Bicycle Ambassadors' Planning Meeting - Mon. Dec. 8, 2008

Bicycle Ambassador Programs engage community volunteers in promoting bicycling awareness and safety. There are programs currently up and running in communities around the country including Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington; and Boulder, Colorado -- where 20% of commuters go by bike! The Montpelier Bikes Project is seeking input from potential ambassadors in preparation for a Spring 2009 program.

Montpelier Bikes • Bicycle Ambassadors' Brainstorming & Discussion meeting

Monday, December 8 • 6:30 pm
Montpelier High School (room directions will be posted at the front entrance)

The purpose of this meeting is to determine what we as a community need to research or figure out before we launch this program in the spring. You are invited to put on your thinking cap to ask the tough questions now -- so that we can pull together background information and develop a training program in time for the spring. We will conduct our trainings in April, in time to launch the program for Way To Go Week and National Bike Month in May 2009.

Montpelier Bikes would like to have 20-30 Bicycle Ambassador volunteers in Montpelier next summer. Individuals who are not Montpelier residents, but are regularly in Montpelier for work or other reasons are welcome, too.

Here are some ideas so far about what Bicycle Ambassadors might do in Montpelier:

• Assist with bicycle safety education (bike rodeos, or a neighborhood block parties or garage sales).
• Sign up with Onion River Exchange to provide "Bike Buddy" services to help someone rediscover bicycling, or to help a commuter get started - including selecting a route, helping with gear, pedaling a potential route together, or simply providing advice.
• Provide safe bicycling tips to other bicyclists - using outreach materials developed by Montpelier Bikes.
• Serve as a visible Ambassador to motorists - riding responsibly in town and wearing a Bicycle Ambassadors shirt (brightly colored for safety). Be prepared to discuss safe bicycling and bicycling laws with motorists respectfully and politely.
• Distribute flyers to bulletin boards around town with a "bicycle safety tip of the month" from April to October.
• Help staff a potential bicycle parking corral at public events - possibly the Farmer's Market, Independence Day fireworks, etc.
• Lead neighborhood "bicycle trains" for elementary or middle school kids going to school.

Bicycle Ambassadors will receive good karma, plus a bicycle ambassador t-shirt or vest, and a discounted one-year membership in the Onion River Exchange Program, to get you started in being a bike buddy. Each Bicycle Ambassador will be asked to provide a certain number of hours of volunteer service over the course of the 2009 "season."

Questions for meeting attendees to think about:

• What would you need to learn in order to feel confident in doing some or all of the above tasks?
• What materials or training would you need?
• What should the Bicycle Ambassadors policies be about helmet use and sidewalk riding?
• Are there other ways that you would see Bicycle Ambassadors promoting bicycling?
• How many hours of community service should we ask Bicycle Ambassadors to commit to?

You are welcome to send any comments via email, but we also want to have an in-person discussion with input from potential ambassadors. RSVP to info@goinggreenvt.com if you are planning to attend on December 8.

Thanks to Bicycle Sign Hosts

Thanks to our "Slow Down - Watch for Bikes" sign hosts for 2008 - Gretchen, Carolyn , Mary, Donna & Ed, Ken & his neighbors on Terrace St., Heather, Phyllis, Nancy, and Cass.

We'll consider adding a few more, selected signs in 2009 - please let us know if you live along an arterial street in town and would like to host. Of course, you are welcome to make your own home-grown signs, too!

Montpelier Bike Rack Inventory

New Bike Racks for Montpelier?
The Montpelier Bikes Project will work with the City of Montpelier to determine locations for 20 new bike racks. To do this, we're first inventorying where there are currently racks. See our draft list of current bike rack locations.

Where would you like to see a new bike rack? Also - this is beyond the City's current budget - but where would you like to see a covered bike shed, or bicycle lockers? You can answer these questions in an email to info@goinggreenvt.com or add to the comments on this blog.

If you are interested in donating $100 (Buy a Bike Rack) or $50 (Sponsor a Space), please contact us, and we will let you know when we are ready to collect funds for this project.

The new racks will most likely be the inverted-U racks as shown here. See Montpelier's current u-racks in real life in front of Coffee Corner.

Could You Host a Bicycle Sign in Your Yard?

Montpelier Bikes still needs a few hosts who live along main streets in town:

• Northfield St. near the motel, and
  
• State St. out near the creemee stand

Can you help? We now have signs on College St., Terrace St., Barre St., Main St., Elm St., and North St. (Thanks to Phyllis, Nancy, Suzanne, Heather, Mary, Ken, Cass, Gretchen, and Caroline!)

We have 10 of these plastic yard signs, similar to political signs but with a bicycle-friendly message! Speeding makes our streets uncomfortable for bicycling, and many parents in Montpelier indicated that traffic speed is a reason they don't let their children bike to school.

If you live along a major street, please let us know if you would be willing to put a sign in your yard this summer, and store it somewhere safely for the winter to put back up next spring. Please email if you can host.

Montpelier Bicycle Count - 2nd Week in June

Volunteers needed to count bicyclists in Montpelier! Our log will be added to the National Bicycle & Pedestrian Documentation Project, starting this June and again in September. Can you count for a 1.5 hour shift? We'll count pedestrians, too.

We will have a very quick mini-training on Monday, June 9 at Langdon St. Cafe @ 5:30 pm. Come and raise a glass or mug to bicycling and get a quick (10-15 min) intro to the forms & procedures.

Locations: Spring & Elm, School & Main, Barre & Main, State & Bailey.

Dates: Exact date TBD, based on weather forecasts.

• Weekday Count: Tues., June 10 with raindates of Wed June 11 or Thurs, June 12.
• Morning shift 7:45-9:15 am; Evening shift 4:30-6 pm.

• Weekend Count: Sat., June 14 with Sun as a raindate.
• Midday shift: 12:30-2 pm

To sign up to count: Email Becka Roolf - info@goinggreenvt.com with your availability for ALL of the dates/ times above, so that we can be sure to have coverage for whichever day is not rainy. You'll need to arrive 5-10 min before your shift starts, and come to the mini-training on June 9 (see above).

Notes from Energy Team "Town Meeting"

The rising cost of fuel oil, gasoline, (and other fossil fuels) has the attention of quite a few people. The Montpelier Energy Team hosted a "town meeting" on May 29, 2008. While many of the sessions focused on home heating and weatherization, we had two sessions focused on bicycling.

We got a quick demo of the FreeRide / Community Bike -- a utilitarian re-used bicycle with bright yellow fenders and a shopping basket on the front. Several people volunteered for bicycle counts and bicycle rack inventory.

We also had a good discussion on potential bicycle-friendly improvements to our city streets.

• Our bicycling mayor, Mary Hooper, rolled out an idea about making Elm St. and Main St. one way to accommodate bike lanes. Everyone thought that was an interesting idea worth pursuing.
• We discussed the potential use of a "Sharrow" design to indicate bicyclists' rights to ride in the middle of a shared lane. Share + arrow = Sharrow (check out the link for photos!) As part of this discussion, we noted that 70% of Vermont drivers don't know that bicyclists have a legal right to be on the road.
• There was interest in improving the eventual path crossing of Barre St. and other path connections. The group noted that the Central Vermont Regional Path is now slated for construction in 2010. This construction date continues to be two-years out; path projects take a long time.

Would you like to get connected?

Please join our announcements-only email list for Montpelier Bikes Project: bicycling education, infrastructure projects, public meetings, volunteer projects, and other related activities to make Montpelier, Vermont better for bicycling. About 2-3 messages per month: maybe a little more in the summer, less in the winter.

To sign up, just send an email request to montpelierbikes@gmail.com