I somehow got roped into organizing the Silicon Valley Bike Advocacy Summit for the second year, and I have to say - things went pretty well! I couldn't have possibly done it myself, though. This year I was blessed with a committee and a co-host.
SVBC needs a WordPress wizard to help us beautify a project website. SVBC maintains the site santaclarasr2s.org and is looking for a developer to give the site a makeover. We need some serious style work, and fast! This project has already begun and we need to deck the site out with logos, some upgrades in functionality, and a new color scheme.
If this sounds like a gig you’d like to tackle, please reply to colin@bikesiliconvalley.org and tell us your availability and rates.
There are a few important things to know before one heads across our expansive country to attend the annual National Bike Summit. The time change is an important detail, as is the fact that "dude" isn't really an acceptable honorific on the east coast. But these pale in significance to another sliver of wisdom. Allow me to recommend the following as the foremost consideration for anyone embarking upon a trans-national journey that begins in San José: the San Bruno Caltrain and BART stations are not the same station.
I've been working on a passel of projects lately, from the reconstruction of this very website to the planning of a very fancy and important bike advocacy summit. (You're going, right? Of course you are! You were just about to go register at http://svbikesummit2012.eventbrite.com/, I know.)
Ernesto and I had a very active weekend at our League Certified Instructor (LCI) training in San Francisco. Not even the mildewy little hotel room we shared could dampen our spirits as we worked from morning into the wee hours with a great group to hone our skills as riders and instructors.
Recently, I've been getting my credentials together in order to become a League Certified Instructor (LCI), as designated by the League of American Cyclists. The training sessions to become an LCI are few and far between in these parts, so when the good folks at the Presidio YMCA's Ybike program told us they were going to host one, Ernesto and I had to get into gear, quickly. Ernie already passed the Traffic Skills 101 class, so he just had to pass the LCI course pretest.
I'm happy to announce that SVBC is expanding again. As a result of our Safe Routes to School work in Santa Clara and East Palo Alto, we were in need of an assistant to help Ernesto get the programs rolling successfully.
Did you hear? SVBC is bringing back the Silicon Valley Bike Advocacy Summit!
I know you thought I was going to tell you we're giving out McRibs, but hopefully a day full of networking and learning about bike advocacy issues that affect us all is more exciting that a pressed meat product sammie of unknown origins and dubious food product credentials. I dunno, just me, maybe.
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!
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.
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.
I attended the Menlo Park Planning Commission meeting on Monday night to deliver some comments regarding the Facebook environmental impact report (EIR) on behalf of SVBC. I mentioned the fact that the bicycle would be a great way to mitigate some of the traffic, noise, and air pollution that the EIR cites as "areas of controversy." It's not unusual for me to visit such meetings and comment on projects, but the efforts that lead up to this meeting were pretty extraordinary.
If you missed the Annual Winter Party last week, you're probably kicking yourself right about now after hearing how great it was. Allow me to deepen that regret with a quick photo recap of a really fun night!
About 90 people showed up for the getdown at Palo Alto Bicycles. The valet bike parking was well used, and everybody that rode to the party spent a bit of time out in the corral, comparing bikes, lights, and other accessories.
There isn't much that will get me out of bed at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. The (very) short list of motivational morning events includes flights to tropical destinations, medical emergencies, earthquakes (magnitude 6.0 or above), and waffles. I can now add youth-centric bike bridge ribbon cuttings to that list.
Santa Clara County residents, get ready for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)! This modern form of public transit is coming soon to the Alum Rock/Santa Clara/El Camino Real Corridor, and could change the way the corridor looks and functions.
You can learn all about BRT in Santa Clara County in this beautiful video:
You can learn more about Valley Rapid at www.valleyrapid.org.
