Nominate your Bike Champion of the Year!
“Awards like this are an indication that bicycling itself is starting to be recognized as a tangible and attractive mode of transportation” — Amol Patwardhan, 2022 Bike Champion for San Mateo County
Bicyclist leading group of riders.
Maybe they spend hours organizing free community bicycle repairs. Or campaigning to make streets safer. They could be helping neighborhood kids learn to ride, or bike safely to school. Or showing others the best ways to get to work by bike.
You almost certainly know one.
Nominations have just opened for Bike Champion of the Year for each of the Bay Area’s nine counties. Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is looking for those special individuals who inspire bicycling in San Mateo County and in Santa Clara County. Please take a moment to honor that magic person you know who inspires bicycling in your community. Be very descriptive of what your champion has done — don’t assume we know the person.
One award-winner will be chosen for each county, to be honored during Bike Month and the Bay Area-wide Bike to Work/Wherever Days celebrations in May. Nominations close March 31 – but don’t wait. Nominate now!
Past Champions Amol and Ari Speak to Award Impact
Amol Patwardhan – 2022 San Mateo County Bike Champion of the Year
Amol first learned how to ride a bike at the age of 5, though it wouldn’t be until later on in life, that he would discover the exploration and joy of cycling. In college, when he would bike across the 545 acres of his campus in Mumbai, Amol learned the importance of safe roads for cycling. He became committed to using his bike, or public transit, instead of a car when he moved to San Diego.
Friends, family, and colleagues who are new to biking often seek out Amol’s help on what to buy, safe routes to commute, how to ride safely, and more. His wife introduced him to the world of group rides, where he would take sweep responsibilities and swiftly repair any flat tires.
“Bicycling has been my primary means of commuting for almost a decade, so it felt nice to be recognized for that,” Amol recalls. “But more importantly, awards like this are an indication that bicycling itself is starting to be recognized as a tangible and attractive mode of transportation. The benefits are endless — it is sustainable, affordable, good for the health of the people and the planet, and sometimes it can be almost as fast as (or even faster than) driving, especially during rush hour traffic.”
“Not a whole lot has changed in terms of my use of the bike (since winning the award). I still continue to ride to work as before, and try to promote biking among my friends, family, and colleagues. What this award did was to make me more aware of the role of organizations like SVBC in improving community engagement and awareness, as well as in pushing the authorities to improve road safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.”
“I was hoping to get more involved in SVBC's advocacy and outreach efforts during the past year, but unfortunately due to personal circumstances, I have not been able to do that. Hopefully that changes in the future! And I would like to congratulate in advance the nominees/recipients for this year's awards!”
Ari Feinsmith – 2022 Santa Clara County Bike Champion of the Year
Ari started bike commuting in college, witnessing first-hand the lack of safe bicycle infrastructure in Sunnyvale. This inspired Ari to work to make cycling safer in his city and get more people riding, so he joined SVBC. At age 19 (now 22), Ari became team lead of the Sunnyvale Team of SVBC, known as Bike Sunnyvale (bikesunnyvale.org).
In that role he led successful advocacy campaigns to lobby the City Council to improve street design for bicyclists and get bicycle-friendly city policies and plans; free bicycle repair events in Sunnyvale, attracting many attendees, and with the team of volunteers fixed hundreds of bicycles; and organized community rides and educational events. His bicycle advocacy has inspired him to major in civil engineering and pursue a career in transportation, and he is now studying at UC Davis.
“I was so excited to be selected as the 2022 Bicycle Champion of Santa Clara County,” Ari says. “As a bicycle advocate, I spent hundreds of hours each year organizing free bike repair events and planning advocacy campaigns to make streets safer. It felt wonderful to be recognized for my hard work. I was and am incredibly honored to have been chosen for this amazing award!”
“I recently moved to Davis, the bicycle capital of the country. I’m now a student at UC Davis studying for B.S. in Civil Engineering. I am focusing my studies on transportation so I can continue to make streets safer professionally. In my spare time, I have been working with Bike Davis and the City of Davis to get a bi-directional bikeway installed on an important street in the city.”
