bike jacksonville

by jack diablo
With soaring gas prices, a universal movement towards greener living, and obesity still on the rise, bicycles are more popular than ever. Providing an easy way to navigate and commute by bicycle has become an essential part of the criteria for being labeled as a progressive city. But look at any list of bike-friendly cities and Jacksonville will be nowhere to be found.
Enter Bike Jax, an organization whose mission is “to establish Jacksonville as a city that is increasingly safe, accessible, and friendly to bicycle transportation.” Started by Matt Uhrig, Bike Jax is easily the city’s most recognizable organization when it comes to bicycle advocacy.
The core of Bike Jax is bikejax.org, Matt’s blog on issues, developments and bike-related events. It’s also how the organization began. “I started it as a blog because I saw that there were all these funds coming into Jacksonville for bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure and I wasn’t seeing anything done with it so I started it as a way to be a stick in the eye of the city and let the local MPO know that someone is watchdogging them,” said Matt. Updated regularly, the website is a one-stop shop for keeping up with the local bicycle advocacy movement. In addition to great coverage you can also find Florida Bicycle Law Enforcement Guide to brush up on your rights (and restrictions) as a cyclist as well as a gas savings calculator to determine just how much money you’re saving commuting by bicycle.
Perhaps Matt’s biggest beef with Jacksonville’s bicycle infrastructure involves the difficult process required to cross the St. John’s River. “Look at the bridges. We have two bridges that bicycles can cross and they’re a quarter mile apart. If you want to get anywhere in Jacksonville, you can’t. You have to cut through downtown to cross the river by bike or by foot,” bemoans Uhrig. Seeing this as a hindrance to Jacksonville’s progression as a metropolitan city, he blames old ways of thinking. “That’s the problem with Jacksonville. It only thinks of the car, it doesn’t think of anybody else. We will never be a first-tier city until it starts thinking of everybody.”
But Bike Jax is far more than a website. With the help of a few volunteers, Matt organized the bike valet program. At various downtown events such as this year’s Jazz Festival and the weekly Riverside Arts Market, Bike Jax offers a safe and secure parking solution. Rather than try your luck vying for those hard-to-find parking spots at such events, they will store and watch your bike for free, saving you the hassle and preventing a few extra chlorofluorocarbons from escaping your tailpipe. Recently, Matt has been working with city council to create an ordinance making bike valet a mandatory service at events of 200 people or more.
Bike Jax also works with other activists and organizations to effect positive change through cycling. Teaming up with like-minded local blog Actionville, the two are working to institute a bicycle ambassador program for school-age children. The program would consist of a chaperoned bicycle commute to neighborhood elementary schools, allowing parents to feel safe about their children riding to school. Bike Jax also works with ReCycle to provide refurbished bikes to women at the Sulzbacher Center who benefit from having viable transportation while seeking employment.
As if that weren’t enough, Bike Jax hosts the Night Ride, an annual bicycle festival in 5 Points. Started just last year, the event has already become a much-anticipated staple of the fall season. Last year’s Night Ride consisted of a film festival, bike polo, maintenance workshops and concluded with a “critical mass”-style bike ride through Downtown and Riverside. “The whole purpose of the Night Ride is to get people on their bikes and get them moving around through the urban core to see how easy it actually is,” Matt explains. This year’s event will be held in conjunction with 5 Points’ First Fridays in October and feature a poster art show, pillow jousting and of course, the ride.
So far, Bike Jax has been a successful endeavor in terms of getting the lawmakers’ attention. As Matt points out, “The city is definitely more aware now. They know people are watching, they know people are reading, and they know people are thinking and talking now.” But there is much more work to do and Bike Jax is ready to take things to the next level. For starters, they are working on acquiring 501(3)(c) status to become a full-fledged non-profit organization. For Bike Jax, the fight won’t be over until every bridge and every road with a speed limit in excess of 40 mph has at least a bike lane. They are also pushing for signage that gives cyclists the use of full traffic lanes and throwing around ideas to start a bicycle co-op.
For Matt, Bike Jax is a labor of love not a paying gig. The only other official member of Bike Jax is Abhishek Mukherjee, although other volunteers occasionally help out. They are always looking for extra bodies and those interested in helping to make Jacksonville a more bike-friendly city. Contact Matt at info@bikejax.org for more information.