Gas-Free Fridays!

The SF Bike Coalition really started this going in the Bay Area, but the East Bay can get in on the fun. Grab your bike and a friend or co-worker and pedal to work on Fridays. Encourage more people to substitute one short car trip with a bicycle trip on Fridays in October.

It’s easier than you think, half of all driving trips in the Bay Area are under two miles in length—a distance easily travelled by bicycle.

Heading to Piedmont Grocery? Peets? Gaylords? Grand Lake Ace? Trader Joe’s? Grand Lake Farmers Market? Try it on a bike!

East Bay Bicycle Coalition: http://ebbc.org
WOBO: http://walkoaklandbikeoakland.org
Bike Route Maps: http://bikely.com

ACTIA, what’s that mean?

ACTIA is an acronym for the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority.

Two Vacancies on ACTIA’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Would you or someone you know like to be on the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC)?

The BPAC, which meets six to eight times per year, advises ACTIA on the development and implementation of countywide bicycle and pedestrian programs and plans. Beginning this fall, the BPAC will start reviewing and providing input on the updates to the Countywide Strategic Pedestrian Plan and the Countywide Bicycle Plan. One of the most cherished responsibilities of the BPAC is advising the ACTIA Board on the allocation of Measure B bicycle/pedestrian grant funds. To date 41 projects, totaling $9.5 million, have been funded.

More information about the BPAC, application requirements, and bylaws, can be found on the ACTIA website. www.actia2022.com

Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group

ACCMA and ACTIA are beginning the process to update the Alameda Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans. We would like to invite you to participate in the first meeting of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group, which will be on Wednesday, October 21 from 9:30 to 11:30am at the ACTIA offices (1333 Broadway, Suite 300 , Downtown Oakland). Please save this date. The main objective will be to review the draft scope of work for the updates of the two plans. We will send an agenda packet closer to the meeting date.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Plans Working Group is an advisory group that will provide input to the Alameda County Technical Advisory Committee (ACTAC) and the ACTIA Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) prior to approval of the Plans by the ACTIA and ACCMA Boards. T  This joint group, which is expected to meet up to eight times over 1.5 years, will provide an opportunity to coordinate the updates of both plans.  This coordination includes creating one Request for Proposals, which is expected to be released December 2009. By April 2010, one consultant team will be hired for both plans, and the plans are expected to be adopted by early 2011.

Bike Commuting Increasing in USA

From the League of American Bicyclist newsletter:

43 Percent Increase in Bicycle Commuting

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), released today, 0.55 percent of American workers use a bicycle as their primary means of getting to work. This is up 14 percent since 2007, 36 percent from the first ACS in 2005, and 43 percent since the 2000 Census. The League of American Bicyclists is analyzing the numbers for various locations, including League Bicycle Friendly Communities. In the meantime, you can look up this information for hundreds of communities and all of the states using the American Fact Finder.

Learn more at the LoAB’s blog.

East Bay Bike Resources

Did you know we have two great East Bay bicycle organization? Check them out for events, actions you can take to improve bike and pedestrian access, and general info.

East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC)
http://ebbc.org/

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO)
http://walkoaklandbikeoakland.org

The city of Oakland also has great info on biking and pedestrain information at www.oaklandbikes.info

Bike-to-Work Update

Click to learn more about commuting by bicycle.

So, it’s Bike Month and Bike-to-Work day was almost two weeks ago. We’re still riding in. So far this month I have a 4 for 5 and two 5 for 5 weeks. Four other coworkers are committed to riding as part of the Team Bike Challenge. We also have a couple of other coworkers who occasionally ride or at least ride at lunch instead of taking the car.

How many of you participated in BTWD? How did it go? Did you stop at an Energizer Station? Congrats to Dale, who rode in a couple of days that week. Readers, please leave a comment if you participated.

Bike to Work Day is Coming!

Bike to Work Day is Thursday, May 14th. Do you ride a bike to work sometimes or even every day? Would you like to? If there was an Energizer Station in Piedmont, would you stop by?

Add your thoughts to the comments section of this post or join the Piedmont Cyclists group to provide your input. If you are a Piedmont cyclist, we’d like to hear about your riding experiences.

Bike Commute with New Gear

In between storms I’ve been biking to work. Because of a bum pedal on my Raleigh, I’ve been riding an old Bridgestone hybrid, but now I have the Raleigh back thanks to a quick crank arm swap by Manifesto Bikes. I’m very happy to be back on a bike with fenders during this rain.

In the meantime, I was lucky enough to read a twitter from Avenir about some free items. Of course, I responded in record time and won the prize.  Matt Millen, product manager at Avenir, sent the goods out quickly and they arrived during ski week. Included in the box were the Metro III panniers, urban gel gloves, a Big Mouth 55/73 seat bag, and a mini-pump. Nice haul!

Here are the panniers on my Raleigh One Way:

Overall, these are very good, light-duty commuter panniers. I can get my laptop bag in the top compartment and still have tons of room in the two large and two smaller side pockets to hold a couple of wool zip-neck pullovers, my tool bag, and a baseball coaching manual with room to spare. The material is mid-weight 420 denier nylon and has some stiffener inside. Adjustment to fit on my Nitto rear rack was easy. These would also be great panniers for an S24O.  I don’t think I’d recommend them for serious bike touring, but these seem to be a great pannier in the economy class retailing for under $40.

I put the seat bag on my 1968 Raleigh Sports. This bag seems pretty solidly made and attached easily to the Brooks B17 saddle. The entire end unzips, making access to tools, tube, or a Larabar super easy.

My two Raleighs already have pumps, so I put the new Avenir pump on my 1994 Bridgestone CB-1 hybrid. This bike recently got some new 1.85 Michelin City tires with reflective sidewalls, a rear rack, and a Brooks B67 saddle. I use it for riding with the Trail-a-Bike and for fire roads and light trail riding.

I like the pump on this bike because it has both presta and shrader valve capability. Since I use this bike on “family rides” where we have a combination of tire and tube types and this pump can handle them all. It’s compact and easily attached to the water bottle mounts. It also has a rotating handle to make pumping up tires easier.

Overall, Matt at Avenir did right by me and my bikes. Next topic, how many people in town bike to work, to get groceries, to go to the farmers market? If so, you might want to check out the Piedmont Cyclists Google group. Contribute tips, suggest routes, get ready for Bike-toWork day (we may even have a Piedmont Engerizer station!).

–L