South Florida Bike Coalition

St. Lucie BPAC Meeting Today at 3:30pm

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Thu, 19 May 2011 07:40:52 +0000

The South Florida Bike Coalition is excited to report increased bicycling advocacy in St. Lucie County. Resident advocates in Ft. Pierce, Port St. Lucie (and to the south in Martin County), are collaborating to make their roads safer for everyone – with a particular eye toward getting more kids safely on bicycles and educating motorists about the rights of all who ride.

Learn more about what’s happening – road projects, advocacy outreach and new education campaigns – at today’s meeting of the BPAC, to be held at 3:30pm in the St. Lucie County Administration Building (Tourism Development Conference Room) at 2300 Virginia Avenue in Fort Pierce.

Thanks for all you do – Ride Safely, South Florida.

Another Cyclist Hit on Brickell

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:48:14 +0000

For months now, we at the South Floride Bike Coalition and TransitMiami.com have been urging FDOT to calm traffic on Brickell Avenue. We have posted pictures and stories of multiple collisions, resulting in pedestrian injuries and fatalities and uncounted near misses. (Here’s one from last month.)

This morning, another person trying the simple task of turning onto Brickell Avenue from 14th street on a bicycle was hit by a car. He is currently at Ryder Trauma Center with a broken pelvis and other life-threatening injuries.

We hope he's okay. Is FDOT paying attention?

We are following this closely and will update this post as we receive more information. The bike flew over 50 feet into Brickell. Eyewitness reports suggest the motorist failed to yield to the man in the crosswalk, but we have not heard of any tickets issued at this time.

Ride safely, South Florida.

For the Love of (Free, Public) Bike Racks

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:21:47 +0000

How lovely would it be to ride somewhere – anywhere – and be able to park your bike safely and securely at your destination? For some, this is a given, but for others, it can be so challenging as to make them reconsider bicycling as transportation.

A variety of cities and counties across South Florida are addressing this problem. If you think your neighborhood / favorite cafe / office needs better bike parking, here are some people you can help score you one in the public spaces near you.

In the City of Miami: Collin Worth, Bicycle Coordinator
In Miami-Dade County: Jeffrey Cohen, Public Works Bicycle Coordinator
In Broward County: Mark Horowitz, MPO Bicycle Coordinator
In Palm Beach County: Bret Baronak, MPO Bicycle Coordinator
In Martin & St. Lucie: John-Mark Palacios, FDOT District 4 Bicycle Coordinator

Getting a new, quality bike rack installed in the public right of way may be free or, at least, heavily subsidized by your local government. We invite you to cc: us in your request so we can follow up and keep track of those that come from the same places.

To keep you inspired, here are some cool, functional bike racks made by our new fans at DERO:

and then, the wonderful Bike Station in Washington, D.C. – an admittedly bigger ‘ask’ that could be great in West Palm Beach? Ft. Lauderdale beachfront? Downtown Miami? …?

Click for more info on bikestation

Speak Up for People Who Bike, Walk

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:06:57 +0000

The Florida Department of Transportation’s attack on active transportation funding demands a strong response from all of us.

The South Florida Bike Coalition and partners ask you to write a letter to Congressman John Mica of Florida’s 7th District who is also Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. E-mail it, Fax it, Post it; Call his DC or District Offices; Tell your friends, write a letter to your editor of your local paper; Blog about this. But please, tell Congress that the most dangerous state for walking or bicycling in the Country needs more sidewalks and bike facilities, not less. Here’s our letter - feel free to edit it, add your personal story or just copy and paste it. Don’t forget to sign it with your full contact information (address, phone & e-mail), no matter how you send it. Thank you for reading – and for doing.

The best way to reach Congressman Mica quickly is via his website contact form, via his aide Wiley Deck or via phone or fax to his DC office: Phone: (202) 225-4035 Fax: (202) 226-0821.

The Honorable John Mica
House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515Dear Representative Mica:

As a Floridian, I am writing to tell you that the Florida Department of Transportation does not represent me when they question the importance of sidewalks and bike facilities.

At the special hearing on transportation policy in Maitland, Florida on March 14^th, FDOT asked the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for a “reduction of number of federal transportation programs” so that they can spend all federal funding on highways instead. As gas prices rise, more people are walking and biking in our state than ever before, but Florida is already the most dangerous state in the country to walk or bike in.

Therefore, I am asking you to dedicate as much funding to bike and pedestrian improvements as you can in the new transportation bill. At a minimum, I hope that you will maintain current funding levels, since they are already just a small part of the overall transportation budget.

FDOT doesn’t represent the people of Florida; I hope that you, Rep. Mica, will represent me.

Thank you,

Your Name
Address
Email
Phone Number

Other Florida Congressional representative that serve on the T&I Committee are first-term Republican Steve Southerland of Panama City/Tallahassee and Jacksonville/Gainesville/Ocala Democrat Corinne Brown. If you are in either of these districts, please contact them directly. You can also call or write to your own representative and ask him or her to speak to their colleagues on your behalf.

This takes only a few minutes of your time but it can have lasting impacts on the safety of transportation in Florida and across the United States. Again, thank you for speaking up for bicycling and walking.

City of Miami Bicycle Action Update

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 23:03:41 +0000

Update from the March City of Miami Bicycle Action Committee Meeting

Every month, local residents, advocates and Commissioner’s representative meet to discuss progress on the Bicycle Master Plan. If you live in the City of Miami, please tell your commissioner that this is important to you and encourage them to participate! If they already do, your support is still positive.

The City of Miami has been dropping bike lanes and sharrows all over the place. Some of these new facilities have been installed with funding from a special fund at Miami-Dade County – so if you don’t live in the City of Miami but think your neighborhood needs some white paint action, contact Jeff Cohen at jcpe@miamidade.gov.

A few other things on the table:

+The Bike Coalition is bringing back Bike Miami on May 8th! Thanks to a grant from the Miami Downtown Development Authority and the strong support and leadership of City of Miami Bicycle Coordinator Collin Worth, we’ll be helping to coordinate a bicycle block party at Mary Brickell Village. Mark your calendars! The event will close South Miami Avenue to motor vehicles from 9^th St to 15^th Rd. If you would like to be a sponsor of the event – so that we can better promote it, have more music and other programming – then please contact us at 305.982.7343. Already on board, Mary Brickell Village and the Dutch Consulate. Oh yes, there will be an Orange Parade!

+We’d also like to bring back Bike Miami Rides, a program that encourage recreational cyclists to try commuting by showing the basics of safe road riding.

+The City continues to press FDOT for more safety improvements around Biscayne/Brickell.

+BikeShare! The City is seriously considering bringing DecoBike (or something similar) – we’ll let you know when a formal request for proposals is released.

+Very exciting news – The Virginia Key Mountain Bike Trails are laying out a new advanced trail and plans for a new novice trail are in the works. Get involved with the V KMTB Club on facebook.

And here is a map and list of City of Miami Bicycle Projects. For more information on the BAC and to get involved, please contact Collin Worth.

The map is clearly unclear- for the pdf version, please email Collin Worth. Thanks.

University of Miami Law School Supports the Bike Coalition

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:11:50 +0000

The South Florida Bike Coalition would like to thank the University of Miami Law School community for coming together during this year’s Philanthropy Week to raise $1,600 for our work in honor of Natasha Pettigrew. It has been an honor for us to get to know Natasha through her story, her friends and professors. As many of you know who follow this blog, Natasha was a student at UM who was killed last year while riding her bicycle. Her friends chose to honor her with a bicycle ride from the Campus into Coral Gables, to her apartment in South Miami and back to campus. Natasha’s Ride reconnected many people who loved her with bicycling – something that meant the world to her.

People Line Up for Natasha's Ride

A special Bike Coalition Shout Out to Brian Sperber for showing us and his peers what leadership, dedication and friendship are all about. It’s a honor to have you in the Bike Coalition. Thanks for all that you do.

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The South Florida Bike Coalition is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Funds raised in Natasha’s name will go to our work to improve and increase bicycling in the Miami community, specifically around the area’s colleges and universities. If you would like to make a contribution to Natasha’s fund, you may do so at http://tinyurl.com/forNatasha. Please be sure to make a note that your donation is for Natasha and also let us know if you wish to remain anonymous. Thank you.

New Face of FDOT Officially Anti-Bike Funding

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:42:51 +0000

The Florida Department of Transportation isn’t just anti-bicycling and walking road safety programs in Florida, they are against funding them anywhere.

On March 14, just days after bicycling advocates went to Congress asking them to not cut funding for bicycling programs (Bike Coalition Director and members among over 20 others from Florida, 600 countrywide) the State of Florida sent its own representative to tell Congress to do just the opposite.

Ananth Prasad, FDOT

Mr. Ananth Prasad is one of the three candidates up for Governor Rick Scott’s consideration as the new State Secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation. He currently holds the title of Assistant Secretary for Engineering & Operations, making him the only ‘in-house’ option. (The other two are Gordon Goodin, owner of Bayside Development, and Thomas Conrecode, VP at Collier Enterprise).

Mr. Prasad spoke on behalf of FDOT/ Governor Scott’s interests at a special hearing before the United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The Committee, chaired by Florida’s own Rep. John Mica, is drafting a new transportation bill and thus seeking input from stakeholders across the country. What did our own FDOT representative say? Read the full text of his speech here[PDF].

Some of the items Prasad touched on were clearly positive for Florida, such as his request for more transportation money for Florida, a ‘donor’ state that sends out more gas tax money than it gets back from the federal government. He called for increased investment in public-private partnerships , citing the I-595 Express project and the Port of Miami Tunnel as examples. While that may support Rick Scott’s call for more private sector jobs, there was no mention of the innovative public-private partnerships that would have come about from High Speed Rail or bikeshare.

Other requests clearly reflected Governor Scott’s agenda. Prasad supported Scott’s push for fewer regulations by calling for removal of some regulations that he called unnecessary for Florida and by requesting that states be allowed to skip the federal environmental review process and substitute their own. In the midst of calling for a reduction in the number of federal transportation programs, Prasad proclaimed:

“We must give serious consideration to whether—when resources and dollars are at a premium—spending money on sidewalks, bike trails, beautification, and other projects like this is the most prudent use of taxpayer money.“

Wow. Forget about the “Complete Streets” mandate embedded in Florida Statute that FDOT has to include pedestrian and bicycle facilities into their projects. Nevermind that new bicycling facilities create twice as many jobs as standard road repair work and make streets safer for ALL road users.The way to fuel the economy, according to FDOT, is to move cars faster:

“The faster we can move people and goods to their destination, the faster our economy will grow … We must be viligent to ensure that we invest only where taxpayers’ money will be put to use on critically-needed projects that will ultimately grow our economy.”

Prasad’s message is clear: Times are tough, so let’s forget about multimodal transportation and focus on automobile capacity. Congress needs to be reminded that as gas prices head toward $4 for the second time in three years, more people are choosing to bike or walk. This makes it critical to invest transportation dollars in safer roads for everyone, rather than just faster highways. (You will remember that FDOT considers Miami’s densest residential street and it’s busiest downtown avenue, highways.)

Florida: we cannot build our way out of congestion. We need a versatile transportation system that embraces intercity rail, urban transit, bicycling, and walking as well as the currently privileged modes.

If we can put aside the political agendas and focus on effective investment, we would see that non-highway options, like high speed rail and bikeshare, provide what Prasad says DOTs want: public-private partnerships. The Tampa-Orlando high speed rail was expected to turn a $10.2 million profit, a lucrative opportunity for private investment in infrastructure. DecoBike, a private enterprise which seems to have gotten off to a good start, has not cost the city of Miami Beach a dime and is even sharing revenue with them. B-Cycle‘s proposed system for Broward County won’t cost taxpayers any money once it’s up and running, and their business model depends on turning a profit from the system as well. FDOT is already involved in this public-private partnership, fronting the capital through a grant to the county, then leaving the private vendor to run the system. Florida can support systems such as these by providing both capital investment to get the systems started and by providing proper infrastructure to encourage more system users. Check out the Sun-Sentinel article for more details on both programs.

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Your Members of Congress, Governor Scott, FDOT need to hear from you that you want cost-effective solutions to Florida’s #1 ranking as the Country’s most dangerous place to walk or ride a bicycle.

Also: Please take a moment to contact Rep. Mica — his staff on transportation — or his office via phone at (202) 225-4035. Let him know that you want Complete Street s in the next transportation bill and that you support federal mandates that ensure investments in our roads will make them safer and better for EVERYone, whether they travel by bicycle, train, bus, car, truck or on foot.

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This will be a cross-post with our member blog, TransitMiami.com

Natasha’s Ride: Saturday, February 26

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 13:56:53 +0000

Natasha Pettigrew was a friend, a Miami Law School student, a candidate for U.S. Senate from the State of Maryland, a leader in OUTLAW and other campus groups, a role model, a daughter and a bicycle commuter.

Her fellow students and friends have chosen to honor Natasha with a ride and a signature memorial fund that will support pro-bicycling programs of the South Florida Bike Coalition. “Natasha’s Ride” will keep Natasha’s dream alive for a better, safer Miami for traveling by bicycle.

Learn more about this extraordinary woman and join us a group ride around the University of Miami campus and the Cities of Coral Gables and South Miami. Donations will be requested but not required. RSVP on facebook here. Meet up, Ride out and Ceremony at 1311 Miller Road, Coral Gables, Florida.

9-10am: Registration & Breakfast
10am: Ride
11:30am: Ceremony on the Bricks

FDOT, Bike Lanes Get Opposition

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:40:14 +0000

FDOT was met with resistance to their bike lane plans for Red Road at their public meeting last night. Bike lanes make sense on this corridor, which is an important connector route to existing and planned bike routes/lanes/sharrows in the cities of Miami and Coral Gables.

The Bike Coalition was represented by Eddy who wrote up a detailed report at MiamiBikeReport.com – (Thank you, Eddy!) Also, read the Miami Bike Scene re-cap here. Please take a moment to email Marta.Rodriguez@dot.state.fl.us [updated] with a message of support for FDOT’s planned bike lanes.

‘Keep the Bike Lane on Red Road Project- It’s important for safety and will bring me to the same businesses that don’t get it yet!‘

It just takes a minute for you to make a real impact on better bicycling in South Florida. Do it. Thank you.

LeMond on Bicycling for Transportation, Fun

Kathryn Moore / South Florida Bike Coalition — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:05:13 +0000

Mike Zingaro, Greg LeMond and Raphael Clemente (SFBC Board Member)

Last week, the enigmatic Greg LeMond came to South Florida to speak at the Wolfsonian’s Speed Limits exhibit. He spoke on the perceived barriers he broke as a professional cyclist and Tour de France champion, the historical context in which Americans’ quest for speed made the bicycle the world’s top sport and attraction. Fans and art lovers asked him questions about his story, specific race experiences and success in marketing everything from sunglasses to helmets to pedals. We asked him something different – What does Greg LeMond think about the bicycle as a way to get around town, a way to meet people and just spend time, that seems to be exploding in popularity here and around the country?

Thanks to Peter Schuetz for recording Greg’s answer:

Also, congratulations to Loren Blandon for winning seats from the Bike Coalition! We know many of you were unable to get tickets for the event. If you have a question for Greg, post it here in the comments. We are talking to him about doing another public appearance in Miami and want to show him your support. Thanks.