The Bike Valet will be parking bikes as a part of the inagural SLO Marathon. Come cheer on the runners and view part of the happenings at the Madonna Expo Center where the Bike Valet is going to be set up!
When: Sunday April 22, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Where: Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo (map)
We’re pleased to report that, on Tuesday April 10th, the SLO City Council voted 4-to-1 to approve the LOVR bikepath, connecting the CL Smith and Laguna Middle School neighborhoods with a safe route to school for all kids.
The Bicycle Coalition was there to advocate on behalf of this project, which aims to get more kids biking/walking to school, decrease congestion at these intersections during before/after school hours, and to discourage kids from biking the wrong way in the LOVR bike lanes.
This is an alternative plan approved by the city (using a $800,000 Safe Routes to School grant from 2007) after the small Windermere Condominiums Homeowners Association blocked a much better and safer bridge option off of Los Osos Valley Road.
The Bicycle Coalition knows this would have been a much better option, allowing kids to travel between these two neighborhoods without ever going on Los Osos Valley Road. Yet the bylaws of the Windermere Condominiums HOA required 100% approval to proceed with the 4 foot easement for the bike path, making it possible for just one person to oppose the project and shut it down.
We strongly support bicycle and pedestrian projects which provide safe access to schools for generations to come, and are disappointed when a small minority of community members are able to shut these projects down, simply because they don’t understand the long-lasting positive impacts they have.
Our presence here is not without some frustration and concern that future projects promising extremely effective solutions will be cast aside for less attractive alternatives because some community members are unwilling to recognize the incredible value of smart infrastructure.
I urge [the council] to continue to approach these infrastructure decision points with a bold and knowing attitude that improving access to active transportation has powerful health, safety and economic benefits for all of our community members.
Dan Rivoire, Executive Director, SLO County Bicycle Coalition
Speaking at the April 10, 2012 SLO City Council
This is just one of many instances where the Bicycle Coalition represents YOU as we continue to advocate for smart bicycle infrastructure, educate bicycle riders throughout the county, teach bicycle safety assemblies at local schools, and provide everyone with programs to encourage people of all types to choose a bicycle for transportation and recreation.
BECOME A MEMBER to support these causes in your community.
Join us on Tuesday, April 10th, 7:00 pm
San Luis Obispo City Hall, 990 Palm St, to show your support!
click to view map
This bikepath project has been carefully thought out by City staff after a proposed bike/ped bridge connecting the Laguna & Oceanaire neighborhoods was shut down by a small group of neighbors failing to see the value in a safe route to the Laguna Middle School. The bikepath is important to improve visibility and safety of kids biking and walking to school between these two neighborhoods.
By giving kids a safe route to school without having to cross Los Osos Valley Road, we can help ease traffic congestion near the school, give our kids a safe and healthy way to get to school, and decrease accidents at this busy intersection.
The City of SLO has put together this helpful graphic to see the existing and proposed changes to allow for this important connection between two school neighborhoods:
click to enlarge
One of the main benefits this path will provide is increased visibility for the students biking and walking to schools in this neighborhood. As LOVR is a heavily used road for recreational riders, the bike lanes have been kept on the road for them to use without conflicting with the hundreds of kids using the path at peak hours.
Join the Coalition as we speak up to make sure kids are able to safely get to school by foot or bike between these two neighborhoods. Tuesday, April 10th, 7:00 pm at San Luis Obispo City Hall, 990 Palm St.
Spread the word!
Our NEW shirts are in the office and ready for you to order! We have charcoal grey and navy blue shirts available in all sizes… 100% of each t-shirt sold goes towards the Coalition so we can help make SLO County even MORE bike-friendly!
Become a member and receive a coupon code for 25% off your purchase!
A recap of the annual event, courtesy of one our Coalition members, Matt Pierle:
If you weren’t lucky enough to make it to the Sacramento Convention Center on March 2nd-4th for the 2012 North American Handmade Bike Show (NAHBS) you missed an exciting gathering. Well represented were custom frame and bike builders as well as accessory manufacturers from the West Coast to the East, from the U.S. and Canada to Italy, the Czech Republic and Japan. The common thread was an emphasis on quality over quantity, and the attention to detail that comes along with craft design and limited production.
NAHBS showcased just about every style of bike you can imagine but particularly well represented were track and road, touring and townie, cargo, tandem, cross country, utility and commuter bikes. Titanium mingled with steel and carbon shared the stage with more ‘traditional’ bike frame materials including hardwood and bamboo. Some builders toyed with lesser used materials including Magnesium.
Suppliers of steel, aluminum and titanium tubes set up next to makers of bike specific production jigs, tools, lugs, dropouts and ‘extras’ like trailers, bottle cages, jerseys and caps.
Bike publications doled out free copies of their magazines (Momentum, Bicycle Times / Dirt Rag, Mountain Flyer) while makers of metal lugs and dropouts exhibited their products in briefcase like hard cases like so much fine jewelry.
All told, this year’s show featured 158 exhibitors and drew over 12,000 attendees, the biggest crowd in the show’s ten year history. This is the third time the show was hosted here in California (it had a two year run in San Jose in 2006 and 2007).
Seminars were offered on topics ranging from: Bike Building Business Basics to the History and Future of Handmade Bikes and from Fillet brazing to the “Wooden rim renaissance”.
Santa Cruz’s Craig Calfee presented on the Bamboosero, an appropriate technology development project which is spearheading the training of people in Africa to build tough yet refined bamboo framed bikes designed for domestic transportation and cargo use (load of 450 lbs. plus) and also for income through ecological tourism rentals and export sales.
Sacramento was a great venue for this year NAHBS which just happened to coincide with a Beer festival. The show’s “ARTBIKE!” events included: live music, local grub and brews, bike parades and other delicious bike fun.
By far one of the collect bikes at the show, which picked up an award for Best Experimental Design Bike was the super big wheel (32 inch!) mountain bike displayed by Black Sheep Fabrications.
photo credit: davidfolch.com
Rookie Builder of the Year bragging rights went to: Aaron Stinner of Stinner Frameworks in Santa Barbara.
photo credit: cycling news
Best of Show honors went to the über sleek “Cherubim” bike by Shin-Ichi Konno.
photo credit: bicycling magazine
Other award categories included Best of for categories including: Road, Track, Tandem, Cyclocross, City Bike, Mountain, Carbon Fiber construction, Steel construction, Titanium construction, Lugged frame, TIG welded frame, fillet brazed frame as well as Best New Builder, Best Finish, People’s Choice, President’s Choice (the President is none other than Bike Builder and NAHBS Founder Don Walker).
See the complete list of 2012’s “Best Of” Winners.
As with every NAHBS this year’s show was flush with fine finishes, smoothly curving racks, tightly sewn bags, classy cycling wear, and over the course of three days thousands of wide eyed and sometimes drooling Bike fanatics.
In case you’re wondering…next year’s show is on tap for Denver, Colorado. Dates TBD.
All photos by Matt Pierle, unless otherwise noted. Matt Pierle is a cyclist from the Great Lakes region lucky enough to be attending bike related events and cycling around the west coast this winter. He can be reached at mattpierle@gmail.com or on Skype at the handle: bikelove.
If you are interested in writing a guest post, send an email to leslie@slobikelane.org , we’d love to showcase your words, pictures, videos, on bicycles!
The newest Spoken Wheel newsletter just dropped… hot off the presses! Find it in your mailbox (members only!), online, or at a local coffee shop.
Inside you’ll find our latest annual report, program updates, happenings, a puzzle, ‘know your rights’ column, and much more! View it online here.
Look closely, those are two people riding some Capital Bikeshare bikes here on the Hill.
We were finally able to get outside for the first time today and see the cherry blossoms in full bloom, making for a beautiful day in DC. We can’t wait to get out to the national mall and see more of them from the Bikeshare bikes ourselves!
