Tour de Parks bike audit for elected officials and staff on Saturday

Commissioner Mann is the leader of the pack

On Saturday, May 18th  BikeWalkLee hosted another Tour de Parks ride and Bike Audit for City and County officials, advisory board members and staff.   

 We had 16 participants, including four elected officials--Commissioner Frank Mann, and three members of the Fort Myers City Council:  Mayor Randy Henderson, Councilman Tom Leonardo, and Councilman Levon Simms; along with the Assistant City Manager and Community Development Director from Fort Myers; Andy Getch from LeeDOT, a BPAC member, Lee Department of Health staff; other staff and local planning consultants.

Starting from the Calusa Nature Center at the early hour of 8:00 a.m. riders received instructions on Rules of the Road from guide Dan Moser before heading out from the Nature Center down the North Colonial Linear Trail.  Several of the elected officials only had an hour for the ride, so the first group rode about six miles.  As you can see from the photo above, Commissioner Mann, who hadn't been on a bike in 30 years, led the way...at a pace of about 7 mph!  Next time he asked Dan to give him a bike with some gears!  Mayor Henderson sported his "Dunk City! FGCU t-shirt".  This was his second ride with BWL this week, having participated in Wednesday night's Ride of Silence. 

Fort Myers Mayor Henderson (notice Dunk City t-shirt!)

The second half of the ride, with the remaining hardy half, took us down 6 Mile Cypress Parkway, where we stopped at the Six Mile Cypress Slough, then headed towards Lakes Park.  We stopped at the Sun Coast OJ place for a much-needed cold drink, then took the John Yarbrough Linear Park Trail back to the Colonial Blvd. path and on up to our starting point at the Nature Center.

Throughout the ride, stops were made to observe and analyze roadway and intersection conditions, assessing design, engineering, and maintenance with an eye to those features that support safe and enjoyable cycling. Some aspects of the roadways and trail system were very well designed and others hindrances to both safety and convenience.

I put together a photo album on Facebook, which you can view here.  Enjoy!

Dan Moser fits Commissioner Mann with helmet.

 Many thanks to the four elected officials who took time out of their busy weekend to participate...and a special thanks to our tour leader, Dan Moser, and organizer, Ann Pierce.  Stay tuned for an announcement about our next ride for officials and staff.

Report by Darla Letourneau

Here's my favorite photo from the day:

BWL's Ann Pierce is wearing her new BWL jersey BACKWARDS--LOL!