Miami Bicyclists Ride to Say ‘We Love Our Lanes!’

Emerge Miami hosted another family-friendly bicycle ride on Saturday afternoon to celebrate the recently striped bicycle lanes on South Miami Avenue in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.

Around 70 cyclists came out for the “Brickell Neighborhood Bike Ride and Celebration”, a leisurely-paced ride that took riders through downtown Miami, Coral Way and the Brickell neighborhood.

A noteworthy aspect along the four mile route was that nearly every pavement segment was marked for cyclists in some fashion – either by striped lanes or “sharrows” – the shared-lane markings that remind motorists to ‘share the road’ with bicycles. Other features spotted along the way included bicycle-specific way-finding markers and “Bicycles May Use Full Lane” signs.

The ride ended at El Vato Tequila and Taco Bar in Brickell. Special thanks to El Vato manager Juan Angulo, who offered food and drink specials to cyclists as well as reserving the parking spaces outside the restaurant so riders could form an on-street bicycle parking corral!

Here are 26 bicycles fitting in the space of two cars outside El Vato. The makeshift bicycle corral attracted the attention of pedestrians and passing motorists alike, while opening up the view for customers seated outside beyond parked vehicles.

“This was really enjoyable. If you told me ten years ago that an event like this would happen in Miami I wouldn’t believe it,” said rider Andrew Jacque, as he reflected after the ride on the emerging bicycle culture in Miami. The group was not limited to Miami locals either. A visiting couple from Montana found the event details online and figured it would be a fun and interesting way to explore the city.

In addition to enjoying the mild weather and supporting a local business, the ride was a way of saying ‘thank you’ to all the groups responsible for implementing the Miami Bicycle Master Plan across the city and to urge our local officials to adopt and embrace new features to make Miami a truly bicycle-friendly community.

To find out about more local rides, visit The Miami Bike Scene for a comprehensive calendar of events. You can also join the Emerge Miami Meetup Group here.