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Bike Kitchen? Car Kitchen!

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Ready for the Car Kitchen?

Our donors are amazing! Bike SLO County thrives because of the generosity of so many dedicated members of the bike community.

And the car community.

At this point you may be you scratching your head saying “Wait…car drivers support bikes?”

Almost everyone we know who rides a bike also drives an automobile. Some drive a car every day, some drive multiple times a day, others not so often. While Bike SLO County doesn’t own a car, we sometimes need one and when we do we use a local car-share service.

Historically our Bike Kitchen has been a maintenance/education space to teach people how to fix their bicycles. We have all the parts, tools and knowledge anyone might need to fix a bicycle. The Bike Kitchen has provided guided instruction to over 6,000 people since opening our doors in 2010.

But what about cars? As far as we know, there isn’t currently a maintenance/education space to teach people how to fix their cars anywhere in SLO County. While there are lots of commercial mechanics, up until now not a single non-profit organization has worked to provide the parts, tools and knowledge you would need to fix your own car. That’s why we’re so very happy to announce that today is April Fools Day! Yes! We’re sorry! But we had you going for a minute!

While we like the idea of a Bike Kitchen for cars, we aren’t going to be the ones to get that started. Our focus will remain on Advocacy and Education, endlessly working for safer streets for everyone, whether you are a person driving a bicycle, a person driving a car, a person walking or, depending on the day, all of the above. Bike SLO County will continue to educate people of all ages, in schools around the county, in our Street Skills classes and yes, in the Bike Kitchen.

We’ll say it again. Our donors are amazing! Bike SLO County thrives because of the generosity of so many dedicated members of the bike community, the pedestrian community and yes, the car community. Safe streets are no joke. Donate today and help grow the movement for safer streets for everyone. It’s easy to donate – just click the donate link below:

       → → → https://bikeslocounty.org/donate ← ← ←

Thank you!

(P.S. For every donation we receive, we promise not play any more April Fools Day pranks until sometime next year.)

Myths about People who Ride Bicycles

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Who REALLY rides bicycles? Do you believe these bicycle myths?

The People For Bikes people recently released some results from their 2014 US Bicycling Participation Study. Those results are encouraging, because, among other things, they demonstrate that riding a bicycle isn’t an activity limited to an isolated elite. Their study found that the myths about who does and who doesn’t ride bikes are just that, myths. Here are a few bicycle myths:MorroBayGreenLane450

Not Many People Ride Bikes

The study found that 1/3 of Americans rode a bicycle at least once in 2014. That is One-Hundred and Four MILLION people!

Cars vs Bikes? Bikes vs Cars?

There is an old perception that people who ride bikes are anti-car or don’t drive cars. To the contrary, 88% of the people who drive bikes also drive cars!

Bikes are a Guy Thing

While it’s true that more men than women ride bikes, Forty-Five Million Women drove bikes in 2014. That’s 44% of all Americans who got on a bike in 2014.

Head over to People For Bikes for four more myths about people like you!