Jan Gehl, Urban Planner for Copenhagen, Discusses Bike Lanes

This clip is from the documentary, “Contested Streets”, put out by Transportation Alternatives in New York. Jan Gehl is one of the originators of the New Urbanism movement, and was instrumental in turning Copenhagen into the “Bike Capital of the World”.

When advocating for better bike facilities in North Texas, we often hear: “We’re Dallas, Not Portland…We love our cars too much to start bicycling”. Jan discusses this same mentality when Copenhagen was originally backing “Complete Streets” options for their city. The amazing thing is, their incredible shift from car to bike has all taken place in a little over 30 years.

Group Ride: On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde

Update! It looks like we may double the attendance of our last ride, which was 125. The Belmont Hotel is offering all cyclists $2 Shiners, so tell everyone you know!

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With the awesome success of the Lee Harvey Bike Ride, we’ve decided to roll out our next themed ride: On the Trail of Bonnie and Clyde. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the infamous duo’s ambush on a back road in Louisiana after a two year crime spree (1932-1934). Once again, we’ll begin our ride at Dealey Plaza at 2:30PM on Sunday, March 29th.

Our trip will take us over the historic Continental Bridge (West Dallas Viaduct), made famous in Bonnie’s poem “The Trail’s End”. From there, we’ll pass the famous Lillie McBride “Shoot-out” House, the Barrow Family Filling Station, visit Clyde and his brother Buck’s grave site, and more. Also, we’ll stop at the Belmont Hotel for drinks, and take in the best view of Downtown Dallas from the West side of the Trinity.

The ride is approximately 6.5 miles, with some small and medium sized hills. This ride will be weather permitting. If temperatures drop below 50 degrees, or it’s raining/windy, we’ll plan on rescheduling. Check back prior to the ride date for updates.

Highlights of the trip will include:

- Meeting at Dealey Plaza to see the original 1913 Dallas County Criminal Court and Jail Bldg
- Riding over Continental Bridge
- Stopping at the Lillie McBride “Shoot-out” House
- Stopping at the Barrow Filling Station
- Visiting the grave site of Clyde and Buck Barrow
- Drinks at Bar Belmont

The following link is a map of our proposed route: http://tr.im/gKbV

Bike Friendly OC photo pool

Mardi Gras Parade © 2009 Lindsay Graham

If you took pictures of cyclists in the Oak Cliff Krewe on Bishop, please join our Flickr group and upload them.

BFOC in Oak Cliff’s 2009 Mardi Gras Parade

Thanks to all who were able to make it out to the Mardi Gras Parade in Bishop Arts yesterday. We had a great showing. It was amazing to see members from 5 to 65 years old decked out in orange wheeling down Bishop, all promoting the Bicycle Oak Cliff message!

Outside the OC: New Bikeshop near SMU/Katy Trail with Bike Rentals!

While riding down Mockingbird the other day, we ran across a new bike shop located in the old Segway store. You’ll notice from the image above that remnants of the old sign are still in place. This new shop is called Fleetwood’s Kit-Kat, and is filled with new retro styled cruisers built by Felt:

They range from $400 to $600, and are solidly built bikes in a range of styles. Kit Kat also offers a bicycle rental program and for $15/hour you can hit the Katy Trail in style. They’re located on the Southwest corner of Mockingbird and I-75, next door to the old Mrs. Baird’s Bread factory, and across the street from SMU. Check’m out!

Oak Cliff Mardi Gras Ride

Bike Friendly Oak Cliff invites you to ride in the inaugural Oak Cliff Mardi Gras Parade!

Meet us in the parking lot of the Hitt Auditorium (Colorado Boulevard and Bishop Avenue) at Methodist Dallas Medical Center at 3:15. The parade kicks off there at 4 p.m. and proceeds 1.2 miles south on North Bishop Ave. through the Bishop Arts District.

FLOAT IS THE B.F.O.C THEME
Get decorated in any manner that represents the concept of the word “float.”
We encourage all to wear orange and/or use orange decorations since orange is our unofficial group color. Some float theme ideas:

• Attach balloons to you and your bike.
• Wear floaties on your arms, wear inner tube around your waist.
• Turn your bike into a float (cardboard, streamers, etc)

http://mardigrasoakcliff.com/

From The Advocate:

The classic cars, the waving dignitaries, the high school marching bands and, of course, the bead throws — lots of them. That’s what Amy Cowan and her committee envision for the first-ever Mardi Gras parade down Bishop Avenue. It will be “a little more family-friendly version of what happens down in Victory Park,” Cowan says. On the Sunday before Fat Tuesday at 4 p.m., the parade will roll down the avenue from Colorado to the Bishop Arts District and disperse there, with the hope of parade-goers moving their purple, green and gold revelry into the district’s shops and restaurants. “It’s always a reason to party and have some gumbo,” Cowan says.

Texas legislators propose transportation funding option for North Texas

The Austin Business Journal notes that State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and State Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Southlake, are co-sponsors of legislation that would allow local communities to raise taxes or fees to support urban and suburban commuter rail lines and highways. The bill they filed allows for North Texas to take greater control over its infrastructure and to further develop “complete streets” programs, that would allow for better bicycle and ped facilities on existing roadways. This is very promising news for our community. Stay tuned for more details!

Oak Cliff Chamber Luncheon: Trolley’s & Trails to the Trinity!

The Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, and the Alternative Transportation Subcommittee (of which, many BFOC members are involved), is holding a panel discussion and luncheon on February 26th, at the Oak Cliff Country Club. The honorable City Council Woman, Angel Hunt, will be one of the guest speakers talking about the new bike lane plans for Dallas. The official press release is below:

Trolleys & Trails to the Trinity

The Chamber’s Alternative Transportation Committee re-examines the
established Dallas practice of “highways now, highways tomorrow,
highways forever.” The ATC Chamber Luncheon will feature a panel
discussion of multi-modal transportation practices that have the
potential to link developing Oak Cliff trail, trolley, and bike networks into
larger Dallas Trinity and downtown networks. The panel will focus not
only on the known recreational opportunities ped and bike trails
provide, but how to create a trail network that provides a feasible
alternative for work, shopping, and other traditionally exclusive car
activities.

Panel:

Honorable Angelia Hunt – Discussing the new bike lanes connecting North Dallas to Dowtown
Alan McDonald, Incap – Discussing Incap’s developments with the pedestrian oriented focus via the trolley
Shelly White, Trinity Strand – Discussing the Trinity bike/ped trails into the park system and beyond

The luncheon will begin at 11:30AM. Speaking will begin at 12PM. Each speaker will have 10 minutes, then a Q&A session will follow. Door fee (which includes meal) is $25 for OC Chamber members, $35 for non-members.

The Slow Bike Movement

BFOC is a proud advocate for the Slow Bike Movement, dreamt up by the wonderful people at Copehagenize.com.

This movement, which parallels the “slow food” philosophy, is targeting those of us that prefer to not dress up like lycra wearing cyborgs when riding to the office. For us, riding a 1950′s cruiser is just as satisfying as the latest all titanium models coming out of racing set factories. BFOC believes it’s truly about the journey and not the destination.

When you view the average American bicyclist en route to work, you often see this:

In comparisson, our counterparts across the pond are comfortable wearing dresses, high heels, and business suits:

Amazingly, the above picture is a fairly new phenomenon in Copenhagen. Their bicycle infrastructure was championed by Jan Gehl in the 1960′s, and over the past 40 years, average citizens have taken up cycling in record numbers.

Could this happen in Dallas? Often times, people will complain about the temperature or the lack of denisty, but Copenhagen is bitterly cold and windy 6 months out of the year. In comparison, Dallas has a record 8 months of mild temperatures. Our 68 degree bike ride on February 2nd proved that. In the end, we only need the will for change. Email your council person and ask that “Complete Street” initiatives be followed for your community.

Nike’s Yogurt vs. Gasoline