Since my post last week on Critical Mass, I’ve spent all my time addressing comments and none writing new posts. It’s been great, because I believe we’ve had a good and civil conversation, something that definitely needs to happen often, but it’s also been very draining at times. Couple that with a move to a new apartment, and it just makes for a very tired blogger.
Yesterday I checked my Twitter feed and I saw a tweet from @YanielCantelar that read, “@Highmoon this blog post is for you! http://bit.ly/2rutYv.” Yaniel is a cyclist that lives down in south Miami-Dade and whom I started following via the @BikeMiami account. He normally rides a road bike and does time-trial/speed riding, posting on his blog photos and videos taken with his iPhone, and cool graphs put together by his Garmin unit. While this isn’t the type of riding I do, I enjoy connecting with other cyclists in the city. Obviously I was curious about Yaniel’s tweet, so I clicked.
Yaniel’s post is entitled “Slow Bike Westchester,” where he blogs about having gone out on his Regions Bank green cruiser to take a ride around his neighborhood just for the fun of it. No Lycra jersey, no clipless pedals, no time to beat, just riding, cruising. And he enjoyed it thoroughly.
After a week of heavy conversation on the CM thread and other forums, Yaniel’s post lifted my spirits and brought a smile to my face.
Rock on, Yaniel, and keep slow bicycling every so often. Your road bike won’t be jealous, I promise.
September 21st will see the final summit to present the City of Miami Bicycle Master Plan for public review. This will be the last chance for the public at large to see what the City of Miami is planning to do in regards to bicycling, including programs and infrastructure, and more importantly, to give feedback on the proposed plan. The two previous summits were a success in terms of public participation and education, so I’ve no doubt this one will go off without a hitch as well. Sadly, we won’t be in attendance, as we already had something scheduled for that night.
Final Miami Bicycle Summit
Monday, September 21, 2009
6:30pm – 8:00pm
Belafonte TACOLCY Center
6161 Northwest 9th Avenue
Miami, FL Google Map here
For more information, check out the City of Miami Bicycle Master Plan page. Though some of the documents need to be updated to reflect the second and now third bicycle summits, you can see detailed PDFs of the City of Miami Bike Related Projects for 2009 and 2010, as well as the proposed (and hoped for) combined bike lane/path/way network at the end of 2010 (frankly, if half of those proposed bike corridors can be put into service I will feel that it has been a success).
After a short while last week when we weren’t sure if Bike Miami Days would be able to come back for an October date, it has now been confirmed the event is on thanks to the amazing generosity of the City of Miami Police officers that will donate their time to make it happen. This event will also mark the last Bike Miami Day or Ride that Mayor Manny Diaz will hold while in office, as his term comes to an end in November. I sincerely hope that whoever wins the mayoral race (coughnotregaladocough) continues the legacy Diaz leaves in place in promoting an emergent bicycling culture in Miami.
This 2-hour-ish, Police-escorted ride will explore the MiMo District of the City of Miami, located north of the Design District along Biscayne Blvd. I don’t have a route map, but here is a Google Map of the MIMO/Upper East Side NET Office, starting point for this ride.
Though this ride happens the same day that Yom Kippur starts in the evening, we are planning to be there as this isn’t that far from our home and we can be back in time to prepare.
This will be a full-on, 6-hour, Downtown-closed-to-motorists event, the first one after the summer break. Information about this event will surely start to trickle in over the next few weeks so keep an eye peeled to the Bike Miami Blog (to which you can subscribe to receive updates via email) and the Bike Miami Facebook page for news.
This event falls right at the start of the Jewish holy day of Sukkot, so my wife and I will not be present. Nevertheless, we are ecstatic that the proper means could be found for Bike Miami Days to come back, and exhort everyone who can to attend.
Bicycling Magazine hosted one of their BikeTown events here in Miami today, from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, at Bayfront Park. I missed when the original announcement of this went out, as I was in Puerto Rico, so I was not able to enter the contest for one of 30 new Jamis commuter bikes being given away. Regardless, I wanted to go Downtown for the event to show support for those that did win and for the City of Miami’s bike initiative, which ultimately is what brought BikeTown to our city. I’ve been off the bike for months now, so I wasn’t sure that doing the North Beach-Downtown 2-hour trek would be the best idea; I decided to drive Downtown and then bike around for a while. I got to Bayfront at around 12 noon (thanks Miami Beach traffic) but I was still on time to catch most of the proceedings. Which really amounted to a few people giving speeches: people from the City of Miami, from Bicycling Magazine, from MetLife (sponsors of the event, and apparently the reason why this was held on a Thursday at noon), and from Elite Cycling (the shop that put together the bikes). Once this was done, it was time for the pictures.
Each winner had been notified prior to the event so each one had a bike already pre-assigned, built to their measurements. Once everyone had found their respective bike, the next 10-15 minutes were all about the official pictures and video (which I’m hoping will show up on the news, but I’m not holding my breath). That taken care of, the three remaining unclaimed bikes, plus an extra one provided by one of the sponsors, were raffled off (again, I missed the sign-up for this – a cosmic sign, you think?), so in the end, 31 new bikes were given away.
I have to say that I was very surprised (in a pleasant way) to see about 60-ish people there, considering the weird time for this event. Yes, most of it were the winners and organizers, but there were also fans of bicycling in Miami in attendance. In the end, BikeTown was pretty much a photo- and video-op for those involved in it–there was no rally built around it, no peripheral events meant to capitalize on the excitement, which is understandable considering the weekday noon time–but it was a nice event nonetheless. If nothing else, it is proof positive of the City of Miami’s efforts to make Miami into a bicycling nexus, and the City appreciates it.
As I drove back home up Biscayne Blvd, I could not help but notice the amount of cyclists going up and down the street in all sorts of bikes, more than I recall seeing months ago, before this whole BikeMiami thing started. There’s your BikeTown right there.
For a number of reasons, I’ve been, literally, off the bike for months now. We’ve also missed the last three Bike Miami Days, including the April edition in Coconut Grove alongside the Dutch Consulate, which I hear was nothing but a spectacle. That’s why when it came to today’s Bike Miami, the last one for the current season (summer’s here, so it’s officially time to go inside), we were both incredibly pumped for the occasion.
It started a bit off, given that during the month of May, the Venetian Causeway has been closed to all-but-local traffic, cutting off our one way to bike down to Downtown from the Beach. Rather than face Biscayne Blvd., risk the MacArthur Causeway, or waste time taking a bus, we decided to drive (which, on reflection, provided a bit of a bookend to our Bike Miami experience for this year, as we also drove down to the first one). We used one of the Pay-to-Park spaces since it was cheaper than the parking at Bayside, and off we went.
This is the first time we’ve been there early enough to attend the customary rally, this time on the steps of the Courthouse. There was live music and some kiosks with varied information. We got to see some of the “regulars” and were greeted by Kathryn Moore, tireless Bike Miami dynamo that she is for Mayor Manny Diaz (did you know the Mayor’s on Twitter?). We saw some folks dance for the chance to win three bikes and a dude pull a Ford Fiesta while on a bike. Then, off to ride.
The route by now is well-known to us. It extended once more to the Miami River, though there was nothing going on there this time around. The riverside was, however, preened and very inviting, though Lummus Park was, still, closed to the public. I was once again reminded of the potential for that area of Downtown Miami and the idea my wife and I dreamed up for a Downtown Riverside Marketplace, which I wrote up for Miami Metblogs (Part 1, Part 2).
Around this area we suddenly found the entrance to the Miami River Greenway, right under the I-95 Overpasses, except it was fenced closed after maybe a little over 100 feet. The paved walkway I know continues along the river all the way to the bay, but it is broken up in parts by construction and gaps that yet need to be bridged. If there’s a project the City of Miami (also on Twitter, by the way) needs to put attention to and get done as soon as possible, the Miami River Greenway is it; being able to highlight and drive traffic to this wonder of our city, the one urban river we have, would do wonders for Downtown and the City in general, not to mention that it would create another great addition to the route for future Bike Miami Days.
The rest of the day was spent riding around the usual route established by now. We visited Mary Brickell Village again, and marveled, as we walked around, at how many empty retail spaces it has and what a shame that is (note to developers: open a Kosher eatery here–or frankly, anywhere Downtown–and we’ll heap praises and money every time we visit Downtown/Brickell) given how beautiful the Village is. We noticed the smaller attendance to this event than in months past, and speculated that it had to do with the heat (it was HOT today) and the fact that it was the seventh event; both are good reasons why it makes perfect sense to close up Bike Miami for the summer and wait for the cooler climate of the fall to restart. There were hardly any kiosks and those that were left fairly quickly with less than a handful sticking around till the 2 PM closing time. Once again, Bayfront Park was not a part of the Bike Miami route due to a conflicting event.
We rode around, enjoying the chance to be on our bikes after about a three-month hiatus, but by 3-ish PM we were ready to head back home. We packed the bikes back on the rack, and said goodbye to Bike Miami for the time-being.
I’d like to do a review of Bike Miami as it’s grown since its inception seven months ago, but overall, we’ve been very pleased. Even this event, which by all accounts was the least attended, was successful in its stated goal of allowing people to explore the city in a new way and promoting bike culture in Miami. The summer break will be good for everyone, allowing excitement to build over the next four to five months. Come the fall, I know we’ll be ready to bike down again and party on two wheels.
Yesterday was the third edition of Bike Miami and I think it was the best one to date. Yes, the first one was really popular, but it had the newness of it to draw people, and the second one had to contend with the holidays for attendance, though even with that it was a cool event. This one, though, this Bike Miami, proved beyond a doubt that the institution is here to stay and that people are now going to expect it and reply in kind.
This Bike Miami featured a slightly different route than previous ones: Bayfront Park was not included due to an event there the night before, but the Flagler St. corridor was extended all the way to the Miami Riverfront and to Lummus Landing, an area I simply had no idea was back there (the southbound corridor ending at Mary Brickell Village remained the same). Road signs and water stations made a welcomed comeback, and the support of the Downtown Miami merchants was palpable and evident, energizing the streets and the riders in turn.
There was a steady stream of bikers throughout the length of the route during all hours of the event, even way into its final few minutes. Attendants included everything from families with multiple children, to casual/slow bikers, and lycra-clad cycling packs, everyone enjoying themselves, everyone showing their support for a more bicycle-friendly city of Miami.
As usual by now, we rode our bikes to Downtown, leaving the Beach at around 11:00 AM. The ride through the North Beach area was actually pretty uneventful this time around, thankfully. The one thing I did observe was the significant number of people riding their bikes around this area of the Beach, just going about their business. It was a very welcomed sight; it made me feel like a part of something greater, a movement that is slowly expanding, growing every single day.
Knowing we’d have to face the dreaded Dade Blvd, I decided every bit of it we could skip was a welcomed respite, so we went from Prairie Dr. to N Meridian Ave, which borders the edge of the Miami Beach Golf Club and saved us a whole block of Dade Blvd. Once on Dade, we rode on the sidewalk until we could cross Alton Rd and join the Venetian Cswy. bike lane.
Upon entering the Venetian Isles area (a very ethereal boundary that, to me, is signalled by the sudden appereance of the bike lane at Dade Blvd and N Bay Rd. (see map), even though this is still mainland Miami Beach), we were very pleasantly surprised to see a Bike Miami info kiosk and water station at the corner of Gibb Park. The folks there were talking to as many of the cyclists (and pedestrians) riding up and down the causeway as they could, giving out flyers for the event and brochures on cycling education, asking riders as they passed by, “Are you headed to Bike Miami?” I keep up with all the info coming out of the Mayor’s office on this event, and I had no idea this kiosk would be here. Whoever thought of it and put it into action, thank you, it was a great idea; I hope it had the desired effect. Frankly, I’d love to see more support for Bike Miami like this from the neighboring cities.
Our time riding around Downtown was just great. The route extension into Lummus Landing was a welcomed addition and frankly, a perfect example of what this sort of event can achieve, exposing participants to an area of the city many did not know about, myself included (I mean, we had a Public Fish Market by the river? Really? Why is it closed!). It’s too bad Ft. Dallas was closed for renovations, but it was cool just learning that it was there. We also saw the Scottish Rite temple (we have Masons in Miami?!) and the City of Miami Mounted Police stables, having a chance to pet the horses. There was a rally at Lummus Landing at 10:30 AM that we missed (we’re gonna have to leave the Beach really early to able to make it on time for one of these) and other events there and at Mary Brickell Village. There were also sponsors at Lummus Landing, including the now-ubiquitous Florida Bicycle Association, and stores like Mack Cycles, showing off the new Electra Townie Holiday bike that has me salivating.
We managed to see various of the friends we’ve been making over the past Bike Miami events and everyone was excited about the turnout for this one. The weather was once again gorgeous; we are getting spoiled, we know, but we’re going to enjoy it while it lasts. I mean, this was the weather on Sunday!
We decided to head back relatively early so we would not get caught riding in the dark. Heading down Venetian Cswy with a bunch other riders was a neat experience, actually. We decided to stop at Publix on Bay Rd. and 20th Street, and after that, deciding we really did not want to take Dade Blvd. again we vacilated with using Alton Rd, since it has a bike lane (another one of those that simply pops up out on nothingness), but instead we decided to use a backroad suggested by Neil from Urban Bike - South Florida, take N Bay Rd. And that we did, taking it from 20th Street all the way down to Chase Ave. That saved us from Dade Blvd completely, and Chase drops you at 41st Street in no time, from where we can catch our established route. We’re definitely going to be using N Bay Rd from now on to head Downtown. And a bonus, we got to see a starfruit tree!
We made it home while still daylight (for a change) and chilled out for the rest of the evening. We had a fantastic day of bike riding, and many thanks go out again to all the volunteers who work so hard to make Bike Miami such an awesome event.
Since my post last week on Critical Mass, I’ve spent all my time addressing comments and none writing new posts. It’s been great, because I believe we’ve had a good and civil conversation, something that definitely needs to happen often, but it’s also been very draining at times. Couple that with a move to a new apartment, and it just makes for a very tired blogger.
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