Start Your Own Neighborhood Bicycle Club And Show The Politicos People Want To Bike In Your Town

I know a lot of you folks out there want to ride bicycles in your neighborhoods. Planning groups conduct surveys all the time and one of the features people want in their neighborhoods is a safe place to ride their bicycle.

Problem is this country has a road infrastructure that is generally ill-suited to accommodate bicyclists, with notable exceptions in bicycle-conscious cities such as Boulder, CO; Portland, OR; Davis, CA; and Minneapolis.

In Tampa where I live, the city roads are a mess for cyclists -- narrow and poorly constructed. And the transportation staffers in the city's public works department are not savvy about bicyclists' needs. For example, I spoke with three city of Tampa transportation employees in the public works department and one said there was nothing wrong with cycling on sidewalks. Another complained to me about bicyclists pasing red lights. And a third asked where he could buy bicycle tires.

Not exactly the type of responses I was hoping for.

But I was undeterred.

I worked with a friend in my neighborhood to create a local bike club that caters to casual bicyclists who want to bike on the city roads but were too afraid to bike on them alone.

So my friend Mike and I created the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club after we sent out notices through the local civic associations asking whether residents would want a local neighborhood bike club.

So in February, 25 people in the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa met on my front porch. Out of that 25 we drew about a dozen folks to form a core committee. This smaller group came up with three bike rides for the first three Saturdays of every month -- a slow family ride of 6 miles; a leisurely urban ride of 10 miles into downtown Tampa and back; and a longer 22-miler suited for road bicyclists.

The reaction has been nothing short of extraordinary. We consistently get 20-25 cyclists for our rides and we even had a "bike-in" movie night (not to be confused with a "drive-in" movie) in my back yard in May when we set up a screen and watched that clsssic bicycle movie, "Breaking Away." We had 30 people attend and the neighborhood bicycle comradery was terrific.

Members of our core committee built a spectacular web site -- www.seminoleheightsbicycleclub.com. And my friend Mike and fellow co-founder sprung for $37 to print bike club business cards to hand out. In return, the community came through for us. A local sign shop printed us a small banner and lawn sign for free, a deli gave us sliced Cuban sandwiches after our first urban downtown ride and Starbucks even came through with free coffee and water on our club's inaugural bike ride.

The politicians seem clueless about the desire of their constinuents to have safe places to ride a bicycle. So, we decided to show people that there is a need for safe roads for cyclists while also providing as venue for inexperienced and casual cyclists to bike on the roads around here.

Here are some tips:

-- use your local homeowner and civic association web sites and newsletters to get the word out about whether there is an interest in cycling in your neighborhood.

-- have an organizing meeting within a month after the responses come in so you tap into the excitement and interest.

-- form a core committee of doers, those people willing to take action and not just talk about forming a local bicycle club.

-- don't worry about fancy titles or dues. We don't have those in the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club. Focus on action and not protocol and rules.

-- there are two things you need people to accept: You must wear a bicycle helmet and you accept the risk and liability of bicycling with the group.

The Seminole Heights Bicycle Club has been an amazing Biketown USA success story and it just takes a core group of committed bicyclists to mak it happen.

Don't be intimidated. Start one in your neighborhood.