Conceived by Herb Hiller of the East Coast Greenway Alliance, and chaired by South Miami’s own Victor Dover of Dover Kohl Urban Planners WHEELS was a five-day celebration of bike-walk-transit-trails. From Wednesday, November 11 through Saturday, November 14, a series of some thirty-two activities and events were scheduled throughout the county and focused in the South Miami area. WHEELS was a program to make transportation change now, a change that improves personal lives and change that improves how we get where we’re going around South Florida.
Events officially kicked off with a view of the past and a salute to Miami’s Pioneer Cycling Heroes with a presentation at the UM School of Architecture Glasgow Hall. Presenters paid homage to local bicycling forefathers Coconut Grove’s Kirk Munroe, co-founder, League of American Wheelmen (1892) and Wilson Larkins, the bicycling milkman and founder of South Miami.
Other highlights included two days of conferences with very informed individuals which were held at South Miami Hospital’s Victor Clarke Education Center. Topics included and discussed on how South Florida will become America’s next great green mobility metro: Green Mobility: The National View and Innovative Green Mobility – Regionally and Statewide.
Unfortunately Saturday downpours closed down the showcase South Miami Bike-In Street Bash and other Saturday activities. Wheels concluded with a zany Magical Mystery History Tour with King Mango Parade’s Glenn Terry from the Grove to South Miami.
For a complete wrap-up of WHEELS 2015, go to
-
- Noted Miami historian Arva Parks presents Coconut Grove’s Kirk Monroe
-
- WHEELS organizers and principals gathered at the University of Miami Metrorail Station for a photo at the conclusion of the Magical Mystery History Tour. Pictured are (L-R) Bike 305’s Sue Kawalerski, South Miami Mayor Philip K. Stoddard, WHEELS Chair Victor Dover, WHEELS founder Herb Hiller, SOMI Magazine’s John Edward Smith, Friends of the Underline President Meg Daly, Maricé Chael of Bike SOMI, and Pat Massey of Everglades Bicycle Club. In front: Jennifer Garcia and Kenneth Garcia of Dover Kohl Urban Planners.
-
- Conference presenters included former Governor Bob Graham (top photo), FDOT District Secretary Gus Pego (center photo) and keynote presenter Ryan Gravel, originator of the Atlanta Beltline, with his topic: Transit and the Next Infrastructure (bottom photo).
