Happy New Year 2013!

2012 has come and gone with a bang. A lot of things have changed for me in 2012. My love for bicycles and mass transit and urbanism has evolved over the course of the year and hopefully 2013 brings with it a new advocacy role that I am itching to jump into. In commemoration of this change in direction, I changed my Twitter account to reflect that: it is now @BikeWPB, as most of my tweets are only about bikes and news around the world that I try to bring back home. Last night we went out and about the town and West Palm Beach put on an impressive fireworks show, as usual. We biked to Clematis Street, which was closed off, and my boyfriend again made the comment that "Man...this is how it should always be..." and I wholeheartedly agree. Some guy (who almost made me fall off my bicycle) screamed at us asking what street he was on? And my boyfriend almost said "Lincoln Road" haha! But seriously, imagine this with tables and chairs in the middle and potted plants. They need to keep those stringed lights all year long at the least:

I met my other Dutch bike twin, Felicia, also out on her WorkCycles and she started telling me about her recent jump into advocacy as well. She lives at the South End of West Palm Beach along a stretch of road I also personally despise for its lack of maintenance and upkeep: She was complaining to our MPO, Brett Baronak, about it and was told that Olive Street between Belvedere and Southern Boulevards would be repaved by the end of the year. Hopefully I will be having a meeting with him soon this month so I will be bringing up this issue again. That road is in dire need of repair and we are in dire need of bicycle signage to showcase it as a safe route. She has been writing to politicians about her cycling concerns, also to no avail. I am glad to have reconnected with her and now have another partner in crime so that collectively we have a voice. She told me she almost got side-swiped by 2 inches by a car she later caught up with and tried to explain this to. The driver said he didn't see her. She's like "Really...a black woman with dreads in the middle of the day and you're going to sit there and tell me you didn't see me???" We have our work cut out for us. Go 2013!

Photo sessions with my friend Dasha

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!