Happy (Late) 5th Birthday, Bike Friendly Richardson
When we started Bike Friendly Richardson, in December 2009, our original goal was to follow in the footsteps of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff. Although our core beliefs are still the same, over the last 5 years, our focus has evolved to better fit the needs of the cycling community in Richardson.
We are a group of bicycle advocates promoting the continued creation of better cycling facilities and improved infrastructure in Richardson. Our main focus is on education and increasing the ridership of those wanting to ride for transportation and pleasure over sport.
Our mission:
• Increase bicycle ridership
• Increase bicycle education
• Increase bicycle awareness
• Increase bicycle safety
Our concentration will always be with Richardson cycling, but we share our advocacy with all of our DFW neighbors.
We’ve accomplished many things over the years, but there are many more goals coming in 2015:
• Working with the City of Richardson to get Bike Friendly recognition from the League of American Bicyclists
• Working with the City of Richardson to get better bike parking and bike parking policy
• Working with the City of Richardson to get a safe passing ordinance passed
• Working with BikeDFW to bring more education courses to local riders
• We will strive to host and/or promote more social events and rides
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema In Richardson Comes With Cool Bike Parking
The highly anticipated Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Richardson is finally open for business. Not only has this become one of the hottest destinations in town, it also has an amazing lineup of bike racks that are in the shape of film reels.
Speaking of cool bike parking, the new Whole Foods in Addison has some very impressive bike racks that are in the shape of bicycles. It almost makes up for them leaving Richardson.
I’m glad that both of these businesses care enough about cyclists, and got really creative with their bike parking. This shows that there are some forward-thinking business owners that care about supporting alternate transportation, the local bike culture and a strong community.
I hope that bike parking, like this, continues to be an ongoing trend with new construction around town.
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A New Breed Of Richardson Cyclist
What a nice surprise on my way home from work – I saw a small group of cyclists heading over to the Arapaho DART Station. They were taking the train into Dallas to be part of the Dallas Critical Mass. Read more about this at Suburban Assault.
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Happy New Year – 2013
Happy New Year from your friends at Bike Friendly Richardson. We hope you had a safe start to the year and you get to enjoy many rides in 2013.
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Happy Holidays 2012 From Your Friends At Bike Friendly Richardson
May peace and joy be yours during this wonderful season and the coming New Year.
Ride on!
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Pics From The BikeDFW Fall Meetup
Last night BFR attended the BikeDFW Fall Meetup at REI in Dallas. It was a room full of bike fans and advocates, who came to listen to some great presentations from Dave Carter, from the City of Richardson and Julia McCleeary from the City of Fort Worth. Both cities are leading the DFW Metroplex with strong bike plans that are actually underway.
You can read more about the event on the Bike Friendly Garland Blog.
Here are some pics from the meeting. Click here to see the set.
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National Bike Challenge – FINAL LOCAL RESULTS
For those of you who didn’t know, there was a National Bike Challenge hosted by Endomondo, The League of American Bicyclists and Bikes Belong. From May 1 through August 31 they’re tried to get as many riders as they could to ride 10 million miles – which was achieved nationally.
They’re also did regional challenges, putting small teams of 10 riders in friendly competition with each other for points and miles. BikeDFW hosted our local challenge.
We are proud to report that Bike Friendly Richardson had two teams participate in our region and both did very well. BFR team 1, who started at the beginning of the challenge, ended up taking 5th place in points (based on miles and amount of rides) in the region. Not only did we rank in the top 10, but we also had the most “transportation” (as opposed to sport/recreation) distance – topping out at over 7,111 miles. This is something that we are extremely proud of.
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BFR team 2 also did really well – even working against the odds. Although team 2 got a really late start, with half the members, we still managed to make it to 22nd place. Not bad in a region with 40 teams. Also, 97% of team 2’s miles were for ‘transportation’.
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5 Bike Repair Stations Across UT Dallas Campus
Thea Junt, Energy Conservation & Sustainability Manager for UT Dallas Facilities Management, contacted us with some fantastic news about the UT Dallas campus, located in Richardson.
They just installed 5 Bike Repair stations across campus! According to Thea, the stations are for anyone who needs them – even if you aren’t a student. They are fixed units with a number of tools attached to them. There is also a QR code on them that links to videos/instructions showing how to make basic repairs.
Apparently biking is a big deal for UT Dallas. They also have over 1500 bike parking spaces (150+ bike racks).
And that’s not all. Thea also let us know that they now have a second bus route running through campus. All of their buses are bike-friendly, and Richardson Bike Mart is on the route. For UT bus routes, no DART pass or fare is required – just hop on the 883 or 884 to get around.
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National Bike Challenge – Team Bike Friendly Richardson July Check In
For those of you who don’t know, there is a National Bike Challenge hosted by Endomondo, The League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong and BikeDFW. From May 1 through August 31 they’re trying to get as many riders as they can to ride 10 million miles. They’re also doing regional challenges, putting small teams of 10 riders in friendly competition with each other for points and miles.
Bike Friendly Richardson has a team and we’re doing quite well in our region. So far, we’ve remained in the top 3.
Here is an Early July Update from BikeDFW:
July 06 at 13:53
Some interesting stats as of July 1st:
Texas has 854 total rides in the National Bike Challenge. 395 of those (46%) are from the DFW area. That means we’re providing as many riders for the NBC as the rest of Texas combined… awesome!
Texas currently ranks 34th among all states. That sounds pitiful until you consider that the state rankings are calculated on a per capita basis. Texas (pop. 25.1 million) ranks first among the really big states, including New York (rank 42nd, pop. 19.4 million) and California (rank 43rd, pop. 37.2 million)… However we’re a long way from the leaders like Wisconsin, which is currently in 3rd place with 5,788 riders (pop. 5.7 million). There’s still plenty of time, so ENCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO PARTICIPATE.
There’s a lively competition in the DFW team category where several area bike clubs are duking it out with the TI DLP team for top honors. However, the Bike Friendly Richardson and DORBA teams are also in the top 10 but FAR ahead in commuting miles (and gas saved). Over 75% of their mileage is commuting. David Appleby, riding for Plano Bicycle Association, was the mileage leader at the end of June with over 2,000 miles since May.
Of note, Howard T Maher of Richardson was a Gold Level drawing prize winner in the National Bike Challenge drawing on July 1st. He won a Specialized Globe bike.
We took a closer look at the stats. So far, even thought we don’t have as many collected miles as some of the local bike clubs, we do have the most cycling transport miles – recorded for transportation over recreation or sport. As of today, we’re at 4,376 miles (80% of our riding), closely followed by DORBA, who has 3,520 miles. The two teams ahead of us in the local challenge (who have many more miles/points scored) only have 1,223 and 793 miles for transportation.
We’re excited by these results, but we also feel that the community can do better and put more transportation miles on the leaderboard. If you commute, it’s not to late to join the challenge and show how DFW is doing our part.
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Pics From The North Texas Vintage Bicycle Swap Meet – Garland
Yesterday, we drove out to Garland, Texas to check out the North Texas Vintage Bicycle Swap Meet – sponsored by Don Johle’s Bike World and Rat Rod Bikes. I love bike swap meets because they’re clearing houses for bike hoarders – my kind of people. Fortunately, my wife always comes along and brings me back to reality. Otherwise, we would have a garage full of bikes and no money to pay the mortgage.
Instead, I satisfy my vintage bike addiction with my hoards of photographs. Here are a few (click here to see the set).
We did discover a great new (to us) bike shop. While at the swap meet, we popped into Don Johle’s Bike World to check it out. It was a small, run-down, mom & pop type establishment with an odd mix of road bikes, BMX bikes, mountain bikes, and cruisers – as well as a few cool vintage restorations (mostly BMX). What won us over was the really friendly staff, who you could tell, really loves bikes.
We also ran into couple of BFR friends: Jonathan Braddick from Bike Friendly Oak Cliff as well as Jonathan Guzman from the bike blog: A Bicycle’s Point Of View. Here is a great write up that Jonathan Guzman did for the Swap Meet.
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Bike Friendly Richardson 
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