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 when it comes to getting city and county politicians to start turning words into action.
The article appears in Bicycling magazine's June 2008 issue (yes, I know it's April, I don't get it either) which chose to honor Miami-Dade county – along with Dallas and Memphis – for its overall suckiness when it comes to cycling.
The Bike Blog agrees with the article, written by one Christine Mattheis, but that isn’t saying much: apparently, her research into the matter consisted of reading my own January 31 article, ‘Share the F*cking Road!.’
While flattering - and it's nice to see the magazine credit the New Times as its source, unlike a some other publications we know - it'd be nice to know a little bit more about how Miami stacks up against other crappy biking cities. For a more in-depth look at what makes a city good for cycling – although it doesn’t go into what makes it bad – check out the League of American Bicyclists list of “Bicycle Friendly Communities.”
If Miami leaders - and I'm talking city, county, whatever - want some concrete goals to shoot for in making this place better for cycling, I'd like to see them try to get on that list. It could be done, too - but we'd have to cut the bullshit and get serious about developing and implementing new, long-sighted master plans.
By the way, the bit quoted in the Bicycling Magazine article about the city having no finished bikes lanes is apparently technically untrue – the City claims bike lanes on half of the Venetian and half of the Rickenbacker as City of Miami bike lanes. Still – seems kind of cheaty, doesn’t it?
