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December 29, 2011
Dear Friend,
For members, volunteers, partners, and friends of Green Mobility Network, this has been a remarkable year. Here's a quick run through some of the year's highlights and how Green Mobility Network is making Miami safer and more accessible for all users of our streets, paths, and sidewalks. We hope you'll be inspired to contribute to 2012's further progress. Please act now, while there still is time for your gift to be tax-deductible on your 2011 return.
Some of our best work this year has been achieved by teaming up  with other organizations. The University of Miami's School of Architecture helped us bring Paul Steely White down from Transportation Alternatives for inspiring talks that affirmed our mission. We hosted the Florida Bicycle Association's new executive director, Tim Bustos, in his first Miami appearance. We helped promote South Florida's week of the Bicycle Film Festival for the second year, and we launched a series of  Fix-a-Flat Clinics to teach bicycle owners what they need to do when an air pump isn't enough to correct a flat tire. We sponsored the first-ever Gables Bike Day, pulled together by Rotarians and other civic-minded Coral Gables residents who now may create a permanent organization with a broader mission. And just two weeks from now we'll join with partner groups in a ride to celebrate the M-Path Extension and its bright orange bridge across the Snapper Creek Expressway.
The M-Path Extension, by the way, has been the object of our attention almost from the date of our founding in 2007. We monitored all the steps of the planning that led to the recent construction between U.S. 1 and the Dadeland shopping center. Our advocacy and suggestions to the authorities are reflected throughout the stretch from SW 67th Avenue to the south side of the Dadeland South Station. We're already engaged in the same careful attention to the next stage of M-Path improvement.
Our work has been noticed and encouraged by grant-makers. Two helped us purchase signs  to identify the M-Path and South Dade Trail as part of the East Coast Greenway. Another is helping us revive the plan of a Biscayne-Everglades Greenway connecting our county's two national parks. We're creating a cyclist's map of Miami, and we'll soon apply for funds to help parents get their kids safely walking or bicycling to school and back.
Perhaps our most visible work this year has been bike valet. This free service, which reduces noise, air pollution, and traffic jams near various festivals, is catching on to the point that event promoters are asking for it. We're happy to keep organizing it wherever we have sponsorship and sufficient volunteers. It certainly has provided enjoyable days for our members and friends, not to mention valet users.
Less visible, but embraced by hundreds of South Floridians, are our non-partisan efforts to advise local, state, and federal lawmakers on the policies and appropriations that will contribute to safer, healthier travel for everyone who lives, works, visits, or studies in greater Miami. Our members, of course, have the earliest opportunity to act on our legislative alerts, but when the need is large enough we spread the word to others, too.
Members' dues are important to keep this work afoot. They are definitely appreciated. But dues alone are not sufficient to the task. It takes contributions as well, and this is your opportunity to do good things for the quality of life throughout the Miami community. Just mail your dues or donation to the address above, or go to www.greenmobilitynetwork.org and use one of the yellow Pay Pal buttons to join or give electronically. If you prefer to pledge, there's a form you can download at our membership page. When you've given, you'll know that you helped to make our town safer and healthier for yourself and all your neighbors. You'll enjoy nice member discounts at cooperating merchants and be the first to learn of our fun social rides and other events. We hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
John Hopkins
Executive Director
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