SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, January 31; 9 AM, South Eugene High School

2009 Walking & Biking Summit: Crossroads to the Future

Join in all day or choose to attend one or more of the three segments
for this year’s Walking and Biking Summit: Crossroads to the Future
organized by Eugene’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee
(BPAC)! Join the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy as they engage our
community in the conversation regarding support of active
transportation as identified in the 2010 Campaign for Active
Transportation for the Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area.

Planning for the transportation needs of the 21st Century requires a
significant shift in thinking and priorities; although we are
confronted by many uncertainties, we can be sure that future
transportation needs will be quite unlike the past. The national Rails-
to-Trails Conservancy spearheaded the 2010 Campaign for Active
Transportation to inspire a grassroots effort to advocate for
increasing federal funding for active transportation including walking
and biking (which could mean $50 million for Eugene/Springfield!!).
Make sure you have all the latest information; come to the Summit and
make your voice heard!

I: Town Hall Meeting – Rails to Trails Conservancy

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), in partnership with the BPAC, is
hosting a town hall meeting to share plans to promote walking and
biking and to give you the opportunity to get involved in local
“active transportation” (walking and biking) efforts. The goal of this
meeting is to share with you the exciting plans that are underway to
make your region a more walkable, bikeable place to live, work and
play, and to provide you with opportunities to inform and engage in
the process.

Eugene/Springfield is engaged in Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s 2010
Campaign for Active Transportation, whose goal is to double the amount
of money the federal government spends on walking and biking.
Specifically, the plan is to target these federal dollars to dozens of
communities, including Eugene/Springfield, which could receive $50
million to build a complete network of safe places to walk and bike
and to reduce auto-dependence. If the community is actively engaged
and supportive it may increase the likelihood that our area would
receive the federal funding. Local staff and officials, with the help
of the RTC, need the community’s participation to make this campaign a
reality.

Staff from RTC’s Western Regional Office and national office in
Washington, D.C. will be on hand to answer your questions and discuss
how your community can be improved through more walking and biking.
You can learn more about RTC’s campaign at http://www.railstotrails.org

For more information on the Campaign for Active Transportation for the
Eugene – Springfield metropolitan area, go to http://www.lcog.org/cat

II: Entertainment & Fun-Fashion Show

Join us for snacks while Tom Powers entertains all with this fun and
wacky fashion show. See the current trends in biking and walking gear
and get in on the fun! This is also a great opportunity to connect
with local partners on healthy and active transportation.

Find your local carpool connections; learn about LTD’s 2009 service
changes; connect with local bicycle advocates; pick up some bike
safety information; prevent bike theft and get your bike registered
with the help of the Eugene Police Department; meet the folks in the
Adaptive Recreation Program and ride one of the adaptive bikes; meet
with local businesses and see what’s new in the world of active
transportation.

III: Workshops

A: Bike Commuter Skills Workshop
Urban Hikes: Meet William Sullivan, local author
Update on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Strategic Plan
B: Basic Bike Repair
Issues of Accessibility: Working together for improvements
Safe Routes to School: Program update

Mark your calendars today and be part of the conversation and
festivities!!

Wild biking, bushwacking, and packrafting
the length of the Alaska Range:
A firsthand account and wild slideshow by
Paul Adkins.

“Forced to dismount on soft ice and slog up a 6,000-foot-high pass, three adventurers press on in their effort to traverse the rugged Alaska Range by mountain bike. On their seven-week, 775-mile expedition the trio rode on glaciers, game trails, and gravel bars.”

From “A Wild Ride: Biking Across the Alaska Range,” May 1997, National Geographic magazine

Join us for a slideshow by cyclist, dad, ex-guide and adventurer Paul Adkins. Hear stories for the whole family. It will be held as part of the GEARs Holiday Get Together held at the Bascom/Tykeson Room at the Eugene Public Library, December 23, which starts at 5:30 pm with the slides and storytelling starting at 6:15pm.

Open to everyone, bring a dessert to share if you can, and lets have a fun evening together.

The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), Written By: Lewis Taylor
Monday, July 7 2008

Imagine getting more exercise, feeling less rushed and having more quality time with your kids.

It’s all possible if you’re willing to undergo a paradigm shift and a bit of a lifestyle change, say proponents of the latest micro-trend in transportation.

Soccer moms and hockey dads, meet your new minivan. It’s called a bicycle.

“It’s (good) exercise, we’re not burning fossil fuels, it’s slowing things down a bit,” said Megan James, a Eugene mother who has, increasingly, been using her bike, rather than her Volvo station wagon to make grocery runs, go to the bank and tote her son Elliot, 7, to baseball games.

The idea of commuting by bike isn’t new, and neither is the concept of carrying kids in a trailer attached to the back of a bicycle - Eugene’s Burley Design has been a pioneer in the bike trailer industry for 30 years. But with gas prices soaring, bikes are looking more and more attractive.

And many parents are coming to the conclusion that the bike can be a better family vehicle than you might think.

“My kids are closer to me on a bike and they talk to me,” said Summer Spinner, a Eugene mother of four who uses her ride to take her kids to school, go grocery shopping and do all the other errands that need doing. “We have much better conversations than we do in a car.”

Of course, making that Trek behave more like a Toyota Previa takes some retro-fitting. Thanks to parents such as James and Spinner there’s never been a better selection of Burley-style trailers, “Trail-a-Bikes” that make one seaters into kid-friendly tandems, not to mention bike racks, European-style kid seats and other add-ons that promise to make a cargo machine out of your two wheeler.

At Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life, assistant manager Kellen Norwood expects to sell out of popular models of the Burley trailer such as the Bee, which goes for about $250. The top of the line model, the d’lite, sells for about $500. It offers seating for two children with safety harnesses.

You can find trailers for less at discount retailers. The problem, Norwood says, is that some of those trailers have not been properly put together.

“It’s not so much the quality of the build, but the quality of the bike (or trailer),” he explained. “You get (a trailer built by) a guy who builds barbecues one day and bikes the next.”

A bike shop such as Paul’s can inspect a trailer that’s been purchased elsewhere or even assemble a new trailer for about $25.

Both James and Spinner use a device called the Xtra Cycle, which lengthens your ride by 15 inches and converts most any bike into a virtual station wagon with the addition of extra-thick tubing, a platform and “saddle bags.”

Unlike the much more common Burley-style trailers, which surround children in a roll cage with a five-point harness system, the Xtra Cycle is essentially a wooden platform that kids straddle in much the same manner as they would a horse.

Some might call such a device dangerous, but Spinner is not overly concerned.

“I’m not a safety ranger at all,” she said. “I feel like I ride pretty smart, my kids wear helmets.”

The device which costs around $400, plus $100 to $200 for installation, and can hold up to 200 pounds.

Such a set up allows parents to pack up their kids and still have a place to put the extra toys, snacks, clothing and shopping bags. Some less family-focused users of the device have found the Xtra Cycle to be a great way to carry surfboards, kayaks, even construction ladders.

A warning on the Xtra Cycle Web site suggests practicing with the bike before riding with passengers or cargo and includes a long list of safety precautions.

Nevertheless, at local bike shops such as Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life and Hutch’s Bicycles, where the Xtra Cycle was recently out of stock, interest in kid-toting bike systems is higher than ever.

“There’s definitely a big push for them,” says Darren Ohl, a service manager at Hutch’s. “Eugene is already such a bicycle friendly city. On top of that you have a couple of other factors that contribute to (people) getting on bicycles instead of (into) cars.”

Fitness, environmental concerns, quality of life and of course, the high price of gas all contribute to the trend say cycling proponents such as Paul Adkins of Eugene. He says traveling by bike instead of by minivan makes him feel closer to his community and the people who live in it.

“If you pull up to a stop sign (next to) somebody in a car, there’s no interaction,” he says. “With a bike, we wave to each other. We might have a conversation.”

Adkins, his wife Monica and their four kids might be the ultimate example of a family using bikes to their fullest. Recently, they sold their 1993 Previa minivan. They no longer own a car.

“We were talking (the other day) about how liberated we feel,” Adkins said. “This may seem obvious to people who have already pared down, but until you start, you don’t know how free you can feel.”

For the Adkins family, freedom comes in the form of a tandem-style bike that seats three, called the Family Traveler. Made locally by Bike Friday, the machine is unusual enough by itself, but Adkins pairs it with a Burley trailer to create enough seating for two kids and bags of groceries. The family owns a second Burley trailer and other bikes as well.

Bicycling advocates such as Adkins refer to a “perfect storm” of factors that’s convincing more families to rethink the bicycle as a means of transportation for the whole family.

They point to northern European countries such as Holland and Denmark where families regularly strap their kids in and go about their daily business.

“Their cities are built a little bit differently, but there are people who do five-mile commuting with three or four kids and they have busy lives just like we do,” says bike proponent Shane Rhodes.

The program manager of the local chapter of Safe Routes to School, Rhodes promotes “active transportation” to and from school.

He says the idea of riding instead of driving your kids to school is becoming more mainstream and believes even more parents would make the decision if they saw others doing it.

“It’s not such an extreme idea any more,” he said. “Part of the reason (Europeans do it) is that everyone else is doing it, so they watch other people doing it, and they get it.”

The New Mini Van

Here are a few suggestions for parents who are contemplating the switch to bikes

Start fresh: If you’ve been thinking of riding instead of driving your kids to school, start at the beginning of the school year, says Shane Rhodes, program manager of the local chapter of Safe Routes to School. Even if you don’t do it every day, you’ll have the gear and the knowledge, and you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

Safety: Make sure both you and your kids are wearing helmets. If you’re using a trailer, make sure your children are properly buckled and use safety flags to ensure drivers can see the low-riding trailers.

Security: Be sure and lock your trailer up. A cable lock can easily be strung through the trailer and connected to the lock you use for your bike.

Safe Routes to School: For information on the organization or tips on biking to school, call 556-3553

Dear Members:

Since January of this year, GEARs has grown nicely as an organization. We’ve just about doubled our membership with 188 members as of October 20th. We’ve had a successful year when it comes to rides too. The Blackberry bRamble & Jamboree was the highlight of the summer where we had 350 riders on the bRamble - the century, metric century or the 43 miler - and an estimated 170 riders on the first Blackberry Jamboree community bike ride. That is over 500 riders involved in a single weekend of riding — having fun on two wheels. We had several community sponsors that partnered with GEARs to promote and support these events. Bicycle education in the Eugene area is the benefactor of our efforts. As an organization we’ve offered many bike skills classes, and bike commute workshops this year. We’ve worked closely with the City staff on many initiatives. We are part of a small coalition developing and advancing the state wide Eye to Eye Campaign - working to increase awareness of road safety issues. I expect that we’ll be reviewing our successes and shortcomings in the next couple months and coming up with a plan to make an even stronger impact - building organizational capacity too.

Thanks for your support. I would like to encourage all of you to shift GEARs and come to the SWAP Meet on November 10th at the VETS Club and visit the website and see how you can get more involved — whether joining more recreational rides or volunteering to help make our community a better place to bicycle.

Paul Adkins, GEARs President
paul@eugenegears.org

GEARs (Greater Eugene Area Riders), a local not for profit bicycle club, will hold its annual meeting and Bike Swap on Monday, November 10, 2008 from 7 to 9 pm.

The GEARs Annual Meeting will take place from 7-7:30pm, when club members will elect the 2008-2009 GEARS Executive Board and consider by-law amendments. amending the club by-laws and cast ballots for members of the executive board.

Following the Annual Meeting, the Bike Swap will offer cyclists an opportunity allow cyclists to sell and exchange bikes bicycles and bike parts. Any interested bicyclist is invited to participate.Both events are open to the general public. No commercial selling will be permitted.

Location: The Vets Club, 1626 Willamette St., Eugene.

For more information, contact Contact: Richard Hughes Ph.541-683-1409 Email:hughes97405@gmail.com

By Mark Baker
The Register-Guard Published: Oct 4, 2008

We are a bunch of biking fools. Even in the rain.

At least Boulder, Colo., has the excuse that the sun shines there about 300 days a year.

In a survey of 442 U.S. cities with a population of 57,000 or more, 8.5 percent of Eugene residents ride a bicycle to work — second only to Boulder, with 8.9 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s recently released 2007 American Community Survey.

The percentage of Eugene commuters using bicycles had fallen in 2006 to 5.2 percent, before bouncing up again last year.

High gas prices? Too many potholes to maneuver on four wheels?

“We don’t know what accounts (for the increase),” said David Roth, an associate transportation planner with the city of Eugene who provided the numbers. “Obviously, we’ve got a lot of things going on.”

All but one of the cities in the top 10 are full-fledged college towns, so some biking professors and graduate teaching assistants probably figured into the numbers. And part of Tufts University is in Somerville, Mass., which was No. 8 on the list.

Six Oregon cities — Eugene, Portland, Bend, Medford, Salem and Hillsboro — made the top 100. Portland ranked 14th on the list, and No. 1 among the 50 American cities with the most workers, according to the survey.

The new numbers for Eugene — an estimated 6,243 residents out of 73,576 commuters — are close to the city’s 2005 numbers, when 8.4 percent of commuters rode bikes to work, Roth said.

Eugene ranked 44th in percentage of residents walking to work with 6.5 percent. Portland ranked 95th with 4.4 percent. Cambridge, Mass., home of Harvard University, ranked first with a whopping 20.1 percent, or one in five residents, walking to work. Cambridge also ranked fifth on the bike-to-work list.

The American Community Survey is produced annually from information gleaned from surveys mailed to about 3 million addresses in the United States and Puerto Rico. The 47-question survey asks about race, martial status, education, income levels and work history. Question No. 30 is: “How did you usually get to work last week?”

The answer for Eugene’s Paul Adkins is the Bicycle.

The president of the Greater Eugene Area Riders, or GEARs, a local bicycle promotion group, works at Bike Friday in Eugene. He and his wife, Monica, and their four children, moved to Eugene from Ithaca, N.Y., 16 months ago because of Eugene’s bicycle culture, Adkins said. And just a few months ago, the family sold its last car, he said. Paul Adkins rides with his children, 7-year-old Rainy Day and 5-year-old Torrent, to Cesar Chavez Elementary School every morning, then hits the bike path out to Bike Friday in west Eugene. His wife rides over to the school in the afternoon, then rides home with the children. Twins Dare and Sanguine, 3, are already riding, too.

“The gas thing really pushed us over the edge,” Adkins said of $4-a-gallon gas prices. “I couldn’t be happier that we are among the highest-ranking (cities),” Adkins said. “A lot of people are doing it out of necessity” though, he said. GEARs is working to break in the next segment of the population who are close to making the switch from driving to biking to work, “Because I really do believe that once they make the change, they will become more capable and realize it’s not that dangerous.”

Safety issues are often cited as a top concern among those considering riding bicycles to work. GEARs just encourages common sense, he said. Wear proper clothing and use a light at night. And here in the rainy Willamette Valley, have the proper gear. Not wanting to bike in inclement weather is another excuse, Adkins said. “There’s no bad weather, just bad gear,” he said.

GEARs also has partnered with the city of Eugene to hold recent events called “Breakfast at the Bridges,” Roth said. Held on Aug. 22 and Sept. 26, with another planned for some time later this fall, bike riders on their way to work are served coffee and bagels at three locations at bridges along Eugene’s Ruth Bascom Riverbank Path System.

Wednesday brings another bike-riding promotion — the national Walk and Bike to School Day.

Shane Rhodes, the Eugene School District’s new Safe Routes to School Coordinator, got his new job thanks to a bike-safety grant application written by Roosevelt Middle School students. In fact, his office is at Roosevelt. Rhodes, who formerly worked at both the Berkeley, Calif., and Eugene chapters of the Center for Appropriate Transport, has motivated 24 schools in Eugene and Springfield to participate in Wednesday’s event, along with the University of Oregon and Lane Community College. Last year, just eight schools participated, he said.

Rhodes, too, has been car-free for a year now. He bikes to work about 2½ miles from his home in west Eugene.

“I can’t imagine not riding now,” he said. A major reason parents give for not letting their children ride bikes to school is concern about traffic, he said. But if fewer adults drove their kids to school, there would be less traffic, he said. “Sometimes we’re our own worst enemy.”