Oak Cliff

Are you paying attention, Dallas City Halll?  Ft. Worth is kicking our $%@#%%’s in bicycle infrastructure!  And thanks to great groups like Bike Friendly Ft. Worth and the site FortWorthology.com it’s only getting better!  Check out this great story below:

Re-posted from Fort Worthology

Photo by Richard Rodriguez, DFW.com

Eric Griffey has been exploring Fort Worth’s burgeoning bicycle scene, and our slowly-but-steadily more bike-friendly streets, and has written this great article for DFW.com

The bartender told me that it was a bicycle pub crawl that met every Sunday and rode to different bars. When I started looking online to find the group, though, I was surprised to find out there wasn’t just one such group, but many. And that most of them were just 2 or 3 years old.

…

There appears to be a real cultural shift occurring in Fort Worth — it’s not just a bunch of hipsters looking for an excuse to drink. (more…)

Reposted from The Dallas Morning News

by Roy Appleton

A century ago, the Houston Street bridge officially opened with speeches, cannon fire and a parade of wagons, carriages and those new-fangled things called automobiles.

Earlier this month there was some serious celebrating on the still-not-open Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.

For six hours next month, the Trinity River crossing will be closed to motor vehicles, turned over to walkers, bicyclists, skaters and others who enjoy a slower pace. And it may be just a start.

Ciclovia de Dallas will take over the bridge between downtown and Oak Cliff from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 14. The scene will include dancing, a market, dog park, food trucks, roaming musicians, kite-flying and bicycle activities galore. (more…)

 As written in today’s

 

It has been brought to our attention that the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce is recommending a change to the 2011 Dallas Bike Plan that would directly endanger the lives of pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers by removing safety buffers originally developed by roadway engineering experts, the community, and city leaders. This alternate solution dramatically changes the existing plan and places the roadway’s most marginalized users (children, and seniors) directly at risk of exposure to high-speed ambulance traffic without any protective measures to reduce accident risks. This revision also is in direct opposition to safer “complete street” recommendations encouraged by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the American Association for Retired People (AARP). Finally, this change would expose our city to potential lawsuits by accident victims who would reference the removal of safety measures recommended within the original plan.

The buffered bike lane recommendation by the 2011 Dallas Bike Plan for Colorado Boulevard (from Bishop to Beckley) allows a “safety zone” for children and seniors who regularly access Lake Cliff Park, James Hogg Elementary School, and minimizes their conflict potential when crossing by converting the street to a 2 lane vehicular road, with center turn lane. The center turn lane also acts as an added layer of protection as dedicated emergency ambulance traffic is focused toward the center and away from the edges which minimizes the potential for accidents by pedestrians and bicyclists. A recommendation is being made by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce to remove these safety measures and maintain a wider, high-speed 4 lane vehicular-focused road with shared bike lane markings only which increases the potential for conflict by ambulance traffic and area school children. Adding to the potential for accidents, the inclusion of a proposed level 2 trauma center off of Colorado which will only double the exposure to risk if the road is maintained as a 4-lane vehicular (with center turn lane) focused street. Currently, seniors who cross Colorado by foot and motorized scooter are greatly exposed to danger by the road’s wider lanes and curved landscape which creates limited sight-lines and places them in a larger zone of risk as they cross multiple roads. (more…)

Below is a post that was originally made on May 7th, 2009.  Since then it has received over 17,633 page views to date, doubling the second place page and trouncing any other post we’ve made since then.  It continues to be a popular daily  page view, so we thought we’d re post!  On a personal note, I recently did the same thing to a road bike I bought on Craigslist.  All total with purchase, cost me less than $200!

The New York Times recently published an article on dutch styled commuter bikes becoming the latest rage in our recent economic downturn. And why not? They’re practical, not flashy, comfortable, and made for one thing…commuting. (more…)

April 9-13th marks the fifth, semi-annual I Bike Rosemont week at Rosemont Elementary.   I Bike Rosemont is a combined effort between Rosemont Elementary, parents, students and neighbors. The week consists of morning bike rides to school by parents and students. The riders get a card that is punched each day they ride their bike to school. At the end of the week, the kids, their parents, volunteers and teachers participate in a group bike ride to Eno’s in Bishop Arts, where the kids turn their punch cards in for a free root beer float.

In addition, there are prizes for riders, a t-shirt sale, and “bike rodeo” event to celebrate the culmination of the week’s activities. (more…)

If you support bicycling advocacy and have some time to give, we encourage you to sign up and help at this year’s first annual Ciclovia de Dallas on April 14, 2012.

Volunteer times are from 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM with shifts available.

• 7:00 – 10:00 AM
• 10:00 – 1:00 PM
• 1:00 – 4:00 PM
• ALL DAY

*A Friday, April 13th volunteer meeting will be held and encouraged to attend

We’ll need volunteers to help in various ways, but not limited to:

• Traffic control
• Street setup/take down
• Vendor registration and setup
• Signage distribution and pick up
• Trash control

If you have a group or want to volunteer yourself, please fill out this form or click on the graphic above in order to do so!

We’re planning a huge Car-Free event for Dallas on April 14, 2012 from 9:00 am -3:00 pm on the Houston St. Viaduct.  Here’s our first published listing of the vendors who are confirmed and will be attending our event, along with a list of activities for the day.  We will update this listing as we get closer to the event:

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS TO DATE:  *If you have an organization or business and would like to participate, please fill out this form to be considered!  REGISTRATION WILL END APRIL 7TH  It is free to participate. (more…)

Looks like it’s going to be a long ballot for the new congressional District that’s been created in Texas which covers parts of Oak Cliff, Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Irving. 4 locals including Domingo Garcia, Jason Roberts, Carlos Quintanilla and Chrysta Castañeda are on the Democratic Primary ballot. Should be an exciting race!

Make sure to impress upon each of the candidates to focus on bicycle friendly initiatives.

The TITS Tuesday bike ride group is organizing a group ride to the parade  at 9:30 AM on March 17, 2012.  This following is from their Facebook event page:

Meet up at Main Street Garden in Downtown Dallas and we will ride to the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade! Bicycle is REALLY the best way to get around in all that craziness–they anticipate 100,000 people this year. IT IS SO MUCH FUNNNN!!

Wear green, go nuts. Put green stuff on your bike. Bring beads. If you choose to bring a flask, be discreet. Wear your helmets (I fall on this ride every year…must be something to do with the green beer).

The “official” block party afterwards is for SUCKERS, so the plan is to parade our bikes thru the M-Streets/Lower Greenville neighborhood and hit all the awesome house parties. If you’ve never done this it will restore your faith in Dallas. Tons of people open their homes to complete strangers–they’ll have kegs of green beer in the yard, a DJ in the garage, etc. They’ll even let you use their restrooms! You don’t have to pay for anything, but I like to bring some cash to leave the cook/dj/bartenders for a tip. We can bounce through the neighborhood and make a bunch of new friends (with free beer).

**Meet up at 9:30, Roll out at 10**

Just got word there is a new Bike Friendly up north in Mckinney.  It’s great seeing bicycle advocacy spread!

Here’s their mission:

Welcome to Bike Friendly McKinney! This blog is intended to help communicate current events and all things bicycle to the 2-wheel residents of McKinney, Texas. We invite everyone to participate – if you have an event coming up that is bicycle oriented (Church function, scout event, high-school fundraiser) let us know. If you are a prolific writer and would like to help create news blogs or cover events, contact us and we’ll arrange for you to be a regular contributor.

They’re also into Fixing Disconnected Neighborhoods and looking to get local support for the McKinney on-street bike plan!  Nice work you guys and welcome to the Bike Friendly Family!

On a similar note that we missed posting to our website, Plano recently passed a Safe Passing ordinance within their city limits!  My home town has always been a great place to ride trails and now the streets are getting safer as well, nice work Warren Casteel and the rest of the folks who’ve worked for years on bicycle advocacy in Plano and beyond.