I've just returned from a nice vacation in the Caribbean--thanks to the SVBC staff, board, and volunteers for managing everything in my absence! It seems I can soon look forward to retiring, as our staff is so capable.
Before I become entirely slammed with my inbox and other piles of urgency (I don't return to the office until tomorrow), I figured I'd share my experiences with you in case anyone out there is interested or planning a future trip to the area.
Carlos and I had a very interesting meeting with C/CAG this morning to discuss some of our ideas about San Mateo County. We have researched other counties (Santa Clara, Marin, and Alameda) with respects to their bicycle planning and have compiled some best practices, which include:
SVBC members and staff have been working with the San Mateo County of Public Works in an effort to redesign the Alpine Road underpass at 280. This was precipitated by the recent death of Lauren Ward.
I was invited to attend the monthly meeting of the club that Lauren's husband rides with last night. They are, understandably, motivated to help make the roads safer for cyclists at this time. We discussed some of SVBC's advocacy and I invited them to work with us in our efforts to make the roads safe--starting with the Alpine/280 intersection redesign.
It's recently come to my attention that many of you out in the cycling community would like more news about what's going on at SVBC, and what SVBC staff are working on. We've always leaned more towards the "get things done" side of things than the "talk about what we've accomplished" side of things--after all, there's only so much time in the day--but at this point we've decided to renew our efforts to share the inside scoop with those of you who wish to listen. Call it transparency, call it the sharing of relevant and occasionally interesting information...
As people may have read about already--Caltrain is facing a major funding shortfall that will affect schedules and service as early as this July.
It's very unusual that a major commuter rail does not have a dedicated funding source. Caltrain has been jointly funded since the early nineties (the last time it had a funding emergency) by VTA, SamTrans, and Muni--the transit organizations in each of the three counties that Caltrain serves. Those three agencies have their own funding difficulties.
San Jose will be a host city on Wed., May 19, 2010 for the record-setting Amgen Tour of California professional cycling road race. The announcement was made this morning via a Twitter exchange that took place shortly before 9 a.m. PT between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of America’s most accomplished cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie and George Hincapie. This marked the first time an event of this stature has ever been announced via Twitter.
(info from City of San Jose)
MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL
WHAT: Media conference call following the announcement of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California host cities.
WHO: Andrew Messick, President of AEG Sports
WHEN: Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, 10:30 a.m. PT
DIAL-IN INFORMATION: (866) 393-0446
CONFERENCE ID: 37571596 (please reference when dialing in)
Thanks to Steven at CSJ for the tip off!
I am lucky enough to be in France and England for nearly 2 weeks for my summer vacation. Those of you who know me well know that while I sometimes travel around, I rarely actually stop working, since my job with SVBC is so engaging. This is one of those rare trips when I’ve decided to cut my contact with the outside world and focus on enjoying myself as much as possible.
So maybe the Death Ride was a bit of a stretch for my first organized ride. Let me admit from the start that I REALLY wanted to get out of it, and I almost didn’t go. My plan of riding a century every month completely failed—I was completely under trained by the time the Death Ride rolled around, only having ridden about 100 miles in a good week and maybe I’d done 2 or 3 60-70 mile rides all year. A million things seemed like a better idea—right up to the morning of when I woke up at 4 am and groaned, “Am I really doing this?”
The subsets of cycling are sociologically fascinating to me… and it’s always fun to explain them to noncyclists. Lately in my own life I’ve been having a bit of an identity crisis as a cyclist.
I started out mostly a transportation cyclist, with the occasional recreational weekend mountain bike ride. But after I joined the SVBC staff, somehow at some point riding also became a serious exercise and recreational activity. Not a big surprise there, perhaps.
It's simply amazing to me how much we've been accomplishing the last couple of weeks. Thanks to everyone, it seems like we are on a fast track towards complete mission fulfillment!
Our staff especially have simply amazed me... they've been working together very well gearing up for Bike to Work Day as well as the Tour of California and all sorts of other interesting opportunities.
I signed up for the Death Ride. Oh dear, what was I thinking? Now my partner and I are talking about doing a century every month to help prepare. Thanks to Andy C, one of my member riding buddies, for that idea. Whereas Andy C just went out and rode 100 miles at least once a month in 2008, my partner wants to ride a supported century once a month. Thus I am hoping for some help from all of you out there to determine this lovely century schedule. I've found the following:
My buddy Steven Brewster in the SJ Office of Economic Development just sent me an interesting piece about the different cycling cultures in NYC:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/09/fashion/20081009_BIKES_index...
I have always prided myself on being able to hang out with pretty much any type of cyclist and fit in fairly well--obviously a good quality to cultivate in my position. The racers have been the final frontier, really, and thanks to the Webcor cycling folks for inspiring me to cross that line.
Well, it's official. I'm completely in love with my new bicycle. She's a woman specific Trek Madone. I just returned from a ride up to Grant's Ranch (on the way to Mt. Hamilton) and... what can I say? Wow. Now I have no more need for men, or their bicycles. Ladies, I highly suggest you look into getting a woman specific bike fitted to you if you put in any higher number of miles. It feels completely different.
