Fresno County Bicycle Coalition

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

We want to hear from you as we come down the home stretch on the most progressive and comprehensive Bicycle Master Plan to transform the City of Fresno into a more Bicycle Friendly Community! We heard many of your initial comments last June and we want to show you what we have accomplished so far and get your input and feedback.

The second round of City of Fresno Bicycle Master Plan Open House Meetings are scheduled for
Lobby at City Hall: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 11:00 am-1:00 pm.
Bullard High School: Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 5:30-7:30 pm
Sunnyside High School: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 5:30-7:30 pm.

All three meetings will have the same information available; we just have them in three different locations of Fresno; Downtown, North, and South for your convenience.

Biking is an Affordable Family Fun Activity to Enjoy Fresno. It is great for your health, great for the environment, and great for your wallet! If you are not a fan of ibikefresno.org on facebook we encourage you to stay connected with the 2010 Bike Fresno Campaign! We have a lot of exciting events and activities planned for 2010 to showcase biking in Fresno!

For more information and background on the Bicycle Master Plan please go to www.fresnoBMP.com or www.fresno.gov/BMP

Bryan D. Jones, TE, PTP, AICP
City Traffic Engineer/Traffic Engineering Division Manager
City of Fresno Public Works Department

The FCBC attended a very exciting planning meeting yesterday. Also there were JP Marketing and the City of Fresno Public Works department. It’s still a bit early to share specifics, but suffice it to say that the Corporate Challenge is going to grow into something completely different and much more fun this year. Tell your co-workers, tell your friends and neighbors, tell your kids, and tell your grandma. Tell everyone you know who can ride a bike or who can learn by May. If you are a long-time Corporate Challenge rider, get your team ready to represent old-skool style. There’s going to be lots of n00bies this year that need your help and your straight-up beacon of guidance. The Challenge is going beyond Corporate this year (although that core is our most-important foundation).

If you haven’t already, go to ibikefresno.org and sign up so you get the news as it develops. If your on the Facebook, check out the ibikefresno.org page there too. Amazing activity in the short time it’s been up. The Fresno Beehive noticed, too!

It’s going to be a great year to cycle in Fresno County!

High School Bike Bus from Keri Caffrey on Vimeo.

Read more about these Orlando High School kids riding their bikes to school.

Please join the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition as we ride in the 80th Annual Fresno Christmas Parade! It’s tomorrow, and I just received notice that the parade is planned rain or shine. I noticed the workers assembling the grandstands outside City Hall. So plan to dress in your warm Christmas finery and come on downtown tomorrow morning!

Feel like you are going in circles in Roundabouts? Want to better understand how they work, their purpose, and why the City of Fresno and developers are choosing to install them more? At 4pm today (Thursday), City of Fresno Traffic Engineer Bryan Jones will be making a presentation before City Council on Roundabouts and be available to answer questions. Roundabouts are somewhat new to our region and education is critical to anything new. We have more than 500 traffic signals but fewer than ten roundabouts. Click on the following link below to watch it live on the Internet if you cannot make it down to Council Chambers. Although it may not be heard on time at 4pm, it will not be heard before 4pm.

City Hall Live Council Broadcast

From Street Films, an interesting discussion about Bicycle Boulevards, including case studies from cities that have successfully implemented them. Also, a link to a bicycle boulevard design guide from Portland.

Watch the video. Doesn’t that make you want to go out and ride RIGHT NOW? Don’t you wish you could be riding THIS BIKE?

We had a great day at the RiverTree cleanup on Sunday. It was very relaxed and easy-going. The weather was wonderful. RiverTree provided everything we needed, so I didn’t carry anything with me. If I had needed to bring stuff like shovels, I would have used my bike trailer! We did trash collection up and down the river, and took some time to sit and watch the river too. For more information on RiverTree, visit:
http://www.rivertreevolunteers.org/

Their next cleanup event is scheduled for the 28th, but we will not be there. On Sunday the 29th we are doing a small education event for six of Nancy’s “Green Team” kids from Work Force Connection. If you were there, you met some of them at the last meeting. We are training them in bicycle safety, and preparing them to help Nancy present bicycle safety to the middle-school children at Scandinavian Middle School on December the first. That is at Nancy’s house on Sunday morning, from 9 to noon.

At noon some of us (those with bikes) will be riding from Nancy’s house to the Pam Kinkade Neighborhood Center at the corner of Mariposa & B St in Fresno, where we will participate in their community garden workday (a weekly event). This is being organized by Ashley B., whom you will remember from the FCBC meeting as well. Ashley is an organizer of Local Motion and is going to work with the FCBC to keep our events (especially Tour de Fresno 2010) environmentally neutral.
For more information about Ashley, visit:
http://www.greenfresno.org/profile/AshleyBoujikian
For more information about the workday, visit:
http://www.greenfresno.org/events/pam-kinkade-neighborhood

If you are just itching to get in some more riding, these volunteer and education events might not be your speed! If so, I have some great advice to pass on from Lori Cherry. As you know, almost all of us FCBC folk are also members of the Fresno Cycling Club. The FCC is the region’s best recreation cycling group, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They have rides about every weekend of the year, and many week days and nights too. This weekend Lori suggest two rides in particular that will serve as a great introduction to the great sport of recreational cycling for those just starting out.

If you wish to join us or need more information, please feel free to contact me.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Some members of the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition are meeting tomorrow to help RiverTree clean up the San Joaquin River! We hope you will join us!

Here are the details of the RiverTree event:
http://www.rivertreevolunteers.org/Events.html
21,22 and 28 Nov 2009   0900 to 3 PM   Cleanup at Palm and Nees, and invasive weed removal.  Bring shovels, pruning shears or saws.  You can arrive and leave at any time.
Go to the intersection of Palm and Nees tomorrow morning, Sunday November 22nd, and look for the sign directing you down to the river. Event starts about 9 and goes to 3pm. Arrive and leave whenever you like.

Here is how we are going to do it:
Leave you home by bicycle and plan to meet us at the river by 9am (Nancy is planning to be there closer to 8). For maximus fun, ride with a friend! Nancy is riding from Ventura and First, leaving about 6:50ish or thereabouts. Ed is riding from Clovis, leaving from Fowler and Shaw about 8ish or so. Call us if you want to ride with us.

A photograph of seven year old Kylie Bruehler. She is at a funeral service to bury her parents, both of whom were killed when a driver veered onto the shoulder and drove his pickup truck into them. No charges were filed.