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Miami Biking gets a new spin with improved paths, and plenty of activities


Read More: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/1...spin-with.html

Should you need proof of the rising local popularity of the noble bicycle, just take a gander at the rapidly expanding smorgasbord of places and occasions to ride in car-crazy South Florida. From mass charity rides to mountain-bike trails, from triathlons to urban transportation, cycling in South Florida has lately taken off like the price of gasoline. It’s no longer just for children or the hardcore Lycra brigades — though there’s plenty for them, too. And, yes, it includes bike polo, which is just what it sounds like, mallets and all. You will need a fixed-gear track bike and, come to think of it, it may be more fun to watch than to do — at least the first time.

Bike-store owners say sales are up. So is the number of bike-store owners. Every weekend provides a plethora of bike-related choices, both informal and organized: slow-bike tours of Coral Gables, tweed attire optional. Art tours in Wynwood. An easy ramble in the rural Redland. Riding to the bike-welcoming South Miami farmer’s market. Off-road slogs through the Everglades. Road rides for novices. Bike-safety classes. Even a bike film festival, though you’ll have to wait until next year to attend — this year’s run just ended. “We are seeing all kinds of people on bikes, and more families riding than last year,’’ said Mary Jane Mark, owner of Mack Cycle and Fitness in South Miami, one of the oldest local bike stores, which sponsors an increasingly popular triathlon and bike-run duathlon competitions and helped fund new mountain-bike trails on Virginia Key. “Many customers who come in to buy a bike have not ridden a bike in years.’’

For the skeptics, here’s a stat: 18,718. That’s the precise number of rentals during the first two weeks of operation in March of Miami Beach’s DecoBike, a bicycle-sharing program. And that’s with just 485 available bikes, half the number planned for the full roll-out, to be completed by June. Like Beach residents and visitors, local cyclists are benefitting from an official embrace after years of less-then-benign neglect. Seemingly every week, new on-street bike lanes open in Miami city and unincorporated Miami-Dade, pieces in a planned inter-connected network. Sharrows — a new chevron-shaped street marking that indicates designated traffic lanes are to be shared by cars and bikes — made their debut on South Beach and Miami’s Design District.

TriRail, the South Florida commuter rail, has added 600 bike lockers. Miami-Dade County is planning thousands of dollars in safety improvements to the uber-popular Rickenbacker Causeway bicycle lanes. Even the Florida Department of Transportation has gotten in the game, connecting the south end of the trail under the Metrorail to the South Miami-Dade Busway path to create a continuous 31-mile-long greenway. The new path is second in length only to the recently completed Biscayne/Everglades Greenway, a 42-mile loop connecting Biscayne and Everglades national parks through Homestead, Florida City and the Redland.

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