Archive for the 'Bikes' Category

"Make Miami a bicycle friendly city"

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on December 18, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Cycling, DPZ, Miami and Miami Herald
. 4 Comments


That’s the message of DPZ planner Mike Lydon, who recently had this nice letter printed in the Miami Herald. Here’s a reprint:

An increasing number of cities, large and small, welcome bicycling as an energy efficient, healthy and economically sustainable means of alternative transportation. Chicago, for example, is currently implementing its Bike 2015 Plan, which makes bicycling an integral part of the city’s daily life through infrastructure projects, programs and policies. Likewise, a bicycle master plan underway in Portland is upholding and expanding its reputation as the most bicycle-friendly city in America.

Looking internationally, in just a few years Bogotá has implemented a highly integrated citywide bicycle system, and every Sunday it hosts Ciclovia, an event that closes 70 miles of the city’s streets to traffic, allowing bicyclists and pedestrians to celebrate a car-free public realm. Perhaps more dramatically, Paris executed a citywide bicycle sharing system that transformed it into one of Europe’s most bicycle-friendly cities. Indeed, with well over one million rides logged on 20,000 low cost bicycles available at high-tech stations, the City of Light has repositioned itself to also become the city of bikes.

In contrast, Miami is choosing not to compete. To date, locating a sidewalk bike rack is more difficult than securing a Saturday night parking spot near Lincoln Road. On-street bike lanes simply do not exist. Nor do street signs directing motorists to share the road with their two-wheel “subordinates.”

Cyclists do not have a bicycle sharing program to look forward to, or even a simple bike map showing them the friendliest streets on which to travel. What’s worse, there seems to be surprisingly little commitment by the city to improve the situation on any level. This runs counter to America’s most vibrant cities like Chicago, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and even our own Miami Beach, where an official citywide bicycle master plan is currently adding signage, bicycle racks and bicycle lanes with great success.

Yet the city of Miami could become a great bicycling city. We have fantastic weather, bicycle friendly flat terrain and a population that seems to enjoy the abundance of outdoor activities that South Florida provides. It’s not as if Miami does not have a fair share of cyclists. I see them on my daily commute from the beach, through downtown and into Little Havana. I also bicycle with them in the monthly critical mass ride over the Rickenbacker Causeway to Virginia Key and Key Biscayne.

We just need to better accommodate them, and we can. The city’s ubiquitous grid features many wide street right-of-ways that, where appropriate, easily could include bicycle-related infrastructure. Such a system should connect some of the city’s up-and-coming urban destinations, too far to reach by foot, but too frustrating to reach by car — the Biscayne Corridor, Design District, Wynwood, Downtown, Brickell, Little Havana, Little Haiti and Coconut Grove, as well as the city’s outlying neighborhoods.

If Miami is to unlock its great bicycling potential, it must consider hiring a bicycle planner (yes, they do exist) to create an ambitious bicycle master plan, and one that supplements the provisions of the Miami 21 plan. The bicycle plan must be city-wide and address everything from safety and education to actual policy and infrastructure implementation. Moreover, the plan should set realistic benchmarks that are able to be realized in both the short and long term.

So what gives, Miami? Why don’t we have an official bicycle planner on staff aiding the supposed urban renaissance proclaimed by DWNTWN billboards? Why not be bold and make Miami a year-round cycling destination? The benefit received from creating a bicycle plan would do much to change the perception of the city, internally and externally. It would also improve the city’s livability. Why should we settle as a perpetually pedestrian and bike unfriendly city? We know that sinking more money into auto-oriented infrastructure only makes congestion and pollution worse. We know our current modes of automobile transport are inadequate, frustrating and contribute to global warming, an issue that all South Floridians must take seriously.

It’s time for the city to move in a new direction — one relying upon more pedestrian and bike-friendly urban forms as a means to achieving a vibrant, sustainable city for the 21st century. However, without recognition from city officials, Miami’s great potential has little chance of becoming a reality. A bike planner might just be the best place to start.

Note: All links were provided by the author of this post and did not appear in the original Miami Herald print.

Seeing Miami From a Bike

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on September 10, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, DPZ, Miami, Miami Beach and Planetizen
. 0 Comments

Last night I was perusing through various planning news sources, when I came across an excellent Planetizen blog entry by Mike Lydon, a planner at Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ). In the blog entry, Lydon uses photographs and captions to describe his bike commute from his South Beach apartment to the DPZ office in Little Havana.
Mike is spot-on with his commentary and captions. The pictures do a nice job illustrating the duality of Miami. Almost the whole time I was navigating Mike’s column, I was nodding my head and thinking, “this sounds exactly like how I would’ve described it”.

I highly recommend checking it out here.

Photo courtesy of Mike Lydon via Planetizen

Bike-Sharing: Revealed

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on August 31, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Paris, Velib and bike-sharing
. 1 Comment

We’ve spent considerable time talking about the merits of bike-sharing programs, offering particularly high praise for Paris’s Velib. However, it may seem like a fantasy as most of these programs are only available overseas. Fortunately, here is a great video that shows bike-sharing in Paris is very real. It explains how it works, from security to maintenance and everything in between.

I definitely recommend checking it out, so you have a better understanding of the system and can clearly describe it at planning/bike workshops.

<— Sidebar Woes

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on August 30, 2007
in Bikes, Blog Updates, Blogger, Sunpost and bike lanes
. 0 Comments
Not Exactly sure what caused the Speaking Out! sidebar widget to lock up on us, but, I’ll be spending some time today pretending that I know how to edit the CSS to fix it… Till then, stay tuned, there’s a bunch of news out there for us to cover including Kirk Nielsen’s comparison between our sad bike infrastructure and that of Copenhagen’s….

Miami-Dade has Abysmal Cycling Record

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on August 6, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Charlie Crist, MPO, Miami-Dade County and bike lanes
. 2 Comments

Click on the image for an enlarged, clearer view

I was recently looking through some old reports I have, when I discovered some depressing data that illustrates just how bad cycling conditions in Miami-Dade are. In the above graphic, the county’s roads were graded A-F based on the presence (or lack thereof) of typical “bike-friendly”conditions. Of course, a grade of “A” indicates high-quality cycling conditions and “F” indicates the least favorable conditions.

Some main criteria:

  • Presence of a bike lane or paved shoulder
  • Proximity of the cyclist to vehicular traffic
  • Characteristics of the vehicular traffic
  • Pavement condition
According to the report:

“Of the over 1,500 miles analyzed, only 8.6 percent of roadway miles received an acceptable level of service score of “C” or better. Over 90 percent of the roadway miles received an unnacceptable LOS score of “D” or worse, with approximately 58 percent of all segments receiveing an LOS score of “E” and 5.7 percent an LOS of “F”.”


Within the defined bicycle network, the County currently has less than 12 miles of on-road bicycle lanes meeting FDOT criteria for a bicycle lane. While there have been minor improvements in the overall number of county bike lane miles since 2001, they haven’t even cracked the surface regarding necessary improvements.

I gathered this information from the Miami-Dade Bicycle Facilities Plan 2001. While there is some encouraging language in the document implying cycling is a legitimate, important form of urban transportation, little has come out of the report, as evidenced by similar cycling conditions six years later. If Charlie Crist is serious about being a “green” governor, he would mandate that by law all Florida municipalities must create bicycle master plans, as well as language requiring at least 40 percent of roadway miles to score an acceptable “C” grade or better within a specified time-frame. A measure like this would ensure cycling catapults to the forefront of transportation planning in every town and city in Florida, which is long overdue.

"I Love Paris on a Bus, a Bike, a Train and in Anything but a Car"

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on July 27, 2007
in Bikes, Miami-Dade Transit, New york times, Paris, Sustainability and public space
. 1 Comment
Serge Schmemann has written an excellent editorial in the New York Times, where the spotlight is on Paris again as an emerging global leader in livability and sustainability. It goes hand-in-hand with the cycling post from yesterday. Miami (and the U.S.) could learn a lot.

Click here to read it.

Photo courtesy of paytonc’s flickr

Extreme Urban Cycling

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on July 11, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Cycling, Manhattan and New York
. 2 Comments

The video above shows a bunch of New York’s infamous bike messengers racing through the streets of Manhattan, no holds barred. In no way am I advocating cycling like this in Miami (or any city for that matter), and in no way do I consider this safe or sane. I don’t even condone their often hostile actions toward pedestrians. However, it does show just how fast you can get through a city on a bike - oh yeah and it’s entertaining, too.

Note: Fast Forward to the 45 second mark for the beginning of the race.

Update Regarding Quebec’s Route Verte

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on July 1, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Quebec, Route Verte and bikeway
. 0 Comments
In a recent post, I profiled Quebec’s “Route Verte” bikeway, touting it as a “250+ mile long route”. However, I missed a digit in there: the bikeway is actually an astonishing 2,500+ miles long!

In the post I also compared Route Verte’s length to traveling between Miami and Daytona Beach, or between New York and Washington. However, it’s actually roughly the equivalent of a bike path from Miami to San Diego or from Miami to New York and back.

Thanks to Mike from “littlecircles” for pointing this out, and to “Streetsblog“, an awesome livable cities blog in New York, for the plug.

Important Cycling Meeting Set for Thursday Night

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on June 27, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Black Creek Trail, Cycling and Miami Dade
. 0 Comments
Another important opportunity to improve cycling in Miami-Dade will occur tomorrow night.

The issue at hand will be the proposed extension of the “Black Creek Trail” 8.8 miles to reach the Krome Trail at the L-31 N levee. Not surprisingly, there’s a vocal and organized opposition to the extension, so it’s important that cycling proponents or anyone who cares about sustainability shows up to this meeting.

The meeting will be held at:

Click here to visit the Spokes N’ Folks blog for details and additional information.


Miami 21 Updates

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on June 25, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, DPZ, Miami, Miami 21, Parking and bike lanes
. 10 Comments

A few days ago the most recent amendments to Miami 21 were published on the code’s website, www.Miami21.org.

After looking it over, here are some noteworthy amendments:

  • The addition of an official definition of bike lanes and bicycle routes
  • The inclusion of cycling as a form of transportation to be promoted as a means of achieving sustainability
  • The requirement that developers post a “performance bond” at the time of permit application, which will force all new buildings over 50,000 square feet to be at least LEED Certified Silver. Failure to accomplish these standards within one year after the completion of the project would force developers to pay into the Miami 21 Public Benefits Trust Fund (would help fund affordable housing, among other things)
  • Article 3.7.1.d: Bicycle use of thoroughfares should be as follows: Bicycles and vehicles may share use of lanes on thoroughfares with design speeds of thirty 30 mph or less and should not share use of lanes on thoroughfares with design speeds of more than thirty (30) mph. Thoroughfares may include dedicated bicycle lanes. Greenways, waterfront walks and other Civic Spaces should include bicycle lanes.

  • Article 3, Section 3.7.1.e, Thoroughfares: Bicycle Lanes may be made part of thoroughfares that have sufficient paving width to accommodate bicyclists’ safety. A City-wide bicycle plan may designate an interconnected network serving bicyclists with a series of routes that include Bicycle Lanes as well as Bicycle Routes that give bicycles priority, such as those Thoroughfares which parallel major corridors and which can be reconfigured to limit conflicts between automobiles and bicycles.
  • Developers will receive incentives to reach Gold or Platinum LEED Certification
  • Down-zoning of T3-L from allowing 18 units/acre to only 9 units/acre
  • The requirement of at least one bicycle rack for every 20 vehicular parking spaces (it used to be 10 in some cases)
  • Within a half mile radius of a TOD and within a quarter mile of bus transit, the required parking may be decreased by 30%. In T6-48, parking for residential uses located within 600 feet of a Metrorail or Metromover station shall not be required.
  • Bulb-outs may be added where Thoroughfare widths are wide and design speed high, or where sidewalks are narrow in order to facilitate pedestrian safety.
So as you can see, there is some important new language that has either been added or altered within Miami 21. It’s very encouraging to see all the new bicycling components, including language recognizing bike lanes and bicycle routes. However, I’m disappointed that they doubled the number of vehicular parking spaces necessary before even one bicycle rack is mandated. Perhaps most important of all, though, is the language encouraging the creation of a Bicycle Master Plan. This will be where cycling in Miami really takes off, not through a zoning code.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about the performance bond. It sounds like a good idea upfront, but I worry that wealthy developers will just say “the hell with LEED” and just plan from the get-go to pay into the special trust fund. Even though the trust fund is designed to help fund affordable housing, we just cannot sacrifice opportunities to have green buildings.

I was very disappointed to see the T3-L designation get down-zoned. Could this be a bone thrown to “suburb-in-the-city” types who fear density and true urban living?

As for the parking reduction language, it sounds pretty good on paper. However, I would much prefer to see it mandated instead of just an option, because developers in Miami do not have a good track record of reducing parking when possible under the current code.

Introducing the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on June 18, 2007
in Bicycles, Bikes, Biscayne National Park, Biscayne-Everglades Greenway, Everglades National Park and South Miami-Dade
. 5 Comments
Photo courtesy of the Miami Herald

Good news for bicycle advocates: the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway is getting closer to becoming a reality. The proposed 42-mile trail would be the first and only bike trail in the U.S. to connect two national parks (Biscayne National Park & Everglades National Park).

The landmark proposal is still “largely conceptual, with designs nearing completion”, according to park planner at Everglades National Park, Fred Herling. As it currently stands, however, the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway is to be composed of two routes. The first route would originate at Biscayne National Park and travel westbound through Homestead and then to the Ernest P. Coe Visitor Center just past the entrance of Everglades National Park. The second route would then originate at EPC Visitor Center, then travel back eastbound to Biscayne National Park via Florida City this time.

According to the Herald, the Greenway would be replete with trail amenities including benches, rest stops, scenic mile markers, vegetation markers, and even occasional outlets for kayaking and canoeing.

How much is this going to cost, and who’s going to pay you ask? Current estimates are approximately $30 million. Homestead has applied for federal funding, which officials feel confident they will receive. Miami-Dade County has agreed to pick up a portion of the tab so far, but only for a small eastern segment.

I must say, though, while it is very encouraging to see this level of support for such a large bicycle project, it still appears that cycling is considered a “recreational pursuit” and not so much a legitimate form of transportation within this county. We need to continue to pressure for a Bicycle Master Plan – one that includes a vast network of urban bike lanes and greenways as well as recreational trails. Hopefully the Biscayne-Everglades Greenway will be the first step in a new direction for bicycle transportation policy in Miami-Dade County.

Making Cycling Even More Attractive

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on June 14, 2007
in Amtrak, Bikes, Brompton, Brooklyn, Dahon, Folding bikes, Metrorail, Miami, Transit and bike lanes
. 11 Comments


As you may already know, I support bicycles. I am a huge advocate for improved bicycle infrastructure in Miami, including a comprehensive Bicycle Master Plan.


Nonetheless, I often speak to people who have concerns about using bicycling as a legitimate form of transportation, even if Miami had hundreds of miles of separated bike lanes.

Some of the more popular concerns include fear of theft, lack of secure racks, and problems with the bike’s generous proportions, particularly when on a crowded train or attempting to store it inside of a building. Fortunately, I’ve found a solution to most of these concerns: folding bikes.

The folding bicycle certainly isn’t new technology, but it’s rare I see people using these bikes and even rarer to hear people talk about them.

A couple weeks ago, I was introduced to the amazing convenience of the folding bike. I was in Brooklyn at the time, and was planning on going down to Philly for the weekend to visit some old friends. Lucky for me one of my friends allowed me to borrow their new Dahon.

After learning how to fold and unfold the bike, I packed some clothes in a backpack, and raced off through Brooklyn, over the Brooklyn Bridge, and into Lower Manhattan. I decided to test its convenience on the subway – no problem. Even fumbling at bit, it only took about one minute to fold up the bike and it was light (only like 20-25 lbs.) enough to carry right over the turnstile. The C train was relatively crowded, but I was still able to get a seat comfortably while holding the folded bike.

At Penn Station, I didn’t have to worry about maneuvering a regular sized bike through masses of people, nor having to lug it up or down stairs/escalators. I boarded Amtrak, stowed the bike in the rack above my seat, and read a book during the hour and change trip.

Upon arriving at 30th Street Station in Philly, I didn’t even have to bother with cab fare – I just unfolded the bike and road off to meet my friends about 12 or 13 blocks away. Upon arriving at my friends’ place, I folded the bike back up, walked past the doorman without any looks or objections, took the elevator with ease, and stored it in their small apartment without feeling guilty about space.

I was hooked. I just ordered a Dahon myself, and can’t hardly wait another day for it to arrive. In the meantime, let me share with you just a short list of benefits for folded bikes:

  • Integrates flawlessly with all forms of transit. Instead of taking up a bunch of space on a Metrorail car, or loading and unloading a regular sized bike on the front of a bus, the folded bike is easy to carry on board
  • They usually fold up in just 15-30 seconds
  • Most of them fit conveniently into a duffel bag or suitcase – perfect for carry-on luggage on planes
  • They take up a fraction of space in your home (especially great for smaller living spaces)
  • No longer do you have to worry about them getting stolen from some random chain-up or even a rack. You probably won’t even need to buy any chains or locks in the first place
  • You could even bring it into the office. Put it in a carrying bag, it stores easily
  • Performance is as good as or better than regular sized bikes, depending on what model and/or brand you use
  • Allows you the freedom to go just about anywhere; its convenient integration with transit is particularly beneficial
To learn more about folded bikes and their benefits, check out this great link.

Photo courtesy of joelmann’s flickr account

Bicycle Town Hall Meeting Today

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on May 31, 2007
in Bicycle Boulevard, Bikes, Community Meeting, Coral Gables, Public Works, Safety and bike lanes
. 1 Comment

The Case for Bicycle Boulevards

Published
by
Ryan Sharp
on May 25, 2007
in Bicycle Boulevard, Bikes, Coconut Grove, Little Havana, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Morningside, Portland, Streetfilms and bike lanes
. 2 Comments

Today I was going to speak about Bicycle Boulevards - specifically how they can benefit Miami (or any city) and how they might be implemented. However, the guys from StreetFilms have already made a great video explaining the Bicycle Boulevard and its benefits.

As for Miami, I think Bicycle Boulevards are a very necessary component of the larger pedestrian/bicycle-oriented system that would make our city(ies) more livable.

Right off the top of my head, three good potential Bicycle Boulevards in Miami could be:

-SW 6th St between SW 4th Ave & SW 27th Ave
-Tigertail Ave between Sw17 Ave & Mary St
-N Federal Hwy/NE 4th Ct between NE 36th St and NE 79th St

SW 6th Street is the classic example of wasted street potential at the expense of maximizing automobile traffic flow. Despite on-street parking on both sides, this street is too wide for a one-way. Combined with traffic synchronization that allows the driver to speed through almost 20 blocks without a red light, traffic calming is definitely in order. However, SW 6th happens to run right through the heart of Little Havana, one of the densest neighborhoods in all of the SE United States and perhaps Miami’s most organic neighborhood. Due in large part to the density of this corridor, it has a fairly high number of pedestrians and cyclists in proportion to most other residential areas of the Greater Miami area. With the necessary traffic calming and addition of bicycle-oriented measures/infrastructure, I think this street has great potential for a Bicycle Boulevard.

Tigertail Avenue, officially holding “Scenic Transportation Corridor” status with the City of Miami, also has great potential as a Bicycle Boulevard. One thing is for sure: it is a lot more scenic by bike or by foot than it is by automobile. Unfortunately, Tigertail currently has no bike infrastructure of any kind, and several portions of the Avenue are even without sidewalks. Moreover, during rush hours Tigertail is turned into a bypass for thru-traffic avoiding US-1 or Bayshore Drive. It wouldn’t take much to make this into a Bicycle Boulevard, though. I don’t have official statistics, but from personal experience I would estimate that Coconut Grove has the greatest number of cyclists per capita in all of Greater Miami. I’m sure residents living along the Tigertail corridor would love to have fewer cars rumbling by their homes and making this historic street hostile to cyclists and pedestrians.

I think N. Federal Highway/NE 4th Ct has good potential as a Bicycle Boulevard for several reasons. First, it runs between NE 2nd Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard, and should not be reserved as another N/S arterial. Secondly, it would integrate very well with the Streetcar, allowing people to efficiently get from downtown to almost the City Line without ever driving. Hopefully, planners would incorporate bicycle infrastructure into proposed make-over projects for 79th Street - even having the vision to connect it over the causeway to North Beach. Also, the NE 4th Ct section is already in pretty good shape physically, having narrower streets, slower speed limits, and shade trees. However, the N. Federal Highway segment from NE 36th Street to NE 55th Street definitely needs a makeover. Designating it a Bicycle Boulevard affords the perfect opportunity for planners to remodel this currently insipid, hostile road into a high quality urban street that is the backbone for several emerging neighborhoods.

In closing, I must note that a very necessary component of these Bicycle Boulevards would be their integration with a larger system of Bicycle infrastructure. We don’t want to have these Boulevards originating and/or terminating in hostile places for cyclists. This is why it is critical for planners to develop a comprehensive Bicycle Master Plan for the City and County that recognizes cycling as a legitimate transportation alternative, not just a recreational pursuit.

Wednesday Headlines

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on May 23, 2007
in Accident, American Airlines, Bikes, California, Floating Condos, Ford, GE, HSR, Holland Tunnel, Hybrid Bus, MIA, Miami, Orlando, Parsons/Odebrecht, People Mover and bus
. 3 Comments
  • MIA is experiencing a sudden surge of International Flights. American Airline’s recent announcement of 14 additional round trip flights to Colombian destinations (Baraquilla, Medellin, and Bogota) and year round, non-stop flights to Montevideo, Uruguay, further solidified the carrier’s position in Miami and Latin American. Meanwhile, South African Airways is also considering adding daily non-stop flights between Miami and Johannesburg and Brazil’s TAM is adding daily non-stop flights to Rio de Janeiro. There are also preliminary talks of Virgin America coming into the market within the next five years. Hopefully the recent surge of interest in MIA will justify the half billion dollars commissioners recently approved to complete the North Terminal project. The North Terminal, as we’ve discussed in the past, is about 1 billion dollars over budget, 393 days behind schedule, and the cause of our humiliating “exercising” train in Japan. I’d like to know how the Parsons/Odebrecht Joint Venture Contractor can justify a Billion dollars of cost overruns and more than a year in delays…Note: Parsons/Odebrecht is currently the contractor managing the MIA South Terminal (Over budget, Behind Schedule), Miami Intermodal Center (Over budget, Behind Schedule), MIA North Terminal (Over budget, Behind Schedule), MIA People Mover (Behind Schedule), and Odebrecht was the contractor in charge of the construction of the Carnival Center (Over budget and behind schedule, to say the least.) Anyone else see a worrisome trend evolving here? There’s a common denominator with Odebrecht: the County. The Question then becomes who’s responsible? The joint venture also placed a bid for the contract to build the Port of Miami Tunnel, however, a Spanish firm was granted that contract (that is unless some crazy idea that the firm should not be granted the job because of it’s own legal ties to Cuba becomes part of someone’s political agenda…)
  • In Eco News, Orlando will become the first city in the United States to operate a fleet of Hydrogen powered buses built by Ford. The city will use the 8 hydrogen buses to ferry passengers around the airport and convention center. Meanwhile GE today unveiled the first ever Hybrid Road locomotive…
  • Speaking of Buses, an MDTA bus plowed through a little Havana Church before sunrise today…
  • Floating Condos? Man, I hope this doesn’t catch on…
  • Good news for the California HSR initiative: A senate subcommittee has approved a 45-point, 2 Million Dollar initial budget…
  • The Holland Tunnel is facing 30+ minute delays at 5:30 on a Friday evening, how did this guy get through in 5 minutes? Watch the video to see…
  • Three Cents off each Gallon of Gas? Oh, you shouldn’t have! No, Really…

Update: Courtesy of Mark, in the Comments Below:

  • American Airlines will start daily flights to Valencia, Venezuela pending Venezuelan government approval this fall.
  • American Airlines will start four weekly flights each to Recife and Salvador da Bahia, in Brazil, later this year pending Brazilian government approval.
  • American Airlines is set to announce in a few weeks the launch of the only non-stop service between South Florida and Austin, Texas this fall.
  • American Airlines just launched new non-stops to Fayetteville, Arkansas and in June adds additional service to Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cozumel, Freeport, Jacksonville, Key West, Nassau, and Rio de Janeiro.
  • VARIG will resume service to Miami this December, with daily non-stop service to Rio de Janeiro.
  • AeroSur will increase service between Miami and Bolivia in June from 3x to 4x a week.
  • El Al just increased service between Miami and Tel Aviv last month, from 2x to 3x a week.
  • Aerolineas Argentinas will begin 5x weekly non-stop service between Miami and Sao Paulo on 1 September 2007.
  • AirTran will launch the only non-stop service between Miami and Kansas City on 7 November 2007. On the same day, they will launch the only low-fare non-stop service between Miami and Baltimore.
  • Ecuador’s AEROGAL has applied with the US DOT to fly to Miami, and is awaiting US approval to begin scheduled service later this year.
  • Iberia just increased Miami-Madrid service from daily to 10x weekly.
  • Air Plus Comet is planning to start four weekly flights between Miami and Madrid in November.
  • German airline LTU more than doubled MIA service last week. They now serve Miami 5x a week, instead of 2x. They have three flights a week from Dusseldorf, Germany and two flights a week from Munich, Germany.

Simply Remarkable…