Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

At the recent annual awards luncheon for the Palo Alto PTA Council, Rich Swent was honored for his 11-year career in PTA traffic safety.

They recited a fairly comprehensive list of Rich's contributions and presented him with many certificates: one from the local PTA council, one from the state PTA, one from County Supervisor Liz Kniss, one from Assemblymember Ira Ruskin, one from State Senator Joe Simitian, and one from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.

Rich was surprised and very touched by the honor, and is proud to have been part of an organization that has supported his teaching so enthusiastically. He would not have been able to give so many classes without assistance from local bicyclists, LCIs, SVBC and Stanford. He definitely would not have been successful with the classes if local parents had not been interested in them and willing to trust their children’s safety to his training.

Congratulations Rich!!!

Here's the text of the award:

This member of our community's PTA Traffic Safety service extends back to 1998 when he first volunteered to be a PTA Traffic Safety Representative at Palo Verde Elementary School. He is currently the longest-serving member of the Palo Alto Council of PTAs Traffic Safety Committee. His leadership has been particularly valuable as one of the three PTA representatives serving on the City/School Traffic Safety Committee (CSTSC) from 1999 to the present. During his service on the CSTSC he has championed taking a comprehensive view of problems that come before the committee, helping both PAUSD and City staff as well as PTA volunteers and parents to look at all 4 E's of traffic safety, not just the traditional focus on engineering and enforcement, but also education and encouraging alternatives that reduce traffic congestion around our schools.

Over the last decade he has been involved in both in-class instruction and the extra-curricular programs co-sponsored by the PTA Council. On his own initiative, he became a League of American Bicyclists certified instructor in 2004 and started teaching youth bike safety education classes through the City of Palo Alto Recreation Dept., developing his own curriculum. His programs set the standard, and he has been a resource nationally for other League cyclists who are developing programs like Palo Alto's, using city recreation and PTA programs as places to house bike safety classes. In fact, in December 2004 he was awarded the 'Educator of the Year" award by the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.

We have been very fortunate to have eleven years of outstanding service from Richard Swent. Rich's passion for bicycling has been a driving force behind many of our programs. We are grateful for his excellent work and awed that in addition to all his professional and volunteer commitments, Rich somehow found time to ride his bicycle across the country!

He continues as an advisor to the City School Traffic Safety Committee, providing a wealth of history and knowledge about the California vehicle code, engineering innovation, bike safety education, Palo Alto bicycle routes, and connections to bicycling organizations that provide support for bicycling in the Bay Area.