Opportunity to participate in Nov. 12th webinar: Complete Streets in Florida

Mark your calendars and register now for an important Nov. 12th webinar, sponsored by 1000 Friends of Florida, on "Planning for Complete Streets in Florida".  Billy Hattaway is the featured panelist, along with BikeWalkLee's Darla Letourneau, AARP and a Broward County city that has implemented the state's first complete streets design manual.  
 
11/13/14 Update:
If you missed the webinar, you can see the full power point presentations by clicking here.

Announcement:

REGISTER NOW!  PLEASE UNCHECK THE BOX ASKING IF YOU WANT TO SET UP A PAYPAL ACCOUNT.
November 12, 2014, Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Planning for Complete Streets in Florida
Cost $10

This event has been approved for 1.5 AICP CM (#e.27940) for Planners, 1.5 contact hours for Certified Environmental Health Professionals,  1 CEC for Certified Floodplain Managers, and CLE (#1405925N) for Florida attorneys. 

Billy Hattaway, FDOT’s District One Secretary who is leading the department’s statewide initiative to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety and the implementation of the Department’s new Complete Streets Policy, will discuss how a context based “complete street” design approach will provide for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transportation users of all ages and abilities and enhance accessibility, safety and public health. The first community in Florida to adopt Complete Streets guidelines is the City of Deerfield Beach, and Director of Planning and Development Services Amanda Martinez will review the process they have used to adopt and implement those guidelines.BikeWalkLee’s Darla Letourneau, a founder and steering committee member of that coalition, will focus on the role of citizen advocacy in promoting complete street policy. AARP Florida’s Laura Cantwell will discuss that organizations’ perspectives on complete streets. 

NOTE ABOUT PROBLEMS WITH REGISTRATION: PLEASE UNCHECK THE BOX ASKING IF YOU WANT TO SET UP A PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  If you continue to have problems please contact Vivian Young at 850-222-6277 x. 109 or vyoung@1000fof.org and she will register you manually.    Go-to-Training has repeatedly indicated they are working on this issue.  We apologize for the ongoing problems and inconvenience.

Support WGCU and help Streets Alive and BikeWalkLee receive free radio spots!

Here's your chance to help the community in several ways at once:  support WGCU Public Media and at the same time support Streets Alive and BikeWalkLee!

When organizations work together through teamwork and collaboration, exceptional things happen.  This is one of the reasons Streets Alive of Lee County, Inc. and BikeWalkLee, along with 60 other nonprofit friends in the region, have partnered with WGCU Public Media for their October “Your Community” Radio Pledge Drive. 

If you’re unfamiliar, a couple times a year WGCU turns to the community to raise the necessary funds to keep public radio programming on the air.  These “pledge drives” are critical to WGCU’s operations and thousands of people from our region donate money.

Here’s the fun part! On Tuesday, Oct. 21st from 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. BikeWalkLee's Dr. Cindy Banyai will be live on air on WGCU FM, raising funds for Southwest Florida’s award-winning public radio station.  In return, WGCU has offered to help us augment our marketing budget by awarding us with free radio promos that we can use to promote both Streets Alive and BikeWalkLee events and missions throughout the next year.

You can help us receive these free radio spots!

Just call in anytime during the pledge campaign (October 17-24) and make a pledge of $250 and (Streets Alive of Lee County, Inc. and BikeWalkLee will receive EIGHT radio spots!  Pledges of $500 earn us 16 spots; your $750 gift earns 24, and so forth.  Your gift will support our local treasure, WGCU Public Radio, and at the same time provide us with valuable marketing opportunities that we might otherwise not be able to afford. 

WGCU-FM can be found at 90.1 on the FM Dial (91.7 FM on Marco Island), is streamed live on WGCU.org, or can be accessed through the WGCU mobile app.  You can make your pledge of support by calling 1-800-533-9428 or by pledging online at WGCU.org.  Just make sure that you select as the nonprofit you’d like to support with free radio promos!  Tune in, make a pledge, and we'd love to thank you live on the air. 

Tied up on Oct. 22nd? or just can't wait to participate?  Click here to make an online pledge.   Just scroll down and check the box:"Streets Alive Lee County, Inc. and BikeWalkLee". Thank you!

Streets Alive Lee County, Inc. and BikeWalkLee are honored to partner with the WGCU "Your Community" Pledge Drive.

New shared use path to Bowman's Beach on Sanibel

Good news for Sanibel visitors and residents--a new shared use path is coming soon to Bowman's Beach.  Thanks to city officials who have successfully pursued grants and invested city resources, the island's path system is being expanded and improved every year. 

News-Press, Oct. 3, 2014: Big year for Bowman’s Beach on Sanibel island by Laura Ruane

Sanibel Island, famed for beaches and bike paths, soon will extend the latter asset to one of its more-popular Gulf-front parks.

City leaders recently learned they’d scored a $200,000 matching grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection to help build a half-mile-long, shared-use path to Bowman’s Beach Park.

Shared-use paths are off-limits to motor vehicles. They typically are paved, are wider than sidewalks and used by cyclists, pedestrians, dog-walkers, and people using wheelchairs and other forms of mobility assistance.

This new segment will take people across Sanibel-Captiva Road on a new crosswalk, and then onto a paved path that will parallel Bowman’s Beach Road before veering west, and ending near the park’s restrooms, playground and picnic area.

Patti Sousa, who serves on the Sanibel Bicycle Club’s board of directors, is delighted. During busy times, Bowman’s Beach Road is crowded with drivers, pedestrians, cyclists “and kids on skateboards,” Sousa said, adding: “It’s quite narrow. There’s no wiggle room — no room for error.”

Shaded overlook
The path is but one enhancement scheduled for Bowman’s: With help from county bed tax dollars, a boardwalk and lookout in the park’s bayou area and a shade structure for its ADA-accessible Gulf observation deck also will go up in the year ahead.

This should enhance the appeal of Bowman’s, already a contender for most-popular Sanibel beach.
Mayor Kevin Ruane shared anecdotal evidence of people repeatedly circling Bowman’s lot in their cars, looking for a parking spot during the winter, when the most tourists and part-time residents are here.

“We’ve heard of 45-minute- to one-hour waits for a parking spot at Bowman’s,” Ruane said. At Lighthouse Beach, “it’s more like a 15- to 20-minute wait,” according to the mayor.

A city traffic count taken at beach park entrances April 14 to April 20, however, showed a daily average of 636 vehicles entering Bowman’s. That’s about half the 1,225-vehicle daily average at Lighthouse Beach, which is closer to the causeway leading to the island.

The city has no way to account for visitation via bicycle or on foot, said Keith Williams, public works director.

At any rate, “we’re really excited about the opportunity to reduce vehicular traffic on the island,” Mayor Ruane said.

Ground-breaking for the path hinges in part on when the state funds will be available, Williams said. He added the city has the matching money in its budget. He thinks the path — 10 feet wide and about 2,700 feet long — can be built for $400,000 or less.

Network started in ’70s
According to the city of Sanibel website, the island already has more shared-use path — nearly 23 miles — than it does beachfront — 15.5 miles.

Bowman’s path is part of a master plan city leaders created in collaboration with the bicycle club, in 2009. The city began building its first bicycle and pedestrian-friendly path along the main artery — Periwinkle Way — in the mid-1970s.

In 2010, Sanibel became the first Southwest Florida community to be designated a “Bicycle Friendly Community” by the League of American Bicyclists.

Adding to the bicycle paths “isn’t just for vacationers, it’s also great for the residents,” said Billy Kirkland, Sanibel resident and the owner of Billy’s Rentals, one of the island’s major rental-bike suppliers.

“A lot of our customers stay at condominiums near Blind Pass,” Kirkland said, referring to the strait separating Sanibel and Captiva islands. Said Kirkland: “This (Bowman’s) path will make connecting to that end of (Sanibel Island) a lot safer.”