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.

Our bike-valet team was in a great mood on Sunday at the Deering Seafood Festival. Student volunteers Grant Hernandez and Rebecca Grant join new member Carole Troutman and board members Eric Tullberg, standing left, and Tom Blazejack.  Also helping later in the day were Bill Best, Angel Walkine and Liz Warriner. This year our valet was sponsored by Heritage House, a genuine aid to our education and advocacy work.

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.

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.

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.