SWFBUD Attends Bike Commuter Meeting At HOK Office in Tampa Today

SWFBUD visited the HOK architectural firm's offices in downtown Tampa at lunchtime to meet several HOK employees who bike to work and who want to see what can be done to improve the bicycling scene in and around the downtown Tampa area so that more bike-commuters can reach downtown.

I, along with some other bicycle folks such as regulars Karen Kress and Jim Shirk and a couple of city staffers, met with several HOK workers and others to discuss bike commuting. We talked about making out streets complete for not only cars but also for bicyclists and pedestrians, too, and getting bike lanes on roads identified under the bike lane master plan.

And I'd love to see Platt Street with a bike lane -- something that Mayor Pam Iorio promised last year at a Seminole Heights Bicycle Club and never came through with.

I also met Sandy Ballestra, building manager of the Tampa City Center where HOK has its offices on the 18th floor. She showed me some terrific inside bicycle storage space that bike commuters can use inside the Tampa City Center.

SWFBUD says job well done to Sandy for creating indoor bicycle storage space for bike commuters.

SWFBUD Urges Florida To Deal With Nation-Leading Bicyclist Fatality Rate

MEDIA RELEASE: SWFBUD calls for state, county and city governments to offer safety plans to decrease bicyclist fatalities; Florida number one in the U.S. again for number of bicyclist fatalities and bicyclist fatality rate for 2007, according to federal report.

TAMPA -- A Tampa Bay coalition of retail bicycle stores called SWFBUD (South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers) is requesting governments at all levels in Florida launch a campaign to fight the bicyclist fatality rate that is number one in the country again.

Florida had 119 bicyclists killed in 2007 -- the most in the country, according to recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Second was California with 109 bicyclist fatalities in 2007 even though California has twice the population of Florida.

The total number of bicyclists killed in the country was 698 in 2007. Florida had 28 percent of all the bicyclist fatalities in the U.S. in '07.

Florida also had 6.52 bicyclists killed per million population -- about three times the national average of 2.31 in 2007.

Second and third behind Florida in bicyclist fatality rates were Louisiana at 5.12 and South Carolina at 4.54 per million.

Texas, another warm weather state with more residents than Florida, had 48 bicyclist deaths in 2007 -- or a bicyclist fatality rate of 2.01, less than a third of Florida, according to the federal data.

"We need governments at all levels to encourage bicycling and also to design streets and roads that are safe for both bicyclists and cars to share," said Alan Snel, director of SWFBUD, a coalition of eight retail bicycle stores and one lawyer in the Tampa Bay region committed to growing bicycling in the area.

"It's unacceptable that Florida continues to lead the nation year after year in not only the number of bicyclists killed but also the bicyclist fatality rate. Our bicyclist fatality rate is three times the national average and our governments need to do a better job at providing roads that safely accommodate bicyclists as much as they do cars."

Bicyclists accounted for 13 percent of all nonoccupant traffic fatalities in 2007 and the 698 bicyclist deaths accounted for 2 percent of the 41,049 traffic fatalities nationwide during 2007.

"The fact is thousands and thousands of Floridians ride their bicycles every day and we need to do everything we can as a state to make sure their rides are not perilous," Snel said.


SWFBUD was formed in 2007 to grow bicycling in the Tampa Bay area as a heathy lifetsyle and an effective mode of transportation. SWFBUD puts on the annual Bicycle Bash by the Bay bike festival and was awarded the retail bicycle advocacy award by the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, the trade publication that covers the bicycle industry in the U.S.

SWFBUD Says, Thanks Chip

SWFBUD puts on the 2009 Bicycle Bash by the Bay festival to grow bicycling in the Tampa Bay area and one of the generous contributors to the success of the bike festival is velo-lover Chip Haynes, who puts together bicycles as a passion and creates the Bicycle Bash flier every year.

Here's Chip from today's Ciclovia event in downtown Clearwater holding the 2009 flier for this year's event.

SWFBUD Pumps Up The Pedal Power At Today's Eco-Event In Downtown Tampa

This afternoon I talked SWFBUD and bicycling at the Eco-lution event in downtown Tampa, handing out fliers for the Bicycle Bash by the Bay and chatting bicycling with anyone who stopped by the SWFBUD table. It was a pleasant event, kind of a dressed-up Earth Day event where the people who showed up already shared the green view on life.

The Urban Charette and its "Agents of Change" put on the Eco-Lution event. The Urban Charette is mostly architects, planners, designers and generally hip greenies who feel Tampa can do a better job at building a more efficient city of more interesting, better-designed buildings that would improve our quality of life.

That's where bicycling comes in. Any great city is a bicycle-friendly city that has multiple ways to get around besides a car.

I was hoping for a little more people to attend the event today, but overall it was a nice-looking event.

SWFBUD Tells Tampa To Think Green (With Bicycling)

This morning the Tampa City Council held a workshop that included discussion on stimulus money of $32 million that apparently is coming the city's way and green jobs. So more than a dozen folks in the Tampa community came out to urge the city to spend the money on environmental jobs that would make Tampa a more "green" place to live.

Several city council members seemed annoyed that city staff didn't seem to know the exact process of getting and spending the money, with the chief city employee on the subject explaining she would get back to the council.

I spoke before the Council on behalf of SWFBUD, urging the city of Tampa to create green jobs and spend money on green projects such as widening roads to make them available to cyclists and pedestrians not just cars; and integrating bicycling into all aspects of city infrastrcuture such as secure bike areas in downtown areas and workplaces.

Bicycling is just one part of the green movement and SWFBUD urges Tampa Bay area governments to think holistically about blending bicycling into their infrastructure systems.

Bicycle Retailer Magazine and Trek Bicycle Corp.Give National Advocacy Awards to SWFBUD in 2009

Here is a picture of Megan Tompkins, editor of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, and Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong Coalition, with Alan Snel, who received a BRAINy award on behalf of SWFBUD for retail store bicycle advocacy last week.

The Bicycle Bash by the Bay is one reason why SWFBUD won this national honor. Now in its fourth year, the Bicycle Bash by the Bay is known nationwide and is seen as a model for other communities to emulate.


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In August. SWFBUD also won a national bicycle advocacy award from Trek Bicycle Corp. when Trek President John Burke recognized the Trek dealers in SWFBUD for SWFBUD's advocacy work in keeping Hillsborough County's parks open seven days a week.

SWFBUD Hits Sea Otter For A Day Of Bicycle Culture

This morning it's cloudy to start but I suspect it will burn off when bicycle fans from across California and the country descend on the big hills outside Monterey for the Sea Otter Classic.

I will be in and out at the Just Ride Bicycles tent, manned by SWFBUD member David Luppino and Tammy of SWFBUD member store Suncoast Trailside Bicycles. Stop by and say hi. I have talked to many vendors at Sea Otter about attending the Bicycle Bash by the Bay, www.bicyclebash.com. It's Oct. 11 and I hope these company reps can make it to the Bicycle Bash, which is put on annually by SWFBUD.

I plan to test ride some bicycles in the morning and hopefully my legs and lungs will be up to pedaling some bikes in the hilly terrain that includes some rather daunting steep climbs for a guy used to cycling the flats of Flatwooods county park and Morris Bridge Road. It's basically Sugarloaf Mountain Road climbs all around here.

The bicycle culture is amazing here and at Sea Otter bicyclists ride bikes alongside pedestrians who stroll the many dirt aisles of the exhibitor rows. There are literally hundreds of vendors and commercial tents, including all the big names of the bicycle industry.

I'll be sharing photos when I return to Tampa Bay early Monday morning.