Busy Bike Week
To say that last week was an awesome bike week would be an understatement. The week started off at 7:00am on Monday as we began the setup for our first of eight bike rodeos that took place at multiple Santa Clara schools during the week. We had already conducted a series of indoor bicycle education classes at six elementary schools during the previous weeks, so it was time to put that knowledge to practice. Nearly 200 students had the opportunity to hop on a bike and practice how to safely exit out of driveways, cross intersections, conduct shoulder checks, practice their hand signals, and maintain balance and stability while competing in a Snail Race.
On Wednesday, after conducting two bike rodeos in the morning, I joined the rest of the SVBC team at the Silicon Valley Bike Advocacy Summit. A few breakout sessions had already been conducted earlier in the day, but I arrived just in time to moderate the Safe Routes to School session in which Robert Ping (Safe Routes to School National Partnership), Alice Kawaguchi (TSCN,Santa Clara County Public Health Department), Penny Ellson, and Kathy Durham (Palo Alto Safe Routes to School) provided some valuable information about the program and their experience at the national, state and local levels.
The following day, Thursday, I visited Sacred Heart School in Atherton to conduct a Walking School Bus/ Bike Train Workshop for a group of enthusiastic parents and staff who are very motivated to increasing walking and bicycling at their school. Kudos to them for organizing their Walk and Bike to School Day on April 20.
On Friday, Anna and I conducted our eighth and last bike rodeo of the week, which left us with a great sense of accomplishment and relief.
All in all, it was a good, busy week that makes me glad to have the great help of Anna and the rest of the team to get through that bicycle-educating, safe-routes-to-school-advocating, and bicycle-hauling week.
We will continue to conduct bike rodeos in Santa Clara and East Palo Alto during the month of May. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Anna@bikesiliconvalley.org to sign up.
