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…
Bicyclist James Wurm after the ‘Loose Cannons on the Run” race, basking in the glow of a dollar beer at PS14. A little while ago, the Bike Blog mentioned a new, bike-only beer special every Wednesday at PS14. The special, crated by local party promoted Joel Meinholz, still stands –…
It may not be time to take out the aged scotch yet, but you can at least crack a celebratory cerveza this weekend, thanks to a ruling this week from the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee that said bicycle groups have the right to sue the Florida Department…
I’m ashamed to tell you this Mr. Construction Worker with an East Coast accent and sandy hair but, I usually cross the street when I see a group of hard hats clustered. I won’t again. You were near last week when, after 25 minutes of circling for a parking spot,…
Kyle Munzenrieder “Where did all these beautiful people come from?” asked a shoeless man wandering along strumming his guitar for pocket change. Maybe he felt a sense of kinship with the 35 cyclists who had gathered at the corner of Lincoln Road and Washington Avenue for a politically charged, alley…
Last week, Miami lost Abraham “Al” Chasser, who built the oft-mentioned and little-understood “Farm” in Little Haiti (usually referenced in terms of the gigantic tree-house on the property), now owned by Chasser’s son Ray. Al was ninety-one when he passed away. Chasser lived an exciting and supremely independent life –…
Well, it happened: last week, we wrote that Miami mayor Manny Diaz was expected to announce the formation of a bicycling committee at last Thursday’s City Commission meeting. He did: from high on the dais, the mayor announced the formation of the Miami Bicycle Action Committee, a subcommittee of the…
Last week a group of bicycling advocates, including members of the Green Mobility Network, Emerge Miami, and others, met with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz to lobby for the city to take a stronger stand on biking. Although there had been several mass emails about the meeting before it took place,…
Flotsam: Behind the times, that’s what I’ve been. Toiling away, rummaging through my drawers for long-lost, outdated maps of vague bike routes that I got from the county when I first moved here a year ago – and the answer was before me all along: the internet, man – it’s…
