We’re are in the process of developing a new website, and we want to hear from you. Please take a moment to fill out this short survey. Thank you — your input will help us serve you better.
Construction delays on the Burke-Gilman in Kenmore slated to end on Friday
May 16th, 2012 by M.J. KellyI’d been hearing through Twitter and Facebook that the north-end of the Burke-Gilman was being torn up (again), and some of our staff reported walking through a construction detour. We scrambled to check our inboxes and the King County website for notification, and finding nothing, we made some calls. It sounds like there were some communication sanfus on their end, so the construction alert didn’t go out until today.
All you new riders (and experienced regulars) getting out there for Bike Month, take care on the trail in Kenmore. And remember, this is no deterrent to riding on Bike to Work Day this Friday! The two commute stations set up at the north end of Lake Washington will be stocked with cheer to keep you smiling for your whole ride. And when the construction is complete on Friday, the fresh pavement will probably be worth it.
News Release
Date: May 16, 2012
Contact: Doug Williams – 206-296-8304
King County – Department of Natural Resources and Parks
Brief delays from work on short stretch of King County’s Burke-Gilman Trail near Kenmore
Work this week to improve a short stretch of King County’s Burke-Gilman Trail near Kenmore will likely cause very brief delays for trail users.
Tree root removal and a fresh asphalt overlay will improve safety on the 650-foot-long length of the trail near Log Boom Park, which is at the eastern end of the recently redeveloped 2.2-mile-stretch of the Burke-Gilman Trail through Lake Forest Park.
This short stretch of trail will not be closed to use during the work, which should conclude on Friday, May 18th. However, flaggers will be on site to regulate trail use at times when trucks and other machinery are on the trail.
Short delays of up to 10 minutes could occur while crews perform work or move equipment that won’t allow safe passage for trail users. Additionally, cyclists will be required to dismount and walk through the construction zone.
The construction project is funded by the King County Parks’ trails maintenance fund.
The Burke-Gilman Trail runs more than 18 miles from Shilshole Bay in the City of Seattle to the City of Bothell where it intersects the Sammamish River Trail. Part of the “Locks to Lakes Corridor,” the trail crosses Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, the University District and View Ridge within the City of Seattle, as well as the cities of Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and Bothell.
The trail is managed by Seattle within the city limits south of Northeast 145th Street and by King County outside Seattle. More information is available online.
West Woodland rodeo rides again
May 16th, 2012 by Robin Randels
West Woodland Elementary sure knows how to put on a bike rodeo — a ton of fun was had by all! In preparation for Bike Month and Bike to School Day, these parents and teachers have added a guided ride component to their rodeo. Students take to the neighborhood streets to with Cascade instructors to learn first-hand the essential skills they will be using as they become more independent riders. Way to go and happy biking!
Here is what parent, Polly Freeman had to say about the event:
Fabulous weather and lots of enthusiasm from biking kids, parents, volunteers and sponsors made the 6th annual West Woodland Bike Rodeo one of the best ever on Sunday, May 6.
A total of 56 cyclists and their families enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon at the rodeo. Each participant got a helmet fit check before testing their skills at six stations, snacking on fruit and breadsticks, and enjoying a great day of riding. Many riders took advantage of the bike safety check area to get tires inflated, brakes checked and more. Twelve cyclists also took home new, low-cost helmets courtesy of Cascade and custom-fitted by our volunteers. A dozen riders also ventured out on two “urban” rides supported by Cascade Bike Club staff and West Woodland parents (Cascade staff time was funded by a Safe Routes to Schools grant).
All the kids who completed the stations earned their choice of a variety of cool stickers, water bottles and patch kits courtesy of Gregg’s Cycles. They were also entered in a drawing for flashy NiteIze spoke lights. Bolstering the ranks of our usual bike rodeo volunteers, we were happy to see a few new West Woodland parents volunteering and a HUGE (14) contingent of helpers from Ballard High School, who were spurred on in part by community service hours requirements but nonetheless helpful and welcome.
As Bike to School month continues, we will also have special stickers for kids riding to school on May 18, Bike to Work & School Day, and will award prizes to various categories of Bike to School riders at the end of the month. We’re energized by the good turnout at the rodeo and already planning to meet to talk about next year’s walking and wheeling plans.
“Share Your Style” Bike Fashion Show
May 16th, 2012 by Anna TelenskyWhat’s your bike style?
|
|
|
|
Whatever it is (okay, maybe save the body paint for the Fremont Fair), you’re invited to come show it off at our new “Share Your Style” Bike Fashion Show at the Ballard Street Party on May 18.
This is a non-competitive, open-to-anyone, fun opportunity to share what bike style means to you. You’ll also get to answer fun questions, like “what’s in your pannier?” and “what’s your number one bike fashion tip?” Everyone who participates will receive great prizes from our sponsors.
You can sign up in advance online, or at the event from 6:15-6:30 p.m. alongside the KEXP main stage.
Have a especially fashionable rider on your Group Health Commute Challenge team? Nominate them by sending their name and email to annat@cascadebicycleclub.org. We’ll reach out and encourage them to come strut their stuff.
Too shy to get up on stage? You can still come and enjoy the show!
“Share Your Style” Bike Fashion Show
Friday, May 18, 6:30 p.m.
At the F5 Bike to Work Day Ballard Street Party
22nd Ave NW, between Market St and Ballard Ave
We’re halfway there…
May 15th, 2012 by Erica Meurk
We’ve crested the hill, and we’re rolling down the other side, wind in our hair, sun at our backs.
Or maybe not. Maybe (in spite of all this glorious spring sunshine!), you’re plagued with broken spokes and flat tires. You’re losing steam. You left your bike at home and (gasp!) drove your car to work today.
Whether your Group Health Commute Challenge team still has a 100 percent participation rate or is lagging behind the completion in every category, we thought we’d send along a few ideas that might help you and your team coast to the finish line with energy to spare.
Sound Transit held a “clean your bike chain” workshop last week. Rebecca, the agency’s bicycle program coordinator, reports, “We used both rags and fancy chain-cleaning tools. A fun and messy time was had by all.”
Starbucks has an in-house “Bike Buddy” program, though which employees volunteer to ride to work with coworkers in their neighborhoods. Says Liz, the program’s organizer, “I’m delighted to see lots of new names on the list – and assume that they are first-time commuters. Ya-hoo!”
The Federal Aviation Administration‘s Renton office invited experienced bike commuters to offer tips and tricks to their coworkers during a brown bag lunch. Tom at the FAA organized the event as a cheap and easy way to help new commuters get started.
Over at Gregg’s in Bellevue, they’re rewarding their team with breakfast.
Your very own Cascade Bicycle Club fired up the grill today for our annual Bike Month barbecue. Need I say more?
We’re sure there are other examples out there, and we want to hear about them. What’s your workplace doing to encourage folks to ride to work this month?
Spotted on the trail this morning
May 15th, 2012 by M.J. KellyIf I ring my bell at you today, now you know why.
To change or not to change
May 15th, 2012 by Erica Meurk
Oh, dear.
It’s a conundrum faced frequently by any intrepid Seattle bicyclist: the choice between wet jeans and awkwardness.
Let me explain.
You push open the door to a bar. It can be any bar, but let’s say it’s in Belltown, and let’s say it’s loud and packed full of folks in business casual, sipping from martini glasses. Your glasses fog up in the heat of the place, and the rainwater runs from your jacket, forming a puddle on the floor. The host’s wide smile does little to hide his disdain as he regards the puddle, the mud-splattered panniers, the bright yellow jacket.
And yes, that’s me, there at the entrance, asking where I might find a restroom in which to slip into something, er, a little more comfortable.
There has to be another way, and I’m looking for answers. I’ve seen an umbrella bike mount, rain “legs” that strap over your jeans, and ponchos made for biking. I’m the proud owner of a Shower’s Pass Portland Jacket, and while I love it, it’s insufficient in a downpour.
So I’m wondering: What’s your favorite low-profile bicycling accessory for rainy days? How do you handle this problem?
Alternatively… anyone have a favorite bike-friendly watering hole?
Energized about commuting by bike
May 14th, 2012 by Serena LehmanI don’t know about you, but I am buzzing off all the positive energy surround Bike Month. There is much to be excited about: free bus rides this week, rallies, rides and contests, and F5 Bike to Work Day on Friday.
To add to the festive mood Cascade is hosting a series of Energizer Stations during the month of May to support all the new and returning bicycle commuters.
What is an Energizer Station?
An Energizer Station is a pop-up station with treats, bike pumps, maps and more to help everyone commute by bike. The stations are staffed by our expert Bicycle Ambassadors who can help with most any bicycle question you can think of. The Ambassadors will be out there rain or shine to help get you started.
Where can you get energized?
Cascade Bicycle Ambassadors will go to a different location for each station so we can reach as many different bicycle commuters as possible. We have already been to South Lake Union and Beacon Hill which were wildly successful. One story that stuck in my head was told to me by a man who rides his bike to work everyday. His co-workers at his downtown office complain about parking and he just smiles and tells them it is never a problem for him because he rides everyday.
- May 16: Ballard
- May 17: SeaTac
- May 23: Bryant
- May 24: Renton
- May 30: Lake Sammamish
- May 31: West Seattle
Want an Energizer Station in your neighborhood this summer? Contact me!
Tell us, dear readers, how do you get energized for your bicycle commute?
“Are you okay?”
May 14th, 2012 by Erica Meurk
Robin Randels, Cascade’s classes coordinator extraordinaire, owns a set of hot pink tire levers, and she’s not afraid to use them.
The scene: I’m pedaling fast (for me) on the Burke-Gilman Trail with Pete and Serena, rushing to Ravenna for an impromptu barbecue with friends. I hear that familiar hiss. I stop to check, and, sure enough, my rear tire is flat. I tell my friends I’ll be okay, borrow an Orca pass and head for the nearest intersection on foot.
As I’m contemplating my next move, Robin pedals up behind me in her characteristic skirt, boots and floral helmet. “Are you okay?” she asks.
“Uh, yeah, I have an Orca pass,” I reply.
“You don’t want to fix it?” She gives me a look of reproach. I tell her that I have trouble with my tires. My hand are small and not so strong, my tires and rims a particularly tight fit. On more than one occasion, my attempts to pop the bead back into place have caused me tears of frustration.
I explain all this, but she’s a stubborn lady, and she’s not taking no for an answer. Out come those pink tire levers. She has me on the road again in minutes.
While we were hunched over my bike on the Burke-Gilman’s narrow shoulder, five or six friendly passers-by echoed Robin’s initial question: “Are you okay?”
Yes, we were. But on another day, I would have welcomed the help — even though at first, I wasn’t sure I wanted it.
And so, here’s a word of thanks to those of you who ask if you can help.
And those of you who won’t take no for an answer.
“Bike to School Day is our favorite holiday.”
May 11th, 2012 by Erica MeurkThis article first appeared as the Cyclist of the Month column in the May 2012 issue of the Cascade Courier, our membership newsletter.
Nominate a Cyclist of the Month!
Cyclists of the Month: CLINT, LESLIE, BERKELEY AND EMMIE LOPER
Ages: 50, 49, 13 & 10
Occupations: River Engineer, King County; Assistant Athletic Director, Bush School; student, Eckstein Middle School; student, Bryant Elementary
Wheels: Lots of ‘em
From left to right, Clint, Berkeley, Leslie and Emmie Loper
“Bike to School Day is our favorite holiday,” Clint Loper tells me with a chuckle. “It’s better than Christmas.”
And I believe him. The evidence is everywhere. There’s a bike rack positioned prominently on their front lawn. As we talk, he and his wife, Leslie, pull out bikes and bike paraphernalia – ramps, rumble strips, A-boards – that they use for events at the kids’ schools. On the day that I meet her, Berkeley Loper, a seventh grader, is wearing a Bike to Work Day t-shirt from 2011.
“When it gets dirty, she puts on her other one. Or she wears it anyway,” Leslie tells me. Berkeley makes no comment, but disappears into the garage, emerging later with a tandem in tow. Emmie, her little sister, rides in circles around the yard.
The Lopers’ crusade started on Berkeley’s first day of kindergarten at Bryant Elementary. The school was less than a mile from their house, so they arrived on foot. “I remember seeing the line of cars,” Clint tells me. “It was total traffic mayhem. I remember being distraught, thinking, ‘90 percent of these people live within a mile of the school. None of them need to drive.’”
He continues, “I thought, ‘This isn’t the school I want my kids to go to. Living this way doesn’t fit with our broader cultural goals.’” So he and Leslie set out to change things.
They started with their neighbors and friends, organizing people to walk and bike together. Then they volunteered one Friday morning to bring donuts for kids who showed up on bikes, and their efforts grew from there.
“We didn’t know what we were doing,” Clint says. “We winged it for Bike to School Day in 2006. We got people to volunteer to do maintenance and bring treats.”Six years later, 50 to 60 kids – 10 percent of the student body – park their bikes outside the school on a typical spring day.
What’s the key to their success? Energy, enthusiasm and fun. They have grant money, which they spend on prizes and donuts. More importantly, they have the “bike fairy,” their very own Bike to School mascot.
Leslie Loper as the Bike Fairy
The bike fairy has mysterious origins. According to Leslie, it’s the brainchild of Ellen Aagard, a dedicated community volunteer and biking mom who’s on the board of Cascade’s Education Foundation. “She got the costume somewhere and presented it to me,” she says.
Leslie took it from there. “Laurelhurst has a bike fairy, too, but they have rotating fairies,” she tells me. “I’m the steady fairy. One time I had to go away, and you were the Bike Wiz,” she says, with a nod to her husband.
Every Friday during May, Leslie bikes around the border of the school looking for kids on bikes. When she finds them, she taps them with her wand and awards them with prizes. “I love being the bike fairy,” she says.
“This is how we volunteer,” she continues. “We don’t do an auction or anything else. This is just what we do. And we invented it, six years ago.”
So, how’s the school taking it? “We’ve worn them down,” Clint tells me. In the early years, parents questioned whether it was safe enough for kids to ride to school, and they had to push the school to put in bike racks. But the kids love it, and no one can argue with that.
Indeed, everyone seems to be coming around. In January, SDOT and the Seattle School District presented Bryant with the First Annual Golden Shoe award in recognition of the school’s success in shifting its students to walking and biking. The school board also integrated walking and biking into its transportation services plan – thanks, in part, to testimony from Clint.
Clint and Leslie have big plans for the coming year. They’re scheduling more “donut days” – on which they meet students at Top Pot before school and ride in together. They’re also reaching out to other schools, including Eckstein Middle School, where Berkeley is a student, and they launched a website to help people at other schools share ideas.
But more than any of their other successes, it’s their daughters that impress me. Berkley has ridden to school every day since first grade. These days, she meets two of her friends at a street corner before school and rides in with them. Emmie, who’s just ten, rides home from Bryant by herself.
“Mom, I’m going to bike Emmie to dance,” Berkeley calls from the captains’ seat of the tandem.
As the girls set off on the mile-long trip, their mom tells me, “Sometimes I ask Berkeley if she wants a ride, but she’ll never take it. Emmie will, sometimes.”
“Yeah, she drives to dance, even in the sun,” Berkeley says.
May 12 Kids Bike Swap
May 11th, 2012 by Serena LehmanBike Works’ 16th Annual Kids Bike Swap will be held on Saturday, May 12th, 2012, from 10 am – 4 pm at the Rainier Community Center (4600 38th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118).
Just in time for the sunshine, the Kids Bike Swap is an opportunity for families to trade in a bike their child has outgrown for a larger bike The Kids Bike Swap helps to facilitate the flow of affordable bicycles within the community and keeps fully functional bikes out of our local landfills.
How the Kids Bike Swap Works
Bike Works staff and volunteers have been hard at work all year refurbishing used bikes to bring to the Kids Bike Swap. On the day of the event, families can bring bikes that their children have outgrown and the bike is assigned a trade-in value. The families can then look through all of the bikes we have fixed up and pick out a new bike. The trade-in value can then be used to deduct from the cost of their new bike. (If the chosen bike’s value exceeds that of the trade-in value, the customer is responsible for the difference.) Typically, when a bike is swapped the customer is able to take home their newly refurbished ride for $20 or less. Families looking to buy a bike, who do not have a bike to trade in, are welcome to shop for a low-cost bikeafter 12 pm.
NEW THIS YEAR: The Bike Works Community Festival
Join the hundreds of other families participating in the Kids Bike Swap! To make things even better, this year there’s no need to wait in line. Families can drop off their trade-in bike and enjoy all sorts of fun activities until their number is called. In addition to the Bike Swap and bike activities, all families are invited to join in the festival, with kid-friendly bands, gardening tips, food and much more! There will also be a Family Bike Expo, with examples of different bikes and trailers that allow families to be car free. Admission is free and everyone is welcome at the festival. You don’t have to bring a bike to join in all the activities.
Free Helmets
Seattle Children’s will provide helmet fittings and free bike helmets, as well as provide education on bicycle helmet safety.
