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You’re invited to join Bike Friendly Oak Cliff and cyclists from around the city to celebrate the grand opening of three new bike-friendly arrivals to the Trinity River corridor: Trinity Skyline Trail along the river, the Continental Avenue Bridge Park and West Dallas Gateway Plaza connecting to Trinity Groves, and the Sylvan Avenue Bridge that includes a bike lane!
The ride begins at the east end of the Continental Bridge at 2pm sharp, but the festivities go on all day! A gospel brunch, farmers market, driving range, 1930s danceathon, kids craft zone, playground, pachanga party, food trucks, vintage car show and more – there’s something for everyone.
Even a chance to win a new Phat Cycle Sea Wind Cruiser bicycle from Richardson Bike Mart! Register to ride your bike as part of this rolling ribbon cutting and your name will go into a drawing. Rsvps here, and get all the details for the day at trinityriverrevel.com
The cold fronts have begun coming in and even though we’re just below three-digits, I can foresee the day when the shorts and tank-tops take the back rung of the closet again.
The *official* Last Day of Summer 2012 is Friday September 21st, but we’re pushing it back a week. The city’s Complete Streets project is transforming Knox for a weekend and it’s the perfect excuse for one last outdoor summer fling – sun, shorts, beer, bikes…. So we’re biking over to Knox for the afternoon to check out the cycle track bike lanes and have a drink on the patio.
We’ll start at Main Street Gardens, leaving about 4pm, and this time we’re opening the route to folks who want to simply join us along the way as we ride through the neighborhoods. From Main Street Gardens we’ll be biking up Olive, through the Arts District, and up Routh to McKinney Ave, then straight up McKinney to Knox.
And although we’ll be taking a leisurely pace and are sure to hit a few red lights, we’ll also linger at a few spots along the way in case you’d like to meet us at: the Arts District, Routh & McKinney, in the parking lot of Albertson’s, or at Cole Park.
Join us Saturday September 29th for one of the last and best chillaxing rides of the summer to check out a vision of Knox Street’s future.
Now’s your chance to vote for the 2012 people’s choice Face of Biking in Dallas, now through Saturday 28th at high noon. Thanks to everyone who came out to be counted in the second annual Dallas Cyclist Census. There were some great photographers this year and we had a blast looking through all the photos.
VOTE HERE
See all the 2012 Census photos
See the 2011 Census photos and finalists
Along with bragging rights, the winner gets:
- Linus pannier
- Chocolates from Coco Andre Chocolatier
- Gift Certificate from Repotted
- and more, from Richardson Bike Mart and Oak Cliff Bicycle
Winner (and runners up) will be announced…
Saturday April 28th | 9pm-Midnite
Continental Lofts Gallery | 311 Elm, just east of the Baylor DART Station in Deep Ellum (And, yes, we’ll have bicycle valet parking)
A night of awards, bikes, fashion, photos, drinks, food trucks, and friends, a portion of your $10 donation at the door will benefit Pedal Power – our local bicycle charity that provides used bikes for transportation and commerce to those in need.
9pm Complimentary Rum and Blue Agave tasting with Railean Distillery (Blue Agave would be called tequila if it were made in Tequila, Mexico – but it’s MADE IN TEXAS!) Also complimentary Deep Ellum and Franconia beer.
10pm Local professionals style-out cyclist models on display with their bikes. Test-ride bikes, eat from Nammi truck and see all the Cyclist Census photos projected on the gallery walls.
11pm We announce the voters’-choice 2012 Face of Biking in Dallas and judges’-choice Favorite Cyclist Photographer winners and runners up.
This Saturday is the Cyclist Census in which photographers will be capturing photos of you and your bike in all your stylish glory between 10am and 2pm at the following locations:
Main Street Garden, downtown Dallas – with Chris Curnutt
Bishop Arts District – with Chris Arrant
Katy Trail Ice House – with Stevan Koye
Fair Park DART Station, Dallas Earth Day Festival – with David Wilson
Deep Ellum Station/Traveling Man – with Justin Clemons
Bicycle Cafe, near White Rock Lake – with Jen Hammack
All decked out. This guy must have won an award for his tie.
All those photographed for the census will be eligible to be voted the 2012 Face of Biking in Dallas. Online voting will be open to the public next Wednesday (the 25th) through Saturday (the 28th) at high noon, here on the website, and the winner and runners up announced at the fashion show and awards event next Saturday the 28th. We can’t wait to see who’s captured on film this year. Come and be counted!
This weekend was the first Ciclovia Dallas has experienced, hosted by none other than our one and only Bike Friendly Oak Cliff.
Some of the eye-catching cyclists (that I could catch!) are pictured below. There was even a miniature penny farthing and a few unicycles.
I’m obsessing over this short film from Flying Pigeon – not sure whether it’s their amazing bikes or the way they shot this film that I’m obsessing over. Swoon. Bicycles.
photo by Patrick Barber, Bicycling Magaine
Yes, biking does require some specific equipment. Of course you need lights and a helmet (and a bike!) but once you really start living more of your daily life on a bike rather than in the car, you find there’s a whole world of people out there doing the same – and creating some really helpful equipment.
I’m talking beyond the world of bungee chords, racks and baskets and paniers, there are CARGO BIKES.
Liz Canning in the Bay Area is crowd-sourcing a film about the stories of folks all over the country who are getting into the cargo bike lifestyle. Taking the kids to school, making deliveries, going shopping, and helping friends move to a new home all by bike! It’s so much easier when you have the right equipment, including electric assist for those big hills! (There’s a few of those here in Oak Cliff.)
Her video trailer above is really inspiring. Especially after reading Tanya Snyder’s experience in the Women’s Cycling Forum at the National Bike Summit, realizing that being a new mom and missing her bike was partly due to a lack of bike infrastructure that would make her feel safer about biking with her newborn. And partly a lack of the right equipment and know-how in riding safely with children or “schlepping diaper bags and everything else that encumbers a parent.”
I’ve personally always thought electric assist bikes were really nerdy and a bit high maintenance until I imagined riding (as Jill does) home up a huge hill with 2 kids in the front pouch of a cargo bike. It just helps makes it possible to spend a bit more of life on a bike and those little errands around town are just a bit more enjoyable with the wind in your hair, enjoying the freedom of biking.
A taste of cargo bike usage in Copenhagen
Cool cargo bikes:
- Treck Transport
- Kona Ute
- Long John
- Metrofeits
- BULLITT from Larry vs Harry
- Yuba
- Ahearne Cycle Truck
- Workman Cycles (handcrafted in NYC for over 100 years!)
- Winther
Bicycling.com has a great piece on the cargo bicycle lifestyle phenomenon developing in the U.S. I’m so in.
It’s been a crazy busy week (as always!) but we’ve finally got some great photos to share from last week’s Oscar Pre-Party ride with the Bicycle Tsunami folks.
We had such a blast (as always!) even more so this time because the weather was gorgeous and we were all dressed up – had a few new folks even join us in their suits and dresses!
After a quick champagne toast at Main Street Gardens we were off to the West Village via McKinney Ave – which btw wasn’t as high-traffic nor scary dangerous as I had expected! It was also Union Bear’s grand opening which was fun.
Cheers to more beautiful afternoon rides this spring!
More great photos of everyone in the “Seen While Biking in Dallas” slideshow
Bicycle Tsunami has planned a bicycle flash mob Sunday Feb 26th. We’re not sure where we’ll all be converging (it’s very hush-hush till we get the email the day before) but we’ve been assured it’s within a 30 minute ride north of downtown Dallas.
So we’re planning a themed ride from Main Street Gardens to the location! And since it’s Oscars night, its only appropriate that we dress to the nines for a bicycling pre-Oscar Party ride! (Yes, I’ll be wearing my sparkle heels!)
From Juleskills on Flickr
We’ll meet around 1pm, leaving Main St Garden at 1:30pm to head north. And if anyone biking over from N Oak Cliff wants to ride to the Garden with us, we’ll be leaving Salvage House Boutique around 12:45pm. (Facebook invite here)
Apparently anyone’s able to get in on the Bicycle Tsunami info. The website at bicycletsunami.wordpress.com instructs you to send and email with a photo of your bike (cause it’s “just more entertaining to open emails with a photo than opening a bunch that all say ‘please add me to the list’ “) to bicycletsunami@gmail.com to get the location info the day before.
We’re excited to see who else rides in from other parts of Dallas. It should be quite a site to see a bunch of cyclists all taking over the neighborhood. Hope to see you there!
You may have noticed a few changes to the website recently. Yes, time to reset your bookmarks – we’re leaving the Cycle Chic family to become our very own group, Cycle Style.
We’ve had a lovely year doing the Dallas Cycle Chic blog. As we’ve met Dallas riders on the streets, in the cycle shops and at large group rides, we’ve come to deeply appreciate the inspiring and broad range of cycle styles in our city. You are all so different and yet all the same: from cardigan wearing ladies crushing trails to hardcore racers in spandex packs, you all shared with us your passion for the wind in your hair and the whir of spokes and gears at your feet. Our growing circle of cyclists has inspired us to grow beyond what the Cycle Chic trademark allows.
The critical divergence from Cycle Chic is in helmet promotion. Cycle Chic, a trademarked worldwide brand and organization begun by Mikael Colville-Andersen, promotes cycling as a part of everyday life. There are thousands of riders around the world who bike in everyday clothes without helmets, and Mikael is big into helmet research and non-helmet advocacy with the European Cyclists’ Federation.
We here in Dallas don’t want to exclude our fellow cyclist friends from our blog because they choose to be law-abiding citizens and wear helmets. We celebrate all the people who choose to hop on their bike and incorporate cycling into their lifestyle. So, we’re branching off from Cycle Chic to promote and celebrate cycling in Dallas; people who wear helmets and those who don’t, weather you wear spandex or a suit and tie or anything in between.
The best part is, we all agree that more cyclists on the road is the best way improve the safety of all cyclists. Just get on your bike and ride – to the grocer, to pick up the kids from school, to the nail salon, to grab dinner and drinks, to work, to the opera, on a sunset ride, to grandma’s….
The more cyclists on the roads, the more visible and safer we all become. This promotional video from the Dutch Cycling Embassy has some great info about the correlation between cyclist safety, and number of cyclists on the road. Did you know Denmark experienced a decrease in cycling in the 70s? Major policy changes, awareness campaigns, and infrastructure decisions have contributed to cycling as a big part of daily life there now.
This graph (and more stats) from the French Federation of Bicycle Users shows the same correlation.
The data, from 8 cycling countries, shows the correlation between the frequency of traffic fatalities (dark line), the bicycle modal share/% of people on bikes vs. cars, buses or any other transit (the red bars), and percentage of people wearing helmets (yellow numbers). So the correlation is fewer accidents when there are more cyclists on the road (regardless of helmet wearing.)
Helmet research aside, cycling environments differ everywhere for many reasons, and it’s up to individual users to be aware of their environment and do what makes them feel safe enough to ride. (Aside from following the laws.) Some people ride sidewalks, some ride roads, some ride slow, some ride fast, some wear orange vests, some wear stilettos. Dallas Cycle Style encourages everyone to get on their bike and flaunt their cycle style.
Cycling in Dallas may be in fledgling development, but there are hundreds of us in the metroplex – and more folks than you think don’t even own a car! Although Tracy and Amanda started this blog, it’s a bog for you, to celebrate the lives of people in this city who love their bikes. So take photos next time you bike to the bar with your buddies or sack-up at the grocery store and post the photos to our new Facebook group. Share the love!! And thanks for contributing to Dallas’ bicycle revolution.
Dallas Cycle Style 