League of American Bicyclists Presents Richardson With Our Bronze BFC Certification
It was one thing to be honored with becoming the 5th city in Texas, and the first city in north Texas, to be recognized as a Bike Friendly Community. It was even better to actually have a League of American Bicyclists Board Member present us our certification, in person.
Gail Spann, one of the most active and influential board members of the League, also happens to live in north Texas. Instead of sending a League staff member from Washington D.C., Gail came out to personally congratulate Richardson residents and the Richardson City Council for a very difficult accomplishment. We are privileged to to get such a personal visit to welcome us into a growing community of exceptional bike friendly cities.
There is now a sign that marks our designation, that is installed in front the west entrance to City Hall. I would love to see these pop up at every road leading into the city.
Richardson Texas Gets Recognized As A Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community
Today, the League of American Bicyclists recognized Richardson, Texas with a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community (BFCSM) award, joining 350 visionary communities from across the country.
With the announcement of 42 new and renewing BFCs today, Richardson joins a leading group of communities, in all 50 states, that are transforming our neighborhoods.
“We applaud this new round of communities for investing in a more sustainable future for the country and a healthier future for their residents and beyond,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “The growing number of leaders taking up bicycling as a way of solving many complex community problems is encouraging. We look forward to continuing to work with these communities as we move closer to our mission of creating a bicycle-friendly America for everyone.”
The BFC program is revolutionizing the way communities evaluate their quality of life, sustainability and transportation networks, while allowing them to benchmark their progress toward improving their bicycle-friendliness. With this impressive round, there are now 350 BFCs in all 50 states. The Bronze BFC award recognizes Richardson’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies.
This is a big deal in north Texas. Even though many cities in the area – including Fort Worth, Plano and Frisco – have received an Honorable Mention, Richardson is the first north Texas city to be recognized as a Bike Friendly Community. With it’s many bike lanes, growing trail network and interconnecting neighborhoods, this is a well deserved recognition.
There were many other variables involved in earning this status, including a great city management team – encouraged by a city council with a vision to create a great city. Richardson is also growing a strong bike community – supported by local and regional advocates like Bike Friendly Richardson and BikeDFW.
Richardson is just getting started. They’re hoping that Bronze is just a stepping stone to an even better, more robust bike community. They also hope to see that the many great efforts of their neighboring cities get recognized by the League as well.
We hope that this recognition becomes a way to motivate other north Texas cities to work harder to become bike friendly as well. Let’s keep this momentum going.
You can find the latest list on the League of American Bicyclists site or click here.
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City Council Survey Responses Updated
We now have all the City Council candidate replies to our survey at the link below:
https://bikefriendlyrichardson.org/2015/04/14/2015-city-council-candidate-survey/
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Richardson City Staff Presents Bike Plan To City Council
On Monday, April 20, 2015 Richardson City Staff presented their Bike Plan to Richardson City Council. The presentation was a combination recap of what they’ve done, as well as their next steps.
It was nice to see how important bicycling is to our city officials and how they continue to see the value of what it brings to our community. It was also nice to see that our little grassroots, advocacy group has been recognized—not only for what we’ve done, but also as a partner moving forward.
You can catch the presentation, online. Click the link below and go to Item D in the list:
http://richardsontx.swagit.com/play/04202015-1034
The video shows Michael Spicer, Director of Development Services and Lori Smeby, Director of Parks and Recreation. Dave Carter, Asst. Director of Development Services, Transportation and Traffic – who helped put it together – was there as well.
The were lots of people who were engaged in the conversation, but we really appreciate our City Council’s positive reception of the Bike Plan and their enthusiastic support of cycling in Richardson. Thank you Laura Gibbs Maczka, Bob Townsend, Mark Solomon, Scott Dunn, Kendal Hartley, Paul Voelker and Steve Mitchell.
This is a great opportunity to have a voice for all people who ride bikes. We should work to build our community as a diverse group with a broad perspective. If you have any friends or neighbors who are interested but concerned about cycling, please invite them to join our Facebook page, engage our City and be part of the conversation.
This is an exciting time to live in our city and we look forward to the next steps.
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2015 City Council Candidate Survey
There is a city election coming up. Richardson residents must choose the office holders for City Council. The election will be held on May 9, 2015, but early voting will start on April 27, 2015.
As an advocacy group, Bike Friendly Richardson does not have any official endorsement for any of the candidates. However, as Richardson residents who bike, we were concerned about each candidate’s position on bicycling issues. We sent each a questionnaire covering several bicycling topics, and many of them sent in their responses. We will post those responses on our blog so that people who bike in Richardson can have a perspective of who they are voting for. Don’t forget to vote!
Here’s a link to the List of Candidates
In this post, we will hear from Rick Wilder and Bob Townsend, who are competing for Place 1, and Mabel Simpson (running against Claudia Tatum for Place 4); as well as unopposed candidates Paul Voelker (Place 5), and Scott Dunn (Place 3). Thank you for your thoughtful participation in our survey.
EDITED TO ADD: Claudia Tatum and Mark Solomon’s responses appear below.
EDITED TO ADD: Steve Mitchell’s responses have been added below. Steve explained in an email that he is in the tax business, and now that tax season is over, he was able to respond to the questions.
THANK YOU to all Council members and new Candidates!
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Our First Trail Cleanup Day Was A Success
My Trail Cleanup Rig
Richardson continues to impress us with their network of great bike and pedestrian access routes throughout the city. As part of that, we have some really nice multi-purpose trails. However, over time and through excessive usage, they have’ve gotten covered in litter, animal waste and broken glass. Instead of complaining about the mess, Bike Friendly Richardson decided to take the maintenance and care of our trail network into our own hands.
My Bike with Howard and His Goat, Billy
We scheduled our first, hopefully of many, Trail Clean Up Days. Given such short notice, and everybody’s busy schedules, our first turnout wasn’t that great. We did get a few volunteers from all around the city, as well as somebody from our neighboring city, Plano. The plan was to try and fill as many trash bags (provided by the city) as possible in two hours.
Overall, we were pretty successful in filling 8-10 bags—not bad for a small group of people. Think about what we could have accomplished with more volunteers. There was still a lot more trash on the trail that we couldn’t get to. Perhaps we’ll get it all the next time.
Our goal is to do this more often than not—hopefully in other parts of the city as well. We only hope is that we’ve inspired other people to get out there and care for the public areas near them. This is our city, and we need to take responsibility for it.
Getting The Trash Beyond The Trail
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Happy (Late) 5th Birthday, Bike Friendly Richardson
When we started Bike Friendly Richardson, in December 2009, our original goal was to follow in the footsteps of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff. Although our core beliefs are still the same, over the last 5 years, our focus has evolved to better fit the needs of the cycling community in Richardson.
We are a group of bicycle advocates promoting the continued creation of better cycling facilities and improved infrastructure in Richardson. Our main focus is on education and increasing the ridership of those wanting to ride for transportation and pleasure over sport.
Our mission:
• Increase bicycle ridership
• Increase bicycle education
• Increase bicycle awareness
• Increase bicycle safety
Our concentration will always be with Richardson cycling, but we share our advocacy with all of our DFW neighbors.
We’ve accomplished many things over the years, but there are many more goals coming in 2015:
• Working with the City of Richardson to get Bike Friendly recognition from the League of American Bicyclists
• Working with the City of Richardson to get better bike parking and bike parking policy
• Working with the City of Richardson to get a safe passing ordinance passed
• Working with BikeDFW to bring more education courses to local riders
• We will strive to host and/or promote more social events and rides
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TxDOT – Public Hearing – Bicycle Use in DFW – Tomorrow
If you ride a bike in north Texas, you should think about going to the Texas Department of Transportation Public Hearing – Bicycle Use in DFW.
Information from their site:
Where:
City of Irving City Hall
825 W. Irving Blvd.
Irving, TX 75060
When:
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
5 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Purpose:
The purpose of this public hearing is to provide information on the bicycle plans, policies, programs and upcoming projects for the Dallas and Fort Worth districts of TxDOT and the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG). Also, the public will have an opportunity to make comments and provide input on the bicycle transportation projects and programs
Description:
The public hearing will consist of a presentation from TxDOT and NCTCOG beginning at 6 p.m. and an open house format before and after the presentation.
Maps and drawings will be on display to show the existing bike facilities and upcoming transportation projects on the state system and Dallas/Fort Worth regional area.
Downloads:
Notice (pdf)
Map of Meeting Location (pdf)
Contact:
TxDOT Dallas District
(214) 320-4480
Email
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City of Richardson Bike Parking Initiative
Increased bike parking has always been one of the goals of Bike Friendly Richardson. More bike parking provides incentive for folks to ride their bikes to local destinations, like parks, libraries and local businesses. We have a great city to ride, and now it’s time to work harder on our destinations.
Recently, we were asked by City Council member, Scott Dunn, to present information about creating a functional and comprehensive bike parking plan that would benefit, not only cyclists, but local business owners as well as the city. Bike Friendly Richardson‘s new Bike Parking Initiative’s lead, Mark Adams, was able to present a brief introduction to a bigger plan that will, hopefully, pave the way to a system of well designed and well placed bike racks that will encourage more cycling around town.
Along with some shared input from other local cyclists, Mark has done some extensive research into the world of reliable, sensible and secure bike parking, and we will be sharing that information with city council, staff and developers. We hope to follow in the footsteps of other great cities and incorporate a bike parking component into future building ordinances. We would also love to have the City as a supporter in our crusade to ask existing local businesses to consider investing in bike parking as well.
You can catch Mark’s presentation to the Richardson City Council here.
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ATTENTION: MONDAY IS A BIG DAY FOR RICHARDSON CYCLISTS!
There are two big bike events happening on Monday, June 2. Please try to attend either one, or both.
The first is the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the new Central Trail extension in Richardson. It’s a much needed extension of an existing trail, providing some great connections between our local DART rail train stations and neighborhoods. The City of Richardson and Dallas County are hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially open the trail on June 2.
Here are the details:
Date: Monday, June 2. 2014
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Spring Valley DART Station/Central Trail – Spring Valley Road at Lingco Drive
The next is the Bike Friendly Richardson, Bike Parking Initiative presentation to the Richardson City Council, that evening.
We were asked by City Council member, Scott Dunn, to present information about creating a functional and comprehensive bike parking plan that would benefit, not only cyclists, but local business owners as well as the city. Our new Bike Parking Initiative’s lead, Mark Adams, will present a brief introduction to a bigger plan that will, hopefully, pave the way to a system of well designed and well placed bike racks that will encourage more cycling around town.
Date: Monday, June 2. 2014
Time: 6:00 p.m. – During the City Council Work Session
Location: Richardson City Hall – 411 W Arapaho Rd, Richardson, TX 75083
WE NEED TO SHOW OUR SUPPORT FOR THESE EVENTS! Let’s try to get as many cyclists as possible to the ceremony and council meeting, and show our appreciation and support.
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Bike Friendly Richardson 
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