Last night’s Bike Love Party marked the return of our popular open house series held in conjunction with Pioneer Square’s First Thursday Art Walk. Lots of folks dropped by to share the bike love with us!
Lots of socializing going on at Bike Love Party. (photo by Josh Miller)
The Bike Love Party, co-hosted with Zipcar and Back Alley Bike Repair, featured the photography of Leigh Pate and dance tunes spun by Crown Social’s Zach Huntting and friends.
Zipcar’s Matt Jensen was on hand to chat with guests.
Photographer Leigh Pate joined the party.
Deejays spin some vinyl for the party.
Former Bicycle Alliance board member Kristin Kinnamon was on hand to sign up early registrants for RAPSody – Ride Around Puget Sound.
Kristin Kinnamon (r) talks up RAPSody with Bike Love guests.
We served up some great microbrews from Hilliard’sand raffled off some great prizes.
We raffled off some great prizes!
Thanks to all who joined us for this event and, if you missed the party, don’t despair! We’re planning another one in spring!
As spring draws near, kids start to dream of exploring, riding, playing, jumping, rolling, meeting, breathing, and soaking in the outdoors while on a bike. Now, 5th graders can take those spring plans, turn them into an awesome poster, and win prizes through a poster contest coordinated by Washington Bikes.
We are partnering with Saris Cycling Group, a manufacturer of bicycle racks and cycling training products, to launch a bicycle poster contest to get fifth graders to think about the benefits of the bicycle. The contest is asking 5th grade students in Washington State to create a poster around the theme “Bicycling makes life better.”
The top state submission will win a bike, light, and helmet, and be entered in the national contest for a chance to win a bike rack for their school and trip to Washington DC for two. Prizes will be awarded to the winners from each school.
Schools have until April 1st to have their 5th grade students make posters. Sign your school up for the contest! Contact Seth at SethS@BicycleAlliance.org or (206) 224-9252 x301.
Ask most people around Olympia and the weeks are already beginning to blend together with a frenetic pace that promises to intensify through the end of April. With budget discussions still in their preliminary phases, the legislature continues to focus on a host of policy bills in committees in both the House and Senate.
Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill. As Barb Chamberlain has reported, Washington Bikes has had a busy couple weeks coordinating with our legislative partners to advance HB 1045 and SB 5066, the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill. For more about our work see Barb’s posts on testimony in the House and Senate.
Leaving last year’s Senate Transportation Committee hearing on SHB 1217 with former WSDOT Secretary Doug MacDonald
Thanks to your support, and the work of many of our partners, cities, and towns statewide, the House version is now ready for a discussion in the House Rules Committee. We expect a vote in the Senate Transportation Committee next week. It’s still not too late to contact your elected officials – we need them to hear your voice now!
Safe Passing Bill (SB 5564). With the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill underway, we’re gearing up to focus on our safe passing legislation that gives motor vehicles the added tools to cross the centerline of a road, if they wish to safely pass people on foot or bike at a distance of three feet (conforming to the Washington State Driver’s Manual that already recommends a safe passing distance of three feet). We’re thrilled at the bipartisan support that this bill is receiving due to its common sense approach to giving drivers more options to safely pass, while also providing safety awareness about safe passing distances. We expect to see bill numbers assigned to the House and Senate companions by next week.
New Partnerships with Motorcycle Advocates. Building on Washington Bikes’s successful partnership in 2009 to pass legislation that now requires new and retrofitted traffic signal loop detectors to detect bicycles and motorcycles, we’re excited to again work with our friends at the Washington Road Riders Association. Today in the Senate Transportation Committee SBs 5141 and 5263 were heard. SB 5263 clarifies how motorcycles can pass bicycles and pedestrians, making it legal for them to pass in the lane (similar to the shared-lane, or sharrows, concept). Senator Rolfes, with the support of the sponsor, Senator Benton, has proposed to add a friendly amendment clarifying that when motorcycles pass they must provide a 3’ passing distance. Along with Cascade Bicycle Club, we will continue to monitor the progress of this bill.
SB 5141 allows motorcycles to stop and proceed through traffic control signals, if the signal loop detectors don’t detect the motorcycle. Sound familiar? This is a problem that bicycles deal with often and we’ll be exploring potential amendments with the Washington Road Riders Association to address the needs of bicycles.
Budget. We are continuing to work with our partners at the Transportation for Washington Campaign to grow Safe Routes to Schools and to fund the Complete Streets Grant Program. Additionally, we continue to work to advocate for the funding of trail projects, such as the Spokane River Centennial Trail Extension, Ferry County Rail Trail, Spruce Railroad Trail/Tunnel Restoration, and the Point Defiance Peninsula and Missing Link.
Help Us Create a Statewide List of Bicycle Projects. Washington Bikes continues to develop our statewide list of bicycle projects to help identify the projects for the state to fund in budgets and future revenue projects.
How many Share the Road license plates do you see while on your bike, on foot, riding the bus, or driving a car? We hope the answer is LOTS!! At the end of November we learned we passed the 5,000 mark. Yes, over 5,000 people have purchased a Share the Road license plate since the Department of Licensing began issuing them in January 2006. And that doesn’t count personalized plates, or those outfitting motorcycles and trailers.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Share the Road specialty plate, here’s the lowdown. In 2005 nearly 2,000 supporters signed a petition saying they’d be willing to purchase a specialty license plate for their automobile. The initial cost for new plates is $40, of which $28 is returned to Washington Bikes to fund our education and outreach programs for bicyclists and drivers. In succeeding years, the renewal rate falls to $30 and the same $28 comes to the Alliance. And that $28 is a tax-deductible donation, too.
Over the past seven years the Share the Road license plate has matured into a stable revenue source for Bicycle Alliance, bringing in over $100,000/year. We want to give a grateful shout-out to the people who see the value in promoting our Share the Road philosophy on their automobiles. The $28 from your purchase funds driver’s education materials that educate and query test-takers on responsibly sharing the road with bicyclists. We also produce outreach materials outlining the rights and responsibilities of motorists toward bicycle riders and vice-versa and distribute these at events around the state. The latest item is our new pocket guide to state bike laws.
Last October the Department of Licensing announced a $20 hike in the cost of purchasing a license plate. In light of recent federal transportation cuts a portion of this increase will go toward sustaining the Safe Routes to School program. With funding from that program the Bicycle Alliance has educated young people in 31 school districts how to ride safely and identify less trafficked routes to school.
Not only that, but the Share the Road plate serves as a mini-moving billboard with a message about safety on the street visible to everyone who sits behind one at a stoplight or sees it coming toward you on a neighborhood street or a state highway. When you think about it, it’s the only specialized plate with a message that is actually about behavior in and around vehicles. When people read that message they’re seeing it in the perfect time and place to help them think about their behavior.
We hope people who are committed to increased transportation choices and safe interactions on the street will continue to support our message of “Share the Road” and purchase/renew this prized plate. Let’s reach 6,000 lickety-split!
Post a pic on our Facebook site of you and your car with the Share the Road license plate, and we’ll enter you in a contest to win free registration for the RAPSody Ride this August 25 and 26—a beautiful way to see the Puget Sound!
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Last year, the Washington State House of Representatives unanimously voted 96-0 in favor of the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill. After passing through the Senate Transportation Committee, this legislation ran out of time on the Senate floor. We’re rolling in the House already this year–the Senate is the next hill to climb.
Now we have a chance to give this important safety legislation a jump-start in the State Senate. It’s one of the first bills to be heard in the 2013 session and legislators need to hear your voice now!
The Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill (SB 5066 and HB 1045) gives cities and towns the authority to create safer neighborhood streets by lowering speed limits on non-arterial streets to 20 miles per hour without conducting an expensive traffic study (they’ll have to establish a procedure so decisions are made systematically).
Cities already have the power to lower the speed limit to 20mph and have traffic plans that look at local context–this just saves them money and cuts government redtape.
Time is critical: We presented the bill yesterday in the Senate Transportation Committee and they’ll vote soon on whether to send it to the full Senate. We need to remind our state senators that the time is now to support this important safety legislation that can save cities and towns across Washington money while they work to improve safety on neighborhood streets.
Your reminder to your elected officials is critical in making this happen. And it only requires two simple steps:
#1 – Enter your mailing address on the district finder form (choose Legislative, not Congressional) and follow the instructions on the site to reach a contact form for your state senator. (If you haven’t already contacted your state representatives, feel free to send the note to your entire district delegation since HB 1045 will be coming up for a vote in the full House.)
#2 – Email your Senator a note expressing your support of this important public safety legislation, SB 5066. We’ve included some model text for you to use—putting it in your own words will make it even better and more personal:
Dear Senator _________,
I write to ask you to support the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill (SB 5066), which will be heard in the Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 29. The bill passed out of the House unanimously in 2012, and passed out of the Senate Transportation Committee as well before running out of time on the Senate floor—this is the year to save cities money, cut red tape, and give local jurisdictions another tool to improve safety on neighborhood streets.
I urge you to let your colleagues on the committee know that you’re hearing from your district in support of this important safety legislation. SB 5066 provides more local control, offers an additional safety tool for local governments, removes additional study costs and red tape currently required by the state, and encourages active living by offering cities and towns the chance to create safer and more livable streets. Most importantly, when used in conjunction with engineering and enforcement, lower speeds on non-arterial streets can save lives.
As a constituent and voter in your district I would greatly appreciate your yes vote on the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill (SB 5066) to make our hometown safer for everyone from kids to grandparents.
Courtesy of TVW, video below is of the bill presentation and testimony from the Senate Transportation Committee. Many thanks to all the groups that support SB 5066 and HB 1045:
Few things are as joyful as seeing kids have a good time. Well, we have a treat for you: kids having a good time while learning safety skills on bikes! Watch this video about our Bike and Pedestrian Safety Education Program.
Frank made this short video to share the impact of the Bike and Pedestrian Safety Education Program. Tukwila Elementary began the program in 2010 and continues it as part of their regular physical education program. The Bicycle Alliance is continuing to train physical education teachers across the state on how to teach the program. If you wan to bring the program to your school district, contact SethS@BicycleAlliance.org.
Guest Blogger Adonia E. Lugo is an anthropologist and activist who uses ethnographic research on bicycling to advocate for social justice in urban sustainability. A doctoral candidate at the University of California, Irvine, she is currently writing a dissertation about human infrastructure for bicycling in Los Angeles, where she co-founded City of Lights/ Ciudad de Luces (now Multicultural Communities for Mobility) and CicLAvia. Adonia is also the co-founder of the Bicicultures Research Network, a community of social scientists who study bicycling as a social and cultural phenomenon. She blogs as Urban Adonia and currently lives in Seattle, where she has been interviewing community leaders for the Seattle Bike Justice Project, supported with funding from Washington Bikes and Bike Works.
All kinds of people have formed communities around bicycling; there’s no right and wrong way to be a bicyclist. There are lots of clubs that organize recreational rides, and for many years, there’s been a movement of bicyclists setting up do-it-yourself repair collectives grounded in social and economic justice, and these co-ops can be important community centers and useful resources for education and affordable bike repair. Here is a directory of bike collectives.
Some groups are working to build communities around equity in bicycling, developing programming that supports marginal bicycle users and helps create new images of bicycling.
Here in Seattle, Bike Works has expanded their work with youth to start facilitating workshops at community-based organizations to help adults and families get started with biking.
The Bicycle Alliance and Bike Works also funded the Seattle Bike Justice Project last year, which interviewed community leaders in Rainier Valley about their perspectives toward bicycling
And Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has worked to build an informed and community-based group to design bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Rainier Valley
I asked my network of scholar-activists who study bike cultures to send me information about programs like this, and here’s what we came up with for the U.S. This isn’t an exhaustive list, so feel free to send your suggestions to adonia at urbanadonia dot com.
You may remember (if you’re of a certain age) the old “Schoolhouse Rock” video that explained how a bill becomes a law. It’s a long road with a lot of steps that you learn about in the abstract in a high school civics class before you’re eligible to vote or required to pay much in the way of taxes (unless you’re a naturalized citizen who studies the process as an adult), so you might be excused for losing track of some of the details.
I got to live through civics as an Idaho state legislator years ago and be part of the sausage-making. In fact, as a freshman in the House I voted for a bill that provided almost exactly the same local control that’s in the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill.
At the Bicycle Alliance we pay a lot of attention to those details that Schoolhouse Rock didn’t really dig into: Why the timing is right for a particular change in policy. The language of the bill. Who will be interested in its effects. Who might want to support the bill because it helps achieve their goals. This kind of attention to detail has led to our success in the legislature–we’ve been prime movers behind the majority of bike-friendly legislation passed in the last 25 years.
All this work happens well before the legislative session. When a bill goes into the hopper, though, things speed up. We start out in first gear and then quickly shift to higher gears and pedal faster.
Our Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill, which empowers cities and towns to lower the speed limit to 20 mph without requiring an engineering study, hit first gear on Tuesday of this week when it had its first hearing of the 2013 session in the House Transportation Committee chaired by Rep. Judy Clibborn (D-41).
HB 1045 was presented by staff and then by its prime sponsor, Rep. Cindy Ryu (D-32). The bill passed the House unanimously in the two previous legislative sessions but ran out of time in the Senate and now has to start all over again.
The bill has been voted out of committee with a “Do Pass” recommendation. It has more steps to go through and a companion bill on the Senate side, SB 5066, is up for a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee Tuesday, Jan. 29, where its prime sponsor is Sen. Andy Billig (D-3). We’ll keep you posted on the legislative process even if we don’t have a catchy jingle to help you remember all the steps.
Selected quotes from TVW’s coverage (shown above):
Rep. Judy Clibborn, commenting on the fiscal note presented by staff:
“To be clear, we’re talking about a decrease in costs for cities and towns.”
Rep. Cindy Ryu:
“It’s really a safety tool in the local government toolbox because it offers an important tool for both public and roadway safety. It can be accompanied with additional engineering and design to create safe neighborhood streets for all residents, particularly children and the elderly. …
“The bill does not mandate any changes to speed limits; it simply provides cities and towns the local control to do so. It is expected to be used within the priorities and planning contained already in a city or a town’s transportation plan to help improve safety on selected neighborhood streets or corridors. It only applies to non-arterial streets, which are clearly outlined in our street classification hierarchies.”
Peggy Quann, AARP volunteer speaking on behalf of AARP Washington’s support for the bill:
“Research shows that older pedestrians are more likely to be seriously or fatality injured at lower vehicle speeds than younger people. Pedestrian safety measures will benefit all ages—young and old—and are particularly important to older adults who will always be at higher risk.
“In Washington State, people 65+ are 12% of the population but victims in 26% of fatal pedestrian crashes. In 2010, 62 pedestrians were killed and 16 were over the age of 65. Safe, walkable streets are important both for safety and lifestyle reasons, and especially important for the many older adults who can no longer drive.
“Older people who feel safe walking to their local library or senior center will live healthier, more enriched lives and avoid social isolation.”
“We’re really trying to make the healthy choice the easy choice where we live, work, learn, and play. We too feel this bill is part of a bigger solution to a couple of different issues: safety and health….
“No surprise, we’re still in a pretty “red-alert” situation with regard to obesity statistics…. Treating the outcomes of overweight and obesity, as you may imagine, is expensive, but also preventable. So we need all the support we can get from all sectors in our society to make healthy choices easier. The health field cannot solve this problem by itself. We need to work with land use, transportation, and many other sectors….. This bill is part of the obesity prevention toolbox.”
Some of my testimony, speaking on behalf of the Bicycle Alliance:
“I’m in the unique position of asking you to vote for a bill that I had the chance to vote for years ago in a different state. I served in the Idaho state legislature in both the House and Senate and we had pretty much the exact same language come.
“It was the same issue–that local governments didn’t have the authority to lower the speed limit in what was essentially a residential neighborhood because it was defined by the state…. It really affected the livability, the property value, and the safety of those neighborhoods.”
Washington Bikes board of directors seated two new members and elected a new slate of officers at its January meeting. Joining the board for the first time are:
Angela Jones of Spokane. Angela is the Director of Employment & Conciliation Services for Spokane Public Schools. She also serves on the the Washington State University Alumni Association executive board and is the president of the African American Alumni Chapter. Angela is an avid recreational cyclist who embraced biking after a chronic knee injury sidelined her from other sports.
Tim Hennings of Seattle. Tim is the founder and president of the software company Catalog-on-Demand. A lifelong cyclist, he previously served on boards for Cascade Bicycle Club and Laurelhurst Beach Club. Tim would like to see the cycling movement grow in rural communities and see bicycle tourism as a potential tool for making this happen.
Board members returning for a new term are Sarah Gelineau of Tonasket, Jeff Petersen of Richland, and Andy Pryor of Dixie. You can read bios on all board members on the Board page of our website.
David McLean
The board also appointed new officers for the year and named David McLean of Seattle as the president. David has been a member and volunteer for the Bicycle Alliance since 1991. His prior service to the organization includes volunteering for the auction, providing IT support, helping out as webmaster, being a Bike Buddy mentor, as well as being a community bike advocate.
David takes great pride in helping the Bicycle Alliance grow into the great statewide organization it is today. He was drawn to its mission of getting more people on bikes and growing bicycling statewide.
“I would like to see bicycling become even more accepted as a valid means of transportation and recreation–where everyone who rides has access to safe, convenient and accessible places to ride. I would like to see more collaboration between all the organizations that promote active transportation and healthy active living,” David stated. “We can do some much more if we all work together.”
Rounding out the board officers are: Brian Foley of Black Diamond as the 1st Vice President, Liz McNett Crowl of Mount Vernon as the 2nd Vice President, Kirste Johnson of Seattle as Secretary, and John Vona of Seattle as Treasurer. Ted Inkley, Seattle, will also serve on the Executive Committee as Past President. View all board bios on our Board page.
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Advocating for more funding for bicycle infrastructure is on our to-do list as a priority every single day. Whether that’s working to understand the intricacies of MAP-21 and how we might protect Safe Routes to School project funding or writing a letter of support for a special project, we focus on the need for investments that work together to create a truly comprehensive system of safe, accessible bike transportation routes.
What are those projects where you live? We’re compiling a list of projects from across the state to understand the gaps and identify the opportunities within and between communities. In some places that might be the opportunity for a major separated pathway linking two state highways. In another community it might be the need to widen the paved shoulders on county roads to improve access to a tourist attraction. In yet another town it might be the opportunity to close the gap in an existing trail, build a bridge over a railroad track to eliminate an at-grade crossing, or put bike lanes on streets around schools and parks.
Whether you know a little about a project or a lot, whether the project itself is large or small, take a few minutes to fill out our form and forward the link to your local contacts in City Hall, the county roads department, and the regional transportation planning organization who may have plans for individual projects or entire networks.
We’ll compile the list, publish it, and share it with your legislators so they know the level of demand from their constituents for bike transportation projects. That’s how we’ll make the case for more funding to build a transportation system for all that looks forward to a healthy future.
