We are celebrating today after the Miami-Dade Commission's vote to transfer $700,000 in order to repair the bone-jarring damaged pavement along parts of the M-Path. This money may also cover planning new signals at one or more of the troublesome street crossings near U.S. 1 between Vizcaya and South Miami.

I encourage you to thank your county commissioner. Their phone numbers and e-mail addresses may be found through http://www.miamidade.gov/commiss/.

The work that today's vote enables is just part of the safety and convenience upgrade outlined in the M-Path Master Plan, a conceptual outline of what the 23-year-old path needs to make it right for pedestrians and bicyclists along the entire nine miles from the Miami River to SW 67th Avenue below 80th Street.

We remain alert and determined to see the full Master Plan carried out, and to find a way to close the Dadeland Gap, that daunting 1.1-mile stretch of the path that never was built. We need and welcome your help. You may use the "contact" menu above to get in touch.

Bicycle and pedestrian advocates from around Florida are gathering in Miami this weekend for a workshop called WINNING CAMPAIGNS© TRAININGS.

Green Mobility Network and the Florida Bicycle Association are teaming to sponsor this signature event of the Alliance for Biking and Walking (formerly the Thunderhead Alliance).

Participants will learn how to:

• Choose the right issue;
• Set realistic but visionary goals, choose the best strategies and tactics, and stick to timelines;
• Map out the power structure in your community, support and leverage allies, neutralize and convert enemies!
• Communicate effectively, reaching the right audience with the right message through the right media, …and
• Raise money, to strengthen your organization for the next bigger victory!

In the end, they'll have a detailed campaign blueprint that will assure a victorious campaign and set up their organizations for greater victories in the future.

To learn more about Alliance programs, visit
http://www.peoplepoweredmovement.org.

Thanks to support from Planet Bike, Bikes Belong, and Cannondale Sports Group, as well as local help from Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation and Michele Estevez, of the Key Biscayne Chamber of Commerce, for making this possible.

We hope you're riding and walking every day, of course, but if you like to do it with lots of other people you should circle Sunday, May 17, on your calendar and head downtown for the last Bike Miami Day before summer. Can you believe this free street party has been happening every month since October?

This month's fun includes giveaways of bicycles and T-shirts, and several more places to enjoy food and drink between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., when motor traffic will be diverted from Flagler Street, SE 1st Avenue and part of S. Miami Avenue.

Drop by and park your bike free at the Green Mobility bike valet in Mary Brickell Village or at La Epoca on Flagler Street.

This city commission, which has long talked about being friendly to bicycling, is about to miss yet another chance to include bicycle facilities in its street designs. Cyclists are invited (by us) to ride over to City Hall this night and speak up for revising the latest plans for Sunset Drive.

6130 Sunset Drive
South Miami, FL 33143
t: 305.663.6338
e: info@cityofsouthmiami.net

Ride a portion of the newly opened Greenway Bike Trail connecting Everglades National Park to Biscayne National Park. This is a self-supported ride starting and ending at Biscayne National Park, 9700 SW 328th St., Homestead.

Times shown are approximate. We'll update when we know more.

This annual ride on Crandon Boulevard commemorates all bicyclists who have been killed riding over the past year. For several of us in Green Mobility Network, this has become a solemn and meaningful experience. It's also a good way to show our neighbors how large the bicycle community actually is.

You must wear a helmet to take part, and you may need your lights before the hour's ride is over. Miami-area cyclists will rendezvous across the road from Mast Academy, 3979 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, at 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20. The one-hour ride starts promptly at 7 p.m.

The local sponsor is the Everglades Bicycle Club, which offers details at www.evergladesbc.com. This is a national event, with further information at www.rideofsilence.org.

If you haven't already done so, please take a moment to tell the Metropolitan Center at FIU how you use Miami-Dade County's bikeways and trails. Perhaps you answered the survey at Bike Miami Days in March, or via the the Spokes 'n' Folks blog a couple of weeks ago -- in which case you can ignore this request. Otherwise, consider what Alejandro Martinez wrote:

"The [Metropolitan Planning Organization] is trying to design a program that is going to fit the needs of residents who are using these paths for cycling, rollerblading, commuting, etc. It’s a fairly short survey and should take no more than 5 minutes to complete."

You can find the survey at http://www.zipsurvey.com/LaunchSurvey.aspx?suid=36822&key=61B73B21 . And if you have questions, call Martinez -- or Dario Gonzalez -- at 305-349-1251.

A committee from Green Mobility Network spent a recent morning exploring the Dadeland Gap, where there is no good way to ride a bike or to walk between the M-Path and the South Dade Trail. We had with us the plans for a project backed by both paths' owner, Miami-Dade Transit, to close the gap -- and we were eager to see them while looking at the actual site. We were disappointed.

Instead of the bicycle facility we perhaps naively anticipated, the plans for Phase I of the M-Path Extension are entirely for work to be done at Metrorail's Dadeland North station. The plans show new bulkheads to be built along the C-2 canal, with a walkway on the south bank giving transit passengers a third

Terry Connor passes along this item from the BNA Daily Labor Report about the bicycle commuter tax break that took effect Jan. 1:

Effective Jan. 1, employees who commute to work by bicycle can be reimbursed for some of their expenses as part of the $700 billion financial sector bailout package (H.R. 1424) signed by President Bush in October. The reimbursement of up to $20 per month is considered a qualified transportation fringe benefit.

According to IRS Publication 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits, commuters who travel to and from work by bicycle in a qualified month can be reimbursed by employers up to $240 per year for maintaining, repairing, storing, and buying bicycles. A qualified month is any month an employee “regularly uses the bicycle for a substantial portion of the travel between the employee's residence and place of employment.”

An employee who receives the biking reimbursement cannot receive other commuting benefits, including parking or transit benefits, in the same month.

Thanks to everybody who turned out on Saturday to celebrate the improved bicycle facilities on the Rickenbacker Causeway. We made some new friends, caught up with some