Tour de France in Philly?

Mais Oui! Tomorrow is Fairmount's annual celebration of French independence. Come and visit the Bicycle Ambassadors at this year's Bastille Day celebration!

Register your ~4-8 year olds in the Tricycle Tour de France, prizes from LifeSport, Fairmount Art Center and Franklin Square for all pre-registered kids, and best French-decorated bikes – Bring your own tricycle, bike or big wheel.

Eastern State Penitentiary

Saturday, July 11th

2-6 PM

For a complete list of the days events please visit the Bastille Day website.

Mercer County's Bicycle Master Planning Kicks Off

Mercer County has submitted and received approval from NJDOT for planning assistance to create county bicycle master plan.

The larger part of the project will be the development of a county bicycle and master plan, it has not been determined yet if the plan will have a pedestrian component. In addition, a consultant was retained to do a feasibility analysis of the bikeway proposal for Route 546 popular bicycle route which stretches across the County.

Free Bicycle and Pedestrian planning assistance to counties and municipalities is one the major factors as to why New Jersey has received a high Bicycle Friendly State ranking. The implementation of the program is determined by the enthusiasm and support of the municipal government who must apply directly to the DOT for planning assistance. In comparison Pennsylvania governments are pretty much left to their own devices to design and implement such plans.

Zipcar Looking for Participants in Low Car Diet

Zipcar has issued a challenge: for 30 days, put down your keys, dust off your bike, trike or roller skates and find out what the Zipcar way of life is all about. Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living without a primary car.

Zipcar will be selecting 30 participants in each Zipcar metro to take part in the 2009 Low-Car Diet. Zipcar and its partners (including the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, Fuji Bikes and Breezer Bikes) are committed to providing all participants with the necessary tools for creating transportation nirvana, including transit passes, bike rentals, discounts at local retailers, and, of course, a 1-year Zipcar membership with $200 in driving credit to get started.

There will be a number of applicants for only 30 spaces, and Zipcar would like to make sure they're the best. If you think you'd like to try an unconventional diet just fill out this short survey.

A Video About Neighborhood Bike Works

Parking Meters - An Endangered Species In Center City

Your Bike Parking is in imminent danger:

From PGN:

In July, the Philadelphia Parking Authority will install multi-space meters throughout Center City that will offer patrons numerous payment options and aim to free up more parking spaces.

Two or three computerized meters will be installed on each block in the “core” of Center City — from Fourth to 20th streets and Arch to Locust — where patrons can pay for the amount of time they need and then receive a printed ticket to display on their dashboards. The new meters will accept coins, dollar bills, credit cards and PPA Smart Cards.

The $11-million project will be completed in this area of Center City by the end of July and will be implemented next in University City and the rest of Center City by February.

BCGP, City Officials, the Center City District and the Parking Authority are scrambling to come up with a solution, with hard to find funding being crucial for the conversion of parking meters to the Toronto Style "post and ring bike racks".

But it seems inevitable that the speed of the parking meter changeover will at least result in a short term crisis on blocks without sufficient bike racks. Some blocks like the 600 block of Walnut St are already devoid of bike parking spaces with a row of headless meters.

Let the BCGP and the City know if the parking meter conversion is affecting your ability to park your bike. This will help prioritize where bike parking is needed most.




Decapitated Meters next to Independence Hall

From Philadelphia Bicycle News

Toronto Post and Ring Racks converted from meter poles.

What can you buy for $22 Million?

The Complete the Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) campaign is working to raise public awareness about the need for federal, state and local dollars to complete the SRT in the Greater Philadelphia region. There are nine trail segments that need funding in order to complete the trail, and together the total construction cost is estimated to be approximately $22 million.


Is $22 million a lot of money to build 4.75 miles of trail? In comparison to a sampling of some other transportation projects that have been submitted to Congress for consideration for federal transportation funds or are receiving federal stimulus funds, Completing the Schuylkill River Trail in the greater Philadelphia region is a bargain.

• $115 Million to enhance the streetscape of Broad Street (submitted to Congressman Brady by the Center City Collaborative as a 2010 Appropriation request)
• $90.4 Million to reconstruct and widen Route 202 between Route 30 and North Valley Road (submitted to Congressman Gerlach by the Town of Malvern)
• $31 Million for an I-95 Interchange at Cottman-Princeton (a City of Philadelphia project with PennDOT Stimulus funding)
• $21.4 Million to build a parking garage (submitted to Congressman Fattah by the Free Library of Philadelphia)

Thank You Bike Freedom Valley Volunteers

Thank You Freedom Valley Volunteers!

Although the sky was dreary and drizzly our Freedom Valley Volunteers make sunshine with their smiles and their efforts to make this Freedom Valley great. We couldn’t have Bike Freedom Valley without all our great volunteers.

Before the day event started we had volunteers preparing everything ahead of time.; Thanks to: Matt Anastasi, David Bennett, Paul Minick, Al Porter, Barry Wolff, and the Bicycle Coalition staff. Thanks to the Bicycle Ambassadors who did a myriad of tasks, from: setup and teardown, route direction and signage, hospitality and even mechanical support. The newest team at the Bicycle Coalition was a well oiled machine.

Our route markers persevered through endless days of rainy weather and numerous trips to finish because of the weather. There intrepid volunteers were: Charles Carmalt, Jeffrey Kochanowicz, Dominic Zuppo, Michael Broennle and Susan Dannenberg.

Our set up volunteers came very early and our cleanup volunteers stayed very late. Thank You: Noel Abejo, Jim Laurino, John Siemiarowski, Kimberly Murphy, Omar Sinanan, and Thomas Taggart.

Our registration volunteers were cheerful, accurate and speedy. Thanks to: Carol Nitzburg, Sue Shubert, Sarah Clark Stuart, Tom Benson, Patrick O’Bannon, Pat Perry, Barry Wolff, and Jeff Bakely.

Our rest stop and Finish Line Volunteers had really long days and served our riders welll and with good cheer. They are: David Bennett, Claudia Crane, Paul Droesch, Terry Myers, Dave Ryan, Donna Brown, Jerrilynn Donaldson, Nick Manta, Maureen Gartland, Pat Perry, Ron Stern, Jeff Hartman, Stacy Plattenberger.

Our traffic directors who were not limited to the Bicycle Ambassadors helped our riders go the right way: Mary Texidor, Dan Gold, D. Mike Smith, Ed Henckels, Christine Martha, Charlotte Chatfield.

Thanks to all the Stationary SAG, SAG Drivers, and SAG Bicyclists. In addition to Philly Car Share, Keswick Cycle, REI, Danzeisen and Quigley (D&Q), Guy’s Bicycles, Chariots of Philly, Neighborhood Bikeworks, and the Exton and West Chester Bicycle Center, we had volunteers: James Smith, Terry Myers, Paul Des Rocher, Barry Wolff, Jeffrey Kochanowicz, Frank Jackson, Paul Minick, and Woody Kotch.

You were all wonderful and if I missed anyone please let me know so I can thank you personally.

Jill Minick
jill@bicyclecoalition.org

Send Us Your Bike Parade Photos

What is more patriotic that dressing up you bike in the Red White Blue? Declare your independence from foreign oil.

Upload your photos to your Flickr account and add your photos to this group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bikeparades/














Riverton's 4th of July Parade 2008

Philadelphia Applies For Bike Parking Station Funding

The July Edition of Philadelphia's Greenworks Newsletter lists a Bike Parking Station as one of the proposed recipients of Philadelphia's $14 Million Dollar allocation of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Block Grants.

Other Projects Proposed Include:

• Install LED Traffic Lights
• Create a loan fund for energy efficient tenant improvements at commercial buildings
• Retrofit municipal buildings
• Incentivize recycling
• Create a bike parking station
• Train L&I employees on green building
• Investigating a Sustainable Energy Authority
• Implement and evaluate Greenworks Philadelphia

We don't have any details on the bike parking project. One question that we have is whether or not the bike station proposal is a full service facility (similar to the Union Station project in Washington DC) or an in-street bike parking corral.