President's Corner

Happy Spring to our TVCA members,

The Spring Equinox officially took place on Sunday the 20^th at 7:21pm EST. This means that we have survived another Idaho winter and that warmer and dryer weather is on the way. It also means getting ready for another great year of cycling across the Treasure Valley. Your Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance has been very busy over the cold and wet winter months planning and executing our activities and investments for 2011. 2011 is going to be a bigger and better year for cycling and all those that love to ride!

First of all, thanks to all of you for your continued financial and volunteer support. Here is a quick recap of some of the investments that we are making in the cycling community:

Communications

• We’ve updated our TVCA website (www.biketreasurevalley.org) and Facebook page. Besides the great new logo, the website is much easier for anyone to update with articles of interest, upcoming events, popular rides, and more. We’ve added a PayPal link to make it easier to renew your membership and continue your support of our efforts. We’re also really excited to announce the creation of a sister organization dedicated to safe cycling education. The new Boise Street Smart Cycling (www.boisestreetsmartcycling.org) will become the one-stop location in Boise for classes, and information on safe cycling. We are in the process of applying for a 501c3 classification with the IRS to make it easier to capture funds for our education efforts. Check out both sites and our TVCA Facebook page.

Boise Bike Week 2011

• Our 9^th annual celebration of all things cycling is scheduled for May 15 – 21. The event is really coming together and includes a number of new rides and educational events. Mayor Bieter will join us to kickoff the week, and we promise great weather! For all the details and to get you excited, check out the website at www.boisebikeweek.org. The new graphics are in the process of completion, but the schedule of events is updated.

Inspired Cyclist Series

• We’ve got a series of forums planned to share some really great cycling stories with you over the coming year. We’ll start with a great local story – Family on Bikes. This is the continuing story of an Idaho family that is cycling from Alaska to Argentina. It is scheduled for Boise Bike Week and more information is available on the Boise Bike Week website.

Safe Routes to School Cycling Challenge

• We’ve kicked off a contest for all Boise Public Schools in partnership with the Safe Routes to School program. We’ll be awarding cash prizes to the top three schools that come up with the best proposals to ‘get more of their students riding, and riding more safely’. Judging will take place in April and we’ll share the results with you at during Boise Bike Week.

Street Smarts Training Curriculum Packaging

• We are partnering with the Idaho State Safe Routes to School program to package our instructional course on how to stage and hold a great bike rodeo for kids. The video and supporting materials will then be made available to every public school in the state. We’re also working with the IPBA (Idaho Pedestrian and Bicycle Alliance) organization to package our Street Smarts training course materials for use by other cycling groups across the state.

Boise Police Department Partnership

• Working with the BPD, we’re funding some free accessories that the bicycle patrol officers can provide to local cyclists that are operating either unlawfully or just unsafely. Our goal is to make these educational opportunities. We’ve got things like Frog lights, spoke cards with tips for safe riding, Street Smarts pamphlets, and opportunities for free education.

We’ll also be hosting information booths at five May in Motion events this year, the Boise Bike Bash, and Idaho Green Expo for starts. We’re really excited about all that is coming together for the new year and can’t wait to see you all at Boise Bike Week. Your support is what makes TVCA and our efforts happen, so thanks very much!

Finally, we think the following quote from Steve Jacobsen says it all about why we do what we do. Steve authored a 2003 study that showed that cyclists and pedestrians gained safety in numbers:

‘What I’m saying is that there is a strong response from the motorist’. ‘If the motorist expects to see someone walking or bicycling, he will behave accordingly’.

Have a terrific spring and we’ll see you at Boise Bike Week. We have lots of volunteer opportunities available, so let us know if you can help out.

Happy riding!

Walt

November 13, 2010
 
Fall greetings to our TVCA supporters,
 
It’s been a terrific summer and early fall for cyclists across the Treasure Valley. After a wet and cold spring, we all enjoyed a wonderful summer and now a beautiful fall (though certainly cold this week). It’s also been a terrific summer for the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance. We’ve made lots of progress on activities that support our mission, and are in the planning for our 2011 investments.
 
First a quick recap on the summer of 2010. We started in spring with a great 9th annual Boise Bike Week. Despite a rainout on our last day for the Pedal Power Parade, we had an enthusiastic turnout for all of our events. Through our cornerstone education program (Street Smart Cycling), we reached hundreds of adults and kids over the year through classes, lunch-and-learns, and bicycle rodeos. We also sponsored a number of events to get the message out around how to stay safe while riding including the BSU Health Fair, Boise Rec Fest, Boise Green Expo, May in Motion, and the IAHPERD physical education instructors conference. We’ve continued our active participation as a part of the ACHD Bicycle Advisory Council, have begun to work very closely with new ITD Bike/Ped Coordinator Maureen Gresham on a number of new activities, and have begun discussions with the new statewide Idaho Bicycle and Pedestrian Alliance. We were very excited to be able to make a key financial contribution to the 3.2-mile expansion of the greenbelt along the Boise River through the F.A.C.T.S (Foundation for Ada/Canyon Trails System) organization. And finally, with the help of all of our fantastic volunteers, we helped to put on a fantastic Tour de Fat festival in August. This is our biggest single source of funding for TVCA each year enabling us to continue to invest in better cycling infrastructure and safer cyclists across the Treasure Valley.
 
We’re right in the middle of our planning for 2011 and while not yet complete, wanted to provide you with an idea of some of the new things we are thinking about for next year.
 
TVCA Cycling Resources
·     We’re investing in upgraded website infrastructure and content to provide more relevant information to all cyclists in the Treasure Valley. Besides calendar, cycling news, commuting tips, and blogs, we are working with the ACHD (Ada County Highway District) to link their bicycle-specific map information to all of the popular web search engines (Google, Bing, Map My Ride, etc.) Additionally, we’re investigating how to enable local cyclists to submit areas of concern or roadway enhancement suggestions directly to ACHD, or for recommended routes like Safe Routes to School riding.

Inspired Cyclist Series
·     We’re planning to host a series of forums in the spring to have interesting cyclists come share their stories with the community.

Safe Routes to School Cycling Challenge
·     We’ll be structuring a program to provide funding to the schools that design the best programs to ‘get more kids riding their bicycles to school, and riding more safely.’ We will execute this in conjunction with the Safe Routes to School program.

Street Smarts Training Curriculum Packaging
·     An important contribution that TVCA will make to the efforts of the new statewide IPBA (Idaho Pedestrian and Bicycle Alliance) organization will be to package our Street Smarts training course materials into something that will be distributed for re-use by other cycling groups across the state. We’ll also work with the Idaho Safe Routes to School program to share statewide our bike rodeo staging materials.
 
Boise Bike Week 2011
·     Our annual event with some new thinking.
 
Boise Police Department Partnership
·     Working with the BPD (Boise Police Department), we’ll fund some free accessories that they can provide to local cyclists that are operating either unlawfully or just unsafely. For example, rear blinkies, inexpensive front lights, Street Smarts pamphlets, free education, etc. This program will help to strengthen the relationship with BPD, their relationship with cyclists, and increase our influence into their messaging.

To help us make all of this happen, we are excited to have two new board members join our team. Shelley Maclean recently moved to Boise from the Lake Tahoe area of California. Shelley is an every-day commuter and brings lots of experience and enthusiasm around events to create a better cycling culture. She is already thinking about Boise Bike Week 2011. Also joining the board is David Bogey. Many of you will know Dave from his terrific video and photography work with events like Ride Idaho, and for his daily commuting on his recumbent. Did you know that the TVCA board even better represents recumbent bicycles now? Both Dave and Kurt carry that flag.
 
We hope that you’ll agree that TVCA has made lots of contributions this year to the cycling scene, and that we have exciting plans for 2011. We can’t do any of this without the support of our sponsors and volunteers. We really appreciate your continued support of our activities!
 
Have a terrific holiday season and New Year. We look forward to your comments and ideas, so please take a minute and respond to this email, or feel free to join us at an upcoming board meeting. You’ll find our schedule on the TVCA website.
 
Happy riding!
 
Walt, Kurt, Karen, Shelley and Dave