A Pregnant Jacksonville Cyclist

It has been a while since I’ve addressed this blog as well as bike/ped advocacy efforts in general. I think it’s safe enough now to tell everyone the main reason for this temporary yielding of bicycle efforts.

On the night of May 2nd, Harley and I were very pleasantly surprised with the very best news of our lives by way of (of all romantic things) urine sample – We’re having a baby!

On May 3rd, I was not so pleasantly confronted with the idea of riding my bike in the “third deadliest city in the nation” while our little bun bakes peacefully, albeit vulnerably, in my oven.

Where before I rode however I wanted – freely and fearlessly – I now find myself firmly planted at the crossroads of Liberation and Parental Responsibility.

I rode the Acosta, crossing over at it’s midpoint despite the risk of speeding traffic peering just above its blind spot. I rode the Main Street Bridge, not usually on the sidewalk, but right on the road, sans shoulder and blind spots aplenty. I rode the Fuller Warren, however, far more often than any other bridge, to get from San Marco to Riverside, where everybody knows your name… or at least your bike. There is no bridge in Jacksonville with bicycle facilities, so I made due with what this city has given us cyclists.

I rode outside the bike lane frequently and only because much of the time you’ll find debris within it, broken glass its predominant feature.

I rode late at night, during rush hour, weekdays, weekends. My love of street riding far outweighed any love of a casual pedal down the Baldwin Trail or a meander through a neighborhood-only route. And I would only and ever ride on a sidewalk, if for only a moment, when it seemed most logical to do so.

I rode fast, made quick, even impulsive decisions, many of which helped squeeze me out of sticky situations with cars or other bikes within large groups sprinkled with novice bike riders who sway and swerve, stop and start, as if they weren’t surrounded by about a hundred other cyclists.

Now.

Now I hardly ride at all and certainly not the way I used to. As my tummy grows, so does my love for this child. So does my resentment for this city’s leaders as a pregnant Jacksonville cyclist. It may be difficult for some to understand why one would ride so fearlessly, pregnant or not. Why risk your own neck? Isn’t it just as valuable as your child’s? Absolutely. But I suppose I did it out of spite, rebellion, revolt, whatever you want to call it. I did it to prove a point – that cyclists belong, that they have rights, and that my alternate mode of transportation is a gas-free one so get used to it. I refused to be a chicken, bowing down to the car-centric, distracted-driving-embracing, gas-guzzling, “Forget you, I’m in a car!” culture this city has so successfully bred.

I cannot be a rebel like that right now. I cannot be a rebel like that ever again. I have someone else in my life that deserves my presence, my love, my longevity. I have two someones actually. This is my little family now and it takes precedence over my point-proving to all those fleshless, four-wheeled creatures whose grill is of metal alone, not face or feature. Not kindness or consideration. Not decency or logic.

Harley and I have been living with the new roundabouts on San Marco Blvd. for a few months now. We live a block away from both of them. There have been too many incidents where we were either walking across the pedestrian crosswalks or riding our bikes within the roundabouts when a motorist would just not stop, as if we were completely invisible. The flow of traffic on that road is nonstop during both morning and afternoon rush hours. Roundabouts in a neighborhood area in a city like Jax (where motorists aren’t educated about the rules) was a really stupid idea. Whose idea was that, anyway? There are kids, pets, joggers, bikers, and elderly people all over the place. This is our neighborhood and the street we live on is cradled by San Marco Blvd. It’s difficult to always avoid that road every time I get on my bike. After being cut off for the umpteenth time in the roundabout closest to our apartment while pregnant, I was fuming for hours.

I’ll ride more often again, after my belly is freed up and my level of physical comfort improves. But to ride so freely in this city? That will always be questionable. I will, from now on, question every move I make in this car-centric city for the sake of my family. That, my friends, is what you call borderline living in fear. And that makes me livid.

I have never been more upset about the idea of riding bikes in Jacksonville than I have been the past few months. If any of you know me, you know how ornery I already was before. With a baby taking every step, every turn of the pedal with me, I am humbled by how much a family can change one’s life. How the tiniest little person, no bigger than 5 inches long, can completely change the world around us. I am hoping it will not be too much longer that I continue to feel that tinge of fear for the very streets I so enjoy riding.

After all… we do intend to teach this child how to ride bikes.

…

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Neglecting your bike for too long may become costly

If you don’t properly store your bike, a few things could happen to it that may cost you. I’m not going to pretend to know all there is to know about bike maintenance and so I occasionally refer to Sheldon Brown’s website for information, as well as other sites if Mr. Brown’s unbeatable expertise goes over my head. Check out Sheldon Brown’s bike maintenance page right here: http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/index.html

So if you’re treating your bicycle much like how someone is treating a very expensive bicycle that was gifted to him and his staff, you might want to dig it out from under all those boxes of Christmas decorations and old 70s leisure suits, grab some cloth diapers, gentle rust remover, or fine steel wool (don’t use that on the frame), chisel off that 2-inch layer of dust, replace the tires, tubes, and possibly even the rim tape, and help make your bike feel better.

If you’re hanging the bike from the rim, the rim will eventually warp. Hang it from a more sturdy part of the bike, like the frame (specifically the top tube), or just park it, making sure nothing else is leaning on it either. Warping can also occur in different places on the bike if you have a bunch of heavy items stored on top of it or beside it. Those heavy items could be loosening and bending some of the more tender moving parts.

If the environment in which it’s being stored is not climate controlled, and most especially if you’re storing it outside, there’s a good chance the frame and other components will begin to rust or at least corrode. Sometimes that can’t be helped and there are ways to store it in a non-climate controlled environment. You can certainly Google information for that type of storage, but I personally suggest storing it somewhere inside your home.

Tires will go bad and begin to rot as well if it is not being stored in a climate controlled environment.

Be sure to check the chain to see if the lube is still good to go. If not, clean the chain well and dry it thoroughly, then lube it up with some fresh stuff. Also, check the chain and make sure that it’s not too loose or sagging. If it is, repair it. If it’s too rusty and the rust cannot be removed, replace it.

Make sure all the moving components are working properly and are not corroded and getting stuck. If they are, clean them (you might have to take some of these parts off completely in order to clean them) and see if that makes a difference. If not, they may need to be adjusted or replaced.

Check your brake pads and make sure the rims aren’t rubbing on them and make sure that when you squeeze the levers, the face of the pads are completely touching the rims. If they’re touching the tire, or anything else for that matter, you should get them repaired or replaced.

If your brake levers are too loose and they touch your grips or come really close to touching them, get them tightened.

Keep your bike tires pumped every so often, even if you rarely if ever use the bike, to ensure the rims don’t get warped after sitting on flats for several weeks or months.

Little things like that can really make a difference, so that when you’re ready to ride, or you’re ready to give the bike to someone who will use it, it will be in tip top shape and safe enough to ride.

If you’ve suddenly discovered your bicycle has been sitting all by its lonesome in storage for over a year, it’s beginning to corrode, and you don’t care about that bike in any capacity, just gift it to someone who will take care of it and ride it. Especially if it’s a pretty nice bike and has a lot of potential to be loved by someone else.

It’s certainly better than letting it waste away. Similar to what at least one nice, new, custom bike is doing right now here in Jacksonville. :*(

National Bike to Work Day

National Bike to Work Day for 2013 is May 17th!

I am not yet sure if the City of Jacksonville is going to plan anything special for National Bike to Work Day. In years past, the city organized a place where a large group of cyclists would meet up, and from there, launch to their respective places of business, largely as a big mass, and with police escorts to boot.

That has been proven to be a bad idea. And here’s why:

1. Meeting up in one spot as a group will surely cause inconvenience problems for all those who don’t live anywhere near that spot. You’re probably going to be late to work and you probably won’t even be able to tell your boss an exact time that you’ll be able to make it to work.
2. Riding in a large group during rush hour is only ever going to tick off the already extremely nasty, impatient, uneducated motorists here. And ya know what, I would actually completely understand why. They are just trying to get to work on time like everyone else. Don’t make matters worse in the “third deadliest city in the nation” by riding in a huge mass like that during rush hour.
3. Police escorts are not ever going to be a realistic experience for those who truly commute to work by bicycle. Having someone essentially hold your hand and block traffic for you is not the right way to handle Bike to Work Day, or biking to work on any other day, for that matter.
4. The police escorts cannot be there for you when you need to ride back home from work. Nor will the huge group be there for you either. You’re all on your own when the clock strikes 5:00.

Kind of silly, isn’t it?

So how about instead, simply ride to work directly from your home, and with a buddy or two if you can. That’s how it works in most parts of the country. It’s not meant to be an event. The point of Bike to Work Day is to have higher numbers of cyclists in regular clothing out and about and visible to motorists who are also trying to get to work. Cyclists wearing regular clothing sends a message to all the doubters out there – “Yes! It can be done! You, too, can go to work by bicycle!”

You CAN actually choose to ride your bike to work if it makes sense to do so. Do you only live a handful of miles away from work? Have you been meaning to get on that New Year’s resolution about getting fit? Do you see a reasonable route you can take to work by bicycle that isn’t going to be too harrowing? Sick of shoveling out huge piles of dough to Big Oil?

Remember, you’re not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic. So get yourself unstuck and RIDE BIKES… to work.

Advice for Novice Bike Riders on “Serious Rides”

PLEASE NOTE: The advice in this article is NOT actually endorsed by me, or anyone from the Jacksonville Bicycle Coalition. I felt the need to list out a few tips and tricks to help make novices feel more comfortable on what I call “serious bike rides”, but I must stress that only YOU can fully educate yourself, and you must accept the fact that YOU ride at YOUR OWN risk.

So here goes…

Firstly, You may not want to make your bike route the very same route as what you take with your car. Get to know the general area between your home and to where you wish to ride. For safer routes to where I need to go, I check out Google Maps on occasion to see if I can find low-traffic roads to ride on.

I’ll use my commute to work as an example: After Google Mapping the best possible route to take by bike,  I then drove on those roads to and from work, finally deciding which ones I could get away with on my bike. I went back on Google Maps a few times and drew out my own personal bike route. The route consists of both high traffic roads and low traffic neighborhood roads, bike lanes, big shoulders, and a short area where there is neither a shoulder nor bike lane with relatively heavy traffic (the only part of my bike route that stinks big time).

Secondly, ride your bike regularly to and from the corner store, a friend’s house, the park, etc. Take long joy rides in neighborhoods but also make sure you’re getting a feel for what it’s like to ride on roads with real traffic. If the traffic is too heavy, too fast, or too scary, you don’t have to force yourself to ride it. Start out by riding on roads that make you comfortable, slowly building up to the more challenging roads. That way, when you’re ready to take a serious ride, such as commuting to and from work or biking to Art Walk downtown, you’ll not feel so intimidated. When a bike rider feels intimidated, they may not be in the right mindset to handle situations gracefully enough. And remember, don’t ride your bike on roads with fast, heavy traffic if there’s no large shoulder or no bike lane.

Third, after you’ve ridden your bike quite a bit in and out of traffic on joy rides, and after you’ve driven on that route with your car a few times, making sure you’re driving that route during the times you’ll be riding your bike, you’ll then be ready to ride that route with your bike, but only during non-peak days and hours. Meaning, take that route with your bike on a lazy Sunday to get a feel for it. See how long it will take you to ride it so that you’ll make it to your destination on time. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time in the event you’re somehow stuck in heavy traffic during rush hour. Also, give yourself extra time so that when you arrive to your destination, you can freshen up and change clothes.

Finally, after getting a good feel for bike riding on the street in general, and getting a good feel for the best route on a bike, you’ll ideally be more confident a rider to be able to handle a serious ride.

Some additional tips:

You should wear a helmet.

Now, the bike helmet option is actually a topic of great disagreement between different types of cyclists. Honestly, sometimes I wear a helmet and admittedly sometimes I don’t. It really depends on my gut feelings about the time of day or how serious my ride is. When commuting to work, I wear a helmet. It makes me feel safer and it is safer. I’ll say this, bike riding is about as dangerous as any other form of street transportation, but that’s my opinion. This is not the opinion of the JBC in general. We are all made up of different cycling types and have various degrees of advice. Some folks may feel turned off to bike riding when they see people wearing helmets. Don’t allow yourself to buy into that school of thought. There’s nothing wrong with wearing a helmet. It’s not going to make you look goofy or totally ruin your hairstyle for the rest of the day or anything like that. All you have to do is pull a brush through your hair after your ride and you’re good to go.

I would personally recommend you wear a helmet. Just be on the safe side and do it.

You could also go to a book store and browse through some bike safety books. Don’t get overwhelmed with all the info out there. A lot of it is useful and some of it is not. Some of it is quite overkill and can turn people off to riding. Just use common sense:

• Don’t listen to music while riding.
• Always keep a sharp eye out for cars.
• Don’t make impulsive decisions unless you’re trying to get out of a sticky situation. Acting in a predictable fashion will help other cyclists and motorists know how to act when they’re on the roads with you.
• Don’t do something you’re not comfortable with. You’ll experience a bit of discomfort and that’s normal. But if your gut is screaming at you not to do something, your discomfort level is too high in which case you should back off from the situation.

Get familiar with fixing a flat, even if you haven’t had one yet. Most bike shops offer a free or very inexpensive bike maintenance basics class every once in awhile.

Always be prepared with a Plan B. Be familiar with bus routes, have a couple of backup phone numbers, and have the phone number for North Florida’s Emergency Ride Home service (http://www.northfloridatpo.com/cool_to_pool/) just in case something prevents you from riding.

Ultimately, what’s important is that you’re interested in riding bikes more often. If you do it each day, you’re going to save loads of money on gas and you’re going to be more physically fit. Just make sure you feel confident enough to take on your serious rides by first practicing with joy rides. You’ll find the practicing will not be a laborious, boring chore, but actually quite delightful. You’ll discover other things that you can do, other places you can go, on your bike while you’re practicing for the serious rides. You’ll get sun on your skin, fresh air in your lungs, you’ll be getting exercise that’s fun and relatively easy on the body – not cooped up in a boring gym or taking a toll on your joints with jogging.

Just take it slow at first and with time, you’ll discover on your own what works best for you.

Happy riding!

Art BIKE to Art Walk during Bike Month in May

It might be safe to assume that Art Walk tends to attract those who live within, or at least relatively close to the urban core areas, such as Avondale, Riverside, Murray Hill, San Marco, St. Nicholas, Springfield, and of course Downtown. But what I don’t understand is that the overwhelming majority are still compelled to drive their cars to an event called Art Walk, knowing full well one will have a very difficult time finding a parking spot, and will also be dodging pedestrians and cyclists left and right as they dart, stroll, and weave all over the streets that make up the heart of downtown.

Did you know that more than 40 percent of urban trips in the United States are less than two miles, but a whopping 90% of those trips are taken by car? Why?

If you’ve got a bike, what say you give it a shot and ride it to Art Walk? The benefits to riding your bike to Art Walk are seemingly endless – exercise, fresh air, feel young again, gas-free, park practically anywhere, pass up all the grid-locked cars, look like you’re really hip and with it, and so on. Just don’t actually use the phrase “hip and with it” as it will instantly negate the cool factor completely.

So map out a few side roads you can take, slap on some blinkies, and ride.

You’ll be glad you did.

Advice for Novice Bike Riders on “Serious Rides”

PLEASE NOTE: The advice in this article is NOT actually endorsed by me, or anyone from the Jacksonville Bicycle Coalition. I felt the need to list out a few tips and tricks to help make novices feel more comfortable on what I call “serious bike rides”, but I must stress that only YOU can fully educate yourself, and you must accept the fact that YOU ride at YOUR OWN risk.

So here goes…

Firstly, You may not want to make your bike route the very same route as what you take with your car. Get to know the general area between your home and to where you wish to ride. For safer routes to where I need to go, I check out Google Maps on occasion to see if I can find low-traffic roads to ride on.

I’ll use my commute to work as an example: After Google Mapping the best possible route to take by bike,  I then drove on those roads to and from work, finally deciding which ones I could get away with on my bike. I went back on Google Maps a few times and drew out my own personal bike route. The route consists of both high traffic roads and low traffic neighborhood roads, bike lanes, big shoulders, and a short area where there is neither a shoulder nor bike lane with relatively heavy traffic (the only part of my bike route that stinks big time).

Secondly, ride your bike regularly to and from the corner store, a friend’s house, the park, etc. Take long joy rides in neighborhoods but also make sure you’re getting a feel for what it’s like to ride on roads with real traffic. If the traffic is too heavy, too fast, or too scary, you don’t have to force yourself to ride it. Start out by riding on roads that make you comfortable, slowly building up to the more challenging roads. That way, when you’re ready to take a serious ride, such as commuting to and from work or biking to Art Walk downtown, you’ll not feel so intimidated. When a bike rider feels intimidated, they may not be in the right mindset to handle situations gracefully enough. And remember, don’t ride your bike on roads with fast, heavy traffic if there’s no large shoulder or no bike lane.

Third, after you’ve ridden your bike quite a bit in and out of traffic on joy rides, and after you’ve driven on that route with your car a few times, making sure you’re driving that route during the times you’ll be riding your bike, you’ll then be ready to ride that route with your bike, but only during non-peak days and hours. Meaning, take that route with your bike on a lazy Sunday to get a feel for it. See how long it will take you to ride it so that you’ll make it to your destination on time. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time in the event you’re somehow stuck in heavy traffic during rush hour.

Finally, after getting a good feel for bike riding on the street in general, and getting a good feel for the best route on a bike, you’ll ideally be more confident a rider to be able to handle a serious ride.

Some additional tips to make you feel more safe:

You should wear a helmet.

Now, the bike helmet option is actually a topic of great disagreement between different types of cyclists. Honestly, sometimes I wear a helmet and admittedly sometimes I don’t. It really depends on my gut feelings about the time of day or how serious my ride is. When commuting to work, I wear a helmet. It makes me feel safer and it is safer. I’ll say this, bike riding is about as dangerous as any other form of street transportation, but that’s my opinion. This is not the opinion of the JBC in general. We are all made up of different cycling types and have various degrees of advice. Some folks may feel turned off to bike riding when they see people wearing helmets. Don’t allow yourself to buy into that school of thought. The JBC neither endorses nor openly objects to helmet-wearing because there are very good points to both sides of the coin. It’s up to you and what makes you feel good, okay.

But I would personally recommend you wear a helmet. Just be on the safe side and do it.

You could also go to a book store and browse through some bike safety books. Don’t get overwhelmed with all the info out there. A lot of it is useful and some of it is not. Some of it is quite overkill and can turn people off to riding. Just use common sense: Don’t listen to music while riding. Always keep a sharp eye out for cars. Don’t make impulsive decisions unless you’re trying to get out of a sticky situation. Don’t do something you’re not comfortable with. You’ll experience a bit of discomfort and that’s normal. But if your gut is screaming at you not to do something, your discomfort level is too high in which case you should back off from the situation.

Ultimately, what’s important is that you’re interested in riding bikes more often. If you do it each day, you’re going to save loads of money on gas and you’re going to be more physically fit. Just make sure you feel confident enough to take on your serious rides by first practicing with joy rides. You’ll find the practicing will not be a laborious, boring chore, but actually quite delightful. You’ll discover other things that you can do, other places you can go, on your bike while you’re practicing for the serious rides. You’ll get sun on your skin, fresh air in your lungs, you’ll be getting exercise that’s fun and relatively easy on the body – not cooped up in a boring gym or taking a toll on your joints with jogging.

Just take it slow at first and with time, you’ll discover on your own what works best for you.

Happy riding!

…

Latest Version of the Mobility Fee Waiver: A Compromise

By Steve Patterson

“

Stalled legislation that would waive some developer fees to help Jacksonville’s construction industry is resurfacing after critics and backers accepted compromises suggested by a City Council member.

Three council committees are scheduled to meet jointly Monday to debate a new version of a bill (2013-94) that had divided people involved in development and groups who want bicycle and pedestrian facilities the fees help pay for.

Councilman Richard Clark had originally proposed a three-year waiver of the city’s “mobility fee,” which charges fees from developers based on how each project is expected to affect roads and other transportation systems in their part of town.

Councilman John Crescimbeni said Friday he plans to offer a substitute version of that bill, which was tabled in March after strong lobbying by backers of the fee system. If it’s approved by the three committees, the new version could be voted on by the full council Tuesday.

Crescimbeni’s version of the bill shrinks the waiver period to 18 months and then sets new limits meant to motivate developers to start projects soon.

After a three-month “ramp-up” period when the waiver wouldn’t be in effect — that would let companies get ready, Crescimbeni said — the city would waive 75 percent of the normal fee for projects permitted in the next six months.

If the project was permitted after that six months, the waiver would cover only 50 percent of the fee, then after another six months the waiver would drop to just 25 percent.

That scaled-down offer represented a compromise that Crescimbeni said advocates on both sides told him they could live with.

“From where I sit, I think they walk away with something they wanted and didn’t have to surrender to something they didn’t,” he said.

Advocates seemed to appreciate that.

“I think John has come up with a very good idea that both sides can agree. … None of us got exactly what we wanted, but we got something,” said Curtis Hart, a developer and lobbyist who was part of talks Crescimbeni held to hear out both sides. “I’m hoping it just passes. Since you’ve got a consensus of those for and those against, the council will, I hope, just take up the bill and pass it out.”

Under the substitute version, the fees that aren’t waived would be steered first to accounts that finance bicycle- and pedestrian-oriented projects listed in a city work plan. If those are fully funded, the rest of the fees collected would go to other transportation projects.

The city set up the fee system in 2011 and quickly waived it in hopes a recession-scarred building industry would regain some strength.

The first 12-month waiver period expired in October.

The city waived $3.2 million worth of fees in that year, but couldn’t be sure what it had truly given up. The fee system includes credits that would have lowered some developer costs, but weren’t calculated since they weren’t going to matter.

To get the waiver, Crescimbeni’s bill would require developers to complete a more complicated fee calculation.

Clark said he hasn’t seen Crescimbeni’s legislation and can’t comment on it but feels he was right to offer the original bill.

“I have every intention of moving on and supporting the construction industry 100 percent,” he said.

“

All copy taken from the Florida Times Union’s jacksonville.com. Source: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2013-04-06/story/jacksonville-council-panels-hear-new-version-contested-mobility-fee

Saying Goodbye: A JBC original moves on to greener pastures and greener streets.

There was this kind of fantastic, organic dynamism to my initial encounters with each original JBC co-founder. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see everyday in well-established, large, deep-rooted communities within other metropolises, to find “your people” so quickly with the use of one simple yet surprisingly sovereign word: Bike.

While other big cities have already long ago embraced bike culture, the word “bike” no more special than the word “car” (*shudder*), Jacksonville is just now coming into its own with the acceptance of our beloved pedal-pushers, making bikes a still charmingly misunderstood lifestyle to the typical motorist… for better or worse. And though it comes with many faults concerning pedestrians and cyclists, I do fully appreciate the advantage of this blank canvas of a city we call Jacksonville; you can really leave your mark any way you wish, and find your scene if you’re clever enough and set astir to do so.

So the grand departure of yet another great advocate and JBC member, Katie Smith, leaves another bittersweet residue as we farewell our fair maiden to greener pastures and, hopefully, friendlier faces behind the wheels of her soon-to-be Colorado car counterparts.

I actually met Katie in a creative setting, not at all bike-related, some two years ago, at one of my first Sketch Up gatherings at the Starbucks on San Jose.

I soon discovered Katie as one of those multifaceted members within our community with certainly no shortage of that canny quick wit and mover shaker mindset needed to be the incredible advocate that she is. Our conversations were limited during the first couple Sketch Up gatherings, that is, until we started talking bikes. We connected then, immediately, both hungry to explore our ideals regarding cycling issues in this city, and driven to seek out others who also felt that distinct pang within the pits of their own voracious bellies.

Katie and I entered the Jacksonville bike scene right around the same juncture. She was still just borrowing her roommate’s bike at the time, her bruised legs a testimony of her relationship with what she lovingly referred to as Bike Turner, a mish-moshed cruiser type of sorts with a mercilessly short temper, and pitifully short frame for Katie’s leggy needs. I had just purchased my first road bike, a great departure from my old Trek mountain bike which was solely used for commuting around St. Augustine and certainly not for seeking out or connecting with any Old City bike culture. Admittedly, we were noobs, clever enough on an individual basis, but just barely dumb enough to take on Jacksonville’s politics. Just barely.

Since then, Katie’s cycling repertoire has increased tenfold. She bought herself a respectable road bike, some serious tires, a rack, panniers, stylish-yet-functional commuter threads, a helmet, amongst a slew of other goodies, and of course her fair share of tire tubes, naturally. As for her advocacy repertoire, what would this community have done these past two years without Katie Smith serving the cycling movement?

A revolutionary, in both senses, this dynamo of dirty Duval brought the smack down on antiquated habits of the bureaucratic kind while simultaneously swaddling the babe of  Bold New City bike culture.

Katie helped create a comprehensive cycling survey for the city, which included video testimonials. The results of the survey were included with the proposal, that she helped to research for and write, for the City Council, pleading they consider placing cycling and pedestrian needs further up on their list of priorities.

She attended countless Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) meetings and also attended several City Council hearings whenever there arose issues related to cyclist and pedestrian needs and urban sprawl concerns. Despite her naturally demure tendencies, she mustered up enough gumption to approach the podium during the Mobility Fee Moratorium hearing, giving her two biting cents to the City Council: To paraphrase a quip from her speech, referring to last year’s failed attempt at implementing a moratorium on mobility fees, “The definition of insanity, in short, is to do the same thing over and over again, expecting different results”. Way to stick it to ‘em, Katie!

She played her part in implementing a proposal to the State to install those sharrows we all know and enjoy on Riverside Avenue.

Katie was also a major key composer in the Mayor Bicycle event which took place during 2012’s Bike Month in May. Her contribution as an easy-on-the-eyes and heavy-on-the-elbow-grease bike washer for the Bike Wash Fundraiser, no doubt, gained amply amicable contributions for the cause. And she was, overall, a great contributor to the success of Jacksonville’s first relatively-organized Bike Month last year.

Gettin’ clean at the JBC Bike Wash Fundraiser

Last-minute touches on the Mayor Bike

An art enthusiast, writer, and keen eye for solid compositions, she also helped create an absolutely beautiful, not to mention remarkably professional, locally-shot short film noir, The Convert; an artsy fart approach to a PSA production meant to encourage the community to get involved with Jacksonville’s Bike Month.

Click on this image and it will take you to the Jacksonville Bike Month site where the film clip resides.

Katie has fulfilled more than her fair share of volunteer work concerning the Jacksonville cycling community – from SAGing for the MS 150 to booth-running at cycling events; from promotional footwork to pro bono photography; and simply by conversing with non-cyclists about our rights, our reasons for why we do what we do, and, in general, how much fun bike riding can be.

Bike Day at RAM, 2011

Katie was the genius behind these cookies with their fondant “cement” icing and food coloring “skid mark” embellishments.

Photography for the Duval Dirty Bike Olympics Fundraiser

Photography for the 2011 MS 150

Katie Smith’s absence will be a great loss to Jacksonville’s cycling community. We’re gonna miss you, lady.

With heavy heart but irrefutable understanding , I wish you and Matt safe travels as you embark on this next great journey… RIDE BIKES™!

Sincerely, Jenny Kubicki

Group bike ride for my 31st birthday

Team Bubba Burger: The motliest crew at the MS 150

Spectating the Duval Dirty Bike Olympics

Forget Planking! All the cool kids are into Owling!

Dirty Duval 4-Lyfe!

Just say NO to the new 3-year Mobility Fee Moratorium!

Last year, the city pushed through (more like forced down our gullets) a year-long bill that placed a hold on 100% of our funding for more bike and ped infrastructure in what is nationally regarded as “the third most dangerous city in the nation for cyclists and pedestrians”. The bill went through before the public could even speak out against it. For one year, this little experiment was tried, and by the end of that year, regarded as a failure.

So not only did cyclists and pedestrians continue to get screwed for the umpteenth year in a row by councilmen who don’t seem to have any grasp on the importance of having a walkable and bikeable urban core, the proposed “positive” aspects of that bill failed miserably too – very little, if ANY, building development occurred, as was the hope of placing a hold on mobility fees.

By the end of the last year-long moratorium, the community gathered at the council chambers to speak out against the proposed extension of that moratorium. Tons of people came to say NO to an extension and thankfully it was dropped.

Now Councilman Richard Clark wants to propose it again, but this time for three years.

JUST SAY NO TO THE NEW THREE-YEAR MOBILITY FEE MORATORIUM!

Take these three easy steps:

1. First: Write to your City Council members today! Specifically Richard Clark: http://www.coj.net/city-council/city-council-members.aspx
2. Second: Attend the City Council Public Hearing on February 12th at 5:30pm, City Hall, Downtown. Fill out a comment card and/or speak at the podium and Vote NO! They may vote on it this day as an “emergency” vote, so attend this first hearing if you can.
3. Third: Attend the City Council Public Hearing on February 26th at 5:30pm, City Hall, Downtown. Fill out a comment card and/or speak at the podium and Vote NO!

I’ll leave you with a fantastic quote from a person of whom I have yet to figure out the identity. From the Metro Jacksonville forum member, TheLakelander:

“Much focus has been placed on the amount of money being taken out of taxpayers mostly empty pockets to subsidize already feasible development.

However, one of the largest atrocities with this fiasco is the preservation of a land development pattern that places Jacksonville’s cyclists and pedestrians at death’s knocking door.

The mobility fee is designed to guide development, not penalize it. There are several ways to significantly reduce or eliminate the fee by simply building development that makes Jacksonville a more human scaled community.

While it’s certainly true that Clark’s 3-year moratorium request would further lead us to the path of bankruptcy, it also promotes bad development policy, which will negatively impact us economically for years into the future.”

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,17439.msg316110.html#msg316110

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IMPORTANT BIKE/PED ISSUE! SPEAK OUT TODAY!

JUST SAY NO TO THE NEW THREE-YEAR MOBILITY FEE MORATORIUM!

Take these three easy steps:

1. First: Write to your City Council members today! Specifically Richard Clark: http://www.coj.net/city-council/city-council-members.aspx
2. Second: Attend the City Council Public Hearing on February 12th at 5:30pm, City Hall, Downtown. Fill out a comment card and/or speak at the podium and Vote NO! They may vote on it this day as an “emergency” vote, so attend this first hearing if you can.
3. Third: Attend the City Council Public Hearing on February 26th at 5:30pm, City Hall, Downtown. Fill out a comment card and/or speak at the podium and Vote NO!

 

Does Councilman Richard Clark really care all that much about our city’s issues? He has the worst attendance record of all (read all about that here). Tell Richard he probably shouldn’t have been napping the last time the community came in by the droves to speak out against last year’s moratorium. Read all about that here.

If you can’t make it to the meetings, Clark, then you don’t care about this city as much we I do.

Cyclists, pedestrians, urban core advocates: The community needs your help more than ever! Don’t let this happen to us again!

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Mass Transit Magazine Addresses Jacksonville’s Dangerous, Nationwide Reputation

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The magazine, Mass Transit, was recently made privy to the North Florida TPO’s latest survey regarding North Florida’s transportation problems. There was an overwhelming response from the cyclist communities that make up the counties of Duval, Clay, Nassau, and St. Johns.

Read more about it here:

http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/10859635/fl-road-improvements-for-cyclists-pedestrians-in-first-coast-counties-subject-of-transportation-survey?utm_source=MASS+NewsViews+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MASS130122002

I want to sincerely thank everyone who has ever voiced their concerns about Jacksonville’s awful reputation to the proper authorities, or at least to the media. There have only been a little handful of advocates that have been “whining” (as Councilman Bill Gulliford puts it) for years and years, hoping beyond hope that Jacksonville will finally start accepting cycling as a serious form of transportation, and that we need more infrastructure, education, and enforcement in order to be up to par with the rest of our progressive metropolitan counterparts.

If you’re interested in the context of Mr. Gulliford’s lovely comment about cyclist advocates, you can read that exchange of emails right here in the blog post “Anger Management”.

Since the JBC was formed and reinforced by teaming up with Bike Jax and BPAC, I’ve witnessed a very noticeable influx in media coverage about cyclist issues. You can read some of the articles in a couple categories in this blog – “Cyclists’ Concerns in Jax News” and “JBC in the News”. I don’t have every article represented here. No where near, in fact. But most of what I’ve posted regarding media coverage has more to do with the media “raising awareness”, not necessarily simply reporting another casualty (Jacksonville has always had more than its fair share of articles of that nature).

So again, THANK YOU, JACKSONVILLE ADVOCATES, for all that you do to BITCH and MOAN and most especially WHIIIIIIIIINE (that one’s for you, Mr. Gulliford) to those who are supposed to be implementing enforcement of the law, to those who are supposed to be including bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in new street designs, and to the highest authorities who are supposed to stay on top of these matters when those who are supposed to be doing their jobs are, in fact, not.

That’s one thing an advocate is supposed to do, anyway.

And in my continued efforts in figuring out how to advocate for such a huge city with only a tiny number of advocate colleagues by my side, I’ve found that walking into City Hall, or the TPO headquarters, or contacting local media, or speaking to the mayor, or speaking directly to any given necessary figure, provides a great deal more change for our city, as opposed to standing outside those facilities and protesting.

You must be a part of the system and go right up to the authorities and communicate with them. An advocate cannot solely rely on protesting from the sidelines.

It’s that one nagging thing that makes me shy away from being a part of any bureaucratic system, though, and which ultimately slowed my momentum these past few months – the merciless politics.

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SURVEY: Let your voice be heard on Jax bike infrastructure

Are you a CYCLIST in JAX?

Tired of the North Florida TPO NOT including CYCLIST & PEDESTRIAN INFRASTRUCTURE in new street designs?

Take just a few minutes to fill out this VERY IMPORTANT SURVEY and let your voice be heard! Then pass it on!

In order for change to take place in our city WE, THE PEOPLE, MUST ADVOCATE FOR IT! Here’s an easy way to do just that.

Click the link below and then click on “Take the Survey”:

http://www.northfloridatpo.com/news/last_call_for_regional_bike_ped_plan_input/