Honkin' Mad

No Car. No Problem. (Howdy from Carrollton)

I'm at a McDonald's ("Did somebody say wifi?")  across the street from Carrollton City Hall. I made it to the press conference an hour early. The trip was extremely long -- 3 hours, 15 minutes -- but largely uneventful. The exception was a trio of young women on the Trinity Railway Express, who boarded the Dallas-bound train at CentrePort/DFW Airport and decided to air their gripes about office politics within earshot of an entire railcar. It's interesting how people who commonly ride transit block out distractions, no matter how shrill. I'm sure at least a half-dozen people wanted to tell the loudmouths to put a lid on it, but no one said a peep.

theimagineryworld.com

www.mcdonalds.com

No Car. No Problem (On foot today)

Today in Carrollton the North Texas Tollway Authority is having a press conference about the Texas 121 toll road north of Grapevine, and the $3 billion  they'll be making off the road that can then be spent on other area road projects.  Big whig transportation people from throughout North Texas and the Texas Dept. of Transportation will be there. What better way to attend a toll road discussion than to walk to a bus stop, connect to commuter rail, transfer to DART light rail and then two DART buses to get to beautiful downtown Carrollton by 11:30? 

I'll let you know how it goes ...

Funny ... I feel like I'm gonna miss my bike today.  The darn backpack is a lot heavier without it.

Post mortum on yesterday's bike ride: I was a little hard on Hurst yesterday for a lack of bike space along Texas 10. I did a little research and found that there are several very nice shortcuts through neighborhoods. To get to the station from the Star-Telegram's Bedford newsroom, I took Westpark Way to Central Park, Central Drive and then Pipeline Road to El Camino Real, which was a very pleasant residential road that led to RIckels Park, which had a nice trail system connecting to Bluebonnet Drive. I took Bluebonnet to Texas 10, crossed the highway at the signal near Bell Helicopter and, voila, I had safely arrived at the train station.

Stressed face www.ideasbynet.com

No Car. No Problem (Late lunch/early dinner)

Then I stopped for a Whataburger, stuffed it into my backpack and rode to the Hurst/Bell Station and ate it on the platform while waiting for the train ...

No Car. No Problem. ("Hey Bud: Let's Party!")

Left the office this afternoon on bike. As I was heading south on Westpark Way in Euless, heading toward the train station in Hurst, riding with traffic in the right lane, a couple of big shots passed by and a dude yelled at me from the passenger side window: "Hey bro, Gimme five!" He chuckled and stuck out his hand, in an obvious attempt to distract me. But then, to his surprise, the light turned red and the car had to stop. I caught up in about five seconds. I pulled up to him and he sheepishly stuck his hand out the window, and I defiantly gave him a 5, maybe like Stackhouse would stick on Bowen after drawing two points and a foul in a Mavs-Spurs game (OK. Maybe it wasn't that dramatic.). As I've told my pre-teen daughter, dudes under 25 ain't worth much 'til they've survived a serious accident ... Then they become better drivers. I know. I was one of 'em. The insurance companies, curses to them, are right -- they charge that demographic the highest rates for a reason. Anyway, no harm no foul. I didn't smell any ganja coming out of the car, although based on their behavior I coulda sworn those guys were ... uh, never mind ...

No Car. No Problem (Hindsight is 20-20)

When the Texas Department of Transportation widened Texas 10 (Hurst Boulevard) a couple of years ago, why did someone in Hurst not insist that sidewalks -- or shoulders wide enough for bike lanes -- be built leading to the Hurst/Bell Station???

Riding with traffic on Texas 10, where the speed limit is 50 mph, is a death wish.

BTW, To get from the train station to the Star-Telegram's Bedford newsroom, I rode highway 10 to Raider Drive, to Pipeline and Central Drive, then Central Park (behind Harris H-E-B hospital) to Westpark Way.

No Car. No Problem. (Got to work in 100 minutes)

I made it to work by 8:35 using a weird combo of trans-options. I took the T's No. 62 Summerfields Express to downtown Fort Worth, and rode the Trinity Railway Express to Hurst-Bell Station. From there, the Star-Telegram was a four-mile, 30-minute bike ride (mostly uphill, but not terrible). The bike rack on the bus was awesomely easy to use. Normally I expect the TRE to be bike-friendly, with its easy-to-step-on, double-deck Bombardier railcars. But the TRE also still keeps in service a small number of old-fashioned, single-deck Budd Rail Diesel Cars (the kind with no bathrooms), and as luck would have it the TRE train I needed to catch was running these Budds. I'm here to tell you it was a real booger to get a bike up those steep, narrow steps. And then, once inside the self-propelled silvery cars, there was very little room to stow a bike. I ended up taking space in the wheelchair area, which thankfully no one in a wheelchair needed at the moment. Oh, and I made one of the TRE employees mad when I opened the door latch to step off the train. (Actually, I got the sense he was having a bad day anyway.) On the Budd cars, passengers are supposed to wait for the help to take care of such matters, whereas the Bombardier doors open automatically ...

Railfans like the nostalgia of riding in the old-fashioned Budd RDCs ... and they are pretty ...

... but when I'm on a bike GIVE ME THE BOMBARDIERS! Gaudy Texas flag paint job, and all!

No Car. No Problem. (Eye on the Sky)

For some time, I've enjoyed keeping track of the weather, but since I started this backpack journalism journey I've become obsessed with the 10-day forecast, which so far looks pretty good:

Ahh, the great outdoors ...

Forecast for Fort Worth, TX (76137)

10-Day Forecast NEW: Larger Radar Maps & No Ads High / Low (°F) Precip. % Today Nov 29 Mostly Sunny 63°/48° 10 % Fri Nov 30 Cloudy 68°/59° 20 % Sat Dec 01 Few Showers 73°/66° 30 % Sun Dec 02 Isolated T-Storms 72°/42° 30 % Mon Dec 03 Sunny 61°/43° 10 % Tue Dec 04 Sunny 68°/45° 10 % Wed Dec 05 Sunny 69°/48° 10 % Thu Dec 06 Mostly Sunny 67°/45° 10 % Fri Dec 07 Sunny 65°/42° 10 % Sat Dec 08 Mostly Sunny 62°/42° 10 % Last Updated Nov 29 05:15 a.m. CT

No Car. No Problem. (Multimodal morning)

It's 5:30 a.m. and I'm gonna catch the neighborhood bus this morning. I'm going to take my bike, too. Most T buses have bike racks on the front. The No. 62 Summerfields Express will arrive here about 6:55 and get me to downtown about 7:40. Then I'll take Trinity Railway Express, which also allows bikes, to Hurst and from there ride my bike to the Star-Telegram's Bedford office. That'll shorten my bike-riding time to about a half-hour. The total trip will still take about two hours, I suspect, but most of that time I'll be able to get some work done. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here's a picture from the T showing how the bike rack works.

No Car. No Problem. (Why do this now?)

Others have asked why I'd pick late-November/early-December to go without a car. One reason is the weather. Early December is the absolute best time of year to live in North Texas. Yes, occasional cold fronts blow through (and I'm not looking forward to that), but most days are sunny and 60, and the nights rarely dip below 40. The leaves are just starting to fall. If you're from up north or back east, the Decembers in North Texas are comparable to your Octobers. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by talking about the weather ...

Other reasons this seemed like a good time:

*It's generally a slow time on my transportation beat, which makes it more likely I can keep up with the daily grind of newspaper work while still trying to survive and get places without a car. Hope I didn't jinx myself here either ...

*At the moment, my kids have limited post-curricular activities to worry about. My daughter is on the student council and cross country B-team, but most of those activities take place immediately before and after school. My son is currently not doing much outside of school hours, except practicing his reading and playing with Star Wars action figures. That will change in January, when he'll probably join a team sport. But by then I'll have my car back.

I'm trying not to count the days ...

No Car. No Problem. (Supportive family)

Some have asked how my family feels about me ditching a car for a month. My wife, Grace, is a freelance photographer. She has a journalism background and understands the value of a good story. Her main concern has been my safety on bike. But hey, I don't let her get away with too much fretting! One time early in our marriage, I stayed home while she covered a freakin' uprising in Chiapas, Mexico.

But she is picking up the slack for me around the house. Generally, it's my job to get the kids up and fed in the morning, and take them to school. She is now having to help in this area. I can still walk my 6-year-old son to elementary school, on mornings when I don't have to leave early. But my 12-year-old daughter's middle school is two miles away, so my wife is now taking her to school. School bus service is available in our neighborhood, but my daughter has had some run-ins with a couple of snots on the bus, so we haven't let her ride in several months. We'll have to see if my little month-long experiment forces us to try the bus again.

My wife also will have to take my son to elementary school on mornings when I have to leave early, which unfortunately will be fairly routine. The one bus in my neighborhood, the Summerfields Express, arrives once a day at about 6:55 a.m., so I'll be leaving home at 6:40 pretty regularly.

My wife's schedule makes it possible for her to pick up the kids after school, so there's no change there.

Then in the evening, it's still my job to make sure the kids are showered and in bed, preferably before the witching hour ... and I don't expect those duties to change.