Calling for auction donations!

It's a party with lots to celebrate!

The Bicycle Alliance of Washington is gearing up for its Annual Auction Gala and we have a lot to celebrate! We are marking our 25th anniversary as a leader in growing bicycling around the state, celebrating the success of Safe Routes to School, and looking ahead to a future when we can all safely ride our bikes whenever and wherever we please.
 
Please support our auction celebration with a donation.

We need a range of items that will generate spirited bidding and appeal to the whole wide world of bicycle supporters: unique getaways, active experiences, handcrafted items, gift baskets, recreation opportunities, and other enticing products. Popular offerings in the past include a Colorado Rocky Mountain getaway, a week at a Maui condo, a catered taco wagon party, ski & stay packages, gourmet meals, symphony and theater tickets, event ride entries, restaurant gift cards, handcrafted jewelry, quilts, private wine tastings, massage/spa packages and more. 

Not sure what to donate? Cash is always welcome.

Submitting your donation is easy.  Just use our online auction donation form!  You can also print out our donation form, complete it, and mail it in.

Donation questions?  Contact Louise McGrody.

This year's auction is slated for Saturday, November 3 -- again at Seattle Center Fisher Pavilion.  Be sure to check the Auction page on our website for more information and updates.

National Bike Challenge Update

Thanks to Scott Chilberg for writing this post.

Riders all across the country pedaled their way into the third month of the Get Up & Ride: National Bike Challenge this July, passing the halfway mark of the nationwide competition with the same vigor and determination that characterized the kickoff of this four-month event in May. We’re proud to have signed up 576 participants in 69 different teams statewide, and to see our dedicated riders hitting the streets, trails, and pathways every day and fastidiously logging their miles online.

Our numbers as a state are outstanding. Together, we’ve racked up 143,127 miles (enough to circle the equator more than 5 times!) over the past two and a half months, and saved 131,016 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions and $38,494 by riding on two wheels instead of four.  

The end of June also saw a second wave of individual prizewinners. Gene Smith from Tacoma won a wallet from Alchemy Goods, Amity Friestman from the Tri-Cities won the Frog lights, and Jennifer Gilpin from Seattle-Bellevue-Everett won a membership with the Adventure Cycling Association. As a reminder to the winners, if you haven’t done so already contact Louise McGrody at louisemc@bicyclealliance.org to claim your prizes!

Congratulations to all, winners or no, for an awesome first two months! Thank you to our local prize donors, Alchemy Goods and the Adventure Cycling Association, and to every single participant who’s logged even one mile toward the Washington State total thus far. We’ve got a month and a half left, so throw aside those car keys and keep biking!

Friday Fun: Bicycle R-Evolution

http://www.empoli5stelle.com/?p=779

The Bicycle Recycled

The bicycle is a sustainable form of transportation.  It’s inexpensive, doesn’t pollute, and is accessible to almost anyone.  Bikes can be used by men and women, young and old, urbanites and rural dwellers.

Bikes can be recycled to new owners.  A growing number of community bike shops are appearing around the state, making second hand bikes readily available.  Many communities have organized bike swaps as well, and there’s no shortage of used bikes on craigslist.

People are also finding creative ways to reuse bike parts, components and accessories.  Some, like Alchemy Goods, have turned it into a business.  Others do it because it appeals to their creativity, sensibility, or both.

I live with an avid gardener.  He’s also a bicyclist and enjoys refabricating things.  He recently repurposed some bike wheels and chains into a climbing trellis for his beans.  His creation is functional, attractive and quite the conversation piece among our neighbors.

Here's another example of a bicycle recycled.  I spotted this chainring and wheel mobile hanging from a deck in Bend, Oregon.

A pizza place in Spokane sports old bike frames as bike racks for their cycling customers.

I would enjoy sipping a latte on this deck.  How about you?

These are just a few examples of the bicycle recycled.  Do you have a favorite recycled bicycle item that you've seen or created?

RAPSody: Early Discount Ends July 15

In a month and a half, hundreds of bicyclists will ride around the Puget Sound, following a meandering course on paved trails and back roads, over the water and through the mountains, in a scenic weekend ride broken up by delicious snacks and beautiful rest stops along the way. The 9th annual RAPSody, a 170-mile overnight bike ride hosted by five Puget Sound bike clubs, is taking place August 25th-26th and is open for registration at a discounted early bird rate through July 15th.

If the event description alone doesn’t convince you that this is something you want to be a part of, consider the fact that proceeds from the event benefits you!  Proceeds from RAPSody support the Bicycle Alliance's statewide advocacy and education efforts. And, just for being one of our members, you can receive an additional $10 discount on top of the reduced early bird rate.

For further details about the route, logistics, food offerings, and training tips and to register online, visit the RAPSody website, or, if you still need convincing, look back at our previous blog post showcasing the ride.

RAPSody has enjoyed eight extremely successful rides to date and has provided an idyllic and challenging weekend adventure for thousands of bicyclists over the years, and, if you register as a Bicycle Alliance member before July 15th, you get to take part in the experience for just $75. Join us and other riders from all over Washington State and ride around the Puget Sound!

A tip of the helmet to the five bike clubs that organize RAPSody:  BIKES Club of Snohomish County, Capital Bicycling Club, Cyclists of Greater Seattle, Tacoma Wheelmen Bicycle Club, and West Sound Cycling Club. 

Barb Chamberlain tapped as new ED for Bicycle Alliance

The search is over. Our board has hired a new Executive Director and we are thrilled to announce that it is Barb Chamberlain of Spokane.

Barb currently serves as the Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Washington State University-Spokane campus, where she has built the communications staff from one person to a team of six. She is also a founding board member of the Empire Health Foundation, led a successful Spokane public school levy campaign, and served on the North Idaho College board of trustees.

With a passion for bicycling and active transportation, Barb worked with the Bicycle Alliance and a host of other groups when she volunteered to spearhead Spokane’s Bike to Work Week beginning in 2008. She was a member of the Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board and chaired the group in 2010-2011, and currently serves on the Transportation Advisory Committee for Spokane Regional Transportation Council. She is a daily bike commuter and launched the blog, Bike Style Spokane, as a way to encourage more women to try biking.

Barb has been a policy maker as well as a policy advocate. In 1990 she became the youngest woman ever elected to the Idaho state legislature, where she served as a state representative and senator for the Coeur d’Alene area. An Inland Northwest native, she welcomes the opportunity to apply her talents with a statewide organization.

“The Bicycle Alliance does great work that doesn’t get as much recognition as it deserves. With my experience in communications, marketing and branding I hope to position it for a clear understanding of its statewide role and importance,” Barb stated.

“It’s essential that we do that in partnership both with bike groups and with others working in this general arena, so another priority for me personally is to understand and assess all existing partnerships and look for opportunities to strengthen and to add to the overall network so it’s truly statewide,” she continued.

On the policy front, Barb wants to grow awareness both within the community of people who ride bikes and with leaders who work on tra nsportation policy and community and economic development of just how important bicycling is and why it deserves serious policy attention and consistent funding. She believes bike infrastructure and a fully multimodal transportation network in general will make critical contributions to improved health, to congestion mitigation, to air and water quality, and so many more problems we face.

"We have critical work to do given last week's congressional action on transportation and the Bicycle Alliance will work with partners at all levels to ensure our future transportation system reflects how America wants to travel, which is increasingly multimodal in scope," reflected Barb.

“It’s transportation for everyone, even for people who will never ride a bike because it helps them if others make that shift to cut down on traffic, parking, emissions, and wear and tear on the streets,” she elaborated. “With Washington named the #1 Bike-Friendly State for the fifth year in a row by the League of American Bicyclists, and with the attention biking is getting on many fronts, we need to grow as an organization to rise to the expectations and the opportunities we have before us. We can genuinely lead the nation and that’s where we need to be.”

Ted Inkley, president of the Bicycle Alliance board of directors, is looking forward to working with Barb to grow the organization and to achieve their mission of bringing cycling into the transportation mainstream.

“Barb has a great combination of skills, a long history of activism and political involvement, and a passion for cycling advocacy. I’m confident that her background as a professional communicator will serve us well in helping a broad segment of policymakers and the public to understand that getting more people on bikes will benefit everyone,” he remarked. “The goals we’ve set for ourselves as an organization are challenging, but with Barb’s leadership I know we’ll create and seize every opportunity we can to achieve them.”

Barb grew up in the Inland Northwest, first near Lewiston, Idaho, then in the Spokane Valley. She was a recreational rider until a bike lane was installed in front of her house. The new bike facility motivated her to try bike commuting and she’s been biking to work ever since.

She and husband Eric Abbott, who is a bike racer, have four children between them. They enjoy family bike rides, movies and board games. Barb loves to cook and bake bread using her pet sourdough starter. When time allows, she also practices yoga and knits.

Barb will take the reins as Executive Director in August. Outgoing director Barbara Culp announced her retirement earlier this year and will assist with the transition.

Tour d’Alley

This post was contributed by Scott Chilberg.

The Tour de France is the epitome of summer. The athleticism, the captivating, pulse-raising excitement, the camaraderie and the competition, all framed by the soft French countryside with its quaint towns and vineyards, is the perfect celebration of the sun’s return. So there’s something terribly wrong about the fact that many of us, due to the unfortunate lack of summer vacation in the professional world, must watch the taped footage of this epic race indoors in the evening after work.

This is precisely why the Bicycle Alliance, along with the International Sustainability Institute, the Metropolitan Improvement District, and a slew of neighborhood sponsors, are bringing the Tour de France outside, to the Nord Alley! As you may recall, the Nord Alley played host to the enormously successful alley watch parties for the World Cup 2010, and we’ve decided to bring them back for all you bike fans out there. We’ll be hosting viewings of this action-packed race from 11:30am to 1:30pm every weekday (except July 4) that it’s running, and will even incorporate some prizes and daily deals from local Pioneer Square businesses.

You can find more information on the Tour d’Alley, including event dates and a full list of sponsors, at the Alley Network Project’s website or on the Facebook page. Whether you’re a devoted fan or a casual observer, the Tour de France has something to offer everyone, so bring your lunch and come watch with us!