These are a few of our favorite 2019 things

Driving home (ahem, yes, forgive me) from a holiday reception in Menlo Park, I intentionally detoured to check out a project we helped champion – Page Mill/280. It was a few short years ago that Jeff Donnelly lost his life while on a normal ride on a popular route. SVBC worked hard for years on this intersection, playing a key role of nag, nagging the County, nagging the State, nagging the local cities, impressing upon them the urgency of fixing this dangerous section.

I had driven this section before, during and now after construction, knowing that it is a very challenging confluence of streets. To me, the project illustrates all that SVBC does. We work hard to get the best outcomes and even when we do, there’s still a whole lot of work to do. This intersection will never be perfect but we made it better. That likely comes off as an odd way to celebrate our 2019 wins, but this is serious work with lives on the line. We’re pretty realistic here at SVBC about the impact we have, how hard it is to make progress, to make the roads safe, to spread bike joy, and that there’s still a lot of work to do.

So with that reality check, what are we proud of from 2019? Here are some of our favorite things…

We’ve grown! You’ve heard us say repeatedly that it’s pretty hard to cover two counties with 35 cities and towns. We need more financial resources to hire professional staff so that we can do more. And we have. This past year our budget was $300k more than the previous year and as a result, we were able to grow our staff to 12 people, up from 8 when I started in 2015. What have we been doing with all these new staff?

Measure W: After San Mateo County’s transportation sales tax measure passed, we played a key role with a coalition of people who secured the adoption of an action plan that reflects the values and priorities of the bicycling community. This is critical to guiding transportation investments in ways that lead to better, safer bike infrastructure.

Bike to Work Day: 37,000 people threw a leg over a bike, many for the first time, to experience the joy of biking to work.

Vision Zero: SVBC continues to use a safety lens to advocate for better bike infrastructure. This past year, several cities made progress by either adopting a plan, getting close to adopting a plan and getting more serious about their plans. Those cities are Daly City (the first City in San Mateo County to adopt a Vision Zero plan), Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Jose.

Infrastructure Rides: Key to the organization’s success is the education, inspiration and empowerment of advocates, city councilmembers and most importantly, city staff. For that reason, SVBC launched a program this year with support from the County of Santa Clara to lead bike rides showcasing city bike infrastructure. These city-led rides provide peer-to-peer learning opportunities for decision-makers to experience firsthand and take back to their cities. Eight rides were hosted last year in Los Gatos, San Jose, Fremont, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, Morgan Hill, and Mountain View for a total of 153 riders.

BPAC Building: Another program that SVBC launched focuses on the important role that city and agency Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committees can play in advancing a pro-bike agenda. 20 people over the course of the year will receive special training, attention, and opportunities to access key decision-makers in order to develop even stronger BPACs.

Bike Parking: Removing barriers to bicycling is paramount to our work and safe bike parking is always one of your top concerns. This past year we parked 4,324 bikes, up from 3,327 in 2018 at 29 different events. As an interesting data point, Stanford football games consistently have the highest ridership, sometimes 540 bikes at one game. Nice job Stanford! Imagine if all of our large event centers offered and promoted safe bike parking. Levi’s already does (thank you Niners!) but what about the others?

Commute Workshops: 27 Silicon Valley companies sponsored SVBC to come out and do a commute workshop for employees reaching 459 people. Does your company offer a commute workshop or sponsor Bike to Work Day? If not, connect us so we can grow these numbers!

Bike Education: Through bike education, workshops, rodeos, classes, rides, SVBC reached 4,000 kids and families, leaving them equipped and inspired to ride more and to ride safely.

This is but a small sampling of the work that SVBC does to create bike friendly communities. If you, in reading the above, started to long for an opportunity to get more involved, please do. We’re fun and need people to donate money and time. To donate, click here. To volunteer, contact Jessica@bikesiliconvalley.org. We’ll put you and your money to work!