Cyclists honor bike educator

Congratulations to Keri Caffrey, recently honored by the Florida Bicycle Association as educator of the year.  Here she's receiving the award from former FBA president Mighk Wilson. You can read Wilson's remarks about her award at Caffrey's blog, Commute Orlando.

New trees for Springs bike path

Theo Karantsalis reports at Facebook.

Bike to the bank, anyone?

New reader Bill Bohrer tells of his success making a bank transaction at a Wachovia drive-up teller in West Palm Beach.  This after a rebuff at another bank earlier this week.  Anyone else lurking here who has biked to the drive-up teller, with success? Seems like a sensible thing to do, don't you think? I bike to the ATM with fair regularity, of course. 

Highway bill reaches the governor

The grab-bag HB971 has reached the desk of Gov. Charlie Crist.  He now has about 10 days to sign the bill, as the Sun-Sentinel urges, or veto it, as the Florida Bicycle Association recommends.

To read the Fort Lauderdale paper, you would think this was all about bike lanes.  That's just a piece of why the bill is a bad one, though.  The part that bothers me most is letting four-time  DUI offenders back on the highway just because they've purchased a breath-test device for their car's ignition. I prefer the present law: four strikes and you drive no more.  Nor do I like the idea of letting cities, towns and villages invite golf carts and other small motor vehicles onto their sidewalks and paths.

If you've been delaying your response, here's info you need: Phone: 850-488-7146,
e-mail: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com.

BPAC meets Wednesday

Just a reminder: The Miami-Dade Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee is to meet Wednesday, May 26, at 5:30 p.m. at County Hall, 111 NW 1st St., Miami.  For this month they'll move to the CITT rear conference room on the 10th floor. The agenda includes recommended ranking of projects under the federal-state Transportation Enhancements Program and a presentation from the WalkSafe program at the University of Miami medical school. 

Choir want to ride bicycle

Stunt bikers and a 150-girl choir show up at Brussels Central Station to promote a charity ride:

Goofy bike lanes corrected

Those round-the-corner stripes put down by a state contractor painting bike lanes on Coral Way in Miami have been erased or covered up. Thanks, FDOT!

Now to get people to quit parking on the bike lanes. I'm guessing that will stop as more of us ride the street from 15th Road to Five Corners.

Bike/walk advocates honor LeTourneau

Darla LeTourneau, tireless co-leader of BikeWalkLee, was honored by the Florida Bicycle Association last week as Citizen Advocate of the Year.  The award was presented at the ProBike/ProWalk Florida conference in Lakeland.  While Bike-Walk Lee is a community coalition based in Fort Myers, LeTourneau's energy, imagination and deep knowledge of government have extended her influence throughout Florida and into national transportation planning circles.  She is an advocate who truly helps shape the agenda for us all.

More about the winner from her Sanibel hometown.. 

Today show tries commuter challenge

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Riders remember our lost

  If you're in Miami on May 19, please plan to join the Ride of Silence on the Rickenbacker Causeway and commemorate all bicyclists who have died on the streets.  Not every loss attracts as much attention as that of Christoph LeCanne in January, so this nationwide event is a reminder to all road users to look out for each other -- and especially for cyclists.

The meeting time for Miami's ride on Wednesday is 6:30 p.m. and the place is the Seaquarium parking lot, 4400 Rickenbacker Cswy. This ride is sponsored by the Everglades Bicycle Club, and organized this year by Maria Luisa deJesus.

Miami started bike patrol early

Those mountain bikes being used by a few dozen Miami police officers are actually not so new in the city's history.  Who recognizes this police bike from more than half a century ago? Thanks to Theo Karantsalis for the photo.

Bike parking makes Key West friendlier

Bike parking in downtown Key West makes it easy to go anywhere you need to and not worry about where to tie up your wheels. The parking racks are nothing fancy, but they are everywhere. In several hours spent on and around Duval Street yesterday, we found the racks getting lots of use, by locals and visitors alike. Also widespread: bike-rental depots with a range of choices.

League joins effort to veto HB971

The League of American Bicyclists is aiding Floridians who want to stop HB971 from becoming law.  If you haven't already written or called Gov. Crist to ask for a veto, based on yesterday's post right here or the other alarms from the bike-walk community, you're invited to use the CapWiz tool at the League's web site.

This bill is a grab-bag of many things, most of them bad for users of our streets and roads. Requiring cyclists to use a bike lane where one is available is bad enough, but possibly not the worst part of the bill.  . . .

Cyclists, demand a veto

The Florida Legislature slipped one over on us last week. HB971, a highway safety bill adopted late in the session that just ended, includes language that would require bicyclists to use bike lanes where they exist. Mighk Wilson explains on his post, Call Governor Crist, why this bill is bad for bicyclists. The governor's office number: (850) 488-7146.

Here's the full text of the adopted bill.

Graffiti bike tour, 2

Here's a fine chance to visit some of Miami's most original art in its native sur- roundings. Olga Cano will be leading this May 22 excursion sponsored by Emerge Miami. More from Olga:

A tour of home-grown and world-class graffiti in Wynwood, including Primary Flight's diverse urban art and the Wynwood Walls, many of which are only dry since December. The tour will include information on the artists and crews, and the rules by which they respect tags, bombs, throw-ups and pieces. We will trace a route through Wynwood, following the artistic development of tags to commissioned public work.

What you can do about the oil disaster

If Americans weren't so addicted to their cars, the oil companies could drill less and drill more carefully. So what we all can do about the next oil spill,  Dennis Markatos-Soriano argues at the East Coast Greenway Alliance, is to bike more and drive less.