Jennifer Martinez delivers meals for seniors on a bike | Longmont Times Call

The “wheels” in Meals on Wheels, the national service that delivers hot meals to seniors and the disabled, usually means a car.

But in Longmont — at least in a few cases — the wheels now may mean a bike, thanks to a couple of local women. From this weekend’s Longmont Times Call:

The program marks the first time Meals on Wheels has made deliveries via bike in Longmont, said program coordinator Karla Hale. It also is the first bike-powered program in the state that has been implemented under Meals on Wheels, she said.

“A lot of it has to do with going green and what can we do as a community or an organization to help the environment,” she said.

Each weekday, Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver 350 meals to homebound seniors and individuals with disabilities in Longmont. That adds up to about 200 miles of driving each day, Hale said.

Read the full story at TimesCall.com.

Cory Madden, left, of Denver and his brother, Conor Madden of Cleveland, ride bicycles from the new Denver Bike Sharing program at Confluence Park on Monday. (John Prieto, The Denver Post )

Denver’s bike-sharing program, called B-Cycle, kicked off on Earth Day. And so far, 16,500 bikes have already been checked out.

Here’s the way it works: You get a membership — either for the day or for the year — and you “check out” a bike. Then you’ve got it for 30 minutes, which, theoretically, should be long enough to get to where you’re going. (These things aren’t made for long road rides, after all.) Then you “dock” the bike at your destination — a coffee shop? cafe? museum? — so someone else can check it out while you’re doing whatever you’re doing. Then, you check out the bike again after to ride back to where you started.

Cool, huh?

Read more about the program at www.denverpost.com.

Bikes on a Boulder bike rack| flickr user niehoff

It’s not too late to get into Boulder Walk and Bike to work Month: Bike to Work Day is June 23.

For those who have already pulled their bikes out of winter storage, or never put them away (or maybe you’re even a practitioner of Winter Bike to Work Day), June 23 is just another Wednesday. For everyone else it marks the day the excuses run out. Leave the car in the garage, pump up your tires and get out onto the many bike paths Boulder has to offer.

Bike to Work Day veterans, remember how great last year was?

Just past 6 a.m. on Wednesday, more than 40 Boulder businesses broke out bagels, fruit, organic breakfast bars and hot meals to serve the thousands of people who were participating in this year’s Bike to Work Day.

The annual event was expected to draw more than 35,000 across the state, with more than 6,300 registered to participate in Boulder.

Not a Bike to Work Day veteran? No worries. Whether or not you’re an experienced cyclist on Boulder’s bike paths and main roads, here’s everything needed to help make Boulder’s 34th annual Bike to Work Day the biggest one yet–and how to get as many perks as possible for your hard-earned sweat.

Get started

If you’ve never biked to work mapping the best route can seem a daunting task. Even for experienced riders there is always a need to find the best way to get where you are going. To help with the task GO Boulder has a MapQuest-style Boulder bike route mapping website specifically designed to get you where you need to go, by bike — and Google Maps now has bike path information and streetview for some bike paths in Boulder.

With your route in hand, hit Boulder’s Bike to Work Day 2010 registration.

Why bother registering for Bike to Work Day? Well, GO Boulder is counting on you. Last year 7,132 people registered for Bike to Work Day, according to the Go Boulder Boulder Bike to Work Day 2009 Wrap Up. If you are not registered, you are not being counted–although you are still reducing the number of cars on the road.

No excuses

The bad weather seems to have finally passed–hopefully there won’t be any June snowstorms. A more likely weather deterrent in June is 90 degree heat. Allay your qualms about arriving with a smell by checking out Jenn Fields’ tips on how to bike to work and not stink, including:

Don’t just keep deodorant in your desk drawer — add a washcloth for warmer rides that require the bathroom-sink mini sponge bath. Also, witch hazel sprizted on the washcloth is a helpful de-funkifier. Ladies, do your make up once you get to work. This could apply to men, too. We don’t judge.

To help you make sure your bike is in working order there will be bike repair stations set up around Boulder. A few are listed below.

Boulder Cycle Sport, 4580 Broadway

Great Harvest Bread Company, 2525 Arapahoe, service provided by Performance Bikes

Whole Foods Market, 2905 Pearl, service provided by Bicycle Village

Don’t forget breakfast

June 23 many restaurants and businesses will be offering breakfast stations for participants. Whichever area of town you are coming from, or headed toward, there is an official breakfast station near you. Below are a few places around town that will be participating. For a complete list of participating businesses check the Community Cycles Website.

Half Fast Subs, 1215 13th Street

Moe’s Bagel on Arapahoe, 3075 Arapahoe

Moe’s Broadway Bagel, 2650 Broadway

Ozo Coffee, 5340 Arapahoe

Celestial Seasonings, 4600 Sleepytime Drive

Boulder Chamber of Commerce, 2440 Pearl

Get involved

Events on Bike to Work Day don’t end when you arrive at work. The CU Environmental Center, along with Community Cycles, is hosting the 4th annual Bike Shorts Film Festival at Old Main on CU’s Boulder campus.

Community Cycles and GO Boulder work year round to help more people find ways to make bicycling more convenient and possible for more people in Boulder and Colorado. To help keep Boulder moving check out volunteer opportunities and how to donate an old bike.

Show your Bike to Work Day pride with the official Walk and Bike to Work Month T-shirt.

Now that you’re in the know, see you on the streets!

-Mikaila Altenbern

Today’s news about a washed out dam and Boulder flood advisory got us thinking about the floodplain, so we went ahead and built a resource page with Boulder floodplain maps and information.

And, in happier news, we’re excited about riding our bikes all the time these days and have recently had a few questions about Boulder cruiser rides, so we put together some information on those, too (though we emphasize that you can always organize your own group rides)!

Busted padlock | flickr user marckjerland

Well, I returned from a three-day vacation and discovered that one of my two bikes was stolen. Or perhaps magically disappeared. In some ways, this further makes me an official Boulderite.  

It’s important to learn from these things, though, and there’s plenty for me to learn.

IF YOUR BIKE IS STOLEN

1. FREAK OUT

OK, get mad for like 15 minutes. Just get the worst of it out of your system. Invent some new swear words if you need to.

2. POLICE REPORT

File a police report. Depending on where you live, you’ll do this either by phone, online or by walking into your local police station.

You can quickly and conveniently fill out a police report online for the city of Boulder. Nice, but right now I still feel a little… helpless.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. LEARN

See below.

PREVENTION

Let’s say you have a bike and you want to try to keep it from getting stolen.

Lock it up. Apparently a lot of bikes get stolen because they’re just not locked up. So. You know. Lock it up.

My bike was secured with a combination lock, but a determined thief will just cut right through that. Also, if you search combination bike lock on Google, one of the first results is “A simple method to open any cylindrical turndial bike lock in less than 30 seconds.” GREAT.

Busted U-lock | flickr user LEthean

Write down your bike’s serial number. This site shows where you might find a bike’s serial number.

Boulder has a bicycle registration program. Use it.

In 2000, over $160,000 in bicycles were stolen.  Owners were able to report the serial number of their stolen bicycle in only about 20 percent of the cases.  Without the serial number, it is very difficult to prove a recovered bicycle is stolen, or to return it to its owner.  The bicycle registration program serves to deter theft and aid in returning recovered property.  It is a free program funded by the Boulder Police Department.

Make your bike ugly. The theory is that if your bike is really ugly, no one will want to steal it. My bike was a simple, inexpensive, but clean Schwinn. It had a rear rack and a basket, which may have been as appealing to the thieves as the bike itself. MAKE magazine offers tips on making your bike unappealing.

A crowded bike rack | flickr user phlyingpenguin

Recently, my complex doubled the amount of bike parking available on my side of the building. That parking immediately filled up with bikes. My guess is that if they knocked out another car parking spot, yet another 12-24 bikes would materialize and be parked there — bikes that people are currently storing on their balconies or in their kitchens or wherever else. 

Think about that as a business. If your business is located somewhere with very limited parking — let’s say, downtown Boulder — would you rather have one car parked outside or 12 bikes? The safe bet is that 12 customers are better than however many fit in that hypothetical car. (Needless to say, you’re making the automobile parking situation just a touch worse by making the switch.)

Maybe that’s why San Francisco is moving ahead with on-street bike parking, according to the Bay Citizen:

They’re called bike corrals – racks bolted into the street, using a spot that typically would go to a vehicle. This month a handful of corrals popped up in the city, like the one on Valencia at 22nd Street outside insanely popular Boogaloos restaurant.

A bike corral in Portland, Ore. | flickr user BikePortland.org

Bike corrals are already used in Portland, Ore. There, they’ve got blue bike corrals, uniformly painted, Ryan Van Duzer says writing for elephant, so they settle into citizens’ minds as municipal structures. Business owners can petition the city and ask for a bicycle corral near their business.

Seattle has them, too.

Locally, The Cup has been advocating for these. Kind of a lot. They’re talking about bike corrals on Twitter (check that link for a pic of a bike corral in Durango) and they’ve got a bike corral primer [PDF] on their site, which says:

Bike corrals give bikes a designated place, acknowledge their importance (which cyclists appreciate) and clear the sidewalk. Shop owners like the extra traffic, and have been known to pay for their installation.

What are they?

Basically elongated bike racks, corrals can be installed in a parking space, where they allow 12 to 14 vehicles to park instead of one. The fixed element is often a staggered series of upside down U-shapes (or “staples”) or a metal spiral, though there’s no reason they couldn’t be more imaginative. The City of Portland paints the fixtures all blue, making them recognizable to users as city structures. Corrals themselves cost around $1,000. Labor and additions for stability and safety may bring the total to $3,000 to $4,000.

Here’s a photo of a temporary and very unofficial bike corral in Los Angeles, where an official bike corral program was just approved in April:

"There was no special occasion for the installation of LA's first parking corral - only the brutal necessity of a bike repair collective and the need to keep the sidewalk relatively clear during operating hours. This corral appears temporarily in half a car parking space in front of the Bike Oven most evenings these days. Ramon Martinez deserves the credit for this excellent idea." | photo and caption: flickr user ubrayj02

Where would you put ‘em?

[The Bay Citizen via Urban Velo] ]]> http://biggreenboulder.com/bikes/bike-corrals-on-street-bike-parking-hits-san-francisco-and-durango/feed/ 0 http://biggreenboulder.com/bikes/casey-middle-school-bike-club-gets-students-fired-up-about-biking/ http://biggreenboulder.com/bikes/casey-middle-school-bike-club-gets-students-fired-up-about-biking/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:34:09 +0000 Big Green Boulder staff http://biggreenboulder.com/?p=2976  

Casey Middle School’s Bike Club participates in a race.

Hey! It’s a guest post from Casey Middle School teacher and Bike Club sponsor Catherine Powers!

Casey Middle School’s Bike Club wrapped up a fantastic 2009-2010 school year with a great showing at the CU Short Track race on May 19, helping to kick off that weekly series.

Cesar Ochoa, victor of the CU Short Track race on May 19.

Thirteen Casey students and three volunteers from Trips for Kids showed up to ride and cheer, with 7 participating in the kids race on a fun dirt course of roller coaster hills and tight turns. Seventh grader Cesar Ochoa emerged victorious at the end, biding his time behind a more experienced Boulder Junior Cycling racer to make his move on the final lap.

Cesar is fresh off a Spring Break Casey Bike Club camping trip to Fruita (sponsored jointly by Sierra Club’s ICO program and Trips for Kids). He’s been trying his legs out at local road races, including the Koppenberg and some local criteriums. After his most recent victory, however, Cesar’s love for the dirt has been affirmed.

“It’s hard!” he said with a huge grin on his face. Casey’s Bike Club has been meeting once a week since September to ride, learn skills and race. In the fall, the kids rode cyclocross; in the winter, Bike Club trained on Boulder Indoor Cycling’s velodrome; and in the Spring the group has been focusing on mountain biking.

Casey Bike Club is part of a network of middle school bike clubs that collaborated through Boulder Valley Cycling Assocation to hold clinics, scrimmages and a huge annual Middle Cross Bike Fest which this year drew over 100 participants from 7 local middle schools. The program has really been taking off over the last couple of years due to support from School Transportation Coordinator Landon Hilliard and hard work from a core of teachers/bike club coordinators at Manhattan Middle School, Casey Middle School and Horizons K-8.

“We can’t wait to get started on the 2010 season!” says Mike Eubank of Boulder Valley Cycling Association and the driving force behind Boulder’s new Valmont Bike Park, “This fall we’ll have more clubs, more clinics, more racing and more fun!” Eubank and several middle school cyclists plan to meet this Wednesday, May 26th at CU Research Park to try out the short track race, enjoy a barbecue and get pumped up for next fall’s Middle Cross season.

Unicycle! | Low-quality photo from Dave's phone

Parked at the Boulder Public Library today and chained to a bike rack: one unicycle. I know we’ve got a few unicyclers in Boulder — and mountain unicyclers, too — but it’s still fun to just see one parked.

I’ve thought about trying to unicycle — as has a friend, perhaps a bit more seriously — but I’m pretty sure I’ll stick to the bike for trips to the library.

Library unicyclist, whoever you are, I salute you.

Boulder’s Walk and Bike Month program and Community Cycles are joining together to hire two bike ambassadors to work from June through mid September. The work is $12 an hour for 12 to 15 hours per week.

From the job description:

BAs will work with the community at the Farmer’s Market, CC’s Rolling Bike Clinics, the Family Learning Center, CU and other community events, schools, recreation centers and worksites to teach specific skills that encourage safe and convenient use of Boulder’s roadways, paths and transit routes.

Read the full job description here.

The cyclist who collided with a pedestrian in north Boulder this past weekend died early this morning from head injuries she sustained in the crash.

Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure said Alison Kellagher, 55, died at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Condolences to Alison Kellagher’s friends and family and a reminder to be careful out there, whether you’re on foot, on a bike, in a car or however else you get around.

The recent spate of bad bike news in Boulder also inspired me to make a “ghost bike” resource page for the site. If you’ve ever seen an all-white bike chained up around town, you may have seen a “ghost bike.”