John.Hopkins's blog

An effort to secure a fair share of federal transportation funds for walking and biking facilities was introduced by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer on Tuesday as H.R. 4722, the Active Community Transportation Act of 2010. The bill calls for concentrated investment at the community level through competitive grants administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Do something good for your heart and your honey: Take a walk. Use the link in the "Walk challenge" block at top left, find some destinations, then go stretch your legs. Later, tell us about it here.

Would you like to make your neighborhood more walkable? Download the Walkability Checklist, sharpen your pencil and make some notes.

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.

We welcome Kaelsie Saravia to the board of Green Mobility Network, and congratulate Gary Mendenhall for taking on the job of ride chairman. We are fortunate to have their support. If you have ideas for them -- or any of our leaders -- I encourage you to click "contact" above and use the pull-down menu that suits your purpose.

Kaelsie is a designer with Surface Workshop in Miami, and a green-thinking architect who immediately saw the potential of our mission when we met her a few weeks before Green Mobility's founding caucus in 2007. You may remember her showing up at City Hall to speak on bicycle issues, or pitching in to help with bike valet.

Gary also has been cheering us on from the beginning, quickly volunteered for bike valet and other projects, and organized our successful M-Path rides over the past several months. He's on the sales team at J&B Importing, and was part of Florida's delegation last year to the National Bike Summit. He commutes by bike and loves to go out on weekends for an alley cat race or a mountain bike excursion.

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.

Thanks also to all who backed and encouraged our work through the past year. It's not too late to join or donate to carry our work strongly into 2010. See the yellow buttons elsewhere on this page. We wish you good rides, good health and ever-better streets and trails for South Florida.

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.

A small but lively group of Upper Eastsiders turned out last night to hear Florida Department of Transportation plans for improved walker safety on Biscayne Boulevard between Morningside and NE 77th Street.

You like bicycle films? You'll love the Bicycle Film Festival tomorrow, Dec. 12, at the Colony Theatre, on Lincoln Road Mall at Lennox Avenue. The fun actually begins tonight 7 p.m. at Keirin Cycles, 235A 9th St., Miami Beach.

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.