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Newsletter - December 2009
Welcome to the Cold Summer, home of weird families and hot drinks. Let's all kick back, relax, and roll up our sleeves.
Yellow Bike Headquarters Update - We're expecting to have a building up very early in 2010. The picture to the right shows the frame of the building already assembled. Within a few days it will have a roof and walls! An online album of construction images can be found here. Once the structure is up, we'll need your help to prepare it for use. Sign up here to help with construction on work party days, beginning early in January. Scheduling is still up in the air, so just let us know if you want to be updated. No pressure, we promise! We're also looking for cheap or donated materials for our mezzanine inside the shop, the outside deck and pergola, and the rainwater collection system and community garden. Let us know if you have any leads. Or, to help out with the last bit of cost, please consider making a donation or loan FUNDRAISING UPDATE
EVENTS Nueces Bicycle Boulevard - Austin could soon have it's first bicycle boulevard, but it is up to you to make it happen. Here are a few things that you can do:
League of Bicycling Voters - Austin, joining the ranks of all of the great bicycle-friendly cities, now has a staffed local bicycle advocacy organization! The League of Bicycling Voters (LOBV) recently took on Tom Wald as the staffed executive director of the organization. Tom has been a board member of the LOBV for three years. In that time, he has worked to ensure good bicycle facilities at the Mueller redevelopment and other Austin locations. He is currently the vice chair of the city's Bicycle Advisory Council, and helped found the Orange Bike project while a student at UT Austin. Tom's first goals as executive director are to get buy-in from the cycling community on the role of the LOBV as the central voice for local bike advocacy, to increase membership in the organization to sustain paid staff, and begin the process of coordinating local advocacy efforts by coalescing a solid corps of engaged volunteers. Organizations that have succeeded in these goals, such as the SF Bike Coalition, have been integral to increasing the bikeability of their respective cities.
We at Yellow Bike are very excited about these developments as we have been grappeling with how to engage in advocacy for several years. In Novemeber of 2007 we released an Advocacy Statement to guide our own advocacy efforts. All the while, in these efforts, we knew that Austin was in desperate need of a central local advocacy organization that could coordinate advocacy opportunities across organizations like Yellow Bike, Austin Cycling Association, BikeTexas, bike shops, and individual bicyclists who want to see progress on the streets. With your help, LOBV can be that organization. Check out their website and consider making LOBV your own. Austin Comprehensive Plan - Austin has begun the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan, which was originally adopted in 1979 and is very out-of-date. The Comp Plan is the overarching, guiding, and arguably the most important of all the plans in Austin. The Bicycle Plan is a subservient plan that further defines the Comp Plan, but must be in harmony with its broader vision. This is the plan that sets our community priorities for the next decades to come. If you feel strongly about mobility (walking and bicycling), land use, affordable housing, stable neighborhoods, more local business, better access to countryside and farmland... now is your chance to vocalize your vision. Here are a few resources to get you started.
We urge you to participate in this process to help shape the future of this City. They are structuring this public input process so that even those who can't invest much time will be able to have a voice. Pass this on to other lists you think relevant. Give Council Feedback on New Bicycle Facilities - The surge of new bicycle facilities continues. This year the City doubled the miles of bicycle lanes installed compared to last year, which was more than was installed in any year previous! The City installed it's first shared lane markings on Guadalupe, Lavacca, Dean Keeton, and 51st Street and its first bike boxes at Speedway at 38th and Shoal Creek at Anderson. As part of this project of firsts, colored lanes will soon be added to conflict areas on the Dean Keeton bike lanes. Within the last months, new bicycle lanes have been installed on Mc Neil, Scofield Ridge, Braker, West 6th Street, Rosewood, and Davis. In May over 300 bicyclists showed up for the adoption of the Bicycle Plan Update. Because the plan was backed by a broad coalition of cyclists who showed up in numbers, the aggressive plan passed council unanimously. Let's make sure they know that our support for the plan doesn't end there. If you like what you are seeing on the streets, email city council and tell them what these facilities mean to you.
Bicycle Advisory Council - Austin's Bicycle Advisory Council is a citizen body that meets with staff of the City's Bicycle and Pedestrian Program from 6:30 to 8 PM on the 3rd Thursday of each month. Meetings are held in the 8th-floor conference room at 505 Barton Springs. The City's Bike and Ped program is the public entity behind the infrastructure improvements discussed above, so this is where you go to make sure it's being done right. If you're looking to get involved in the kind of growth Austin needs, the BAC is the place to do it. December's meeting falls on the 17th. SHOP NEWS NOTE: Both YBP shops are closed Dec. 22 through Jan. 1 Treasure City Shop - We're running three weekly shops this month at our main transition shop in the Treasure City parking lot (1720 E. 12th, at Salina), on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Please note that collective meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month, and so there are no shops on these days. And, since it's held outside, we're closed in the event of rain. As always, it's best to check the schedule before stopping by. LadyBike - The much-beloved LadyBike workshops will not be held in November, due to holidays and such, but will be back with a vengeance in the new year. However, do check out the Friday shop at Monroe, hosted exclusively by Ladybike ladies. SCHEDULE - Subject to change after the first Tuesday of the month - Check the website before coming by . .
**1st Tuesday of each month, there is no shop. We are all at the monthly collective meeting.
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