Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

Programs: Bike to work day: each may, svbc hosts bike to work day, which is a bay area wide celebration of bicycle commuting with the purpose of publicizing bicycling to work as a commute option and to encourage people to try it out. Energizer stations are set up by employers and volunteers throughout silicon valley to provide participating cyclists with goodie bags and refreshments during their ride to work. We also promote the team bike challenge and the company bike challenge, competitions that encourage participants to bike to work during the month. In addition to coordinating all event logistics, svbc leverages the energy of the event through press conferences and other media to focus public attention on the benefits of bicycling. In 2016, the bay area bicycle coalition merged with svbc, and svbc took over the contract with metropolitan transportation commission to be the umbrella organization for the nine bay area counties participating in the regional bike to work day.

outreach and advocacy: an important part of our mission is to promote safe conditions for bicyclists. We meet regularly with public officials and agency representatives in both san mateo and santa clara counties to promote convenient and safe bicycle infrastructure. We continue to work to get bike lanes and other safety measures for bicyclists installed. We also convene volunteer area teams in several geographic areas to advise and work on changes needed. In 2016-17, our local teams of advocates in san jose, mountain view, palo alto, and redwood city continued to meet regularly to discuss issues of local importance. Some issues, such as sidewalk bicycle riding, bike access on caltrain, and equity in the bicycling movement, made their way to our policy advisory committee to be discussed and recommended for further action by svbc staff. We hosted our sixth annual silicon valley bike summit, which brings together professionals, advocates, politicians, and public agency employees in a community event focused on planning for health, environmental security, and enhanced communities. The 2016 summit featured speakers from state and international bicycling organizations as well as local agency staff and bike bloggers. We also worked with the valley transportation agency to design and adopt complete streets requirements, continued our work on vision zero, and furthered plans for safer bike infrastructure on el camino real.

bicycle education: safety education is one of our most important services. We conduct safety classes for both children and adults. During the 2016-17 school year we conducted a program of classroom and on-bike safety instruction that reached over 6000 children in belmont, gilroy, sunnyvale, campbell, east palo alto and san jose. We are also working with low income communities to provide bicycle education.