Tonight is the the 3rd annual Women on Wheels event at Gregg's Cycle in Seattle. The folks at Gregg's will close their Greenlake store early, then reopen at 6:30 pm to women only.
Women on Wheels (WOW) is a celebration of women and cycling--and it feels like a ladies night out! The atmosphere is festive, with food and drinks, goody bags and raffles. Women of all ages and cycling abilities attend this event. Women bring their co-workers and friends, mothers bring their daughters.
The event features clinics, presentations, a fashion show of bicycle wear, and information from bicycle groups. The Bicycle Alliance will be there so be sure to drop by our table and say howdy. Free valet bike parking is available, so ride your bike there!
Are you driving less? A recent Sightline post reports that traffic volumes are on the decline in the Pacific Northwest. Traffic volumes have dropped not only in the urban regions of Seattle and Portland, but across the state highway systems in Washington and Oregon. Even more interesting: the trends started before gas prices skyrocketed and the economy took a nosedive.
It's March, there's more daylight, and spring is on the horizon. I'll wager that many of you are thinking about your ride season and which bike rides you might sign up for this year.
I want to encourage you to select a bike ride not only for you, but for all of us. How? Easy. There are twenty or so event rides that have pledged to make a contribution (typically $1 per rider) to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington to support our advocacy and education efforts. If you sign up for one or more of these rides, then you'll not only be riding for yourself but you'll be riding for all of us!
McClinchy Mile is the first of those rides and it's just around the corner on March 19. Organized by the BIKES Club of Snohomish County, McClinchy Mile has something for everyone. Several loops of varying lengths travel the scenic backroads of the county and can be combined for a challenging century. There's also a family fun ride on the Centennial Trail.
Take a look at our Rides Calendar to view all the rides that support bike advocacy and education and plan your ride season accordingly.
Bicycle Alliance member Kristi Moen attended her first Transportation Advocacy Day this year. She shares her impressions of the event in this guest blog post.
Advocates on Capitol campus.
Be pleasant, be friendly, smile. That was the number one tip for successfully advocating in Olympia. The advice was offered to those who converged at the state’s capitol on February 10 in support of Transportation Advocacy Day. As it turned out, the advice was excellent. Being kind helps lawmakers better understand our viewpoints and relate to the issues on the table.
And as it turns out, you also have to be fast. The meetings with our legislators and our senator were only 15 minutes long. But that was long enough to understand where they stand on the bills in work this session and to explain why supporting them is good for the constituents.
Key issues were:
Emergency transit funding for public transportation that cannot sustain their current funding in the short run because of the economy (HB1536 and SB5457)
Kickoff and awareness of a new campaign called Transportation for Washington that will address specific initiatives (find out more at www.t4washington.org/)
Bills sponsored by Bicycle Alliance of Washington and Cascade Bicycle Club that will increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians:
Washington Vulnerable Users Law (SB 5326, HB1339)
Complete Streets for Washington (SHB 1071)
Traffic Safety Education (HB1129)
The bills sponsored by BAW will not cost the state a penny, yet will substantially improve the safety for pedestrians and cyclists.
Kristi (L) meets with Rep. Eileen Cody (C).
The day was not just about cycling. Groups from pedestrian, environmental, public transportation advocacy, parks and health organizations were among the nearly 20 participating sponsors. And yes, I mentioned “health.” That was the first time I had equated health to cycling advocacy. I understand the connection and consciously benefit from it – health benefits are part of the reason why I cycle. But bringing health to the forefront for legislators to consider while thinking about bike trails, bike lanes, safe pedestrian routes and linking up public transportation was a bit of an epiphany for me. In a meeting, our legislator from the 34th district said, “She’s speaking my language,” when someone in our group brought up the health benefits of cycling. Aha! Each lawmaker has passions that will sway them. It’s our job as advocates to find those passions.
Of course, key players brought up the usual arguments for better transportation and cycling laws including sustainability, connectivity, green house gas reduction and safety. Any of those could stand on their own as valid reasons for our lawmakers to better support cycling.
Transportation is an investment into a stronger future. Even those who never touch a bike, who only drive, will benefit. Call your legislator to let them know how you feel. And be kind. You might just be the one who tips the scale.
Here at the Bike Alliance, we tend to focus on political and policy issues and leave the aesthetics of cycling to others.
That’s only natural. We’re a cycling advocacy organization, not an artists’ collective or small-scale bike frame builder. And with the legislature in session and our own strategic-planning summit in the offing, it’s important to focus on the basics.
But in the midst of this work it is nice to take a few minutes occasionally to remember that cycling can be a beautiful thing.
Take the machine itself: it’s spare, light and efficient—in fact, the most efficient means of human locomotion ever invented. And like a suspension bridge, a bicycle is beautiful in that special way that happens only when form gracefully follows function.
There’s also an aesthetic pleasure in riding a bicycle, which can bring the same sense of fluid motion that you get when skiing or swimming.
There can even be a gracefulness that’s evident when watching others cycle—especially when seen through the lens of an artist.
Which brings me to Ed van der Elsken, a 20th-Century Dutch photographer and filmmaker whose work I recently discovered via the Dutch Amsterdamize blog.
Born in Amsterdam in 1925, van der Elsken initially aspired to be a sculptor, but had to abandon his studies during World War II when the Nazis occupied his country. He later became interested in photography and moved to Paris, returning to his native Netherlands in 1955. He became one of the most influential Dutch photographers of the postwar era, capturing every aspect of life in Amsterdam in photos and movies. One of those aspects was, perhaps inevitably, Amsterdam’s ubiquitous bicycles.
Today there’s a plethora of websites and YouTube videos that visually celebrate cycling. But for me a short van der Elsken movie from 1965 captures the aesthetics of bicycling better than anything made for the Internet. Titled simply “Fietsen” (bicycling), the film captures an era, but is also timeless. Here it is:
James Fallows of the Atlantic is immersed in research for his next book and has invited guests onto his blog for a few weeks. One of the guests is Lizzy Bennett, a marketing director for Timbuk2, the messenger bag folks in San Francisco. She commutes to work by bike and has posted several times on her commutes over the last week, here, here, and here. She talks about her first ride and gives some tips to people thinking about it. The last link includes a helmet-cam video of her commute to work on the San Francisco streets. Keep in mind this is not on an enthusiast site, but Atlantic Magazine's.
Most recently she polled "the Timbuk2 community", probably meaning colleagues, contacts, and friends, about why they commuted by bike and made a word cloud. Shown below, and in the post on the Atlantic site here.
What does a Representative from Florida have to do with Washington State transportation? The answer: EVERYTHING.
Representative John Mica (R-FL), House Chair of the Transportation and Infrastucture Committee, travels to Washington on Monday, February 21st for one of a series of 14 national field hearings and public forums on the pending major surface transportation legislation. The hearings with state and local officials and transportation stakeholders will help inform the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s drafting of a long-term reauthorization of the nation’s highway, transit, highway safety programs. The previous multi-year law (SAFETEA-LU) expired in September, 2009.
Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA), from the 3rd Congressional District (Southwest WA) who also sits on Transportation and Infrastructure Committee with Representative Mica, will host the public hearing at the Vancouver PUD, 1200 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver from 9 to 11a.m. on the 21st of February. Eight officials have been invited to speak and then it will be open to the public for testimony.
Bicycling and walking are essential to your community (include an example that make the point).
Ask her to support continued dedicated federal funding for bicycling and walking programs.
Here are a few reasons why we should support biking and walking:
It’s cost effective: It’s about saving money on popular practical ways for Americans to complete short trips. It’s cost effective – 12% of trips are biking or walking trips but the federal expenditure is only about 1.5% of federal spending.
It’s popular: more bicycles will be sold than cars and trucks combined. US Census reports that bike commuting increased more than 40% between 2001-2008.
It’s practical: half of all trips are three miles or shorter and ¼ are less than a mile – an easy distance to walk or pedal if the conditions are safe.
It addresses safety; it’s healthy; and it saves money.
