Meta Monday: Sharrows & Billboards

Filling up our inbox are some great pictures from readers like you:

Here’s a photo from our friend and member, Eddie Suarez of the TriLocos, trying out the new Shared Use Lane Markings (sharrows) on Washington Avenue in Miami Beach:

There’s Victor Dover up front, Andres Gomez in the green, Andrea England in the foreground and Eddie smiling at us. The photo credit goes to local racing/training team icon, Patty Arias. Patty, you ride with everyone!? This fun, motley crew met up through trianing at Team Footworks; where or how did you meet the people you ride with?

A RIDE A DAY… A few of you have told us you’ve seen the new billboard, part of our collaborative effort with the City of Miami to promote bicycling through public service advertisements. Here’s our first photo:

From Collin Worth, City of Miami Bicycle Coordinator: “These will be seen approximately 500,000 times a day at the two billboard locations on I-95.” You can see these at 79th Street or in Downtown Miami if you are driving northbound on I-95. Collin also reminded us that the City will continue to take submissions so if you’d like to see your own pro-bicycling message plastered in a 14′ x 48′ frame for Miami’s driving masses to see, please share! Details here.  Again, thanks to Brandt Absolu for submitting both the designs that have made it up so far.

Thanks for sharing the photos and stories. Happy New Year from everyone at the South Florida Bike Coalition.

Repost: Transit Miami Reports Pedestrian Hit on Brickell Avenue

South Florida Bike Coalition Board Member Felipe Azenha is the driving force behind our campaign to reduce the speed limit on Brickell Avenue. He writes about his ongoing efforts at TransitMiami.com, a blog for which I also write about transportation issues. Below is a repost of his most recent blog. The woman is lucky to be alive – and we can tell you that her story is (finally) inspiring stronger responses from local and state officials.

Last week a pedestrian was hit near Brickell Avenue.  Below is the story according to the victim.  Apparently the driver of the vehicle was not ticketed.  Natalie Brown from the Brickell Homeowners Association forwarded this email to Transit Miami.

“I’m contacting you because you might be interested in what happened to me November 11.  I live at Brickell Place D building and walk most every morning to Publix or Walgreen’s. When I was returning I walked to where I can enter the building….that is the driveway where cars go in and out.  I crossed the driveway where the cars are leaving the building and I stood and waited a moment to see if it was clear for me to continue to the gate which I would enter.  All of a sudden a white car swung into the drive and came towards me and hit me.

I just layed there on my stomach…..the lady driver came over and was crying and I couldn’t move. Another lady came along….put my jacket under my head (which was bleeding) and she called my husband for me. I think it was a policeman who asked me what happened. All I said was “The driver entered the driveway very very fast.” Then the ambulance came and took me to Mercy Hospital.

It’s ironic that the very next day there was a long article in the Herald about the walkers vs. cars on Brickell! I read your name in the article and thought that you would be interested to hear what happened to me.

According to the police report, I believe that the driver did not get a ticket. I had to have 8 stitches over my eye…there was a large hematoma on my temple and I have bruises and lots of pain in my back.

You are right….there are not enough crosswalks on Brickell, and in fact, to enter our building from Brickell Av. there is not one crosswalk.”

The victim went on to say…

“Indeed we need more crosswalks and I believe that the speed limit should be reduced especially in the residential part of Brickell.”

Commissioner Gimenez and Mayor Regalado attended the BHA meeting last night. Both support pedestrian-friendly improvements on Brickell Avenue. They believe Representative Luis Garcia can help Brickell Avenue residents and businesses by lobbying FDOT in Tallahassee.

If you know of any similar incidents on Brickell Avenue, please let us know in the comments section.  Sadly, there is still no word if FDOT will make any ped-friendly improvements on Brickell.

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Read more posts by Felipe here.

“Her last call was from a new cell phone.”

From the SFBC Inbox: What happens to distracted drivers and their victims? “Her last call was from a new cell phone.”