Eight reasons 2010 was a good year for SVBC

At the recent Winter Party, our executive director, Corinne Winter, ran through a list of our recent accomplishments. At the risk of sounding immodest, I've compiled her main points below. Feel free to use these wins to badger your friends, family, and coworkers into becoming SVBC members. Or, use them as your own personal inspiration and make a year-end donation to your favorite San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties bicycle advocacy organization (that would be SVBC).

Corinne reviews a year well-done.

Without further ado, eight defining moments of the last year at SVBC:

1. We sent three San José officials on a Bikes Belong study trip to the Netherlands, and then hosted a very well-attended panel back in San José. They came back with great new ideas and fresh inspiration, ready to transform San José into the Utrecht of the West.
2. Recently our members advocated against parking in the bike lanes in Woodside. Our members convinced the town council not to allow parking in the lanes permanently, but the town instituted parking at peak ours during the holiday season. We responded with a letter to Caltrans, which immediately resulted in Caltrans telling Woodside that they couldn’t do that, and to remove the signs immediately.
3. In response to the recent tragedy at the Alpine Road underpass, we started our Safe Highway Crossings campaign and are working with teams of advocates to target improving the design of a number of highway crossings, which are the most significant barriers to cycling in our area.
4. We advocated at the regional level to get the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to establish Safe Routes to School (SRTS) funding as part of the Climate Initiatives Program. MTC devoted $17 million to the region; $4 million of that goes to Santa Clara County, and $1.4 million to San Mateo County. San Mateo County has devoted additional funding from their Measure A dollars which will give significant additional funding to SRTS in San Mateo County through 2033. At the local level, SVBC is assisting groups in both counties to outline implementation plans.
5. We are working with several local jurisdictions on their planning processes - most notably the Diridon Station Area planning process currently underway in San José. Our collaboration with the city and multiple other community groups is ensuring good bicycle connectivity to and from the station along with land use planning that will encourage biking and walking in the station vicinity.
6. We urged Caltrain to provide more bike capacity on their trains, and to continue to study wayside solutions. We pushed them into creating their own Bicycle Advisory Committee with advocacy representatives to provide a framework for these discussions.
7. Last spring, SVBC partnered with agencies in both counties to put forth the first open streets events in our region: Streets Alive in San Mateo County and the Mattson Technology ViaVelo in San José.
8. It was a great year for SVBC bike parking. Through the course of six Stanford Football home games in heat, rain, wind, and darkness, a group of 68 remarkable volunteers led by Rob Robinson helped park and guard 5,072 bikes! They also parked hundreds of strollers, skateboards, and even one wheelchair.

The staff at SVBC would like to thank our members, sponsors, volunteers, and Board of Directors for helping to support and guide us through 2010. Here's to another great year of promoting the bicycle!