Fort Worthology » Bike Friendly Fort Worth

Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001 Found!

Kevin Buchanan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:35:28 +0000

We’ve heard via Twitter that reader KMuncie has found the Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001! Congrats! Tell us what you found – we’re curious what was in it.

Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001 – Photo Clue 2

Kevin Buchanan — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:15:13 +0000

We have received Clue #2 from our friends at Bike Friendly Fort Worth.

Below, you’ll find Clue #2 as to the location of Bike Friendly Fort Worth’s Velocache_001. If you can recognize this spot after figuring out Clue #1 posted yesterday, we think you’ll be closer to uncovering the cache.

Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001

Kevin Buchanan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:45:25 +0000

We are pleased to announce that Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001 is up and running!

“Bike Friendly Fort Worth Velocache_001 is now in play.

The Rules:

1. Get out of the car, and get onto a bike.
2 .The cache is on public property.
3. You will not have to dig, break, or climb anything,
4. The cache is very well camouflaged.
5. Follow the directions inside the cache.

The site was selected to highlight a new neighborhood park located in the Near Southside area of Fort Worth. I was pleasantly surprised see how close the project is to being complete. The addition of a multi bike lock up instead of the city wide “Lollipop” racks encouraged me get off my bike and take a look around.

The first three photo clues will be posted shortly. Good luck and happy hunting!”

Bike Friendly Fort Worth presents Velo-Caching!

Kevin Buchanan — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:55:28 +0000

Bike Friendly Fort Worth has combined two things we really love – bikes and treasure hunting – into something we like to call Velo-Caching. We have caches of gifts from local bike friendly businesses that have been cleverly hidden throughout the city, and we want you to find them.

You will not need GPS devices, shovels, or metal detectors to locate these caches. All you need is a sense of adventure and a desire to find some cool stuff. The photo clues for Velo-Cache 001 will be posted this afternoon.

Good luck, and happy hunting!

City Council unanimously approves Bike Fort Worth plan – plus photos from Bike Friendly Fort Worth ride

Kevin Buchanan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:58:02 +0000

Last night was a history-making night for Fort Worth’s transformation into a more livable, sustainable city.

At last night’s Fort Worth City Council meeting, a mass of bicyclists turned out in support of the Bike Fort Worth plan, which the council would be voting on adopting and implementing. Groups from the newly formed Bike Friendly Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Bicycling Association, and the LMRA Bicycle Club joined individual supporters to express their enthusiasm over the proposal. (We loved the variety in the groups – supporters took many forms, male and female, from the hipsters to the sports riders to daily commuters to families with kids.)

After several supportive speeches from the public – including the heads of the FWBA and LMRA clubs, as well as Tarrant County Tax Assessor and bike commuter Betsy Price – the plan received enthusiastic endorsement from the council, especially Councilmembers Joel Burns and Carter Burdette. Finally, Mayor Moncrief also spoke out strongly in favor of the plan, saying that Fort Worth deserves real transportation alternatives.

We are very happy to report that when the vote was taken, the Fort Worth City Council unanimously voted to approve and implement the ambitious Bike Fort Worth bicycle transportation plan. After the vote, there was a standing ovation from the entire council chamber.

Bike Fort Worth is a dramatic shift in transportation planning for the city of Fort Worth. As it is implemented, the plan will dramatically reshape, expand, and enhance the city’s bicycle transportation network. At present, Fort Worth has just over 100 miles of bike infrastructure – most of which is off-street recreational paths (the Trinity Trails), with the rest mainly in a handful of on-street sharrow bike routes and a scant 6.4 miles of dedicated bike lanes. Bike Fort Worth calls for the expansion of the bike transportation network to nearly 1,000 miles, with 224.7 miles of off-street trails, the conversion of the 1.4 miles of bus lanes downtown into bus & bike lanes, 218.3 miles of on-street sharrow bike routes, and an incredible 480.3 miles of dedicated on-street bike lanes, with lanes to the city limits and dense webs in the urban core. The plan even spells out the need for very progressive infrastructure where needed, including Bicycle Boulevards in residential neighborhoods, bike boxes, bike-only traffic signals (and signal recalibration for bike routes), contra-flow bike lanes for one-way streets, physically separated on-street cycle tracks, and more.

In addition, the plan calls for big increases in the amount and quality of bike parking. There are also provisions for writing minimum bike parking requirements into zoning, establishment of bike commuter stations at transit hubs like the Intermodal Transportation Center linking into bus, commuter rail, and the planned modern streetcar system, the creation of a city bike fleet for city employee usage, establishment of bike counts, education programs for cyclists and drivers on safe on-street interactions, requiring all bridges built on bike transportation routes to provide dedicated bike lanes or safe, spacious sidepaths for bike usage, new city traffic ordinances requiring drivers to yield to bike when making turns to prevent left & right hook crashes, new city traffic ordinances prohibiting drivers from opening parked car doors into oncoming traffic, new city traffic ordinances requiring a minimum of 3 feet of clearance when passing a bicycle (since Governor Perry vetoed the state-wide safe passing law, cities are taking things into their own hands), and much more.

Part of the success of getting Bike Fort Worth adopted by the city goes to the incredible turnout of support at last night’s city council meeting. Bike Fort Worth supporters filled council chambers to standing-room-only.

One of the support activities last night was the inaugural group ride of the newly-formed Bike Friendly Fort Worth. Created in the Near Southside by Brad Blessing, Bike Friendly Fort Worth joins the quickly growing list of local bike advocacy organizations that got started by Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, and now also includes Bike Friendly Richardson, Bike Friendly Denton, and Bike Friendly Knox-Henderson. Bike Friendly Fort Worth organized a group ride to City Hall last night, running down the Trinity Trails from the Rogers Road trailhead to Foch Street, then up West 7th Street straight into Downtown Fort Worth to City Hall. The ride was organized by Brad and longtime Fort Worth bike advocate Bernie Scheffler of Trinity Bicycles.

About 35 people gathered at the trailhead. Despite the cold, everybody was excited and smiling at the prospect of showing support for better bike infrastructure in Fort Worth. CBS 11 showed up to interview Brad and film the ride. The ride rolled out after 6:00.

Due to construction work on the Trinity Trails at University & Rogers Road, the group road up Rogers, past the Gallery 1701 and Colonial Park infill developments, through University Park Village. Using UPV’s traffic signal, the group crossed University onto Old University, riding up behind Ol’ South Pancake House and then linking into the Trinity Trails in Trinity Park.

Through Trinity Park, the group split between the trail itself and the adjacent park street due to the volume of riders. After cruising through Trinity Park, the group headed out of the park onto Foch Street through the West 7th development.

At West 7th, the group paused to get everybody together again and then turned out onto 7th Street itself. Riding up 7th past West 7th, Montgomery Plaza, and So7, the group then cross the bridge over the Trinity and rolled straight into Downtown. Turning onto Lamar by the Neil P. and Burnett Park, the group rode down to Texas Street, turned left, and headed straight to City Hall. (The group nicely illustrated the need for better bike parking, which had to be improvised via railings and such.)

Inside, Bike Friendly Fort Worth joined similar contingents from FWBA and LMRA, each with 30+ people, along with individual supporters. The two clubs were handing out free bright yellow “I Support Bike Fort Worth” shirts, resulting in a sea of yellow in council chambers.

The group ride was a great success despite the cold, and really put out a great showing of support for the plan. Thanks again to Bike Friendly Fort Worth for putting it together - we look forward to plenty more BFFW events.

Take a look through our gallery at our photos from the ride and of the event at City Hall.

Bike Friendly Fort Worth Ride to City Hall

Kevin Buchanan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:41:33 +0000

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.