Advocacy & Safety - 2005 Bicycle Advocacy Acomplishments

2005 Bicycle Advocacy Accomplishments.

So what has your local bicycle organization achieved in the last year? I thought that people could post last year’s achievements of their local bicycle organizations, city and state government. I wanted to get an idea of the broad activities ranging from new bicycle facilities like roads, lanes, bridges, signage, racks, etc, and; Safety programs like helmet give-aways, safe bike operation, programs for kids, also; Any accomplishments that have to do with preserving bike access or gaining bike access, (roads, tunnels, bridges or trails). Or any other community, group or organization advancement of cycling in your area. For now I’d like to avoid too much discussion of things like, “my city installed bike lanes, but they should have done X”, and just focus on stated accomplishments, rather than how they fall short of perfection. Here are some that I found on the WEB

1)
City of Roseville's 2005 accomplishments-
http://www.roseville.ca.us/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=336

2)
The Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society (AABTS) organizes group day trips for road and mountain bike enthusiasts.
December 2005 issue of the annual Lu Chaney Safety Newsletter is now online. Read about our Safety Committee’s accomplishments in 2005 and their plans for 2006.

http://www.aabts.org/
http://www.aabts.org/downloads/Safety106.pdf

3) Improving the lives of Ohio's bicyclists through legislation, education, and sharing ideas. 2004

http://www.ohiobike.org/accomplish.htm

4) Bikes Belong
2005 NATIONAL LEADERSHIP ACCOMPLISHMENTS
http://bikesbelong.org/site/page.cfm?PageID=301


5) 2005 Mayors' Ride Cities Biking Report Cardshttp://nationalbicyclegreenway.com/Events/Mayors_Ride/BikingReportCards2005.php

Well, recently they had a blinkie giveaway. Free blinkies to people who didn't have them.

They celebrated the opening of the Broida Bikeway at the university. This is important because I think it has been closed for about 10 years. There was no way to ride your bike across campus. Now there is. And it'll be useful for non-students and students alike. The university is a major local employer.

They have these monthly or so bike movie screenings at some dive bar in the dive section of town. Sounds like a lot of fun, but I never can go because, well, I ride my bike to work and I could never get all the way over there in time without driving and that just seems wrong to me!

Somebody went out and did a study, with photographs, of all the bollards placed at all the entrances to various bikeways in the region. I guess that is intended to try to standardize them and/or get rid of those that are not necessary since they do pose a hazard, especially at night. A bollard is one of those posts they put in front of the bike path entrance to keep motor vehicles out.

They had a successful bike week last year. They had a very clever contest that got a lot of new riders out there.

They had a Streets Smarts class specifically for women that was a huge success.

There was a loss with the Measure D sales tax. Funds from this tax had been allocated for improvements specifically for cycling, but I'm not sure of the whole story, either there are no more funds specifically for cycling or there is no more Measure D sales tax at all for any kind of alternative transportation.

A new bike lane was opened up on N. Jameson Lane. And it appears construction has begun for the bike path bypass to Ortega Hill (which is an extension of the Jameson Lane route). That will be nice for a lot of people who would ride through there but are intimidated by the steepness of the hill and the narrowness of the road going up it. Won't help me much though since I can't bypass it. I have to go to the top because that's where my job is.