SVBC Member Spotlight: Virginia Panlasigui

We are happy to spotlight Virginia Panlasigui in the latest Member Spotlights series on our blog!Virginia has been on a bike since she was a child, helping her brother with his Mercury News paper route on their Stingray bikes. She continued to ride after starting her own family, riding a tandem with a trailer bike attached to it so she could ride with her 10-year old son and 5-year old daughter.Virginia has been a regular volunteer of SVBC for the last three years, serving as a regular bike parking volunteer for 49er games, Music in the Park San José, and the San José Summer Jazz Fest.Are you an SVBC member, and do you ride your bike as much as Virginia? Do you wish to showcase your bike club's work, events, and/or concerns? Contact us!How did you get introduced to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition?I was part of the California Bike Coalition long before SVBC existed. I had biked to work on Bike To Work Day in 1996 and subsequently commuted by bike regularly on a 28-mile round trip from my Mountain View home to Menlo Park. I became a member of the SAP Cycling Club Steering Committee in 2009 and organized our Bike To Work Day activities. At first I was organizing caravans of co-workers to bike together, but in 2011 I agreed to organize an Energizer Station, and that’s when I officially joined SVBC. I have now been organizing our Energizer Station every year for 5 years, and this last year we had a Bike Blender (top photo) to make fruit smoothies.What kind of activities and/or trips do you use your bicycle for?I try to use my bike for trips within 20 miles from my home in Mountain View, which includes:• Commuting to work 6 miles one way.• Biking to the grocery store, the dentist, doctors, farmers’ market, restaurants, and shopping.• Biking dressed up to concerts at Bing Concert Hall at Stanford and at Menlo Park, and SVBC's Annual Dinners.• Biking to the Caltrain Mountain View Station and then from Diridon Station to San Jose High School where I’m active in the Foundation, Music Program, and my class reunion planning.• Charity bike rides such as Tour de Cure, Cycling for Veterans, and the San Jose Sharks' Fitness Faceoff.• Bike rides such as SVBC's Women, Wine, and Chocolate Ladies Social Ride, Bay Day, and those with the Western Wheelers and the SAP Cycling Club.Recently, I’ve been biking a lot with Tian Harter (who I met while volunteering with SVBC) for bike trips and activities that include San José Bike Party, SVBC Bike Parking at Levi's Stadium, Music in the Park, Tour de Fat, Viva CalleSJ, San Francisco Critical Mass, and even Sacramento Bike Party.You are also a frequent SVBC volunteer. What do you enjoy the most about volunteering for SVBC?I enjoy bike parking the most because it encourages people to use bikes as transportation instead of driving vehicles – it’s better for the environment and provides exercise.What do you think needs to be done to achieve 10% of trips taken by bike by 2025 in Silicon Valley?• Make bike routes safer - especially when cars are making right turns, it would be safer to have the bike lane to the left of the car right turn lane. More green bike lanes would also help.• Make it easier to take bikes onto public transportation, such as the lower Caltrain cars that only have one step to carry your bike up onto the train.• Have more programs that encourage biking, such as Safe Routes to School, more frequent Bike To Work Days, programs and incentives to help adults bike to work more frequently.• Have more frequent biking events (such as Viva CalleSJ, Bay Day) – multiple times a year, or monthly.Share with us what a dream day on your bike looks like.My dream day on my bike was celebrating Tian Harter’s birthday when we used only our bikes and public transportation to spend a day on Angel Island and San Francisco.We biked to the Mountain View Caltrain station to take us to San Francisco, and biked along the Embarcadero before taking a ferry to explore Angel Island. We took the ferry back to San Francisco, but stopped in Sausalito where over 100 bicyclists boarded! We then biked to Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner and Ghiradelli Square for dessert, before biking back to the Caltrain and home from Mountain View.What would you say to someone considering becoming a member of SVBC? SVBC does a lot to improve the infrastructure for biking (such as road markings, bike parking), educate people about how to bike and maintain their bikes, and hosts and supports many bicycling events.Will you join Virginia and the other 2,000+ members of SVBC? Join today and support our work to make our streets and trails safe for all users, improve and expand bike infrastructure where you live and ride, and get more people riding!