Hi All,
The next meeting of Valley Moves will be on Thursday, Sept. 25 @ 7 pm at the Wait House.
See ya’ then. Please forward this to anyone you think might be interested in coming. Thanks.
Still seeking a Co-Chair for this great working group. Email/call Laura or Bobbi if you are interested.
Cheers,
Laura
Mad Bikes has been re-born as the Mad Bikes of Waitsfield, under the auspices of the town of Waitsfield. The following is the minutes from the first official meeting of this newly formed committee. We will publish then on this blog.
Valley moves is turning its attention toward the launching of VTrans’ Go Vermont and commuter and other transportation needs in the Valley. Please watch the site for more updates. Join us!
Mad Bikes of Waitsfield Steering Committee
Meeting Minutes, August 26, 2008, 7 a.m. @ Three Mtn. Café
Present: Laura Brines, Liz Weller, Troy Kingsbury, Peter Lazorchak
Absent: Bobbi Rood, Sue Frechette, Kari Dolan
1. Progress Report: 6 Mad Bikes are “out there.”
a. Special thanks to the volunteer bike maintenance by Dave at Stark Mtn. and David Cain. We are so grateful to both of them for their willingness to continue to help repair and maintain the bikes.
b. Bike baskets have been put on most of the bikes. Thanks to Peter!
c. Clip on bike flags seem to have been removed/broken on most of the bikes.
d. Bike stickers are on all the bikes.
e. Bike Guidelines have been attached to all of the racks with green flags in the Irasville district.
f. Troy, with the help of his son, plans to paint 4 or 5 recently donated bikes. Once the bikes have been tuned up, stickers & baskets add- ten bikes will be actively in the fleet.
g. Peter has numbered the bikes, and is keeping a log of all the bike expenses, where bikes have been found, etc.
h. We agreed to try to sell one of the used bikes that is in very good condition on Craig’s List and the money from the sale will go towards future bike maintenance costs. We hope Dave Cain will put the ad on Craig’s List. Thanks, Dave.
i. Need more helpers: We hope to brainstorm a list of local bike enthusiasts who we can invite to help tune up bikes. Next summer we hope to have Mad Bike volunteers sign on for a week, during which they patrol Irasville and “tune up” bikes in need. This will be organized similar to the system the Valley Garden Club has in place to take care of community gardens in the summer.
2. Bike Storage: Liz is pursuing “in town” storage for the bikes, so far no luck. We hope winter storage for the bikes and racks can be in Dave ? barn in Duxbury.
3. Who is riding the bikes? We hope to take photos of users enjoying the Mad Bikes, and perhaps interview them to see how they are being used.
4. Presence at the last Farmers’ Mkt: Liz will look into this. We had a table at the beginning of the summer, so it seems appropriate to have one at the end of the summer. Our hope is to get folks to sign up: to help tune bikes, to participate in a “bike tuning clinic” to be held during Valley Walk & Roll Week ‘09, to raise awareness about the bikes, to sign up for bike riding classes, etc. Ring a bell and give treats to folks that ride a bike to the Mkt that day… other ideas?
5. Research the Putney Community Bike Program: Mike Ketchel says they have a similar program, with green milk crates on the bikes instead of baskets.
6. Forward any Mad Bike stories, photos, questions or ideas to lbbrines@gmavt.net.
7. Next meeting date? To be determined.
Adjourned: 7:45 a.m. Minutes by Laura Brines
A first-hand look at “Bike To School Day” in the Mad River Valley. How many kids are there? They pedal like the wind. Go “Valley Moves!”
A first hand look at “Bike To Work Day” in the Mad River Valley. Nancy Turner shares her thoughts on the experience, while balancing a half-eaten muffin in her hand. Brilliant.
Hello Friends,
Looking forward to next week’s Bike-to-Work/School and Bike to Farmer’s Market days happening on May 16 and 17th. (See blog of May 4.) We’ve put together a survey to register participation and learn a little about the particiants. Bike-to-School/Market is a part of the larger “Walk “n Roll Festival” series of events happening the same week.
I hope you’ll take a moment to fill out the survey. It’s quick and easy. From it we’ll get a sense of who is taking part, what our typical riding habits are, and what some of the motivations and limitations people deal with when thinking about riding their bicycle in the Mad River Valley. We’ll also be able to caluclate roughly how many miles people rode and how much gas was saved in the process. Please click the links below to get to the survey and survey results.
Take the survey
View the results
Check out our strokes (of genius?) Photos courtesy Dave Cain.
Five days of bicycles, sneakers and love… Helmets on, shoes tied and ready to go. May 14-18 will see the first annual celebration of all things biking and walking in the Mad River Valley. Biking enthusiasts and local clubs have teamed with Valley Moves to host a week of bicycle and pedestrian awareness and and fun events for the whole family. From film festival at the Big Picture (Wed, Breaking Away at 8 pm; Sunday The Triplets of Belleville at 2 pm and The Bicycle Thief at 4 pm) to Sunday Family Day at the Greenway, there will be something for folks of all ages to enjoy. There will be guided rides for bikers of all abilities and a guided walk on Thursday, May 15. Friday, May 16 is national Bike to Work Day with riders biking to school or work all over the country.
Don’t despair if biking to school or work is out of the question! The weekend will offer plenty of more opportunities. Join in with everyone who is biking to the Farmers Market on opening day Saturday, May 17. There will be preferred parking right next to the Sugarbush kiosk and information about biking and walking events at the Valley Moves booth.
For a complete listing of events, see the article on the festival in this week’s Valley Reporter (p.12) and check out the calendar of events (p. 17).
From Valley Moves Co-Chairs, Laura Brines and Bobbi Rood… It’s fantastic to have so many people on board! A VR editorial this week talks about the need for leadership on Valley transportation issues. Our committee’s work couldn’t be more timely. Isn’t it amazing how much energy and excitement there is about the Mad Bikes project. We just wanted to quickly share a few highlights, of last night’s meeting. The ideas were coming fast & furious last night all around the table…
Troy Kingsbury has asked for bicycle donations with his Bikes For Bread Campaign. With Earth Day, April 22, as a target, Kingsbury hopes to have a fleet of Mad Bikes available for local transit in downtown Irasville. Troy has lunched the campaign with an offer of a coupon for a sandwich on Red Hen Bread for the first 50 bicycle donations. He is currently researching commercial sites for bike racks and has spoken with several local stores. He will also be looking for volunteer contributions.
Look for other upcoming events of the Mad Bike Project including Dave Cain’s 2nd annual bike to work/bike to the Farmer’s Market on Day one of the 2008 Farmer’s Market and MRV Health Center initiatives to get more children outside on bikes.