After seven months of discussion, organization, gestation and planning, the efforts of the Bicycle Action Committee are coming together. From maps to action plans, the BAC’s goal to make Miami a “Bicycle Friendly” city by the standards of the League of American Cyclists will soon be underway in a visceral,…
Florida seems to have more license plate designs per capita than anywhere else. We work hard to compensate for something, like perhaps our crappy drivers, through legions of themed designs. From proclaiming that ‘everyday is a gift’ through hospice care to saving our diverse array of endangered species to asking…
All that dreaming longingly about someday seeing bike lanes along Coral Way has finally paid off. Mike Lydon of Transit Miami wrote last week: “expect to see new bicycle lanes from SW 12th Avenue to SW 15th Road in the not-too-distant-future.” The lanes will span about 16 blocks. From there,…
Last week’s post covered the Bicycle Action Committee’s biking trends survey regarding local riding habits. Riders seemed to stay bicycle law savvy, though admittedly choose which moments to obey the rules. This week covers the geography of ridership, particularly the participants’ daily jaunts and where they want to see bike…
The last few weeks have been important for the drafting and solidification of the Master Plan for the Bicycle Action Committee. Amidst conceptualizations and revisions, a solid plan is in development to make sure that Miami is on an effective path to Bicycle Friendliness. An important factor for its development…
Greetings from Massachusetts! I don’t love to compare cities with awesome bicycle accommodations to Miami’s developing status, but I’ve been lucky enough to pedal around Boston this weekend and figured this would be a good chance to cover what’s going on outside of South Florida. I’ve not had the pleasure…
Carlos Lastres is a Miami native with one of the neatest jobs Downtown. His recently launched enterprise, Go Green Pedicabs, brings to Miami a service that is increasingly prevalent in hip cities around the world. The pedicab, a tricycle carriage way more posh than your hackneyed rickshaw, can take Downtown…
Miami’s Saturday morning Critical Mass celebrated its second anniversary this weekend with a surprise visit from City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. The ride included a picnic at Peacock Park at which the Mayor greeted a posse of fifty bicyclists to partake in vegan cupcakes, freeze pops and cheerful bicycle…
The M-Path offers an often adventurous north and south passage. Broken pavement, unspecific route signs and herds of careening vehicles intersecting the path create challenging obstacles. Bicycling commuters cannot simply zone out in the monotony of traffic like their vehicular counterparts. Sporadic and inattentive cross traffic requires alertness; drivers often…
June’s U.S. Conference of Mayors gave some love to bicyclists across nation. There’s much we may anticipate based on their proclamations. Here’s the short version: The broadly named Transportation and Communications Committee drafted a resolution titled “Ensuring Bicycling is Integrated into National Transportation, Climate, Energy and Health Policy Initiatives.” This…
This was probably the crappiest week so far this year to be a bicycle commuter. The timing was consistent everyday: show up to work with the sunrise and end work in time for the deluge. Apocalyptic thunderstorms helped me celebrate the end of each work day by holding out until…
Nothing says awesome like watching over forty cyclists form a train down Main Highway. This past Saturday’s Critical Mass made a parade of cruisers, fixed-gears, road and mountain bikes and set a steady pace from Vizcaya to Matheson Hammock. After diving into the suspiciously murky lagoon at Matheson, we dodged…
To the punk who stole my bicycle from in front of the Downtown Courthouse: I won that bicycle in a contest and had only enjoyed it for two days before you figured you could use it for something better. Maybe you pawned it for crack. Maybe it wound up on…
Good news! Last week, we wrote that the City of Miami is looking at places they can refit to be accommodating to bicycles. The Bike Blog plugged a few ideas, in particular Coral Way, which is up for resurfacing soon – a great opportunity to add bike lanes. It seems…
The city of Miami’s Bicycle Action Committee is currently working on two maps, one that would be a kind of “user map” and the other a “future bike routes” map. The first of the two, a map showing current bike facilities in the city, isn’t a bad idea, per se…
In recent months, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and District 3 Commissioner Joe Sanchez have shown increased interest in promoting bicycling in Miami. Last March, Mayor Diaz announced the formation of a new Bicycle Action Committee as part of his Green Commission, which Comm. Sanchez chairs. A month later, Comm. Sanchez…
As reported in the Herald (which is so stingy with its online news that the link will be dead by tomorrow – what’s up with that?), a majority of Miami Beach City Commissioners voted in the city’s neighborhoods committee not to recommend a plan that would put bike lanes on…
Well, folks, guess which city recently won the distinction of a write-up from Bicycling magazine for being on of the three “worst cities for cycling?” Yeah, it’s not much of a surprise. Still, as bicycling slowly peddles its way up the agenda in Miami, a little bad publicity can’t hurt…
For over a year now, eager entrepreneurs have lobbied the Miami Beach city government to allow pedicabs – bicycle rickshaws for hire – to operate on the Beach. Similar outfits are already busy ferrying people around in other South Florida cities – Fort Lauderdale, most notably – but, so far,…
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait — it’s a politician! So the citizens of Miami shouted to one another last Saturday as City Commissioner Joe Sanchez whizzed past them on a rusty old Raleigh mountain bike last Saturday, flanked by a motley crowd of riders that included Mr…
In case you missed it, South Florida NPR affiliate WLRN ran a short piece on Miami’ Critical Mass last Friday. Shannon Novak, a freelancer for the station, had showed up along with someone from the Herald’s Neighbors section (although it still hasn’t run in Neighbors, and we don’t know why)…
Yeah yeah, you love your road bike. You love riding hunched over, craning your neck around to see what’s coming, you leather saddle sticking into your crotch like it’s trying to rob the family jewels. And bully for you. But secretly, in your heart of hearts, don’t you wish you…
