Join Councilman Scott Griggs and Bike Friendly Oak Cliff Wednesday October 23rd for at ride through downtown, starting at Main Street Garden at 8am, to the Dallas City Hall Plaza for an 8:30am press conference.

Oak Cliff cyclists will meet at 7:30am @ Oddfellows to bike into downtown together, converging with cyclists from all over town at Main Street Gardens.

Update: Bike Friendly Design District cyclists will meet at 7:30am @ Ascension Coffee.

We’ve had some major bike infrastructure come online since the adoption of our Bike Plan, and we want our Council Reps and City Staff to know that we appreciate their hard work and are excited to see more coming online soon!

Our friends at Biking in Dallas gathered some overview stats from the most recent update to Council on the Bike Plan progress (actual slides from Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan’s presentation here):

• So far, the city has completed 136 miles of bike facilities (including 125 miles off-road and 11 miles on-road), out of over 1127 miles planned. The goal is to complete everything in ten years.

• Comparing Dallas to other cities, we seem to have a lot of bike infrastructure – but if you restrict the comparison to separated facilities only, we go from leading to lagging.

• The 2012-2014 project phase is focusing on areas near downtown, and will cost about $975,000, not including maintenance.

• The Dallas Street Department has $500,000 a year to implement these facilities.

• Beyond 2014, work will expand to a much more extensive network through Dallas neighborhoods.

• This will be funded through the Street Department’s $500,000 a year and about $575,000 in 2012 bond funds, spread over four years.

• But at these currently allocated funding levels, there’s no way the planned improvements will be completed in 10 years.

• Possible funding sources include future bond programs, the city’s General Fund, grants and private donations.

The good folks at City Hall planning and implementing our Bike infrastructure need to know we support their work and we want them to do whatever is necessary to continue with our Bike Plan goals!

Invite your friends on Facebook to the event and let us know in the comments there if there’s a spot in your ‘hood where folks could join you for the ride to Main Street Garden. See you then!