SWFBUD -- South West Florida Bicyclists United With Dealers: Speakers Attend Hillsborough County Commission Meeting To Support the Friendship TrailBridge Plan This Morning

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Speakers Attend Hillsborough County Commission Meeting To Support the Friendship TrailBridge Plan This Morning

I represented SWFBUD and our 10 retail bike shops that have thousands of bicyclist customers before the Hillsborough County Commission this morning to support an effort to overhaul the closed Friendship TrailBridge and make it into a world-class linear pedestrian-bicycle park above the Bay linking Tampa and St. Petersburg. I was happy to speak in front of the Hillsborough commissioners to show SWFBUD's support for this project. We wanted to show support for this plan in front of the county commissioners, who will vote on the FTB rehab proposal on June 27.

I was joined by more than a half-dozen speakers such as Ben Ritter of the Florida Gulf Coast Paralyzed Veterans of America (above), Ken Cowart below who spoke and then listened to County Commissioner Victor Crist praise the FTB report (immediate below), Seminole Heights resident Susan Long who explained that her kids left Tampa because the region needs amenities such as the Friendship TrailBridge and Seminole Heights bicyclist Margaret Shepherd, wlo listened below to Ken Cowart address the commission.

W e also had other speakers including plan co-author Kevin Thurmon and bridge advocate Neil Constentino, while Hillsborough-Tampa Bicycle Pedestrian Chairman Jim Shirk and Jordan Miller of Velo Champ bicycle shop in Seminole Heights also attended. I submitted a BPAC letter signed by chairman Shirk backing the FTB project.

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WHAT IS SWFBUD and HOW DID IT START?

SWFBUD (South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers) is a Tampa Bay bicycle advocacy alliance of 12 bicycle store dealers and four law firms committed to raising the profile of bicycling in the Tampa Bay market, getting more people on bicycles and drawing more public resources for bicycling.

The 12 bike shops are: ABC Bicycles, Bicycle Outfitters, Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium, Chainwheel Drive, Just Ride Bicycles, Oliver's Cycle Sports, Street Fit 360, Trek Bicycle Store of Tampa and Clearwater, Trek Bicycle Store of St. Petersburg, The Ironman Store, University Bicycle Center and Velo Champ. The four law firms are Tom Singletary, J. Steele Olmstead and the Mark Roman Law Group.

The SWFBUD members enlist Alan Snel, a bicycle advocate and former metro newspaper reporter, to lobby local governments to provide more bicycle resources and to put on the Bicycle Bash festival.

SWFBUD is a play on words of Swiftmud, the Tampa Bay water district agency.

SWFBUD traces its roots to the summer of 2006, when then-Carrollwood Bicycle Emporium owner David Luppino (who now owns Just Ride Bicycles) hired Snel for promotions, marketing and to help put on the Bicycle Bash festival. At the start of 2007, Luppino believed it was appropriate that other Tampa Bay bike stores get involved in promoting bicycling, so Snel recruited other store dealers to get involved.

The Bicycle Bash was first held in October 2006 on the St. Pete Times Forum plaza before a Tampa Bay Lightning afternoon hockey game before SWFBUD moved the Bicycle Bash to St. Petersburg's Vinoy Park in 2007 and 2008 and to North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg in 2009. In 2010, the Bicycle Bash was moved into Hillsborough County's Flatwoods Park on Nov. 7 so that bicyclists can enjoy the Bash's exhibitor village and also have fun doing live biking in the park. In 2011, the Bicycle Bash will be held again at Flatwoods Park on NOV 6.

SWFBUD won national retail bicycle advocacy awards in 2009 from the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (BRAIN) and the Trek Bicycle Corporation. The Bicycle Bash won the Florida Event of the Year in 2007 from the Florida Bicycle Association.

SWFBUD's Snel attends many public meetings in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, plus the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. to lobby political leaders and governing agencies to commit more resources to bicycling. SWFBUD believes communities that embrace and invest in bicycling become more successful and sustainable.

Flatwoods Park Ranger Thanks SWFBUD For Saving Park and Jobs

SWFBUD Wins National Bicycle Advocacy Award

The national magazine that covers the bicycle industry in this country honored SWFBUD with the 2009 Bicycle Retail Advocacy Award at the Bicycle Leadership Conference in Monterey, Calif. SWFBUD is deeply honored by this national recognition and I received the award from Megan Tompkins, editor of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, and Tim Blumenthal, executive editor of Bikes Belong Coalition. Click photo for more info and check SP Times story, too: http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article996595.ece