SVBC is your best source for bicycling information in the Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties. Check this page to learn about interesting events, volunteering opportunities, and current issues facing bicyclists.
One of the design goals for the new site is to incorporate more media in the presentation, and to make it easy for everyone to share.
We hope to include a lot more photos in posts, so everyone can see how vibrant and diverse the cycling community is in Silicon Valley (and it doesn't hurt that nearly everyone has a camera on them at all times!). ^_^
You probably noticed the re-do of our website. It is still a work in progress, causing us all various degrees of frustration, including for our web developer, who is working hard to get it finished. It is going to be great when it is finished. In addition to the redesign, which is a lot in itself, we moved to a new host. This will be better in the long run, as our former long-time host caused various problems and breakdowns from time to time.
This timely blog just in from SVBC Board of Directors member Ian Dewar. Listen up and act fast!
The Future of transportation is here… and it does not look good for cyclists.
On Thursday Feb 2nd, the House Transportation committee will take the first vote on the new transportation bill called the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. This bill shockingly eliminates all federal funding for biking and walking. This is a $260 billion bill that will support all federally funded transportation programs for the next five years. Not only has the bill removed mention to key cycling projects, it actively eliminates programs that most cycling funding comes from, including Safe Routes to School and the Transportation Enhancements program.
This will be the inaugural changelog. I am not going to follow any particular standard; rather, I will try to make it as readable as possible, so folks at home can play along.
Feel free to leave comments if you want clarification on anything. ^_^
As the lucky staff person who gets to receive payments and keep track of volunteer hours, I see the names of all the individuals and companies who support SVBC throughout the year. Today, I’d like to call out some of the bike shops that have become great supporters of our mission in many ways.
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition sponsored our first team meeting in San Jose last night at Pho69. We were joined by several members who work for the City of San Jose as well as other local residents. We all had one vision in mind: to make San Jose a safe and fun place to ride a bike.
We had a great meeting of the SVBC San Jose Team last night. Thanks to everybody who came out, and thanks to Pho 69 for giving us a quiet, spacious loft to meet in!
Yesterday Jen and I met with a team in Los Altos Hills--the mayor, the city manager, and the lead for the new Traffic and Safety Committee.
We discussed bicyclist safety issues as well as the frustration some of their residents feel about cyclists, and proactive ways to deal with that.
SVBC is engaged in a Safe Routes to Schools program in East Palo Alto. We are working with the Ravenswood City School District and the San Mateo County Office of Education to implement a program that will enhance safety and encourage kids to walk and bike to school.
This evening we welcomed the new SVBC Board of Directors members with a dinner and short meeting. I'm delighted to have Dave Fork, Scott Lane, and Phil Brotherton join the SVBC board. It was wonderful to hear their motivations for serving SVBC and our mission to promote cycling.
I spent a couple hours at the San José City Hall today, tabling at a commute alternatives fair hosted by the City's Green Team. In addition to the SVBC table, there were representatives from the City of San José Department of Transportation, 511.org, Valley Transit Authority, Clipper, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and others.
SVBC has put out a call for resumes from persons interested in our Safe Routes to School Assistant position. We are looking forward to hiring someone to work on our Safe Routes to School program which is beginning in the City of Santa Clara. Notices were posted in various media several weeks ago, and we have received a number of great resumes and are in the process of reviewing them to set up some interviews. This is actually fairly time consuming, as we want to be thorough in considering anyone who meets the qualifications.
It's been an exciting week here at SVBC Global Headquarters. I started things off with a very positive evening at the Menlo Park Planning Commission as it fielded public input on the Facebook EIR. The next night, I called in to my first meeting as a member of the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition.
Last night I attended a meeting of the San José Bike Co-op group that's been meeting for several months. Member Cody Kraatz and others have been spearheading the effort to create a community space in San José.
At last nights meeting, the group agreed on a new name: the San José Bike Clinic! Very exciting. Amazingly, we also put together a mission statement: The mission of the San Jose Bike Clinic is to provide a shared space for bicycle repair and education and to build a robust and diverse cycling community in San Jose.
I went to a regional Bike to Work Day Marketing Committee meeting up in Oakland this week. It was attended by representatives from the other Bay Area bike coalitions. The main meeting agenda was to review the design concepts for this year's BTWD event. The graphic designer presented three ideas to the group and the vote was close to unanimous on one of the designs. The graphic designer will go back to the drawing board and provide us with a couple more renditions of the concept we agreed on. Once approved by the group it will be sent off to be printed on the bags.
