What Is Bikejax?
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
“What is Bikejax?” we get asked numerous times at the bike valet. Newbies at the Riverside Arts Market (link) wonder if we are a shop or a club. “Neither” we reply.
Bikejax started as a blog that talked about bicycling in Jacksonville. It mirrored the likes of BikePortland.org by putting a spyglass on the almost invisible community of bicyclists. Bikejax caters to a specific community of cyclists, namely the utilitarian kind. ‘People on bikes’ is what we like to call them. They are not ‘Bicycle Lifestylists’ or ‘City cyclists’. There is no hint of consumerism attached to the definition of this community.
The aim of Bikejax has been to promote bicycles as transportation. Soon after getting tired of bitching about the deplorable conditions of bicycling in Jacksonville, Matt Uhrig decided to ruffle some feathers. The phenomenal success of the night ride (link) was a beginning. Then came the ghost bikes, the MPO meeting participations, Vision 2035 participations etc. Only a year after its inception, Bikejax has been on TV (link)(youtube link), raised awareness on bicyclist deaths through ghost bikes(link)(link), participated in and organized one of the most fun rides in the history of Jacksonville (link)(link)(link) and finally started and consistently maintained a successful and free Bike Valet service (link) which has few rivals in the entire USA.
The informal saying goes, “Bikejax has achieved more in one year than most formal bicycling clubs have in decades”. Though all these tasks have been possible through the support and dedication of countless volunteers, merchants, City officials and FDOT officials, the one man that needs to be thanked is Matt Uhrig for his idea, relentless gumption and perseverance.
