"It's a lot better than running on the streets or concrete," said the regular runner. "You're taking your chances when you're out on the street."
The city soon might provide a safer place for bikers to pump their pedals and joggers to move their feet with a proposed 2.5-mile hike-and-bike trail along the Gulf Terrace drainage detention facility from Phelan Boulevard to Dishman Road.
"It's an exciting project for the city to allow people another recreational venue - whether to walk, run or bike," City Manager Kyle Hayes said.
The $720,000 project, which is in conjunction with Drainage District 6, will have a 10-foot-wide trail as well as parking facilities at the Phelan Boulevard entrance.
"We both are serving the same constituents and citizens, and this is a way to utilize that property in way other than the drainage facilities," Hayes said.
And it certainly would be safer.
Between 2002 and 2005, seven pedestrians were killed in vehicular accidents in Beaumont. This year alone, six pedestrians have died in traffic-related collisions - almost hitting the total deaths of the past four years combined, according to Cheryl Ford of the traffic division of the Beaumont Police Department.
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"You can continue on and catch up with the Delaware extension between Dowlen and Major," Hayes said. "You can walk, run, bike that entire area."
Funding for the trail has already been approved and the project is just awaiting design completion, which should be finished by the end of this year.
"It's way overdue," said Eric Bender, a partner with Bicycle Sports. "There are so many people that come into our store that are thinking about moving to this area and ask me where do y'all ride around here, and I tell them on the street, on the road, what do you think?"
While the proposed trail is a welcome addition for bikers to use, 2.5 miles is not a whole lot of distance when considering some bikers average 25 to 50 miles per ride. But cyclists agree, the hike-and-bike proposal is a step in the right direction to making Beaumont a more rider-friendly city.
"I'm glad that it's in the planning stages, even if it's not in stone," said Todd Fogel, director of the Southeast Texas Hike and Bike Coalition. "At least they're talking about it. That's a real shift in perception."
The recreational trail is a lone gem in Beaumont where biking could be considered a dangerous hobby, local biking enthusiasts said.
"I just know that when we do run on the street, the runners have to be especially aware of the drivers," said Mireles, whose group has about 75 members in the Golden Triangle area. "Sometimes they aren't paying attention to us. They are just thinking about where they are going. They are on the cell phone, listening to the radio or eating food.
"The runner or the cyclist is always going to lose in those situations."
Brian Leighly, 40, lost control of his bicycle and fell under the back tires of an 18-wheeler in the Fourth street underpass near Crockett Street on Monday. He died the next day.
Since 2002, Leighly is the only bicycle/vehicle fatality recorded by the Beaumont Police Department. Other cyclists have managed to avoid death, but some have suffered injuries from close calls. Beaumont/Port Arthur was even tagged in a "Riskiest Roads" rating for cyclists in Self magazine's November 2004 issue.
"No matter how safe we make this, there are always going to be accidents. I think awareness and safety are always a problem," Fogel said. "That's part of our goal, is educating motorists in the area - we're here, we're part of the transportation community."
The newer roads on the city's West End are popular with cyclists, but more measures for safety need to be completed, said cyclists.
"They've got great shoulders - they are practically perfect for cycling and because of that they get a lot of use," said Fogel, who is one of between 15 to 50 cyclists who ride together every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning. "But there's nothing official indicating that this is a bicycle area."
But for each new road, there are many older ones that are dangerous for cyclists.
"The roads are old and badly worn and a lot of them have been resurfaced and the resurfacing adds 2, 3, sometimes even 4 inches of asphalt and there's a drop-off to the original gutter," Bender said. "Then it makes it dangerous to ride on the side of the road. The safest distance that you can ride from the curb on a lot of these roads in Beaumont is about 2 feet from the curb."
In addition to signs, the coalition would like to see more biking lanes on streets, coupled with educating motorists to look out for the bikers who share the road.
"We would like to see bicycles become a viable alternate form of transportation," Bender said. "If we can get something like this going, we ought to see a lot more bicycles on the road in this area."
And for both runners and cyclists, routes that run parallel to railroad lines would be an ideal trail. Area groups are in the planning stages of developing one for the city.
"It's somewhat frustrating in that down here, people are into hunting and fishing and they just don't have time for hiking and biking," Mireles said. "We could have hike and bike trails if we had enough people backing it up."
javilla@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0731
Bike safety tips
Source: www.safeusa.org