It was great to see some familiar faces such as Tom Ferraro, who chairs the Pinellas BAC; members such as Cheryl Stacks, who does a terrific job as St. Petersburg's city bike/ped coordinator and Chip Haynes of Clearwater, who designed the fliers for SWFBUD's Bicycle Bash when we held it in St. Pete. It was also nice to see Tim Bustos and Becky Afonso of the Florida Bicycle Association (Tim, FBA's executive director, also gave a presentation). Scott Jessup of Chainwheel Drive and Glen Gullickson of Bicycle Outfitters were also in the house.
As a member of the Tampa-Hillsborough Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee, I can appreciate the passion and commitment to bicycling showed by the Pinellas folks. St. Pete and Pinellas are ahead of Tampa and Hillsborough in regard to bicycle infrastructure, so my SWFBUD work has focused more on the Tampa side of the Bay.
I briefly offered an overview of SWFBUD's work:
-- Organizing the annual Bicycle Bash festival:
Take a look at a past Bash.
-- Organizing the SWFBUD Swap Meet.
-- Prompting Hillsborough County to initiate the Bicycle Safety Action Plan in response to bicyclist deaths in Tampa Bay.
--Writing a PSA and partnering with Hillsborough County on bike safety:
Check the video.
--Prompting the local MPO to look at SWFBUD BAM Network (Bicycle Area Mobility):
Read the BAM story in Creative Loafing.
--And working to create a host of other local bike infrastructure improvements such as bike lanes, sharrows and improved intersections.
There's more to come.
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