Our committees, work crews, and partnerships with other groups all contributed to an impressive list of achievements for 2011. Just a few were outlined in our annual report (click here) that was e-mailed to members and friends in the last week of December. We'll try to add detail here in case you are interested.

We could not have had better weather or more enthusiastic volunteers than we did for the inaugural Gables Bike Day on Sunday. Public participation was truly gratifying. Cyclists of all ages and descriptions turned out along Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Boulevard with their own machines or ones they borrowed from sponsors Deco Bike, Mack Cycle and Fitness, or No Boundaries.

You're invited to a multi-media art show about alternative transportation -- bicycling, running, kayaks, trains and the like. Members and friends are invited to the opening on Friday, Sept. 30, at Flagler Arts Space, 172 W. Flagler St. The hours are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The show will be open to the public on Saturday, Oct. 1, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

This is a fundraiser for Green Mobility Network, so please bring your checkbooks. A percentage of all sales will go to Green Mobility's advocacy and education on behalf of bicycling, walking, and public transit, with the rest to the artists themselves. For more information, call Tom Blazejack at 305-608-9448.

The new foot and bike bridge over the Snapper Creek Expressway is moved into place early Saturday near the Dadeland Station shopping center.

Top eight reasons Green Mobility Network is cheering the M-Path Extension:

The latest Dangerous by Design report from Transportation for America (T4A) shines a spotlight on Florida's very high numbers of pedestrians killed in traffic. Over a 10-year period -- 2000-2009 -- there were 5,163 Florida pedestrian deaths. When you calculate the Pedestrian Danger Index, Florida ranks worst in the nation -- and Southeast Florida fourth worst among the 50 largest metropolitan areas. Only the Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg, and Jacksonville areas ranked worse than the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area -- that is, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties taken as one unit.

Eric Tullberg, a founding member of Green Mobility Network, was honored by Chamber South and the Village of Palmetto Bay for his years of volunteer service. Eric, an engineer, chaired the Palmetto Bay committee that produced a bicycle-pedestrian master plan in 2009 and is an active participant in the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway Advisory Committee.

He's a recognized expert on the paths and sidewalks of south Miami-Dade County, having traveled, photographed and logged practically every one of them. County planners and highway engineers are frequent recipients of his carefully-researched analyses of plans in progress.

Neighborhoods are the building blocks for healthy communities. Each neighborhood should include village centers, accessible parks, and community schools.  Infrastructure that encourages connected communities by walking and bicycling will positively impact the health of a community.  Healthy communities include sidewalks designed for handicap access and on-road bicycle accommodations connecting off-road trails.  The transformation of cities from urban blight to residential havens is doable.  The spark plugs for igniting energies need to power walking and bicycling in our neighborhoods.  We can “take back” our city block by block by supporting safe routes to school, encouraging neighborhood walk and watch organizations, implementing safe off-road transportation corridors -– greenways -- and providing defined on-road walking and biking facilities.   Change policy and practices that encourage people to get fat.  Instead, let us work together to break down barriers and build bridges between neighborhoods, communities and the state.

                                                                                  --Barbara Norris Duerk

Given a couple of bike-bus collisions we've heard of locally in the past year, this video from the Chicago Transit Authority should be watched by every Miami cyclist and everyone at Miami-Dade Transit.  It's pretty good, too.

Green Mobility Network operated bike valet on Saturday for riders in the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway Bike Festival, sponsored by Homestead Main Street. Our crew of Peter Schuetz, Mike Park, and Andrew Cunningham, aided by this team of Homestead police Explorers, looked after nearly 70 bikes during the hearty end-of-ride luncheon at Capri in Florida City. On Sunday, board member Eric Tullberg rode as a guide for phase two of the festival, a fat tire excursion along the route of the planned Biscayne/Everglades Greenway.

Our treasurer and board member Tom Blazejack reports from Tallahassee:

"Had a good day at the Florida Bike Summit yesterday.  Met with Reps. Robaina and Bush.  Also met with staff of Lopez-Cantera, Steinberg and Bullard.  Big announcement was reestablishment of the Bike/Ped Council [to advise the state Department of Transportation].  Robaina was instrumental in that and he wants to get movement on the Ludlam Trail."

It was encouraging to see many members and friends last night at the state Department of Transportation (DOT) workshop on the repaving of Sunset Drive west of South Miami. We may not have gotten our bike lanes yet, but the cycling community is clearly showing it can mobilize on nuts-and-bolts matters as well as highly-publicized and emotional ones. Let's keep flexing those muscles, men and women. We'll need to do this again, and maybe soon.

We thank each and every rider for participating in and making the Redland Ramble a successful ride. It sounded like everyone had a great time, although, if you have any suggestions or ideas for future rides please let us know.

There are three things that ought to be done right now, before our tears dry over the loss of Christophe Le Canne to a hit-and-run driver on Sunday morning.

• The authorities need to lower the speed limit on Crandon Boulevard to something reasonable for a road that regularly has thousands of recreational users daily -- beach-goers, boaters, runners and cyclists -- not to mention Key Biscayne residents driving to and from their homes and jobs. While those wide lanes invite speed, this is not a highway but an urban street.

Adventure Cycling leader Jim Sayer challenged a roomful of members and other cyclists last night to join the push for Congress to make bicycling and walking a higher priority in the next national transportation bill. While his group and others are busy in Washington, he said it's local groups such as Green Mobility Network and the Florida Bicycle Association that are best able to awaken members of the House and Senate.

It required just four city parking spaces to hold 50 bicycles when a crew of Green Mobility folk looked after movie-goers' bikes Saturday during the Bicycle Film Festival in Miami Beach. Thanks to the city Parking Department for making the lot space available.

Major streets in South Florida and much of the rest of the country appear to have been designed with the needs of walkers as a second thought at best. National Public Radio reports on the efforts of Transportation for America to move city and state planners toward the concept of complete streets -- streets for all the people.

There's a new "honor box" at Bill Baggs State Park, following Green Mobility Network's call about how awkward it was for cyclists to dodge motor traffic to pay entrance fees. Here's park manager Robert Yero's follow-up note:

Green Mobility Network fielded a three-member tag team Thursday as the Miami City Commission passed three pro-bicycle proposals.

Several newcomers joined a handful of Green Mobility regulars for last weekend's M-

Every jogger or cyclist I have talked to lately has a tale about a close call with a motorist either talking on a cell phone or, incredibly, using it for text-messaging.

It shouldn't surprise us that Detroit and its academic allies have discovered the term "Green Mobility." A reader passes along the news that the Society of Automotive Engineers had a symposium earlier this year to talk about the future of transportation in a scarce-petroleum economy. There was this attention-grabbing statement early on:

"We eventually have to transform our transportation systems so their consumption and environmental damage is brought under control."

But John Heywood, director of the Sloan Auto Lab at MIT, warned the audience, "Get real!" What will make a difference in the next couple of decades, he said, is improvement of existing systems.  He spoke of smaller, lighter, more efficient cars, and other speakers touted new and better mass transit -- even "personal mass transit," whatever that means.

You can watch the symposium in a series of six videos, lasting 10 to 25 minutes each, at this link.
There's a free Green Mobility Network tee-shirt for the first person to find walking or bicycles mentioned in the program.

The Alliance for Biking & Walking awarded a $30,000 matching grant to Green Mobility Network today, in support of our "Complete the M-Path" campaign and our education and advocacy efforts. The matching grant was made possible by Planet Bike and is the first of a series of grassroots bicycle advocacy grants the accessory company will make this year.

This is both a challenge and an endorsement for Green Mobility. We need to raise funds locally to get the full grant, but having these two organizations smile on our work is a welcome affirmation that we're effective. More about this later on.

http://www.planetbike.com/page/
http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org/site/

Thank you for the opportunity to present our department’s Open Space Master Plan to your organization last night. The group was great, had very poignant questions and they were incredibly engaged during the talk. Please pass on to your folks that they can contact me for a follow-up or to address any questions.

As always it is great working with you.

Regards,
Kevin

Kevin M. Kirwin
Assistant to the Director
Miami-Dade County, Park and Recreation Department
275 NW 2nd Street, 5th Floor
Miami, FL 33128

Kirwin@miamidade.gov

A retired Hialeah policeman, Glenn Rice, let himself be videotaped the other day trying to cross the street in downtown Miami Springs. Looks like he never did get that cup of coffee.

Thanks to Theodore D. Karantsalis for the video.

As the century-old General Motors enters bankruptcy court, it's a good time to review the company's role in making the U.S. public transit system the worst in the industrial world.

If you'd like to purchase this 55-minute documentary for your own collection, see http://www.newday.com/films/Taken_for_a_Ride.html