if I saw bike racks, because I didn't need them). The only thing is the trains themselves are not designed to transport bikes very well. I often waited for one or sometimes two trains to pass before one arrived that had enough empty room in the back or front car to allow me to jam my bike diagonally into the isle (I REFUSE to be that person swatting commuters legs and faces with my dirty bike wheels, just because). NYC subway cars, despite being archaic in many ways, have a lot more breathing room for bikes and things, particularly in the backs of cars. I also found that getting around the lower Greenville area to be quite easy...those old neighborhood side streets made it that way. I imagine much of the immediate surrounding area is the same. I even found biking in Downtown Dallas to be a breeze! But these Dallas biking thoughts are just from a several-day visitor (who used to live there, so I'm rather familiar with the area's layout--a new visitor on a bike would be totally lost). I understand White Rock Lake has a lot of accessible trails, but I haven't been to that area in decades.

Here is my bike commute route:

Ride 1 mile to Mockingbird Station.
Dart Rail to Arapaho. Get funny looks from people for about 20 minutes.
Take side street Melrose and La Mange for a few miles and then the nightmare begins.
From Hillcrest to Midway you have to take Arapaho. Cracked sidewalks, unfriendly curbs, thin sidewalks. And this is the best route.

Overall time is roughly 1 hour.

This city is not made for the cyclist. The rating is accurate.

DCA,

Just ride the whole damn way. I'm sure the funny looks weigh hard on you. Try this route:

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1881830

LeeDog,

The route you mapped for DCA probably has at least 50 stop signs, which is the real problem. In cities that have dedicated bike paths that are seperate from the roads, or even those that are designated bike routes, planners develop with minimal stops in order to keep traffic flowing. Unfortunately, that isn't the case in Dallas...excluding the Katy trail, which helps me immensely when I have to ride into Uptown for specific jobs. My ride is about twenty five miles roundtrip, but since I prefer the safety of taking the residential Tenth street route, I'm stopping all of the time. As soon as August gets here, I'm cursing everyone one of those stop signs. If I could take Davis, or Fort Worth Avenue (which I have, though I've been clipped on more than one occasion), then my ride time would be cut in half.

\

I used to commute from HP to Preston/Beltline, and it worked if you followed some of the Pegasus Signs and then went up Hillcrest. the most important thing is to BE VISIBLE. We're talking strobe lights that flash for miles.

Robert, if you want to follow up on this article, contact bikedfw.org or go to the basement of City Hall and look up PM Summer. If Dallas wants to end its' reputation as the fat-assed capital of the Nation, or first runner up for said title, it'd be nice to see the City Elders take up the challenge and start becoming better examples. Hell, I see Miller out on the Katy quite often, and Angela and hubby ride their uprights out there some.

How come no one makes HP/UP'ers pay a toll for that trail? They fought it for 14 years, then they got free access to it.

Lee Dog,

That might actually work. I grew up on one of the streets that intersects Welch. This route except maybe Thackery wouldn't be that bad for stop signs.

The city is still not set-up as a bike city and may never move in that direction.

Anyone that has been to Minneapolis will see a model of urban cycling perfection. I believe Dallas has the ability to move in this direction.

About a month before I skipped town for Chicago, I sold my car and biked to work from Deep Ellum to Mockingbird Station. I found the only thing that made Dallas particularly bad for bikes, was that you had to share the roads with Dallas drivers. They resent the fact that you're biking on their roads, and they let you know how they feel about it.

Jason, DCA,
I agree, Dallas is not set-up to be ideally bike commuter friendly and probably never will. But there are safe routes available, albeit somewhat "out of the way", just takes some trial and error. Bike commuting in Dallas can be difficult, but Dorba.org via the Commuter Forum has enough members in the metroplex to give advice and make the commute viable and safe. Just want UP readers to know there is a resource available if they are entertaining the thought of bike commuting.