End of Bike Month Activities

Friday May 27th: Critical Mass

Find out more HERE.

Saturday May 28th: Blessing of the BIkes

Ride meets at Bike Valet at Riverside Arts Market.

Facebook Event Page.

Bike To Work Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow Friday, May 20th is National Bike to Work Day. Once again, information was just received and once again, sorry for the late notice of details.

Bike to Work 2011

Have you ridden your Bike to Work Lately?

Join Council Member Don Redman on May 20, 2011 for “Ride Your Bike to Work Day”. Organized group rides will depart from 3 locations in Jacksonville. Each group will have an escort provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. Bike shop owners have also volunteered vans to transport other personal belongings for the trip Downtown. The Police escort and Van service will not be available for the return trip.

The Arlington group will depart at 7:05 AM from the Food Lion located at 966 Arlington Rd N, Jacksonville, FL across from Champion Cycling. The contact person for this group is Jim McDonald 904-724-4922.

Route: West in Arlington Expressway Service rd: south on Cesery blvd merging to University blvd: West on Atlantic blvd: north on Kings ave: west on Prudential dr: north on Hendricks ave west on Gulf Life dr: over Acosta Bridge: east on Water st : north on Hogan to Hemming Plaza.

The Southside group will depart at 6:50 AM from Kmart located at 9600 San Jose Blvd, Jacksonville, FL near the intersection of San Jose and St. Augustine Road. The contact person for this group is Phil Foreman 904- 982-4380.

Route: North on San Jose Boulevard: north on Hendricks ave: west on Gulf Life dr: over Acosta Bridge: east on Water st: north on Hogan to Hemming Plaza.

The Westside group will depart at 7:10 AM from Publix located at 4495 Roosevelt Blvd # 103, Jacksonville, FL. The contact person for this group is Charlie Fetzer 904-716-7364.

Route: North on St Johns ave: west on King st: north on Riverside ave: east on Water st: north on Hogan to Hemming Plaza.

We will all meet briefly on Pearl Street between the CSX building and the Times Union Center for performing Arts before ending at Hemming Plaza around 7:30AM. Mayor John Peyton and Council Member Don Redman will gather with cyclist for a short ceremony where Mayor Peyton will present a proclamation to the North Florida Bicycle Club. Council Member Redman will provide juice and bagels for the riders. The North Florida Bicycle Club will provide Cycling Guides.

Facebook Page

Ride of Silence is Tonight

I literally just got the info for this ride emailed to me. Sorry for the short notice.

The Ride of Silence is in remembrance of those that didn't get to complete their journey.

From the Facebook event page:

THE RIDE OF SILENCE WILL NOT BE QUIET

On May 18, 2011 at 7:00 PM, the Ride of Silence will begin in North America and roll across the globe. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn't aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves.

The Ride of Silence is a free ride that asks its cyclists to ride no faster than 12 mph and remain silent during the ride. There are no sponsors and no registration fees. The ride, which is held during National Bike Month, aims to raise the awareness of motorists, police and city officials that cyclists have a legal right to the public roadways. The ride is also a chance to show respect for those who have been killed or injured.

Ride info: Wednesday, May 18 · 7:00pm - 8:30pm.
2108 Blanding blvd toward Downtown Jacksonville

Learn More HERE.

Make Your Voice Heard. Today.

Progressive or Regressive? It's Your Choice!

I often get called out for being "too political" in person and also within the comments left both here on Bike Jax and via Facebook. Too political? Not hardly. If I'm anything, I'm too opinionated and I know I tend to voice my personal opinion here and on Facebook a little more than I should. But I'm not apologizing for it and I'll certainly do it again. It's who I am. I'm also sorry to inform those of you that think I'm "too political" bicycle advocacy is a highly political process. It is after all the local, state and federal legislators who create the laws and regulations that govern every aspect of cycling from design and installation of infrastructure along with who can ride to how and where we are allowed to ride our bikes.

Tomorrow May 17th is the runoff election for citywide offices and The Times-Union ran an article a couple days ago asking, "What if" we had not elected the mayors we had. I sat for awhile and pondered that very question. What if we had elected leaders that instead of focusing their attention on bring the NFL here, instead focused on making Jacksonville a more livable and sustainable city. What if they had concentrated their energies on controlling runaway sprawl with infill multi-level mixed use development that would promote walking, biking, and mass-transit in the way of buses, streetcars and commuter rail? What if they had worked to keep the true indicator of a city's heath and wealth (Downtown) lively, livable and viable? What if they had shown the head in the sand suburbanites how much their property value would increase with working transportation options? What would our economy be like today if 40% of Jacksonville's populous were pumping the extra $8000 a year they would have by only owning one car instead of two back into the local economy thanks to dependable and easily accessible mass-transit?

What if those elected had accomplished the things mentioned above and corporations and people moved here because they saw how much Jacksonville had to offer because of its forward thinking leaders? Just maybe the NFL would have been knocking on our door instead of us spending 30 years performing oral satisfaction in backroom deals to NFL movers and shakers.

We could have a progressive man with the kind of focus and vision that will move Jacksonville forward as our mayor as soon as tomorrow... Or we could keep on keeping on with the regressive same old tried and true "I won't raise taxes...Until I do", "I do everything my pastor tells me to do", "we don't need libraries, arts or school activities" teabag backed douche we have elected over and over.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick and tired of every conversational bitch session concerning Jacksonville ending with, "but it's getting better." Bullshit! Where and how is it getting better? All I see are the empty lots where the historic buildings used to be. All I see is JTA keeping all their focus on building roads instead of building a strong transportation system. All I see is a fucking tax bill for rain.

Get out tomorrow and make a difference. Vote for Alvin Brown and let's move Jacksonville forward for a change.