As part of Bike Anchorage's Bike Fridays, there will be several bike stations around town August 28th to encourage you to leave the car at home and go by bike. This is our last Bike Fridays of the summer. You can check out the stations and details regarding when they will be up and running on our map.

The stations are all individually hosted by businesses, agencies and organizations that all support a bike-friendly Anchorage and want to see more people go by bike. Please be sure to thank them when you stop in.

A big thanks to our Bike Fridays Station hosts: Alaska eBike Store, Alaska Public Media & Alaska Pacific University, Credit Union 1, CRW Engineering, Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union, Great Land Trust, RIM Architects & Corvus Designs, Stantec, Trek Store of Anchorage, United Way Emerging Leaders and Visit Anchorage.

If you are a business, agency, or organization and are interested in hosting a bike station as part of the annual Bike to Work Day and/or part of Bike Anchorage's Bike Fridays for 2016, please contact us at [email protected] 

And check out this awesome promo put together by Alaska Public Media 

https://youtu.be/nmlolJvVJ4Y

Photo courtesy of Alaska Public Media and Alaska Pacific University.

Congratulations to the 2015 Bike Anchorage Raffle Winners!!!

The Bike Anchorage raffle was conducted in conjunction with the Renewable Energy Fair and the Fairview Block Party on Saturday, July 25th. Hundreds were in attendance for the exciting drawing on a closed off Nelchina street where a fun and festive street fair was happening despite the rain.

Beth Nordlund won the first place prize of two Alaska Airlines tickets – anywhere they fly.

TJ Poplarchik picked up two Alaska Railroad tickets – Toot! Toot!

And Vera Hadjuk’s third place prize was a $100 gift card to Paramount Cycles.

Most importantly, the raffle raised over $3,000 for Bike Anchorage’s important work of making biking safer and more accessible here in Anchorage. Bike Anchorage is excited about working hard for better bike infrastructure in Anchorage and the financial support from the raffle will really help.

Thanks again to Alaska Airlines, Alaska Railroad and Paramount Cycles for their generous donation to the Bike Anchorage Raffle. Look for even more prizes at next year’s raffle!!

As part of Bike Anchorage's Bike Fridays, there will be several bike stations around town July 31st to encourage you to leave the car at home and go by bike. You can check out the stations on our map. Some stations like the Alaska Public Media/Alaska Pacific University will be hosting their station in the afternoon. You can find all the stations and details regarding when they will be up and running on our map 

The stations are all individually hosted by businesses, agencies and organizations that all support a bike-friendly Anchorage and want to see more people go by bike. Please be sure to thank them when you stop in.

A big thanks to our Bike Fridays Station hosts: Alaska eBike Store, Alaska Public Media & Alaska Pacific University, Credit Union 1, CRW Engineering, Denali Alaskan Federal Credit Union, Great Land Trust, RIM Architects & Corvus Designs, Stantec, Trek Store of Anchorage, and Visit Anchorage.

If you are a business, agency, or organization and are interested in hosting a bike station as part of the annual Bike to Work Day and/or part of Bike Anchorage's Bike Fridays, please contact us at [email protected] 

And check out this awesome promo put together by Alaska Public Media 

https://youtu.be/nmlolJvVJ4Y

Photos courtesy of Alaska Public Media and Alaska Pacific University.

A new Tool for Bike Safety Education in Anchorage

The Alaska Injury Prevention Center (AIPC) was recently awarded a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant to implement the Bikeology curriculum at ASD schools. The grant includes funding for the purchase of a trailer and 35 OSATA bikes (OSATA = One Size Adjusts To All), and all the safety and maintenance equipment needed to run a school-based bike safety education program. Bike Anchorage is pleased to be a partner in bringing this exciting program to Anchorage

The program is modeled after a successful SRTS program in Eugene, OR. The director of the Eugene, Oregon program, Shane MacRhodes, taught a two-day course on bike safety education at the Anchorage School District Summer Academy in late May. Assisting Shane were Beth Shuerman and Sylvia Craig of AIPC and Steve Cleary with Bike Anchorage. The class was a great introduction for Health and PE teachers on how to structure a class that can teach important bike safety lessons taking into account the time, space and other constraints teachers face.

Bike Anchorage will be showing off a couple of the OSATA Bikes at the Renewable Energy fair on July 25^th at Fairview Elementary School. The bikes easily adjust to accommodate riders from 4’6” – 6’4” and are made in the USA by Bike Friday. Their other folding bikes and cargo bikes showcase what a bike can do. When Shane MacRhodes flew up to teach a class in Anchorage in the fall, he arrived with a Bike Friday folding bike which has a case that doubled as a trailer. Shane set the bike up, stored clothes in materials in the trailer and biked right from the airport.

In mid-August, as teachers are heading back to school Bike Anchorage will help AIPC showcase the trailer and bikes to the Health and PE teachers who will be using them. They will get to see all the gear at one of their in-service days and learn how their school can check out the equipment and have some fun learning bike safety.

DHSS to Offer Fall Bike Safety Training

The Bike ‘n’ Walk Safely Program, part of the AK Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) is sponsoring a two and a half day Cycling Safety educational and training program in Anchorage, August 13^th through the 15^th, 2015.

Travel, hotel and per diem will be paid for the attendees who live outside a 50 mile radius of Anchorage, as well as bike rentals for those arriving via air.

The program will be facilitated by cycling safety instructors who are certified League of American Cyclist instructors, including Shane MacRhodes, a top-notch instructor from Oregon.  Attendees will be instructed on how to properly fit a bike helmet, learn traffic- urban- trail riding skills, how to ride in groups, bike safety teaching skills, lesson plans/drills information and be advised of state laws. This is not your usual sit-down, take notes kind of training; instead it is a mixture of seminar presentations and actual bike riding to learn, and be able to teach, riding skills.

This training will assist the attendee in developing a local community event.   Examples of events are: Bike Rodeo, Bike to School Event and Cycling Exercise groups.

Each attendee will be provided a “toolkit” of items that can be used for their community event.  Items may include; reflective zipper pulls, coloring-comic books, posters, paper punches, decorative scissors and additional bike safety items.  In addition to the toolkit technical assistance will be available, as well as helmets upon request.

As you may recall from one of our previous blog posts, A Tale of Millions, Bike Anchorage has been hard at work to see that our Anchorage Bicycle Plan is implemented. In 2012, after a succesful grassroots campaign and lots of support from bicyclists like you, we were able to increase funding for Bike Plan implementation over 2013-2014 from 1 million to 2.3 million—more than doubling the proposed funding. The money would stripe and mark new bike lane routes. This would be an important step to making our streets safer for both bicyclists and motorists.

For two years, we recieveded continuous updates through the AMATS Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. In 2013 and 2014, with each update, there was never a reference to the potential loss of allocated funds if they were not obligated by the spring of 2015. However, in March of 2015, the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee learned for the first time that the additional $1.3 million was never obligated or spent and as a result, it has been reallocated to other projects. At this Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting, Department of Transportation staff remarked that "this isn't a big deal" and that the loss of $1.3 million was just "a little snafu."

Bike Anchorage, our members and those that currently bike or would bike if our streets were safer and more welcoming expressed our disapproval and frustration. To those that bike and those that would like to bike but don't becuase they see our streets as unsafe, the loss of $1.3 million dollars is a big deal. It is a major setback towards making our streets safer. Safe streets are important to everyone and new bike infrastructure will help make our roads safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists alike. The failure to appropriately obligate funds, as set out in the TIP is concerning. Of even greater concern is the apparent lack of accountability and transparency and an inability to adequately inform the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee that there was a possibility funds could not be obligated prior to the deadline. There is no excuse for learning of this problem after the deadline for obligating funds had passed.

In response, we launched a petition to encourage AMATS to find additional funds that can be dedicated to bike plan implementation. Thanks to your incredible support, we just submitted our petition to AMATS. On July 1st, we submitted the petition, which was signed by 377 people, asking that AMATS allocate additional funds to Bike Plan implementation over the coming years. We thank all of those that spoke out!On behalf of all those who bike or would bike if they felt safe, you can count on Bike Anchorage, as we continue to advocate for adequate funding for Bike Plan implemenattion.