[zanna_leigh]

And here’s a short clip of the Bike Gang in the parade.

Blacknell gets a nice cameo, showing off his vuvuzella skills…

http://youtu.be/9109yyvUuf4?t=57s

[zanna_leigh]

It was a great day for a bike ride. Thanks Greenbelt for organizing this! So glad I found you guys along the route. It was just what I needed! Actually, what I need now is a decent pair of padded bike shorts…

[zanna_leigh]

Sorry for all the posts – but if you’re confused, we are listed as ACCS. We’re stationed behind Art-o-matic and Whitlows. Also “Me Jana” is a restaurant on the corner of Adams St and Clarendon Blvd (I wasn’t referring to myself as Me, Jana)

[zanna_leigh]

One last bit of information for the parade tonight. I have the exact locations where we will be lining up – see the map below. We’re on Adams Street between Wilson and Clarendon Blvds, near Me Jana.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]777[/ATTACH]

[zanna_leigh]

We have some updated information on the parade! Woohoo!

We are #25 in the parade line-up and we will be setting up on Adams St, off of Clarendon Blvd.

You are not required to wear anything specific (i.e. costumes acceptable, BA regalia not mandatory), but of course as Mr. Kelley pointed out, this is a kid/family friendly event :p

We will be arriving between 7:15pm and 7:30pm. The parade starts at 8pm!

See you there! Laissez les bon temps rouler!

[zanna_leigh]

I may have to pop my long distance bike ride cherry by joining you guys for the ride from College Park down to DC. I’ll ride up from Arlington to meet everyone….and hopefully I won’t get lost on the way. Looking forward to it!!!

[zanna_leigh]

@papalena 14791 wrote:

I tried replying to you earlier, but my post has been stuck in limbo somewhere (Administrator?), so I’ll try this one more time.

Apologies papalena, your post was being held back by the system for approval since you’re a first time user. It has been validated so all users can read your post now!

[zanna_leigh]

Thanks for filling out the survey everyone and thanks KLizotte for posting the survey to the forum!

KLizotte has also [URL=” http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?1783-Super-NoVa-Transit-and-TDM-Vision-Plan-public-meetings”%5Dposted a thread[/URL] about the public open-house meetings that are going on this month. Check her post for more dates.

We have added the Arlington open-house meeting in Crystal City to our [URL=” http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/news-events/event-details/?eventID=1490″%5Devents calendar[/URL] so you can find details there as well.

[zanna_leigh]

I’d like to revisit a few of the recent posts that were made.

@Marcella 12795 wrote:

I had the impression that the forum was most interested in the gender gap in transportational cyclists.

Yes, Marcella, this is more or less correct. BikeArlington is primarily concerned with encouraging biking as a mode of transportation – although we understand that just getting someone to start riding for recreation can spark this in them. So we don’t ignore the importance of bike riding for any reason. However, on to your other points AND to KLizotte’s point….

@Marcella 12795 wrote:

I think there are different issues to address to encourage more women to ride bikes for transportation vs recreation vs racing. For example, for transportation there are issues like riding in traffic, your appearance once you reach your destination, and carrying objects which might be bulky or heavy. For recreation, there are a fair number of women who are reluctant to ride by themselves due to concerns about safety or simply due to a desire for a social element to the ride.

One issue that cuts across all categories is the question of what kind of bike to get. Along with this comes questions about proper fit and what other equipment is necessary or useful to have. The options can be quite bewildering.

@KLizotte 12723 wrote:

What I did find daunting (and still do) is going into a bike shop and figuring out what kind of bike I should buy, asking the right questions, test riding a bike adequately, etc. I suspect most women feel too embarassed to test ride more aggressive road bikes if they aren’t in 100% physical shape since they don’t want to appear as if they are buying “over their head.”

…It doesn’t help that the vast majority of folks working in the sales departments of LBSs are men and most are poorly trained as sales people.

This topic of transportation riding vs. recreation or racing cropped up with a few members. I think Marcella makes a good point in saying that an overarching issue is knowing what bike to get. As a follow up KLizotte makes a great point that most of the sales people at bike shops are men and are not trained in sales. This is something that can be resolved and must be taken up with the bike shops. At the women’s forum that WABA hosted there were two women representatives of bike shops in the area – both I believed were branch managers and both women noted significant differences in the number of women in their stores compared to other stores where men run the floor. This is from their experiences and isn’t backed up with research specific to the bike purchasing trends of women. Research in this area I think would be a very valuable investment for bike shops to understand how to better market their bikes to women.

In regards to transportation I think most people (not just women) would prefer a low maintenance bike. If you’re riding recreationally and putting on a lot of miles, or training for races, then you would probably want something that performs better which in turns requires more maintenance. It comes with the territory and most people probably understand this…maybe not most people, but some do. Which brings me to my next point which is basically that these issues are still not gender specific. There are men out there that don’t feel comfortable performing basic maintenance on their bikes, for one if they don’t have time, but also because they don’t know how to / don’t want to learn how to. Which is perfectly fine and most of you noted this issue being gender neutral.

However, I think that Joe makes a good point when he raises the following questions:

@Joe Chapline 12715 wrote:

This raised a couple of questions in my mind:

1) Is present bike technology “geared” (no pun intended) toward people that enjoy working on bikes, as well as riding them?
2) If that’s the case, does that exclude a lot of women from the pool of potential riders?

I don’t think I’m being sexist when I say that there are more men bicycle mechanics than women. I don’t know why this is the case, but in doing some brief internet browsing of the topic the assumptions are true. So that does imply that this seemingly gender neutral issue is more of a women’s problem than a men’s problem. What are our solutions to this??

@KLizotte 12723 wrote:

I do think CaBi will help women overcome their self-confidence issues regarding biking though and this is a good thing.

I completely agree. I think CaBi in general is a great option for people to start biking for transportation, and even more so for women. They don’t have to make any decisions…the bike is there and they can ride it, and they don’t have to perform any maintenance on it. It’s a great way to introduce the beauty and ease of biking to work, or to run errands. The only decisions they might want to make as a result is whether or not to buy their own bike. In this case I think the bike shops have a lot of work to do to cater to the female market share which has a huge potential.

@dasgeh 12781 wrote:

If transportational cyclists start growing in numbers/proportion of cyclists and becoming more visible, I think we’ll see more LBS’s like you see in Europe that sell low-maintenance bikes (internal gears, belt shifters), cater to maintaining bikes for those who don’t want to do anything, etc.

I tend to disagree with this notion. For example, the parties interested in installing CaBi didn’t think – “hey let’s wait until there are more people looking to ride their bikes to work or to run errands in the city before we install this system.” Their mindset was “if we build it they will come” which should be the same mindset as the bike shops. I do believe that if these bikes are available for women (specifically the Dutch style, practical use bikes) they would be more likely to buy them. Not to mention the price is lower. Mark’s links below indicate that there has been some movement here, but obviously not enough for it to become mainstream yet.

@Mark Blacknell 12782 wrote:

I think there’s a very wide spectrum of design and marketing. See, e.g., http://www.bikesfortherestofus.com/. Trek, a company as mainstream as it gets, has a slew of internally geared and even belt-based bikes that are designed for easy transport. Shimano and Trek certainly teamed up a few years back to push the idea of an “easy” bike – http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_38/b4050078.htm

So after all of that, I think that bike shops have a large role to play here. Women do ride bikes but the ones who don’t, need some help changing their perspective. Bike shops can help by making it easier for women who want to buy a bike for the first time to do so. I know that some men face the same issue but as was brought up at the WABA women’s forum, women are constantly stereotyped as knowing nothing about bikes and the salesmen assume they know what kind of bike the woman wants (i.e. salesman “you don’t want a kickstand” woman “yes, I do”.

That being said, I do think the community can play a large role as well. The bicycle “show & tell” event is a fabulous idea which can be geared for both families who want to haul their kids around, or women interested in a bike for their specific needs. Allowing people to feel and touch the bikes without the pressure of having to buy the bike on the spot is essential and requires volunteers to bring their bikes out for people to look at. An informal and comfortable setting with other ordinary people who actually use the bikes can make a world of a difference. This is an event I would hope to see come to fruition this Spring/Summer.

Thanks for your ongoing thoughts and perspectives on this topic!

[zanna_leigh]

@dasgeh 13646 wrote:

You might try avoiding the entire R_B corridor entirely by taking the trail along 50 to Pershing.

I actually commute from Lyon Park to Rosslyn everyday (shortest commute…ever?) and I specifically avoid the route 50 trail. I prefer riding on the street than using that trail. Mostly because I don’t like feeling like I’m riding my bike on a highway, but also because of the construction at Pershing Dr. I have to go around anyway and catch up with the trail on 10th St. The trail past 10th street has been completely destroyed. They had a metal plate on the trail for some reason that actually acts as a giant pot hole.

So depending on where exactly your end destination is, I would recommend the on-street routes around the construction that will envelope N. Highland street (I use that occasionally on my way home and prefer that intersection with 10th st than taking Garfield to Washington Blvd). You might experience the same situation that’s happening at Pershing because of the construction for the new development there (i.e. sidewalk closures and detours) but I think going around and using parallel streets like Iriving or even Danville are good options. I actually take Danville everyday and just hop up on the sidewalk for 30 seconds before joining up with Clarendon Blvd. It’s a nice quiet street but going home it can take a while to cross 10th st during rush hour.

Oh, just like acc, I think hills are the instrument of the devil and so I specifically avoid N. Barton St even though it would be a straight shot for me (it has 2 big hills), so you can always do that if you ‘like’ hills (nobody actually likes hills).

Hope this helps…?

[zanna_leigh]

@dbb 12663 wrote:

The form allows non forum members to respond. Please encourage others you know to participate.

dbb makes an excellent point and BikeArlington supports you distributing the survey to others. However, I think you must be careful with the wording.

@dbb 12663 wrote:

The Bike Arlington and Washington Area Bicyclist Association are conducting an informal survey of bike riding and bike commuting in 2011.

BikeArlington and WABA aren’t actually conducting this survey….you guys are! And that is a great thing! The description should not state the BikeArlington and WABA are conducting this survey – it should say that the WABA forum members are. I understand this has been sent out already as it was written, but for those of you who haven’t sent it out, make sure to change the description to emphasize the community’s involvement in the survey.

Thanks!

[zanna_leigh]

KLizotte…Thank You for such a wonderful idea!!!

A great way to close out the new year, but also, we’ll be reapplying for the Bike Friendly Community status in the hopes of moving up from Silver to Gold. We won’t be applying until later next year, but “organic community involvement” was apparently an area where we could improve. I think the fact that you are volunteering to collect the data yourself is a good indicator of this organic community involvement (meaning it wasn’t BikeArlington’s idea).

I fully support and encourage this survey! It will be interesting to get the results.

Thanks for putting this together. Happy Pedaling and Happy New Year!

[zanna_leigh]

THANK YOU to everyone for contributing such great ideas!! This is exactly what I was looking for and you all nailed it! Since I don’t have kids, and have an obscenely short commute to work, I never have to think about these issues (i.e. if I need to get groceries, I just stop by the store, if I want to go out after work I just go out after work…no 2 week advance scheduling necessary) so I really appreciate all of your input and new perspectives.

I think it’s great that we do have Mom’s and families on this forum that can speak with experience and that can act as role models to everyone else!

I have compiled all of the ideas together and will pass it along to necessary parties for discussion about what our next step will be. I can picture at least 2 of these ideas coming to fruition…Please keep the good ideas coming!

[zanna_leigh]

@paytonc 11881 wrote:

Any other suggestions?

I’m pretty new to fundraising a lot of money, I’ve done it in the past but gotten away with mostly family donations to make the cut. Since I’ve tapped them out, I’m also looking into new strategies. I’ve heard that hosting happy hour meet ups dedicated to the cause is a great idea where you charge $5 at the door or something and all that money would go to the fundraising efforts (I’m sure organizing some sort of discount for drinks might help too). Teaming up with others to raise the money is another strategy, one which I’ll be employing at some point.

The only thing Facebook did was get people to “like” my post – it didn’t generate any new donations. So far it hasn’t been helpful. But I’ll let you know if I discover other ways to raise the money.

[zanna_leigh]

Tim was working hard on this issue…but it wouldn’t hurt to call that number and see what happens. We’ll follow up with it and get back to everyone soon hopefully!

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