Bogota’s Transportation Planning…a model for Oak Cliff

Bogota, Colombia, under the stewardship of New Urbanist Mayor Enrique Pena, implemented some of the most progressive transportation changes in recent history, with much of the reason due to its high number of low income households who simply could not afford a car. The video above shows how the city quickly embraced multi-modalism and how it positively affected everything from quality of life to local business.

Car Free in Big D recently noted how the poorest citizens in Dallas are having 40-45% of their income spent merely on maintaining auto ownership. In January, the APTA also released a report noting the average savings by city for those who choose to move to public transportation, with Dallas commuters pocketing an additional $733 a month. That’s money that could all be filtered back into the local economy.

Toole Selected as Dallas Bike Plan Consulting Firm

(image from apbp.org)

Just got word from NCTCOG that they have officially selected Maryland planning firm, Toole Design, to head up Dallas new bike plan. Toole lead the bike planning for DC, Charlotte, and Seattle, and are partnering with local planning firm, Bowman-Melton Associates, Inc., and Kimley Horn Engineering, who has Cliffdweller Andrew Howard on staff. If all goes as planned, they’ll begin work by March/April. Peter Lagerwey, former bike planner for Seattle, is leading the charge from Toole.

Help Us Raise Money for the Seventh Street Mural Project

We’re officially in fundraising mode this week to raise $25,000 to install a series of eleven murals along Seventh Street, which we’re promoting as a family friendly, bicycle/pedestrian corridor linking the residents and community to businesses of the Bishop Arts District. After 24 hours, we’re up to $7,000, so we’re making our way there.

Steve Cruz of Mighty Fine Arts, and Kevin Obregon of the Cube Creative, have assembled a team of recognized local artists and have submitted proposals for each of the walls. Fill out the following form and submit to the address listed inside to help us reach our goal. There are different levels of sponsorship, with a mid-range donation allowing you to have you or your business name painted on one of the mural walls.

More details regarding the event will be posted at the Oak Cliff Art Crawl website. Stay Tuned!

The Streetcar is Returning to Oak Cliff!

It’s been an amazing week, and we haven’t had a chance to make the formal announcement about our latest big news. Our parent organization, the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, officially received word this week that North Oak Cliff and Dallas were awarded $23 Million from the TIGER grant to return the streetcar to our community and connect it once again to Downtown.

This is a huge announcement, and the head of the US Dept of Transportation, Ray LaHood, specifically cited Oak Cliff on his personal blog, as an example of the kind of projects the federal government was looking to enable. Tying communities, work force housing, and urban centers together has been a focus of much of the awards for the TIGER grants. This award is a game changer for North Oak Cliff, and will officially allow us to continue the momentum of developing a more walkable, bikeable community.

Kudos go to council member Delia Jasso, OCTA board members Luis Salcedo, Jason Roberts, Brandon Bolin, Sylvia Camarillo, Scott Griggs, Bob Stimson and the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Keith Manoy and the City of Dallas, NCTCOG, and many others who helped contribute to putting together this grant and fighting for North Oak Cliff’s inclusion.

GO Oak Cliff!

Reminder: This Sunday, Bicycle Frame Building Discussion

Reminder: This Sunday at noon, a discussion with Tim, from Massengill frames. Topics will range from framebuilding, design, materials, as well as the path these guys took to learn the craft of framebuilding. The lecture will be held at noon on Sunday, February 21st, at the autoshop class beside Adamson High School (201 E 9th St, Dallas, TX 75203). The shop teacher, Kenny Cotten, also work closely with YBS bikes.

This is a first part of a potential class series we mentioned developing in December. We’re still fleshing out exactly how that will look, as the logistics and response were greater than we first anticipated. This discussion will introduce several of the area builders, review their methods and how they go about their craft, and help others get started. We also hope to gauge how to best move forward in the direction of a full class series, with the ultimate goal of developing a bike building culture throughout DFW.

From Oak Cliff to New Zealand, Bike Friendly Communities Taking Off!

We’ve been amazed at how quickly momentum has built for fostering bike friendly communities in our region. What started out as a handful of friends sitting around a table wondering what could be done to change our community for the better and promote a bicycle culture has spread beyond our wildest imaginations.

From Richardson, to Knox-Henderson, Denton, and Fort Worth, the effort has snowballed. And now, we welcome our latest member of the family: Bike Friendly North Shore…in Auckland, New Zealand!

Awesome.

BFKH Spring Ride Announced, and Reminder for BFR Raffle Ramble

Bike Friendly Knox-Henderson has announced their first group ride, on March 21st! Mark your calendars, and be sure to ride out in support.

Also, don’t forget this Saturday is Bike Friendly Richardson’s Raffle Ramble. Prizes and more will be available at this amazing charity event. There’s a facebook event page here.

Dispelling the Dallas Density Argument

(photo by Flickr user Willyf)

The Dutch blog, A View from the Cycle Path, thoroughly dismantles the “high density needed for successful bicycle infrastructure” argument, by highlighting the fact that infrastructure alone is all that is needed for increasing ridership. By example, the author uses his home city of Assen, which has no large universities or colleges, a density half that of Dallas, and a 41% rate of trips by bicycle. More from the article:

“It’s perhaps interesting to note that the highest cycling rates in much of the Netherlands are actually in the North of the country, in the least densely populated areas, where journey lengths are often a bit longer. It’s not population density which really makes the difference in cycling rates, but infrastructure which makes cycling into an obvious option. It has to be the most convenient, pleasant and safe way to get about. That’s why 93% of the Dutch population ride a bike at least once a week.”

Head over to Google Maps street view, and drop the street guy on any arterial street (in yellow), and see how the planners in Assen develop their roads in comparison to our own. It’s easy to see why ridership is so high…they’ve made it simple, and irresistable.

New page for bikes stolen in Dallas

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that we’ve started a new page on the site as a venue to report  bikes stolen in Dallas. If your bike is stolen, just email us as much info as possible (including photos and the serial number) to stolenbikesdallas@gmail.com. Someone will post it on the Stolen Bikes page as soon as possible. You can also receive updates on stolen bikes on Twitter at http://twitter.com/stolenbikesd. If you find a bike that has been listed as stolen, please ulock it and call the police!

BFOC Love Your Lane Ride Wrap-Up

We were pleasantly surprised at the great turnout for the “Love Your Lane” ride, considering temperatures rarely broke the 40 degree mark, and winds rolled in at over 20mph. Crossing the Jefferson bridge into downtown became a Herculean event, but once we arrived to Main Street Park, everyone was in good spirits. Biking in Dallas wrote about the ride and included some great photos here, and BFR posted pics here. Below are a few taken from Andrea Roberts, with more here.