The Texas Trails Network announced the third annual Texas Trails Symposium to be held on February 21, 2001 in conjunction with the Texas Recreation and Parks Society (TRAPS) meeting in Del Lago near Conroe. Texas Trails Network (TTN) is proud to host the Ninth Texas Trails Symposium. This will be the third consecutive symposium hosted by TTN to further promote the advocacy of trails in the great state of Texas. Delegates this year will have the opportunity to hear from speakers addressing; Trail Connections; Trail Design; Regional Trail Cooperatives; Trail Partnering; Bicycle Safety Program; Rails with Trails; and Equestrians on Trails.

In addition, the Texas Trails Network plans to formally launch its mission statewide at this symposium. During the noon lunch hour, TTN will hold its annual meeting and install Thomas Frey, City of Garland as its incoming President along with a new slate of board members. If you feel a calling to represent your region of the state in TTN, please contact Joe Moore, President at 817-410-3121 or Joe Moore for more information.

TBC teamed up with Bell Sports, Inc. and the Texas Medical Association (TMA) to help Speaker of the Texas House Pete Laney insure that 40 children will have a very merry Christmas. Arranged around the tree in the House of Representatives chamber are bicycles, tricycles and Bell helmets for each of them.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a draft plan that will govern how off-highway vehicles can be used on BLM-managed public land. The International Mountain Bicycling Association is concerned that the plan groups mountain bikes with motorized vehicles despite the different impacts of the activities.

IMBA is against grouping mountain bikes with motorized vehicles because it could lead to severe and unwarranted restriction of bicycle access. The physical and social impacts of bicycle use are clearly less than that of motorized use and IMBA believes bicycles should be managed separately.

"We're disappointed the BLM has chosen this route," said IMBA executive director, Tim Blumenthal. "We have worked as partners with the BLM for a decade to carefully manage mountain biking. This plan is not consistent with that partnership."

The Draft National Off-Highway Vehicle Management Strategy was released Dec. 4 for public comment.

IMBA is encouraging mountain bikers to submit comments on the plan before the Jan. 3, 2001 deadline. The BLM has said it will finalize the strategy by Jan. 19, 2001 ­ the last day of the Clinton Administration.

For more information go to International Mountain Bike Association

Bicycle retailers across the state are putting their money where their mouth is. The TBC Legislative Agenda is the most far reaching piece of legislation ever attempted in Texas. For the first time, TBC has hired a professional lobbyist with a long history at the Capital. He is a cyclist and sincerely wants to see our agenda passed. We expect our expenses for this legislative effort to be about $25,000 for the next six to eight months. Through the efforts of Hill Abell at Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin, we have received major donations from Bicycle Sport Shop in Austin, Richardson Bike Mart in Richardson, Bicycles Inc. in Bedford and Bike Barn in Houston. Robin Stallings is conducting the campaign to secure donations from the rest of the 275 shops in Texas, who are supporting us at generous levels. See the January/February 2001 issue of THE ADVOCATE for more information.

The Texas Department of Transportation is currently updating the Texas Transportation Plan. This will be the first update since the plan was developed in 1994. This document sets the parameters for the future of bicycling on state roads in Texas among other forms of transportation. This plan will also address issues of rail, ocean freight, highways and communications. You can go to their web site and make comments. There will be two more rounds of meetings during 2001 and we will alert the membership when it’s time.

In addition to redistricting, the next session of the Texas legislature will be looking at a number of transportation issues. TEX-21, a statewide coalition of local officials has an 18 point plan. The preliminary legislative package issued in October. Primarily concerned with building new highways, this package does address some critical safety issues such as red light running, graduated drivers licenses, overweight trucks and funding of a comprehensive data collection system. Unfortunately there is no discussion of "multi-modal" transportation. It’s important that our legislators hear our views on transportation planning and include cycling and walking considerations in all new construction as intended by Congress in TEA-21.

top

Posted opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Directors, the staff or membership of the Texas Bicycle Coalition.