Proposed concert venue on Fitzhugh Road cancelled!

[Jeff Newberry]

Folks,

     Many of us have long dreaded the traffic impact on our routes of the rumored concert venue to be built on Fitzhugh Road. Our man in the area Dan Colvin had done some exploratory work to reroute our double centuries that return on Fitzhugh at night, but things weren't really panning out. Fortunately they're not going forward with the plan. 

On a related note, I continue to believe that routes that return on Fitzhugh (such as the old HCR mainstay Johnson City Stretch) in daytime hours are no longer a good idea, but traffic quiets down substantially after dark. Russ Dorobek (our new RBA, for those who may not have heard) is committed to seeking out safer, less travelled roads. I'm glad that the Mueller Double route won't have to be sacrificed as it's my absolute favorite big day in the Hill Country. 

Jeff

https://www.kvue.com/article/money/economy/boomtown-2040/fitzhugh-road-dripping-springs-texas-concert-venue-plans-scrapped/269-2465c6ea-44da-41ee-afec-504a56c9b3e5

[Jim Bronson]

This is great news, Jeff!

I have to imagine that the concert site developer realized that there was going to have to be a long and protracted legal battle with the landowners in the area to bring their vision to reality.  There are a lot of people who have paid a lot of money to live in an area they perceive as quiet and I'm sure they will fight to keep it that way.

These days you really have to get to the other side of 281 to get reasonably priced land in the Hill Country.  But that's neither here nor there.

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[Tucker Cullum]

Awesome!

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Respectfully,

Tucker

[Ken]

With the rapid expansion of all Texas towns and resulting traffic, the halcyon days of riding quiet country lanes is becoming a thing of the past. I do mourn the open fields and seasonal Canadian geese that used to use the rice fields for layovers. Suburbs of houses and streets do not offer a pleasing replacement. 

Ken J.

[Dan Colvin]

I was out of town when this discussion was going on, but had been made aware of the decision previously. This is really great news. However, it is, unfortunately, still a fact that Fitzhugh Rd is not really safe enough to be used outside of Saturday and Sunday mornings. Circle and Thomas Springs are also pretty bad. Over the last few days, I've been thinking of ways to re-route the Pedernales Double Century to bring it back into Austin in a safer manner. The route that I have come up with makes use of the new shoulder on Hamilton Pool Rd to get back into Bee Cave. Since this is shorter than Circle-Thomas Springs-Barton Creek, it replaces the missing miles by taking the longer way around via 360 on the way out and picks up a few more by going to Luckenbach via Grapetown. There are 3 ways to get from Fitzhugh over to HPR. After careful consideration, I'm going to recommend the S Oak Forest - Bell Springs Route as it looks like the safest. And, for you double century purists, it comes out at 200.4 miles instead of 199.8. I really think that we should push to replace the existing Pedernales Double Century route with this version before it is run in early February. 

 https://ridewithgps.com/routes/53525200

Thanks,

Dan

On Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 9:19 AM Jeff Newberry <jeffreya...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Adam Rice]

I appreciate your work on this, but FWIW, I've tried to avoid riding on 360 ever since a friend got killed by a motorist riding there.

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hill-country-randonneurs/CANT9M%3DZqc%3DQEoGj0kcW5%2B8hAGy7G3P6xcU0GKz05mw-T3ycKyg%40mail.gmail.com.

Adam Rice :: Austin TX USA :: adam...@8stars.org :: http://8stars.org/

[Russell Dorobek]

Thank you for considering reroutes to make the PDC safer. 

Do you know how to use RUSA RWGPS account to propose the changes? Happy to help with that.

[Dan Colvin]

My recent attempt to get a perm passed did not go well. If you, or anybody else on this thread, has any talent for getting things 'right' for getting past the RUSA gatekeepers, please jump in.

Thanks,

Dan

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hill-country-randonneurs/CABVtDaVGj4LpNLnNXM%3DkZejfxCYw%2B0-mMN6rdRrg%3D9q9k4-4nQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jim Bronson]

I can definitely appreciate that, Adam.  Cycling tragedy has touched many of us.

Longtime RUSA member John Fusselman, Sr, was killed on 2244 by a right turning driver, while riding a 200K permanent, in 2015, in a ride I backed out of at the last minute.  I often wonder if I would have been killed also.

However, these things do beg the question,

What are we going to do?  Give up the sport we love?  

Or fight for our right to be able to ride our bikes.

The torrid growth of the Austin area and the attendant reduction in good cycling conditions, is distressing.  But shall we give up?  I certainly don't want to.

-Jim

RUSA 3421

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hill-country-randonneurs/51C5E20E-E0BC-470F-AD8C-2AF5995BC800%408stars.org.

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[Ken]

FWI: I either drive 40 miles to ride some of the country roads not yet inundated with concrete, or ride a local hike/bike trail where I can get an out and back 104 KM's in a couple of days a week. The drive out of the city is okay in the morning but hell coming back. 

The despoiling of the country around Houston and the need to drive further to find quiet roads is the reason why I and all of my friends have stopped recording miles via RUSA. 

I think I am the last of the former Houston Randonneurs to ride any kind of riding and this is to be my last year as a member. 

Twenty Three years ago when I first became a Rando there were just under a hundred of us riding a 200K out of Katy before the rice fields were concreted over, wonderful days and great company. 

However, cycling public roads around here is just no longer feasible. Sad, but there it is. Anyway, aren't we supposed to embrace progress? 

Ken J.

[Ken]

To answer Dan's question, I would say there is hope for randonneuring in America - although I wouldn't count on it with the current board, but here is an example of a highly successful Audax country:

Membership Growth

Audax UK was started in 1976 by 16 members of the 24-Hour Fellowship 

By the year 2022 the membership had grown to 9,000 

In the year now finishing membership has continued to rise. 

Naturally, size matters. Britain is tiny compared to America and cyclist are never far away from others, but the main difference is that brevets in the UK can only be organised by cycling clubs in order for the calendar to have the support of a club. Cycling clubs are large and well supported so there are always members who want to ride in groups which translates to Audax. Cities are closer than in the US so brevets organised by one club are ridden by members of other clubs, it is all very homogeneous. 

Compare that with  RUSA clubs in the US which are run by individuals and where towns and RUSA clubs are hundreds of mile apart. To use an expression, it is a different ball game. 

In the early days of Houston Randonneurs, many if not most of the support came from the Dallas club - Lone Star - but to drive nearly 600 miles back and forth a week for bike ride eventually was not sustaining. In addition, quite a number of HR riders were not - and were not required to be - members of RUSA. 

So, how to generate enough interest in American randonneuring for it to not only survive but to thrive? Dan, over to you.

KenJ

[Russell Dorobek]

I can definitely help you, if you want to share the draft routes and let me know where it's at in the process. 

It can be tedious to get all the cues and such in place, but it yields very useful route files.