Dress up yourself, dress up your bike and come to our next Ditmas Ride this Friday (10/29) at 7:00 pm. Of course you can join us if you or your bike are not dressed up. We will meet in front of the Qathra Cafe on Cortelyou Road between Stratford and Westminster.

Please spread the word to other bicyclists who might be interested in cycling together. If you or your friends like to be kept in the loop then you can add yourself to the Ditmas Rides email list here. You can also subscribe to our RSS newsfeed.

The purpose of the Ditmas Rides is for us to have fun and to celebrate and spread a way of getting around we already enjoy. There is no planned route and we the participants will decide where we would like to go shortly before the ride starts. Ditmas Park has a lot of small streets so hopefully we can have a joyful and stress free rides. I myself am planning to bring my daughter Nona Lily along and hope that other parents will bring their children as well.

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone soon.

Thanks, Rene

P.S.: It would be nice if some of you could RSVP so we can wait for you if you end up a little late and be encouraged doing it since we know that there will be other people showing up as well.

WHAT: Ditmas Rides Costume Bicycle Ride
WHERE: Meet in front of Qathra Cafe, 1112 Cortelyou Road (between Westminster and Stratford)
WHEN: Friday, October 29th at 7pm

Safety in Numbers
Bicycle commuting pack
Meet in front of the Flatbush Food Coop
1414 Cortelyou Road
Wednesday, June 10th, 7:30 am

If you would like to ride to work, you’re comfortable riding on streets, and you are a little scared, this is your opportunity to try commuting by bike.

Join me on my normal workday commute. We will leave from Cortelyou Road, ride through Prospect Park and go over the Brooklyn Bridge. The route is almost entirely on bike paths, the pace will be slow-ish, and we will be conservative with regard to traffic regulations.

Please be prompt, we will leave at 7:30.

This ride is not sponsored by any group or organization. Rain cancels.

If you have questions, please leave a message for Deb at 347-249-9667

Streetfilms are short videos that show living examples of streets and public spaces designed for people, where walking, biking, public transit, and fostering community are the priorities. Locations range from Copenhagen, Paris, Curitiba and Bogota to our own New York City. Discussion and party to follow, bring your friends!

Hosted by Vox Pop, cafe/bookstore/community space on Cortelyou Road in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Admission is free, food and drink will be available for purchase.

WHAT
An Evening of Streetfilms

WHEN
Wednesday June 10th at 8pm

WHERE
Vox Pop Cafe and Bookstore
1022 Cortelyou Road (corner of Stratford)
Flatbush, Brooklyn

Okay, now I can speak from first-hand experience: Summer Streets, New York City’s experiment with creating a car-free haven for pedestrians and cyclists, is truly fantastic! A group of us departed from Vox Pop Cafe in Flatbush to ride our bikes through Prospect Park and across the Brooklyn Bridge for this historic event. I must say I never thought I’d have the opportunity to cycle through Manhattan – with no fear of cars – from City Hall to 72nd Street; riding through the streets of Soho, around Union Square, under the Met-Life building and up Park Avenue to 72nd Street… it’s just a beautiful thing.

The weather couldn’t have been better (apparently whoever handles such things is a supporter), and the streets were filled with folks enjoying themselves. The question I kept hearing was “Why is it only until 1pm??”

photo: Flatbush cyclists get ready to ride to Summer Streets! (courtesy of innocent bystander)

For your viewing pleasure!

This is history in the making, folks. As Gil Peñalosa says in the film, Mayor Bloomberg and (especially!) Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan deserve credit for having the guts to try something new. And as Noah Budnick from Transportation Alternatives points out, traffic is not something that “just happens”… we CAN do something about it. Last Saturday was a BIG moment for New York City!

Summer Streets will be back this Saturday the 16th, and we will host a “feeder” ride from Flatbush. The ride leaves from Vox Pop Cafe (1022 Cortelyou Road at Stratford), and they are offering a Dollar Coffee Special to get your day started!

Union Square, car-free!

Words cannot describe the excitement of seeing Park Avenue populated with pedestrians and bikes on a beautiful summer day. It may not look like much here (this was literally five minutes before the event’s end), but I’m sure Streetfilms will have plenty of front-line footage up tomorrow! For now, check out coverage from:

- WCBS
- Gothamist
- NY1

Livable Streets advocates in New York City have dreamed of this for years, and now it’s all happening very fast…

Emulating similar experiments in Paris, London, and Bogotá, Colombia, New York City will close off to traffic a 6.9-mile route from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 72nd Street on three consecutive Saturdays, giving New Yorkers to a chance to explore and enjoy “car-free recreation corridors” — well, for six hours a stretch, at least. (NY Times)

“We anticipate that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and visitors will take advantage of streets temporarily opened for recreation,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “We hope the Summer Streets experiment will become as much a part of the New York experience as strolling the Coney Island boardwalk, participating in the 5-borough bike tour, or listening to the Philharmonic in the park.” (NYC press release, via Streetsblog)

(Photo: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Yes, that’s David Byrne and Lance Armstrong bringing some celebrity power to the proceedings. The dates are August 9th, 16th and 23rd — can’t wait! For an idea of how fun this will be, check out the Bogota’s Ciclovia on Streetfilms. Next… BROOKLYN Summer Streets!!

Another brilliant campaign from the Copenhagen Bike Culture blog. In that Nordic mecca for stylish cyclists, a relaxed bike ride to work, school, shopping, or socializing is just everyday transportation (no Lycra allowed!). I’ve already mastered the “Slow” part, but full membership seems to require stiletto heels.

To celebrate Bike Month, Bedford-Stuyvesant will be having a bike ride called The Steeple Chase. The Steeple Chase will start at Von King Park (Marcy and Greene Aves) and tour the neighborhood visiting historic churches along the way. It takes place on Saturday, May 24th from 9:00 am – noon.

We now have the registration forms for this event. You can download the forms by clicking here or you can pick one up at the YMCA (1121 Bedford Ave), the Department of Health (485 Throop Ave) or Common Grounds (376 Tompkins Ave).

Completed forms can be dropped off at on one of the pick-up locations or emailed to bedstuybikes@gmail.com.

See you on the 24th!

photo by ultraclay!