Bikes for Yom Kippur

It had escaped me until this week that for children in Israel, Yom Kippur provides a great chance for bike-riding. Public Radio International carried a delightful short piece yesterday about the light side of the holy day. For Matthew Bell's report, click here.

Miami's bike plan available online

The final draft of Miami's Bicycle Master Plan may be viewed or downloaded at this link. The plan is up for City Commission consideration on Thursday, Oct. 8. I apologize to those who counted on me to e-mail the plan earlier; my mail server wasn't cooperative at all.

Causeway alert: Race at Crandon Park

Sunday cyclists on Crandon Boulevard should be aware of a fundraising run Oct. 4 at Crandon Park. This 5K/10K run in the Blue Cross series will be conducted entirely within the park, but will make some extra traffic before 7 a.m. and after the race concludes.

Eight stops for your cycling hunger pains

The bicyclists I know make no secret of the whopper appetites they work up during a long ride. Well, Leslie Pariseau at Gourmet magazine has some hints for where to find satisfying fare on Miami-area streets. Click here to read.

Byrne on bicycling

"I believe that the exhilaration, freedom, and convenience I experience as I ride around will be discovered by more and more people."

--David Byrne, in Bicycle Diaries

Bike plans bundled for Miami review

A Bicycle Master Plan for Miami is expected to come before the City Commission on Oct. 8, along with the bike-parking ordinance that was to have been considered today. The proposed bike plan has been aired at a series of meetings around town, most recently on Monday at Belafonte Tacolcy Park.

Bike professionals honor Miamian

One of the bright lights of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz's administration has been his young aide Kathryn Moore, who worked so hard and so effectively over the past year to pull together Bike Miami Days. She'll be recognized by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals next month with a new award, as Young Professional of the Year. It's an honor well-deserved.

Miami to consider bike parking ordinance

The Miami City Commission takes up a proposal Thursday (Sept. 23) to require sheltered bicycle parking in future multi-family and large commercial buildings (R-3 zoning and above). Since the lack of safe parking is as big a deterrent to bike riding as the much-lamented incivility on South Florida streets, this ordinance would be a big step toward a more livable city.

The proposal grew out of the work of the city's Office of Sustainable Initiatives and was recommended by the mayor's Bicycle Action Committee. The Planning Advisory Board approved it unanimously on Sept. 16.

If you'd like to be present to support the proposal, I recommend you skip the first two hours of the meeting and show up about 11 a.m. This ordinance is several pages down on the commission agenda.

Savannah "gets it" on bike parking

Ignacio Riveira returned from vacation with tales of good rides and a word of surprise at how much bicycle commuting he saw in Savannah, Ga. Part of the reason, no doubt, is the bike parking one finds on the streets.

Bike commuting small, but growing

This just in from policy analyst Darren Flusche at the League of American Bicyclists:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released today, 0.55% of American workers use a bicycle as the primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. The League of American Bicyclists will do a thorough analysis of the numbers for various locations. In the meantime, you can look up this information for hundreds of communities and all of the states using the American Fact Finder. The ACS numbers are estimated by the Census bureau based on samples taken year-round.

Car Free Day a chance to look at alternatives

In case you didn't notice, today is World Car Free Day -- an effort to imagine cities that aren't chained to the internal combustion engine. As the Washington Post put it,

World Car Free Day is the annual apex of a global movement that promotes alternatives to a car-dependent society, including improvement of mass transit, cycling and walking, and the development of communities where jobs are closer to home and where shopping is within walking distance.

To read more, click here.

David Byrne likes cycling in Miami

Urban affairs writer Andres Viglucci reviews David Byrne's new book, Bicycle Diaries, for The Miami Herald. In a short interview he discovers that Byrne has good things to say about getting around our town by bike. Read more right here. The book is also reviewed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And a New York audience really liked Byrne's reading, according to StreetsBlog.

Edinburgh biker impresses millions

This came my way while I was traveling last week. No telling how many more have seen the video since.


Take note of how MacAskill scoots back over his rear wheel during some of these stunts. That's a skill worth practicing for street riding; it's how you keep from going over the handlebars when you have to make an emergency stop with both handbrakes.

SF cyclists do it with style

I'm just back from five days in San Francisco, where bicyclists seemed to be using absolutely every street in town. Even on Market Street through the financial district to the waterfront, you'll see cyclists wheeling along with their backpacks, messenger bags, panniers and even old-fashioned handlebar baskets. Quite a few buildings had bike parking at easy-to-find locations. What an inspiration!

Some of these riders were pretty stylish, too. I saw men and women in office garb, others in knickers and jaunty caps.

If you visit the city, you'll find many of the cyclists relaxing at Zeitgeist, on Valencia at 14th Street, where the courtyard includes picnic tables and bike hangers.

Thank the senators who helped

Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida voted with the Senate majority yesterday in rejecting an amendment that would have decimated federal spending for bicycle facilities. The vote was 39 votes for the amendment, 59 against. We're sorry to say that Florida's brand-new senator across the aisle, George LeMieux, cast one of the 39 votes for the ill-conceived effort to let states opt out of the Transportation Enhancements program.

The companion amendment, denying Transportation Enhancement funding as long as unfunded highway projects existed, was withdrawn by its sponsor, Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Miami tackles bicycle parking

Miami's Planning Advisory Board will review a proposed bicycle parking ordinance this evening at a 6 p.m. meeting at Miami City Hall. It's on page 6 of the agenda, which means it may not come up before 7 or 7:30 p.m.

I haven't had a chance to read the draft, but from what I heard at the Bicycle Action Committee last month this will definitely help make bicycling an easier choice for commuting and generally getting around town. The next step for the ordinance would be the City Commission.

Bike funding under attack

Two amendments being offered in the U.S. Senate this week threaten the primary source of federal money for bicycle facilities such as the bike racks at our Metrorail stations or the M-Path Extension, soon to get underway near Dadeland. The amendments target the Transportation Enhancements program, which uses a tiny slice of the federal dollars poured into streets and highways. Here's an alert from the League of American Bicyclists:

Senator Coburn (R-OK) is offering two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill that will strike funding for transportation enhancements. The two amendments are S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371.

S. Amendment 2370 would forbid funding for transportation enhancements if the Highway Trust Fund does not contain amounts sufficient to cover unfunded highway authorizations.

S. Amendment 2371 would allow states to opt out of the set-aside rule that requires states to spend at least 10 percent of their surface transportation funding on transportation enhancements.

We expect the amendments to be offered and voted on during Senate floor debate tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Please call your Senator immediately and urge them to vote NO on S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371 to the FY10 transportation appropriations bill.

How to reach Florida's two senators:
George S. LeMieux
(202) 224-3041
E-mail: info@lemieux.senate.gov

Bill Nelson
(202) 224-5274
Web mail: billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Bike Miami Day to return on Oct. 4

You've heard the rumor and here's the word: Bike Miami Days is on for Sunday, Oct. 4. It will happen on Flagler Street between Bayfront Park and the courthouse, and down to Mary Brickell Village just as before. Let's make it a good one.

The mood was grim as the planning group assembled at the City of Miami's Riverside Center today to confront the reality of no city funding for the event and only a slim chance of any significant financial contribution from outside government. Several shoestring scenarios were floated and lamented. Then Police Cmdr. Raimundo Socorro took a call from headquarters and returned to the room with an announcement: Police officers and public service aides from the downtown district would cover the event by rearranging their work schedules -- avoiding overtime pay entirely. It made all the difference. Say thank you to the next Miami police officer you meet.

The hours on Oct. 4 will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Look for details shortly on all that will be happening that day.

Another try at a Virginia Key plan

Mountain bikers, don't give up your dream of trails on Virginia Key just yet. Planners with the City of Miami hope to take a revised master plan for the Key to the City Commission in early October. And an ad hoc coalition that derailed the vaunted Virginia Key Master Plan a few weeks ago is meeting on Saturday, Sept. 26, to seek a common position for the expected City Hall debate.

You will recall that the Master Plan envisioned a future Virginia Key heavy on concrete and car parking and not so much on green space. That disappointed many kinds of outdoor enthusiasts, and seriously angered some local environmental groups.

The Urban Environment League is inviting like-minded groups to Help Redesign the Virginia Key Master Plan -- from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the 26th at the Rusty Pelican -- right on the Key. For earlier information, you may call 786-472-0011 or write uelinfo@bellsouth.net.

Cyclists sue Palm Beach County for bike lanes

The Boca Raton Bicycle Club and others are suing Palm Beach County because a planned road widening does not include bike lanes. The plaintiffs are the same group that forced state highway engineers, after long indifference to bicycle facilities on state roads, to begin documenting the case for or against them on every highway built or enlarged.


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The current lawsuit is about the widening of Lyons Road between Glades and Clint Moore roads in Boca Raton from four to six lanes. There's more about the case in the
Orlando Sentinel.

Driver vs. cyclist

The Sun-Sentinel takes note today of conflicts between motorists and cyclists riding in large groups. Click here to read.
 

Miami's new zoning gets a commission "yes"

So the Miami City Commission finally approved Miami 21, the centerpiece legislation of Mayor Manny Diaz's second and final term. Here's The Miami Herald's report, and here's what Mayor Diaz said afterward.

Cooler heads gain in Jupiter Island bike debate

For several days, it was looking like the town of Jupiter Island was going to crack down hard and unreasonably on organized bicycle riding. There's been sentiment for at least a year for regulating the group rides on Route A1A, and last month's fracas between a hard-riding pack and the driver of a certain convertible really fired up anti-bike sentiment in Southeast Florida. Now it appears that reason is dawning. Read this Eve Samples column in the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers.

Video shows dangers of texting drivers

Just about every cyclist I know in South Florida can describe a scary encounter with a motorist text-messaging. Now comes a public service video from Britain that drives home how dangerous even a second's distraction of a driver can be. Be forewarned: This grim video is hard to watch. But it's important.

Colombian countryside getting safer for cycling

As Colombia's armed forces gain an upper hand over rebels around Bogotá, bicyclists again are venturing out into the spectacular hills and valleys. It's welcome news in the capital that is famed for its Sunday Ciclovia, when miles of streets become parks for walkers and cyclists. Read more in The Miami Herald.