Feb 4, 2010
Bike Friendly Fort Worth Ride to City Hall
By: Kevin Buchanan
As we’ve noted before, this Tuesday the City Council will vote whether to adopt the ambitious Bike Fort Worth plan for creating a real on-and-off-street bicycle transportation network throughout the city of Fort Worth.
Of late, bike efforts in Dallas have been aided by the actions of a group of bike & urbanism advocates from Oak Cliff, dubbed “Bike Friendly Oak Cliff.” Their efforts, including organized group rides to Dallas council meetings, have helped start new conversations about the importance of bicycle infrastructure in our neighbor to the east. Now, a sister organization is starting up here in Fort Worth, and are kicking things off with a similar organized ride.
The new organization, Bike Friendly Fort Worth, unsurprisingly springs from the Near Southside area, and is being headed up by Brad Blessing and longtime Fort Worth cycling advocate Bernie Scheffler. They’ve organized a group ride to City Hall this Tuesday to show support for the Bike Fort Worth plan.
The ride will meet at the Trinity Trails trailhead at University & Riverfront, next to the Hoffbrau steakhouse, this Tuesday at 6:00 PM. Shortly after 6:00, the group will roll out for a leisurely 4-mile bike ride via the Trinity Trails and city streets to City Hall for the council meeting. They are emphasizing that this is not a high-speed “spandex warrior” sort of thing – anybody can join up, nobody will be left behind. It’s about getting together en masse and showing support for real bicycle transportation infrastructure in Fort Worth.
The route, seen above or in this interactive form here, starts out on the Trinity Trails and then transitions to a big, high-visibility statement as it heads straight down W. 7th Street into Downtown. The ride will pause and regroup on Foch in the West 7th area before heading down 7th, to ensure a safe and visible group while riding down the street and across the 7th Street bridge.
The organizers also mention:
It would be great if we could all dress in a manner that makes it clear that we are there to support Bike Fort Worth. That said, we will be in City Council Chambers, so leave your lycra at home. But positive, pro-bike T-shirts are more than welcome. At the very least, taking your helmet into the meeting with you will mark you as a supportive cyclist. Don’t wear it (The Fort Worth P.D. will ask you to remove it– no hats!), but keep it tucked under your arm.
Finally, it would be great if the City Council heard positive and encouraging comments from area cyclists about the plan, and how much we appreciate the planning staff’s efforts. If you’re not afraid of public speaking, fill out a speaker’s card when you enter the Council Chambers. They’ll let you go on for up to 3 minutes, but 1 or 2 minutes of why you support the plan will make just as big an impact.
We hope a lot of folks get together for the first Bike Friendly Fort Worth ride to show the city government that times are changing in the Panther City, and we can’t ignore bicycle transportation any longer. This will be a significant event as the Fort Worth City Council votes on charting the course for a Fort Worth more supportive of more and varied transportation methods.
Awesome- thanks Kevin.
We plan to have 100 FREE, bright yellow, “I Support BIKE Fort Worth” t-shirts available on a while supplies last basis at the meeting.
You are spot-on, this is the opportunity to show support, be positive, and physically show support for the approval and then implementation of this plan and greater safe access for bicycling.
See you there.
Jim
Don’t forget to bring lights. The sun will be setting at 6:08 pm.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday February 9th at 7 P.M.
The ride should start Tuesday February 9th.
Eric – wher does it indicate otherwise?
All it indicates in the article is that the meeting and ride are “this Tuesday”. The date on the article is February 4th. “This Tuesday” in the context of the week including February 4th would be February 2nd. February 9th is *next* Tuesday in the context of the week including February 4th.
I am fairly confident that people understood “this thing will be happening this Tuesday” to mean “Tuesday the 9th.” I don’t usually write about things in the future tense if they occurred two days prior to the post being written.
very excited about this. gonna get DOCS (D.O. Cycling Society) to come out!!
So… where is the plan? Is it online somewhere that we might review it?
Cynthia,
Check:
http://www.fortworthgov.org/sustainability/default.aspx?id=10392
We’re planning on posting a look at the draft plan before the meeting.
I’ve recently returned to Texas after years in Chicago. It’s great to see interested people participating in such an important opportunity to help transform a traditionally “car hungry” culture.
[...] effort. Fort Worthology has posted full details including map, and meetup location on their website here. As soon as we hear word of the Facebook group and event, will post those [...]
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[...] the draft plan and related information on Fort Worth’s website. Fort Worthology has more information, including a map, about the group ride. And stay tuned for BFFW’s website. Tags: bikes, fort [...]
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[...] post, and check the city’s site for the full draft plan. Don’t forget as well the Bike Friendly Fort Worth ride tomorrow evening to City Hall to show support for the proposal. Tags: Bicycling, complete streets, Cultural [...]