L to R -- Jeff Ciabotti (Rails to Trails), Chris Scott (VBF), Senator Mark Warner, Barbara Duerk (VBF), Champe Burnley (VBF), Marianne Fowler (Rails to Trails)
Cyclists from across Virginia convened in Washington to meet with over a dozen of Virginia’s congressmen as well as Senators Warner and Webb. Meetings covered issues such as the upcoming transportation bill, Complete Streets, Safe Routes to School (extending this to include high school students), support for Congressman Bluemenaur’s Active Community Transportation Act, and of course, Rails-With-Trails.
A number of citizens from across Virginia teamed up with VBF for these meetings – bike retailers and manufacturers’ reps, mountain bikers and bike commuters, as well as cycling advocates. The team offered a broad perspective on what is needed to improve cycling in Virgina.
Joining VBF for their meeting with Senator Mark Warner were the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s Senior VP of Federal Relations Marianne Fowler, and VP of Trail Development Jeff Ciabotti.
“The Summit was a real success,” said VBF president Champe Burnley. “We found most of the congressional offices very supportive of our requests to support active transportation in the Commonwealth. I really feel optimistic that conditions in Virginia will continue to improve.”
“Streets are not just for cars.” — Jim Licinski, Google
At the National Bike Summit today, Peter Birch from Google announced the debut of bicycling directions for Google Maps. Cyclists can enter their starting point and destination, select “bicycling,” and get a route favoring bike-friendly roads and paths.
We must mention the Google Maps Bike There blog and petition, the rallying point for getting Google to provide this service. Apparently their job is done, but they have plenty of other stuff worth reading. We hope they will continue.
Try Google Maps bike directions for yourself. You may be surprised how well it works, even at this early stage. It will only get better and better, as more and more cyclists add their tweaks and suggestions.
VBF is at the Bike Summit every year, and this year will be no exception. So far, I’ve heard that Champe, Bud, Barbara, Sheryl, and Allen will be present, though maybe not all of them for the whole thing.
The Summit’s “main event” is meeting with Virginia’s senators and congressmen, and VBF arranges these visits. So if you’re coming to the Summit from Virginia, please Active Community Transportation Act, just introduced by Earl Blumenaur, along with other bike legislation on the League’s list. Stay tuned for more.
Of particular interest to me is the social media session at 2:30 pm on Wednesday. As bike advocates, communication is the essence of what we do. But we can all do better in getter our message out. Join the folks behind StreetsBlog.org, BikePortland.org, social media consultant Paul Miser and others to learn how.
Bring your bike, ride to the days’ events, ride with all the rides that will crop up, and ride with the Congressional Bike Caucus, Friday March 12, 8:30-11:00 am.
Representative Earl Blumenauer introduced the Active Community Transportation Act, H.R.4722, on 3/2/10. This groundbreaking bill creates a competitive grant program with $2 Billion to help communities build bicycling and walking networks. For the first time, communities would be able to compete for multi-year funding to build active transportation systems, just as they do for transit and road infrastructure.
Though many of you will be coming to DC next week for the National Bike Summit, this is a great opportunity for other leaders and members of your organization not traveling to DC to participate in an important way. Working with our America Bikes partners, we encourage your organization to participate in a Virtual Lobby Day next Thursday. [click to continue…]
Rueben Williams was a talented young artist from Roanoke, tragically killed this Tuesday while riding his bike home from work. This video tells the story, with additional commentary by our own Barbara Duerk:
Please see the accompanying page at WDBJ, with additional video and photos; and especially the Roanoke Times article that tells more of [...]
Aaron Dykstra of Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. – photo by NAHBS
Roanoker Aaron Dykstra was awarded the “Rookie of the Year” prize at last weekend’s North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond, Virginia.
Aaron, the owner of the Six-Eleven Bicycle Company, designed and hand built a beautiful Tuscan red and black track bike featuring design references to the [...]
A more active Legislative session than usual, with one good win, one that got our hopes up before it went down, and a number that failed but seemed to get a little closer to passing than ever before.
The win was with Senate Bill 546, which was patroned in masterful fashion by Senator John Edwards of [...]
Take action now: write to the Fairfax Board of Supervisors.
In a flurry of budget-cutting and who-knows-what other politics, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors wants to eliminate, permanently, the bike coordinator position, and all County bicycle programs. This is at odds with recent efforts to develop a bike master plan, to improve quality [...]
As expected, Senator Norment’s SB517 banning cell phone usage by motor vehicle drivers, except in hands free mode, was tabled by the Militia, Police and Public Safety Subcommittee 2 by a 2 -1 vote. Athey & Cline for tabling; Shuler opposed; Cleaveland & Gilbert absent. After the vote [...]
An interim on-road routing of the East Coast Greenway through Virginia has been mapped based on meetings held across Virginia by the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Starting in Calais, Maine and ending in Key West, Florida, when completed, the ECG will be nearly 3000 miles long and connect the major cities along the Atlantic Coast. Plans call [...]
