Thanks to the awesome work of FreeLisa designs, BFOC now has these cool new messenger bags available. I can easily carry my laptop and a couple of books in mine, and the strap is adjustable. You can pick one of these up at the Oak Cliff Bicycle Company, or email Lisa direct. A portion of all sales go back to BFOC and help fund our work to hold events, install bike racks and more. These also make great Christmas presents!
It’s hard to believe how far New York City has come with it’s bicycle infrastructure work in such a short time period. Hiring expert planners and engineers from Denmark proved to be a stroke of genius, and seeing the ridership levels grow is a testimony to the ideas of Jan Gehl, Soren Jenson, and others. Though Dallas is in last place for bicycle initiatives in the country, we stand a great chance to learn from the hundreds of cities now adopting progressive multi-modal infrastructure.
Video from earlier in the day at Oktoberfest:
Fortunately, we had a perfect day of weather for the Bicycle Photo Scavener Hunt and Oktoberfest. Thirteen teams competed for prizes doled out by the girls at Photopol.us for the hunt, which they should be uploading pics from shortly. Some of the challenges were pretty far out there, including having someone swim in Lake Cliff, and picturing a guy wearing a Quincinera dress.
Later that day, our favorite local tavern, Eno’s, did a great job of hosting an amazing event, complete with a 20 piece jazz orchestra and enough beer to keep everyone well hydrated on into the night. Special thanks to the folks at Franconia Brewing for bringing out the 200 year old keg and filling everyone’s mugs. Also, thanks go to New Belgium Brewing (for beer, and all the free bicycle goodies), Saint Arnold, Harpoon Brewery, and Real Ale, for donating to the day.
Here’s a few pics from the day with more located here:
Join us for the fourth group ride in our history themed series focusing on haunted sites in Dallas. Alicia Pol of FMD, and Colin Clarke of 75208 will lead the group from the Grassy Knoll in Downtown Dallas through some of the most notorious ghost-ridden spots in town.
Arrive at 2:30PM on Halloween (Saturday, Oct. 31). Costumes are encouraged and we’ll be giving out an award at the end of the ride to the best one.
A Facebook event page has been setup here as well.
Also, later that afternoon, Liberty Cycle Works is holding a Costumed Halloween ride as well at 5PM. It’s a great chance to catch two fun group rides in town:
(A new bike lane in Times Square, NY by Flickr user denali2001)
Several interesting articles have come out recently on bicycle culture, and more to the point, the move away from auto-centric planning. The New York Times published an article on Wednesday titled “Is Happiness Still That New Car Smell?”, where an auto industry expert is quoted as saying “People are questioning car purchases more than we’ve ever seen in recent history,” and goes on to profile people who have made the switch from auto ownership to bicycling + public transit. Also, the League of American Bicyclists released their Fall 2009 Bike Friendly City list. Several mid-west cities have made the list, so hopefully in the not too distant future, Dallas can make the cut.
BikeDenton attended the most recent NCTCOG Bike and Pedestrian advisory committee meeting and heard a suburban planner from Richardson admit that post-WWII planning had been negligent of non-car transit, and that overwhelming support for bicycle specific infrastructure by neighborhood associations had begun in his area. We also went to the archives to pull a Car Free in Big D entry spotlighting an Austrian city engineer in an article titled “A Traffic Engineer Whose Mother Actually Loves Him”, who is quoted “I discovered that traditional traffic planning is merely based on assumptions. For a long time there was no consideration for the consequences for the society or the environment. Nobody cared about noise or pollution, about fatalities, about the economy being altered or unemployment being created.” There’s definitely a change in mindset among the new set of planners and engineers coming out of schools today. It’s almost as if they’ve finally taken heed of Jane Jacobs warnings in the classic Death and Life of Great American Cities. Annecdotally speaking, we even note a split inside of many city offices among one generation of planners to the next. One will state “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and these new ideas won’t work here”, while the others are stating, “what we did 30 years ago IS the problem.” Only time will tell on what our city will look like in the coming decade, but it is heartening to see traditional planning ideas look beyond the idea of simply getting people in and out of places as fast as possible without regard to effects on livability.
Finally, I ran across this incredible paper titled “Livable Copenhagen” released by the University of Washington with cooperation from the Center for Public Space Research in Copenhagen. In it, detailed renderings are made of several different streetscapes in Copenhagen (pages 23-39) which include cutouts of roadways, intersection planning, and cycle track measurements. A great place to start when looking at how a successful bicycle city was developed which moved away from 1950-70’s era car-only planning models.
A lot of Bicycle activities happening this weekend in the OC. For starters, tonight we’re featuring “Breaking Away” at the Belmont Hotel as part of our Bike-In Movie series. Movie begins at dark (7:30ish). It’s starting to get cooler at night, so be sure to bring a couple blankets.
Sunday, two events take place that run together. For starters, Photopol.us is putting on their Bicycle Photo Scavenger Hunt, and later that afternoon, Eno’s will be holding its rescheduled Oktoberfest event, behind their building. There will be dart throwing competitions, plenty of micro-brewed beer and food, music, and the winner of the scavenger hunt will be awarded there. Oktoberfest is from 2PM to 9PM, and the scavenger hunt is from Noon to 3PM so there’s plenty of time to take in the day.
When Boston ranked as Bicycling Magazine’s “Worst City for Bicyling” three years in a row, the Mayor got serious and decided he wanted to make a change. He quickly hired bicycle racing champion, Nicole Freedman, as bicycle coordinator, began reviewing infrastructure planning concepts in cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Portland, purchased himself a three-speed Trek, and set to work on making major changes to elevate his city away from that ranking. For a man who hadn’t bicycled in 40 years, he was serious. Also, to prove he meant business, Mayor Menino bicycled to City Hall:
(Boston’s Mayor Menino Bicycling to City Hall – photo by DOMINIC CHAVEZ/BOSTON GLOBE STAFF)
Inspired by this display of action, BFOC launched our own Dallas Bikes to City Hall campaign on October 7th, which was well attended by council members, city planners, business owners, and residents. But one person was missing…Mayor Leppert. Now that Dallas has replaced Boston as “Worst City for Bicycling” on Bicycling Magazine’s list, BFOC is ready to up the ante and offer the following challenge: If the Mayor rides to City Hall within 30 days, we will provide 5 bike racks to Oak Cliff area DISD elementary schools.
That’s right, the gauntlet has been laid, and we’re offering this challenge to prove that our chowder eatin’ neighbors to the North won’t leave us in the dust. And if inspiration is needed on what we can do to make the city a better place for bicycling, we can think of a few people to ask for advice. Also, if you are a business or resident that is interested in supporting this challenge, feel free to offer purchase of a bike rack to your local area school, and we will post it here to help sweeten the pot.
So mark your calendars. Today is October 22nd, and once we’ve received an announcement from Mr. Leppert and the day has been set, we’ll be on hand at City Hall Plaza with camera’s ready!
If you get a chance, you must check out BikePortland’s article on a recent panel discussion by European planners who visited the US and consulted on best practices for increasing bicycle ridership, and creating bike infrastructure. The key to a successful program is exactly what we’ve stated from the outset at BFOC…perception of safety.
From Hans Voerknecht (The International Coordinator for Fietsberaad)
““If they feel safe they will cycle. The solution chosen in nearly all U.S. cities is that you have cycle lanes next to parked cars and next to traffic and I think that the people who might want to cycle but don’t do it yet… they would think it’s too close to this fast-moving traffic.”
Also, it was interesting to learn that Copenhagen installed their first Cycle Track (dedicated bicycle lane) in 1905! So for over 100 years, they’ve been able to learn what does and does not work in attracting people to bicycling.
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Notable:
Dallas Tops Bicycle Magazine's Worst Cities for Cycling
Answers to most common talking points by those opposed to bicycle infrastructure
“There are times I ride in Austin, and I’m afraid of cars...Imagine what the beginner cyclist must feel like?”
- Lance Armstrong
The success of “complete streets” advocacy in cities such as San Francisco, Portland, New York, and Chicago has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of infrastructural enhancement.
-Paul Dorn, League Cycling Instructor (#1237)
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) Recommends cities adopt bicycle lanes to curb obesity trends
Portland Metro: 174 Miles of On-street bikelanes, 8% bicycle ridership, 0 Fatalities in 2008
Dallas Metro: 0 Miles of On-Street bike lanes, .2% bicycle ridership, 6 Fatalities in 2008
"Our story is build it and they will come. We’ve built it and we now are approaching 6-8% mode split."
- Roger Geller, Bike Coordinator for Portland
Dallas Craig’s List Bike ListingsFriends of BFOC
