VBU Bike Clinic & Coop Meeting Tonight! Comment on the SCAG RTP Today!!

Posted: September 22, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: how to develop a bike culture, Ventura Bicycle Union | Tags: | Leave a comment

You’re invited to a
Bike Repair Clinic & Bike Coop Strategy Meeting
Tonight Thursday, September 22.

Clinic 6:30-7:30 clinic:
Bring bike, tools, rags, lube, parts, stands if you have them.

Meeting 7:30-8:30/9:
Potluck and plan.

345 W. Center St., Ventura:
Rachel’s house/garage in the back.

Please RSVP: Rachel Morris <rachel@vccool.org>

ALSO If you haven’t already, go online to the Regional Transportation Plan and say

1.) We need bicycle improvements in Ventura
2.) Bicycle issues and funding need to be separated from pedestrian.

We’re not bike/peds, we’re traffic! You’ve got 3 more days to change the course of Ventura.

If you don’t do this – you can never whine about crappy roads and stupid street lights that aren’t calibrated to bicycles ever again!

·        Go on line and tell SCAG (Southern California Area Governments) we need bike improvements in Ventura County!

·        Check out the VBU Web page if you want more info.

What is VCCool?
A local non-profit that deals with climate change. Down with Greenhouse gas!

What is the Ventura Bicycle Union?
A program of VCCool. We’re a very active bike advocacy group.

What is the Ventura Bicycle Coop?
A project of VBU, for sharing tools, and education about bicycles.

What is the San Buenaventura ArtRiders Bicycle & Social Club?
A group of cyclists who ride to art galleries and studios the First Friday of each month sharing the joys of bicycling, encouraging people to get out of their cars and walk or ride, and dressing up to call attention to cyclists! Next ArtRide is Oct 7: The Gothtober Quidditch Ride!

PS No that isn’t a picture of Marshall on the trike. Just sayin’

Primary Source of Fed Funds for Bikes & Peds Threatened TODAY: please take action!

Posted: September 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Ventura Bicycle Union | Leave a comment

Protect funds needed for people-powered transit! Please take two minutes to sign these petitions.

Today Senator Coburn (R-OK) may bring his  amendment to the Senate floor to eliminate the Federal Transportation Enhancements program which has been the primary source for bicycle and pedestrian funding for the past 20 years.

Simply click and sign one or both!

League of American Bicyclists Petition

Safe Routes to School Partnership Petition

One Week to Comment: Help Increase SoCal Funding for Bikes & Peds from 1% NOW

Posted: September 15, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: how to develop a bike culture, Ventura Bicycle Union | Tags: | Leave a comment

Every four years, a new Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is created for the whole of Southern California that helps determine how money is divvied out.

In 18 workshops all over So-Cal, with three were right here in Ventura County, almost nobody came to speak about bike or pedestrian transit needs so now the draft RTP calls for only 1% of the transit funds to cover both bikes and peds!

When over 12% of all trips are done on foot or with a bicycle, and 25% of roadway accidents and fatalities involve pedestrians or bicyclists does it make sense for only 1% of the transit funds to cover bikes and peds?

No it does not! Please contact SCAG (Southern California Area Governments) and tell them to increase the budget for bikes and pedestrians so that we can commute more safely.

You have one week to
Enter Your Comments about the RTP!

(or e-mail them to John Proctor) .

Here are TWO important MESSAGES to convey in your communications:

·        Bicycles and Pedestrians have TOTALLY different needs. Funds should not be clumped together.

·        We need a more reasonable percentage of funds to be used for bicycle improvements to address the large number of casualties and the growing desire for safe bicycle routes.

Please include your name and address.

Remember one week so do it today! Enter Your Comments about the RTP or e-mail them to John Proctor! TODAY!

Here’s a video and more)

Also a link to the Safe Routes to School Platform.

Save a copy of your comments and please let us know you did and when so we can track it!

Ventura Bicycle Union Meets 9/14

Posted: September 13, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Copenhagenization, how to, how to develop a bike culture, Ventura Bicycle Union | Leave a comment

Rachel Morris writes to remind us that the first General Bicycle Planning Meeting in a long time is tomorrow evening Wednesday, Sept 14 7:00pm sharp 345 W. Center St., Ventura CA with Backdoor Parking for Bicycles!

On the agenda:

  • An important upcoming event. (???)
  • Ways to communicate with the city better
  • The new Bike Toolshare Coop
  • Bicycle Funding Legislation
  • And more…like the Gothtober Quidditch Ride October 7!

Send Rachel a note if you want to put something on the agenda.

 Be there or be somewhere not as cool.

Bike It: Art, Poetry, Rides in Pasadena

Posted: September 11, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: ArtRide, Copenhagenization, Fun Rides | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

A reading by Jen Hofer at the opening reception for “Bike It: Portraits of my Bicipandilla” photographs by Kelly Marie Martin at Armory Center for The Arts, Pasadena.

Bike It: Portraits of my Bicipandilla by Kelly Marie Martin
August 18, 2011 – October 2, 2011Friday, September 23, 2011, 5-9pm

:
Spoke(n) Art Ridethrough Pasadena, co-sponsored by Cyclists Inciting Change through Live Exchange (CICLE).Sunday, October 2, 2011, 2-6pm:
Closing ride, led by The City of Angels Ladies’ Bicycling Association (a.k.a. The Whirly Girls) and celebration with afternoon tea at the Armory.

Curator: Irene TsatsosBike It: Portraits of my Bicipandilla by Kelly Marie Martin features black-and-white photographic portraits, taken with a 4×5 camera, of riders in her “bicipandilla,” or bicycle gang, with their bikes. The exhibit ends with a baked-goods-and-bikes bang: a closing ride and brunch with the City of Angels Ladies’ Bicycle Association, a.k.a. the Whirly Girls, on October 2nd, from 10am – 1pm. This event is free and open to the public.

Jen Hofer is a radical cyclist. By this I mean, radically committed. She commutes to downtown LA and most everywhere else by bicycle. She is one of the original Whirly Girls.

She is also a dear friend (and a 3:15 experiment poet!) and one of these days, she promises she will join us in Ventura for an ArtRide.

One day I hope we’ll do a Spoke(n)  ArtRide through Ventura…and another day a writing workshop around Ventura by bike …

In the meantime, calendar these rides!

Our next ArtRide in Ventura is the Gothtober Quidditch Ride–let’s show these Muggles how we roll!

ArtRides & Bikergo Gal Get In The VC Reporter

Posted: September 10, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: ArtRide, Fun Rides | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Michel Cicero interviewed me about the ArtRides, my blogging, my book and more and published her article in the August 25, 2011 VC Reporter. Check out her article and the photo by Gabriel Romero of me in my grandfather’s wine cellar drinking his sherry! (I know–we should have staged a bikergo in there somehow!)

Plus my poetry and art were featured in Friday’s Ventura County Star in an article by Karen Lindell!

Now that I’m famous, I hope you’ll join us for a Full Moon Shuck–ride your bike to the Ventura State Beach Park for a wedding reception (mine!) and oyster shucking under the Full Moon! Moonrise at 630, sunsets 7pm, dark at 8pm! BYOB!

And if you can’t make it on Sunday, please ride your bike to Bank of Books on Main near downtown Ventura to say hi and stay for my poetry reading and book signing Thurs. Sept. 15 7pm.