Recap and Pics From The Richardson Christmas Parade
This is exactly the direction we want Bike Friendly Richardson to head. We want Richardson cyclists to have organic and spontaneous group rides that are organized by anybody interested in setting one up.
A few weeks ago, a couple of folks on the BFR Facebook page were wondering if there will be a BFR participation in the annual City of Richardson Christmas parade. With our busy schedules and efforts put into setting up our annual Black Friday Ride, we just didn’t have the bandwidth to sign up for the parade.
Fortunately, those folks, Crystalyn and Josh, took it upon themselves to jump in and get it set up. We’re glad they did.
The day of the parade, we had a great variety of bikes, including one with a kid trailer, one with a couple of dogs leashed on, an urban cruiser, a couple of family truckster cargo bikes (loaded with kiddos) and even a penny farthing bike – all decked out with holiday lights and decorations. Even the riders were dressed with festive gear. All together, we had 12 bikes and 16 participants.
The ride itself was mostly stop-and-go or very slow paced, which made it easy to enjoy each other’s company, as well as the spectacle of the parade. The ‘super mom’ (I actually heard that term used by a spectator) family trucksters and the penny farthing bike got a lot of crowd’s attention.
Participation in the parade was our way to build on our bike community, make more folks aware of Bike Friendly Richardson and to just have fun. To our surprise, we found out that we won an award from the city. The Bike Friendly Richardson parade crew won 1st place in the ‘Civic Clubs/Organizations Mixed Unit Category’. Not bad for our first time out.
The parade was a big success for the city as well. They said there were 115 parade entries, and 2400 participants. Also, 1200 toys were donated, as well as $2,200 for Network of Community Ministries – a great way to kick off the holidays.
Since this ride was such a great success, we’ll definitely add it to our annual group ride list. We hope you can make it out to the next one.
Here are some pics from the parade. Click here to see the entire set.
Jason Roberts mentions BFR
By bergerandfries
The upside is the amount of traction he’s gotten in local politics. He’s also running for US Congress (I’d vote for him). The downside is that the “just go do it, legal or illegal” is creating a backlash, of course, targeted at cyclists, the easiest and most visible folks to lash out at. Someone is now painting shared lane markings on Dallas streets, and angering Dallas City Staff and now Council too. So you are left with a Dallas Mayor that is a bicyclist, with a council and staff that are telling him it is a no go on bike infrastructure. I’ll keep riding in Dallas, don’t worry, but I don’t expect much company to join me soon…
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Help Plano See the Light
By bergerandfries
All, Plano is looking at putting in a traffic signal at Preston Road and Commonsgate where Bluebonnet Trail could cross Preston. In order to do that, they have to do a traffic signal warrant study. Both vehicular traffic on Preston and bike/ped traffic on Bluebonnet at Preston will be counted. A signal can be warranted based on the volume of vehicular traffic (which we easily have), and/or volume bike/ped traffic. Get the picture?
When?
Wed 10/31 from 1 pm to 7 pm
Thurs 11/1 from 7 am to 1 pm
What?
You need to travel West/East on Bluebonnet and turn around in the gas station parking lot (RaceTrac or QT) and head back East/West during the above windows of time.
I will leave 2400 Glenville Drive at 4:00pm on 10/31 to go to this intersection, and will ride from this intersection back to 2400 Glenville Drive starting at 7:30am on 11/1 if anyone wants to join me!!!
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Pics From Bike Friendly Oak Cliff’s Cyclesomatic Bike Fair & Spooky Cyclocross 2012
Yesterday, Bike Friendly Richardson, was invited to have a table at the Cyclesomatic Bike Fair – hosted by Bike Friendly Oak Cliff. It started off a bit chilly, but it ended up being a great day.
Along with many booths and a huge crowd, there was a cyclocross race. I’d never seen one in person, so it was pretty exciting to watch.
There was also a bike powered smoothie station hosted by BikeDFW as well as representatives from Metroplex BMX, Pedal Power, Bicycles, Inc and ReGeared. Good Karma Kitchen was there with some tasty food and the youngsters in the crowd were entertained by a bounce house and fantastic face painting. If that wasn’t enough, there was a BMX Stunt show.
Here are some pics of the event. Click here to see the entire set.
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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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BikeDFW Fall Meet Up – TONIGHT, Oct 22
Please join us! BikeDFW’s Fall Meet Up will be on Monday evening, October 22, 2012.
Come network with other cyclists and learn about what’s going on at BikeDFW and in our local communities to encourage cycling. Our speakers will discuss how the two bike-friendliest cities in the DFW metroplex (Fort Worth and Richardson) got to be that way and what they’ve got in store for the future.
Speakers:
Julia McCleeary
Senior Planner
Transportation and Planning Division
City of Fort Worth
Dave Carter
Assistant Director
Traffic and Transportation
Department of Development Services
City of Richardson
Just added (10/17/2012)
Short presentations by the Fort Worth Mayor’s Office (MaryAnn Means) and Bike Friendly Fort Worth on grass roots advocacy.
Refreshments will be served.
The Meet Up is open to the public and admission is free, but space is limited so you must RSVP to reserve a spot.
WHERE
4515 LBJ Fwy
Dallas, TX 75244
United States
Google map and directions
CONTACT
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Richardson City Council Receives Update on Central Trail
From the City of Richardson‘s weekly newsletter:
The City Council received an update Monday on the extension of the Central Trail, which runs from the Spring Creek Trail in north Richardson and currently ends at the Arapaho Road DART Station. Plans call for the trail to extend to Richardson’s southern city limit and eventually connect with Dallas’ White Rock Creek Trail.
The City expects to begin construction on the trail in January and complete the project in early 2014. The 1.9-mile extension will cost $4 million and is funded through Richardson’s 2010 Bond Program and Dallas County.
Watch the work session presentation at http://bit.ly/P8H54b.
We’re pretty excited about this extension and what it would mean for connecting the east side of Richardson to the White Rock Creek Trail (although the current plan doesn’t extend that far, just yet). This would make commuting into Dallas – via multi-purpose trails – pretty easy.
We still have our reservations of how the trail is planned just north of Arapaho, connecting to the Arapaho DART station and the existing portion of the trail to the north. So far, it’s just a narrow sidewalk and there are no plans to re-route or widen it. Click here to see our post on this.
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Bike Lane Update
From the City Of Richardson‘s weekly newsletter:
The City Council received an update on efforts to expand the Bike Transportation Program in Richardson at its work session on Monday. The City is among many other municipalities and organizations in North Texas working to provide more bike lanes and improve safety for people who commute by bike. Many of these bike routes are designed to connect across the region when complete.
Expanding Richardson’s bike lane system and enhancing pavement markings and signage is one of the City Council’s near-term goals. Ten miles of a planned 20 miles of bike lanes have been installed, including lanes on Custer Parkway, Grove Road and Waterview Drive. Additional lanes funded through the Safe Routes to School grant are expected to be complete in 2013 along Collins Boulevard from Plano Road to Jupiter Road, Yale Boulevard from Arapaho Road to Campbell Road, and Owens Boulevard from Woodoak Drive to Campbell Road. The Duck Creek Trail Extension will add a route in 2014 along Collins Boulevard from Plano Road to US-75.
The City has installed signs identifying bike routes in Richardson and is working to clearly mark them on roads to improve safety. City officials will continue to work with bicycle organizations, including local partner Bike Friendly Richardson, and neighborhood groups to identify and implement additional bike routes.
Watch the Bike Transportation Program presentation here.
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Proposal for Regional Trail Connection at Breckinridge Park
From the City Of Richardson:
The City of Plano is partnering with the City of Richardson to plan and construct a 1.9-mile trail that would wind through Richardson to connect an existing trail in southeast Plano to the Timbers Nature Preserve Park in Murphy. The trail is completely funded through the City of Plano’s bond program. The City of Richardson would provide the land and future maintenance of the trail if the City Council approves an Inter Local Agreement at a future meeting.
The trail is proposed to be built in two phases, with Phase 1 running from the west side of Murphy Road within an Oncor high transmission line corridor to the existing trail on Rowlett Creek in Breckinridge Park. Construction on this part of the trail is expected to take place in 2013. Phase 2, which is currently unfunded, would connect Rowlett Creek to Otto Middle School. The City of Plano hopes to receive a grant from Collin County to pay for additional trail length, which is set to be constructed in the next two to three years.
Watch the work session presentation at http://bit.ly/Pr38zq.
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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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Bike Friendly Richardson 
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