Month: June 2011

Excellent article from Road Rights by Matt Allyn https://bicycling.com/blogs/roadrights/2011/06/02/how-to-handle-bike-car-accidents-part-1/

Never forget the excitement of your first ride. It is a shame there are those who want to make sure all roads are only for cars and take learning to ride a bike out of children’s experience.

"Everyone will walk ten miles. Gymnastics will begin in nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in schools. Every school, college and community will have have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have a public gymnasium. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling. "
Continue reading “What May Happen In The Next Hundred Years (1900)”

[B’ Spokes: I would not post this if I did not think this was a good cause. They have provided tools and reports that have helped make an impact in creating a change here in Maryland, in particular the Benchmarking reports have been the most helpful.]

by Jeff Miller, Alliance President / CEO

If Susie Stephens were still with us, she’d be beaming from ear to ear.

The tireless bicycle advocate from Washington state would be making phone calls and sending e-mails. Heck, she’d be writing catchy lyrics for a campfire sing-a-long to trumpet the news: The Alliance for Biking & Walking is 15 years old and growing faster than we ever dreamed!

Honor Susie and celebrate with us. Help us raise $15,000 to mark our 15th anniversary by pledging your personal support for the Alliance today!

I met Susie in 1996, when I was among the small handful of bicycle and pedestrian advocates who gathered at the Thunderhead Ranch. We traveled to a remote site in Wyoming to share our individual experiences as local, grassroots leaders but discovered a collective movement that stretched across the continent. We made professional connections that advanced our work, but, because of visionaries like Susie, that gathering became much more than a simple networking session.

As a co-founder of the Alliance, Susie knew that we needed to create an organization that would serve local and state leaders with training, networking and resources to grow and strengthen their organizations. She felt so passionately about the importance of that grassroots network that she was the first to line up to lead the organization. “This bicycle stuff is my passion,” Susie wrote in a letter to Randy Neufeld in 1999. “That simple and efficient little machine represents everything I believe in: sustainable living, a cleaner earth, egalitarianism and community. Also, I can think of no finer group of people to call my peers and mentors.“

As our first paid staff, Susie helped this critical network of bike/ped advocates take root and branch out. Her magnetic enthusiasm and boundless energy were the engines of our People Powered Movement in those critical early stages. In 2002, Susie was tragically struck and killed by a bus, while leading a pedestrian safety workshop. But her inspiration has continued to propel us forward.  

Building on Susie’s work, the Alliance has made incredible strides in its first 15 years:  

• Grown from 12 to 170+ member organizations in 48 U.S states and 4 Canadian provinces
• Hosted dozens of Winning Campaigns Trainings that have launched hundreds of bike/ped campaigns and Leadership Retreats that have connected and energized advocates across the continent
• Produced biennial Benchmarking Reports that have been hailed as a “Bike-Ped State of the Union”
• Awarded more than $500,000 in direct grants, research and technical assistance through our Advocacy Advance program – a dynamic partnership with the League of American Bicyclists
• Assisted dozens of organizations with one-on-one coaching and strategic planning assistance, and connected advocates through Mutual Aid Calls, an interactive listserv and more!

We need your support to continue and expand that work. Please make your own personal pledge to the Alliance today so we can meet our goal of $15,000 by our 15th anniversary this June 30th. Donate at the $1,000 level and Nancy MacKerrow, Susie’s mother, will plant a memorial Susie Tree in your honor. Donate at the $100 level and you’ll received an Alliance commemorative Frisbee. Donate at ANY LEVEL and you’ll get a $200 discount on any trip from VBT Walking and Bicycling Vacations.  

In just a few weeks a small group of us will return to the Thunderhead Ranch in Wyoming to both reflect on our incredible successes and identify concrete steps to accelerate that momentum to mainstream biking and walking across North America. Yes, we still face significant challenges, but Susie was right: There is no finer group of people than our People Powered Movement. I know we can count on you to make sure we have the resources to put that vision into action.  

Please donate today! 

I was reading about the new Volkswagen plant

They can also get between 40 and 50 miles per gallon, returning between 700 and 800 miles on a single tank. This fuel-efficient technology will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil. If one-third of all United States vehicles used this kind of fuel-efficient clean diesel, we would save 1.4 million barrels of oil a day.

That’s the same amount of oil we import from Saudi Arabia, so this is a big deal.

But studies have shown more fuel efficient vehicles drive more miles then their less efficient counter parts, they also pay less in taxes for road improvements per mile traveled while creating the same wear and tear on our roads. This really does not sound like a compressive solution.

So if a third could save oil by burning oil, imagine what a third of a third could do by burning no oil and creating virtually no wear and tear on our roads?

Our numbers do not have to be huge to make an impact and you don’t need to travel thousands of miles by bike to keep a car off the road for just one trip. Just do what you can and it adds up very quickly.
Continue reading “If a few drivers could reduce dependence on foreign oil how much more could a few cyclists”