2020 Accomplishments
As the year comes to a close, you, dear reader and supporter of SVBC, you might be wondering what was accomplished.
Every year, SVBC staff sets goals and develops a workplan, vetted at the annual staff retreat, and approved by the Board of Directors. Early in the year, that workplan got caught in our wheels and then chewed up by the drive train. Nevertheless, you, SVBC supporters, kept pushing us to ride! Below is an outline of the year as 2020 comes to a close.
Riding into a Headwind: Early on in the pandemic, we, like many of you panicked. The first thing we did was assess the budget impact of not being able to perform program work (like teaching kids how to ride and parking bikes at events). To mitigate the potential budget hit, we made staffing adjustments and worked with our funders to redefine acceptable contract deliverables. Thankfully funders were all very understandable. That gave us much-needed breathing room to shift to a more comfortable gear.
The federal government then put forward the PPP loan opportunity. We got our hopes up, applied, and felt like we went OTB (over the bars) when the money ran out. Then there was a second round and we got our hopes up, applied, and were awarded a loan. That meant we could bring staff back!
In the meantime, we shifted Bike to Work Day to September and put the brakes on the annual fundraising dinner. Bike to Work Day was transformed to Bike to Wherever Days and as the reality sank in that we were going to be on this SIP path for the duration, we began to find a cadence.
As some say, don’t let a crisis go to waste and so we’ve tried, all while spinning our wheels a bit. Below are some of the activities, initiatives and left turns that SVBC undertook this year.
Riding as an escape: The pandemic caused many people to rediscover bicycling since it became one of the few things that was allowed. To capitalize on this, SVBC created fun activities to get more folks riding. Those included:
The Great Sign Hunt: 360 registered to hunt down Valley Water signs as a fun way to get outside and ride a bike.
JoyRideSV: SVBC staff created monthly themes and social media campaigns for people to share the joy they experience while riding a bike.
RideSpot: 10 online rides were created that cater to new/beginner riders.
In essence, we shifted our program work to provide inspiration from afar, virtually, so that folks could go out on their own and discover that every day bicycling is something they should maintain once things are “normal” again.
Riding with a purpose: When the pandemic hit, many of you asked what could be done by bike to help those hit hardest. To respond, SVBC focused on two initiatives:
Seedling Delivery: In partnership with Valley Verde, 142 of you volunteered on two different days to deliver seedlings to almost 200 families who could then grow their own food.
Bike Match: With so many new folks looking for a bike and bike shops sold out, SVBC helped Bike Exchange identify bike donations and people who needed bikes. Overall, you donated 85 bikes to match with people in need of bikes.
Bike Plans Adopted: Unlike program work, advocacy work continued. Many cities saw and continue to see an opportunity to get ready to pounce on stimulus money meaning planning for transportation projects has been rolling forward:
Sunnyvale: Sunnyvale passed their Active Transportation Plan with many of the recommendations made by SVBC, including an increase in the proposed mode shift goal to 10%.
San Jose: San Jose is well on its way to adopt its new bike plan which aspires to put in 97 miles of bike lanes in 5 years!
City of San Mateo and Burlingame also passed their plans and are now looking at implementation strategies.
San Mateo County continues working on their Active Transportation Plan (first of its kind) for the Unincorporated Area, while C/CAG is updating the Countywide Bike/Ped Plan which would be ready by Spring 2021.
And many more! You can read about the recently completed plans and the ones in progress here. These plans are the first steps in getting cities positioned to jump on funding that will then build safe streets for people who ride bicycles.
Network Prioritization Tool: After a year of working with the consulting firm, Copenhagenize, SVBC launched the Network Prioritization Tool. This tool helps cities and advocates prioritize bike projects so that we all know where to start, and what will have the biggest impact on ridership.
Riding in the cloud: Going virtual forced SVBC to rethink things like bike education and membership engagement. It turns out, going virtual had lots of upside! The organization has learned that you all want to participate, but in the before time, getting to a physical location was kind of the pits (even if it was by bike.) What we’re seeing is that you all are participating much more now that you can do so from home.
140 of you attended the Member Party
250 of you showed up at the annual Bike Summit
12 online bike advocacy trainings and forums with a total participation of 376
41 educational workshops on biking for all sorts of audiences (kids, shuttle drivers, bike share members etc.) with a total participation of 1,263 people
138 students practiced bike safety skills at socially distance bike rodeos
This in combination with improved systems has led to an overall increase in our membership by 25%. Thank you for being so involved!
Riding on a slow street: When the SIP order first came down, there were calls for “slow streets networks”. Oakland slowed down 80 miles of streets so that people could walk and bike safely while socially distanced. In Silicon Valley, 6 cities adopted a slow streets network.
Riding as a Team: SVBC added four new local teams, Redwood City, North San Mateo County, San Mateo, and South San Jose in an ongoing effort to build the bike movement through you – Every day bike lovers coming together to understand advocacy, establish bike goals for their city, and then make those goals happen. Also:
64 of you went through the SVBC advocacy training to learn how to be better advocates for people who ride bicycles
89 of you got involved in the adoption of San Jose’s bike plan.
Riding to Wherever: The W in Bike to Work Day was reimagined this year. For the entire month of September you all were encouraged to ride “wherever” and to log your rides using the Love to Ride website. Typically we’re excited to report that ~40,000 people rode their bikes on Bike to Work Day visiting close to 130 energizer stations. This year, instead, we pivoted multiple times, including dealing with air quality issues during September. You all still rode your bikes, air quality and social distancing permitting, and helped encourage others to do so as well. In fact, almost 2000 new people signed up to ride during the month of September.
And here’s the final win: 2020 was hard but in the midst of a pandemic, you are still enjoying the bicycle, you are inspiring others to ride, and you are supporting the bike movement. You helped beat every previous Giving Tuesday record and raised money in October, despite not holding a fundraising dinner. Thank you for all you do to help create neighborhoods and cities that allow people to live life joyfully by bicycle.
