May is my favorite month because it's full of my two favorite things: my birthday and bikes! Make sure that you sign up for MIBM and join our Tiny Helmets bike team. We kicked things off with the Great Scott Rd. Bike and Walk event. This time, we brought more friends! I packed up my HaulaDay with two bikes, our travel vests, all the food and water we needed and then Neil packed up his truck and trailer with four cargo bikes, five kids' bikes, a Pugsley and five of us. If that's not a truck's true purpose, I don't know what is. Starting off with Jennifer on my HaulaDay, Randy on my dad's, Neil on Randy's Mundo, me on Neil's Cycle Truck, and the four big kids on their own bikes. After about 10 miles, the kids started getting tired and were ready for rides. It's a good thing we had so many cargo bikes to carry the monsters and tow their bikes. Big Brother crashed a couple times and took a short break but then found the energy to keep going. There aren't many photos of him because he was too fast to keep up with. At one point, he and Little Brother got caught up with some roadies and rode with them for about 10 minutes until they finally had to wait for me to catch up from about a quarter of a mile away. Where else can kids ride off at top speed without any worries? We need more spaces like this! More recent fun, running around to try to get kiddos to all their Little League practices and games. We signed up at the local league nearby but after a shooting, they've been moved to parks too far away to get to easily--difficult with a car-free life but thankfully, we've had help from friends from the team. Also got the opportunity to ride around Davis for a Traffic Skills class. It was tricky finding difficult riding situations in Davis to challenge the students because of the infrastructure and driver behavior.
0 Comments
I know that I often talk about how much I love my job and here is an awesome article about one of our latest projects, a 10 hour bicycle education program that we put together for fifth graders in Folsom, originally published in Kaiser's Pedal Power Bicycle Newsletter, put together by Dave Cassel. Reading, Writing and Riding a Bike Folsom’s Gold Ridge Elementary institutes Project Bike Smart By Rebecca Garrison, 50 Corridor TMA Rebecca Garrison is the Executive Director of the 50 Corridor TMA and has been an active supporter of bicycling throughout the 50 Corridor for many years. She is also a key member of the region’s May Is Bike Month team. Photo credits to the incredibly talented Dave Cassel. Gold Ridge Elementary School Principal David Frankel has a one-word answer as to why he and the school’s PTA instituted Project Bike Smart to their fifth grade students: traffic. “Gold Ridge has huge traffic problems associated with drop off and pick up,” he said. “On days when all 600 students arrive and leave at the same time, it’s a mess. Long waits. Snarled traffic. Safety issues.” Of the 600 students, only about 10 ride bikes to school and a small number walk, yet 90 percent of the school’s students live within walking/biking range in a neighbor-hood that is bicycle friendly. “We wanted to teach students bike education with the hope of getting more students to ride by themselves or with their parents to school,” said Frankel, noting that last year a student was hit by a car while cycling to school. “That was a wakeup call to me that instruction in safety practices was needed,” said Frankel. In the summer of 2015, Frankel contacted the 50 Corridor Transportation Management Association for assistance. “The TMA has implemented active transportation programs at both Sunrise Elementary and Navigator Elementary in Rancho Cordova since those two schools first opened their doors,” said Rebecca Garrison, Executive Director of the 50 Corridor TMA. “We were eager to initiate a Project Bike Smart program in a 50 Corridor elementary school but finding a school that had the ability to give us 10 hours of classroom time during the school year was challenging. When Principal Frankel and PTA parent Hanh Xiong approached us about bringing Project Bike Smart to Gold Ridge, I knew we had to find a way to make it happen.” Xiong, an employee of Kaiser Permanente’s Folsom Medical Office Building (MOB) on Iron Point, was familiar with the TMA’s bicycle education program for adults through the regular bicycle safety clinics taught at Kaiser Folsom MOB, a silver level Bicycle Friendly Business. Garrison worked with the PTA, the Sacramento Air Quality Management District and the City of Folsom to build the $10,000 funding source needed for Project Bike Smart. Utilizing the skills of local League Cycling Instructor (LCI) Elle Steele, the project was scoped and ready for roll-out the first week of March. “I was amazed at how comprehensive the bicycle education program provided by Elle Steele and her LCI team was,” said Frankel. “Students learned and mastered a range of safety practices from scanning and merging to lane use, right of way rules, and much more. The differentiated approach of instruction for beginners through advanced students matched students to the instruction they needed.” The parent volunteers and the members of the LCI Team who worked with students over the two week course noted that all students made huge progress and dramatically improved their proficiency in biking safely in the community. “I was thrilled to see children who were timid and uneducated about cycling on streets become much more confident and capable,” said Ken Walker of the LCI Team and an Intel bicycle commuter. “And, it was great to see a school with parents and staff that supported the students in those efforts. No doubt that some children will start biking to school as a result.” The Project Bike Smart program was patterned after a program developed by the North Natomas TMA where their program tackles at least four elementary schools each year. “Children and bicycles are a natural combination,” said Steele, lead instructor for the program. “Bicycles are often someone’s first taste of freedom, a vehicle for exploration and experiences that can’t be found in front of a television or from the backseat of a car. Since many people are never taught proper bicycling education, there are a lot of misconceptions about safe bicycling behavior, both from cyclists and car drivers. It’s important to educate everyone but it’s easiest to reach people when they are young.” Steele noted that children are the most vulnerable and tend to make impulsive decisions when they don’t know better. By reaching them early, they will know safer behaviors from the beginning, making them safer drivers of bicycles and, if they choose so later, of cars. “Fifth grade is the perfect time to teach bicycle education,” said Steele,” as that’s the age when many children begin to be able to judge traffic speeds and situations. Once bike riders can ride faster than walking speed, it’s actually safer for them to be riding as a vehicle with the flow of traffic, as long as they know the proper ways to do so.” More than 90 Gold Ridge students completed the 10 hours of bicycle education which included classroom instruction, blacktop handling skills and on-the-street riding. “At the start of the program, the students were wobbly on their bicycles and had no concept of road rules,” said Steele. “By the end of the program, they could scan, signal, and choose proper lane positions while riding, and recite the right-of-way rules better than most adults.” “Students’ favorite experience is always the street ride. It’s wonderful to hear the connections they are making as they pass by their local parks and sometimes even their homes. By the time they’re back at school, they are realizing that bicycles are not just for fun but also a viable source of transportation.” --Lead Instructor Elle Steele “The bright smiles that beamed from the students were one indication that Project Bike Smart was having a positive impact. The look of satisfaction on their faces showed the deeper meaning to their lives at the end of the three days of accomplishment on the street rides.” --LCI Manuel De Aquino Steele acknowledged that it’s a lot for fifth–graders to learn – most critically, how to keep themselves safe!
“I wish these responsibilities didn’t fall on the most vulnerable users of the roads, as our street designs and traffic laws should be designed to protect them and not just be focused on moving motor vehicles faster. With proper bike infrastructure like connected bike paths and protected bike lanes, streets would be safer for all users of the road and put less stress on children who should be simply enjoying the freedom and joy that bicycles bring.” Fortunately, the neighborhood around Gold Ridge is more bicycle friendly than most. “Our school was built to be the hub of the neighborhood,” said Principal Frankel. “Increasing safe cycling to school will improve the quality of life in the neighborhood, reduce congestion associated with drop off and pick up, and hopefully connect families and students better.” One Bike Smart parent volunteer has already formed a mini bike group to ride to school together each morning. “The most common response to youth bike education programs from parents is that they would love to let their kids ride but are too afraid of the traffic dangers,” said Steele. “That’s ironic because their solution is to drive their children instead, which creates more traffic. There are always many misconceptions about how bike riders should behave. As the students go home and share their experiences and knowledge from this class, parents should begin to see that their children can be trusted as responsible bicycle riders and that there are other options than driving everywhere. We do a lot of un-teaching of improper behaviors from both the students and their parents, like stressing to never, ever ride on the wrong side of the road.” And while Frankel is thrilled about the newly educated and skilled cyclists returning to their normal 5th-grade curriculum next week, traffic is still on his mind. “I’m looking forward to seeing how many more students ride their bikes to school over the coming months. We would love to secure on-going funding for this program next year so we can continue to address our traffic concerns and strengthen safe routes for students on bikes." Can you believe that this is our fourth year of biking and blogging? It's been hard for me to keep up with life changes and writing but at least the biking has stayed mostly consistent. Things always get busier for me in the spring when I find myself traveling all over the region, teaching almost daily. Biking has become not just my passion but also my (mostly) full-time profession and I feel so lucky. Little Brother just celebrated his 5th birthday then the boys left to stay with their dad for the weekend. This isn't quite the life I expected to have four years ago but I'm here now and we're making it work, much of it wonderful, balanced out with some added challenges. We've come a long way, at least 15,000 miles since I decided that if I could bike there, I would. The 30 Days Of Biking was a big help in forming our biking routine. Pledging to ride every day for the month of April gave us a jump start in changing our car-centric pattern. Instead of getting in the car automatically, I was looking for ways to get a bike ride in. Soon enough, it became everyday practice to head out the back door with our helmets instead of the front door with the car keys. After April, I didn't want to stop so it worked out perfectly that May Is Bike Month follows. This time, pledging to ride a certain number of miles for the month of May and being stubborn enough to force myself to keep up. Each year so far, some times it has worked and sometimes not. Some days I have to drive a car to keep up with my sleep, sanity, or schedule. We're not perfect but we do the best we can.
Happy April and happy riding! I've been dying to get a chance to try out some dirt riding and finally got the chance this weekend when Neil and his crew decided to test out their bikepacking gear on a s24o (sub 24-hr overnight) at Beal's Point in Folsom. Since I was heading into Folsom anyway to go to a concert with my friend, it was the perfect opportunity to borrow Neil's old mountain bike and ride up with them. I felt like I was cheating a bit since I wasn't actually carrying any real gear, just my tools and a change of clothes. The others were fully decked out with camping gear and supplies for their overnight. There were some beautiful Carsick Designs bikepacking bags to drool over. We followed the levee road along the American River until it met up with the parkway. You're not allowed to ride on the trails on the west side of Natoma Lake so we didn't get a ton of dirt riding until we crossed the bridge at Hazel. I was definitely more cautious than the guys but I was pretty happy with the dirt riding that I was able to do. No jumps for me, yet... After about 30 miles up to Beal's Point (the hills were so easy without having kids and gear on my bike!), we were all soaked. I gave my friend a call while the others began to set up camp. The next morning, I met back up with everyone and was able to convince Neil to ride back to Sacramento with me while the others hitched a ride back. He and I were able to get a little more trail riding in and crossed some flooded areas of the parkway. I hadn't realized how much I'd love mountain biking (is it considered mountain biking if it's mostly flat?)! I can't wait to head out again!
Today started off crappily with a driver almost plowing into me as I crossed through the 4-way stop intersection. I had stopped and proceeded, watching as the driver pulled up to her stop sign, neglected to look or see me, and drive straight through, yelling at me when she finally noticed me a foot from her path. I guarantee she went straight into work complaining about bikers who don't stop at stop signs...
Thankfully, my job is wonderful and I've been spending the last week teaching 5th graders in Folsom about safely riding their bikes for transportation. The city of Folsom, along with many others, especially including the 50 Corridor TMA, have funded a new Bike Smart program, modeled after the NNTMA's Project Ride Smart. The school's principal and staff have been incredibly welcoming and supportive, giving us almost free run of a 10-hour long bicycle education program over the next two weeks. Today was a video day where we discussed intersections, right of way rules, and lane positioning. These kids will probably know more than their parents at this rate! On the way down to the light rail station, I was able to finally test out my new Georgia In Dublin rain skirt. Way easier and more breathable than classic rain pants. Unfortunately, the bike I am on doesn't have fenders so the open back was a little more drafty than I'd like. Overall, I still really like this set up. Now, I'm currently stuck on a light rail train as a truck driver has managed to get themselves stuck on the tracks, blocking our way. There's no estimate for departure, yet. Thankfully, the rain is beautiful, the students have been awesome, and it's Friday! Can't complain too much. We're so lucky to have Shane MacRodes in the Sacramento region this week coaching our Folsom League Cycling Instructor (LCI) Seminar. He has also been available for additional trainings and workshops for current and pending LCIs. Shane lives in Eugene, is a Safe Routes To School coordinator, and the co-founder of Kidical Mass. He's such a valuable asset to the biking community, especially for students and families. Shane was brave enough to let me pick him up via Bike Friday tandem, my first adult passenger! It took us a few pedal strokes to find our balance but we quickly became a great team. I was fully aware that if I broke our coach on the first day, I'd be in big trouble! I've been really enjoying these seminars as a way to learn more from his expertise and experience, as well as connecting with and learning from diverse groups of bicycling advocates in the area. Our LCI seminar is packed with 16 mostly local participants, some of whom are already slated to begin working on our numerous bike projects in the region. We have been really lacking in available LCIs for too long!
This is a jam-packed weekend and I'm excited to be able to watch and support these pending LCIs through this arduous but incredibly fulfilling and fun experience! You can follow along on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag 2016SacSeminar. The big kid had a holiday today so we took the Bike Friday tandem for a 13 mile ride to Effie Yeaw nature preserve for a hike. Now that the tandem is running smoothly, this was our first real shakedown ride. It was great. Big Brother put some real effort into pedaling and we sped by many riders on the trail. He even complained about being tired which is awesome because usually I'm the only one tired after a bike ride.
The hike was beautiful but it was busy since everyone seemed to have the same plan. We saw 19 deer, 30+ turkeys, and lots of squirrels. Twenty-six miles total and despite a few sizing adjustments needed, this is a perfect addition to our fleet. After procrastinating a little too long, we finally rolled our Bike Friday tandem, the front 2/3 of what is know as our Crazier Train, to Addison's Bicycle Repairium. With a ton of patience and an eye for all the weird little details, Addison has gotten her back into touring shape!
With both kids onboard, this bike (can we still call it a bike if it has three wheels?) rocks (both literally and spiritually). The boys love adding their power to the monster bike and we're getting better about communicating when to pedal, when to coast, scanning, and turn signals. I still need to adjust the stem so I'm not as stretched out but otherwise, I can't wait to head out for an overnight with this rig! We may need to add a trailer to the back for added craziness (and cargo space). This weekend, I was invited to a party at a friend's house, about 30 miles away. I had originally planned to drive because it was in Rocklin, an area I had never ridden to nor had any familiarity with. After looking over the route via Google, I realized that the first half was almost all bike trail following the route to Gibson Ranch. The rest still had an encouraging amount of green lines, indicating bike infrastructure (although not differentiating what type of infrastructure...). I decided that since I was staying overnight anyway, there was plenty of time to try riding it. Worst case, I could call for a ride or use my new Better World Roadside Assistance (which includes bike pickups). I made one final check in with a friend who knows the area well and he gave me a couple of adjustments to the route so that I would avoid a gnarly freeway interchange (those are the worst!). My panniers were packed with food and a change of clothes, I had my tools, my lights, and a lock. I loaded up my Oscar and we rode off. It was a beautiful, relaxing ride for the most part. The trails were busy with lots of families out riding and walking. The weather was gorgeous with big ominous clouds hanging overhead. The route worked out wonderfully. There were some stressful sections through Roseville where the bike lanes were narrow and squeezed between two lanes of traffic so that vehicles were traveling fast on both sides. I still had to cross over a highway interchange but it was relatively easy. My ride home today was slightly calmer through Roseville with lighter Sunday morning traffic. I enjoyed ending the ride on the Dry Creek and Sacramento Northern bike trails instead of the suburban sections. I did run into some traffic jams on the trails, however. Towards the end of my ride, I realized that I hadn't eaten enough and was starting to feel sick but I made it home and recovered with a snack, a shower, and a nap.
I'm really happy to have learned how to reach another section of the region by bike. It's not an easy trip to make but it's doable with enough time (it took me about 2.5hrs to go 29 miles). Now I feel better about having replaced a car trip that I would have made and will happily eat everything in my house tonight. This was actually my third day in a row of riding about 30 miles and my body is feeling it today! Big Brother joined me on my journey to Rancho Cordova for a meeting. We took light rail to get there and I went back and forth about how we'd manage the first and last miles of the trip. We could have walked which would have taken an extra half hour on either side of the train time or we could bring our bikes but have to lug them up the steep steps for the light rail. We went with bikes. We arrived at the station with plenty of time. Two trains were no shows because a driver had driven into the tracks in downtown and was stuck. Over 40 minutes later, we finally had a train. With some juggling and help from people watching me try to manage both bikes and a kid up the steps, we were able to get onboard without too much trouble. I kept coaching BB about continuing to push the open door button so we didn't end up losing each other or a bike or two. People were really friendly about it and helped us on and off at each stop. I probably could have done it myself but I wouldn't have wanted to. There was a big fight that broke out right as we got onboard on our way home. Luckily we were up the steps as the first punches were thrown at the foot of the same steps. That wasn't something I was happy about my kiddo seeing but he didn't seem very worried about it.
It was certainly an adventure but I'm glad to be back home. |
AuthorThis is us. We're fun. Archives
October 2019
Categories
All
|