Bicycle Bash Announcement Party Brings Together Cycling Community

Cyclists from around the Bay Area came together on Tuesday night at in Seminole Heights to celebrate the announcement of the 2012 Bicycle Bash, a celebration of bicycle culture in the Tampa area.

This year's event has been moved from a county park to Fort Brooke Cotanchobee Park in downtown Tampa on Nov. 4. Tuesday's announcement was accompanied by talks from County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, City Councilman Frank Reddick and Transportation Director Jean Duncan.

"The Bicycle Bash last year was the first time really that there was a non-formal way to interact with the cycling community," Duncan said. "I'm very encouraged that we're seeing more and more events like this to get feedback and understand what the demand is from the cycling community. It reinforces that we need to keep planning because in the last three or four years bicycles have become a much bigger part of the city's future."

The event was staged by a union of nine bike shops that come together under Alan Snel's South West Florida Bicycle United Dealers. Snel is excited about moving the event from the county to the downtown area.

"I think the event will draw more people from Pinellas and will be bigger than ever before," Snel said. "We market this as Tampa Bay's bicycle festival, but I can't do it without the help of our bicycle shops. This event isn't a race, it's simply a celebration of bicycling in the Tampa area and showing people that riding a bike is gateway to a great way of life."

Central Tampa's place in the biking culture is not lost on Snel who sees the people of Seminole Heights as crucial to advancing Tampa's cycle infrastructure.

"It's a hot bed of cycling really," Snel said. "I think people are more open to looking at different lifestyles and options for transportation. I'm glad that Velo Champ is in this part of town. It's really a unique shop in a very unique part of town."

People came from all over to attend the event and hear more from local leaders about the future of bike trails in the area and to hear first hand the direction that Hillsborough County is headed in when it comes to accomodating bicycles on its roads.

"It's all politics but at least it seems like the right people are listening," Apollo Beach's Steve Muller said. "We need to see bike trails completed and more people riding bikes. The decisions that these people make effect the whole county and certainly all of the bike community, so it's good to hear what they have to say."

In Snel's words, transportation directors in cities like Portland and New York have become celebrities of local government in the eyes of the cycling community. For Tampa's Jean Duncan, the opportunity to play the role for a city in a state which leads the way in bicycle and pedestrian deaths every year is a significant one.

"We've made some progress in the past few years by having a comprehensive plan based around a multi-modal approach," Duncan said. "We're at a time in our history where people need to have other modes of transportation available to them other than cars. We have a lot of people out there on bicycles and they don't have a safe place to ride. But we're getting more funding for these things and Alan (Snel) is a big part of that because he has been a voice for this community."

Commissioner Sharpe would also applaud the efforts of Snel and is committed to transforming Tampa into a genuine bicycle city. He also announced that funding has been granted for the rescue of the in South Tampa and future plans to connect the Pinellas Trail with the Upper Tampa Bay trail look like they'll be approved in 2013.

"When I first got on the commission, you'd go to the council and talk about prioritizing bikes and you'd get a lot of strange looks," Sharpe said. "The thinking was that people didn't really ride bikes in Florida which I find ridiculous. If people ride bikes in places like Seattle where it rains constantly, they want to ride them in the Sunshine State. The problem is that it's not safe and that is something we want to work on changing."