Tales of the Road- Safety Fun!

Great online resource for safe biking and walking skills for kids (from the UK), check out the video below and then work on your skills with some fun online games at Tales of the Road including knocking kids on the head who aren't wearing helmets!

Copenhagen Video

Some nice shots of family biking in this beautiful and fun Copenhagen video:

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.

Eugene SRTS E-News

If you're not subscribed to the Eugene SRTS E-News but you'd like to be, send me an email and I'll add you to the list.

Otherwise, here is the latest:

Eugene SRTS E-News (Green Week Edition)

Happy Green Week!

Celebrate next week's Earth Day all week long! Encourage students to walk or roll to school throughout the week, especially April 21st, the day before Earth Day and our official Walk & Roll Day! Small encouragement prizes like reflective zipper pulls, pencils, and other items are available to some schools who organize an event. Contact Shane Rhodes, SRTS Program Manager for more information rhodes_sh@4j.lane.edu (541) 556-3553.

Kidical Mass, Friday April 17th & May 15th

We have some exciting Spring Kidical Mass rides planned! The next one is a celebration of one year for the Kidical Mass rides and we're calling it our BIRTHday Ride! Join us on this family fun ride as we discover new back roads, pedal from one park to another, and share some sweet treats to celebrate (cupcakes anyone?!). This could also be the first Kidical Mass ride that induces labor as one rider (my lovely wife Missy!!) is due any day!!!! Now that would be a Kidical Mass to remember.

Our May ride will be a special outing with the City of Eugene Recreation department to the Skinner Butter Columns for some Kidical Climbing! We'll saddle up and pedal over to the butte with a stop by the CAT to say hi and then up the big climb to harness up and do another human powered climb- on the rocks! Both rides leave at 6 pm from Monroe Park.

Rides are held the third Friday of every month. It's a great time to get together with other families, kids, and kids-at-heart to enjoy a good ride around Eugene. See the Kidical Mass website for some FAQs.

Bike Education Courses Start in May (for Parents, Kids & Teachers)

The Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARS) and the Eugene SRTS Program are excited to bring a series of "Smart Cycling" bicycle education courses to Eugene again this Spring & Summer. Classes will range from a 1 hour Bike Commuter Class with some of the basics to a 9 hour Traffic Skills 101 course that gives cyclists the confidence they need to ride safely and legally in traffic or on the trail. Want to be more comfortable biking with your kids? Want to be able to teach them how to ride safer and more predictably? Ready to branch out from the River Path recreational rides? Feel confident but want to teach others to be better riders? These are the classes for you! These Smart Cycling courses are also the requirement for teachers or individuals interested in becoming League Certified Instructors (LCIs). The Eugene 4J School District will be working over the next couple of years to implement a full bike education program with teachers certified as LCIs! For more information on these League of American Bicyclists certified courses see the GEARS site or contact Shane Rhodes at 541-556-3553.

Engineering Treatments and Strategies for Safe Routes To School Webinar (Part 2)

This webinar will concentrate on effective engineering tools to create safer street crossings and successful ways to calm traffic along school routes through various means including crosswalks, crossing islands, curb extensions, road diets, state of the art traffic controls, and various traffic calming techniques. This webinar is part of the Safe Routes Coaching Action Network Webinar Series, developed by America Walks and the National Center for Safe Routes to School, and is hosted by the City of Eugene Public Works Department and Eugene SRTS.

April 21st 11 am-noon at the City of Eugene Public Works Department, 99 E. Broadway, 4th Floor.

The Business Commute Challenge!

Mark your calendars for May 11th through May 15th to participate in the 2009 Business Commute Challenge (BCC)! Register your school, department, or business and start challenging others! The BCC is a friendly competition between businesses and organizations that offers participants a chance to win prizes such as gift cards, bagel breakfasts, tickets to local events and more, if they report the highest number of vehicle miles saved. The goal of the challenge is to get people to try an alternative mode of transportation for one week and help them realize that it's easy to bike or ride the bus on a regular basis. A new website will be used this year to log your miles. An Awards Luncheon will be held on Tuesday, May 19, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Stay tuned for updates. For more information or to sign up go to the Commute Challenge website or contact Paul Adkins, Business Commute Challenge Coordinator, or call 682-5285.

Save the Date- June 13th

The 5th Annual Bike Day at the Science Factory grounds in Alton Baker Park!! Loads of fun to be had! See more at eugenegears.org/bikeday

Safety Tip

It's fun on the playground but don't play 'Hide-and-Seek" when riding your bike! Ride in a straight, predictable line and don't weave between parked cars. It may feel safer to get farther from the lane of moving traffic but you become less visible to motorists, become unpredictable, and have to negotiate to get back in the travel lane when you come across another parked car or obstacle. Stay in the lane of travel; if it's safe to share then stay far enough to the right to allow a motorist to pass. If there isn't enough space to share then you have the right to 'claim the lane'. Move over when it is safe and practicable to do so.

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You are subscribed to the Eugene SRTS E-News because you signed up at a local event, participated in an SRTS event, or you work with a partnering organization. If you would like to be removed please send a request to "Unsubscribe from SRTS E-News" to rhodes_sh@4j.lane.edu

If you would like more information about the National SRTS program go to: http://www.saferoutesinfo.org and stay tuned for the new Eugene SRTS site!

Walking & Biking Tunes

From the SRTS National Partnership March Newsletter- some Safe Routes Music! What is that quote... something about if your revolution doesn't include music I don't want to be involved?

Download these songs and add them to your Walk & Bike Mix!

Blane Lyon Provides Safe Routes Theme Songs


"I want to walk"
"ride my bike"

San Francisco Bay Area musician Blane Lyon recently produced two upbeat, hip, and modern Safe Routes to School theme songs titled “I want to walk” and “ride my bike”. He originally created the songs for use in Santa Rosa, California, a location where the Safe Routes to School National Partnership is working as part of our Local School Project. Blane has now generously made these songs available for use in schools worldwide through the Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s website.

A poet since the age of 13, Blane Lyon has written more than 150 songs and performed more than 500 live concerts. He has always used his art to highlight social and environmental causes and has recently written a series of environmental "theme songs", including the two songs for Safe Routes to School promotion. "I love to write songs that are funky and that spread good thoughts and actions. There is so much good work to be done. It helps to be together and inspired and I think dance music is one of the most contagious and inspiring things on earth," says Lyon.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership thanks Blane Lyon for his generous contribution. We urge schools and organizations using Blane’s songs to provide him with credit, and to link to his website, www.blanelyon.com. His album, “All People”, is available on iTunes too. As many say, “it takes music to make a movement!”

Green Wheel- Design Review

Today designbridge gave their final Studio Presentation on the three projects they are working on through the Architecture Dept. at the University of Oregon.

The one we're most excited about of course is the Green Wheel project for a new bike shelter at Roosevelt. We've been through some great

design charrettes, various design meetings, and discussions of budgets but the large chunk of work has taken place in their studio sessions where they have created some amazing models, worked out different

aspects of the design, drawn up some beautiful representations of the project, and created really great visuals to explain the overall vision of the project.

Each time we see more growth in the design it is an exciting advancement from where we were before and today's highlights of the new bench seating (and post/beam mock-up), a "rough draft" of a bike rack made from the old wheel bender racks, and the overall design is no exception.

The next step is to finalize permitting and come spring start in on the building!

The designbridge team has done a great job adapting to their clients needs (that us!) and the current plan to build in three phases still hinges

on finalizing some of the budget issues but with

the amount of energy and professionalism they

have brought to the project so far I have no doubt that some amazing things will happen this Spring!

The Green Wheel team has their own great blog here.

Eye to Eye PSA

Here is the first PSA put out by the Eye to Eye Campaign. It will be running in theaters this Spring & Summer.

Hacking life with kids, but without a car.

Where the Kidical Mass Riders Are

Where the Kidical Mass Riders Are, originally uploaded by shanerh.

A small but fun Kidical Mass this month. The rain only sprinkled once at the very end but we enjoyed a bit of sunshine too. Just that little bit inspired us to head to Prince Pücklers and the nice playground behind it for a bit of freeze tag.
The warm months are coming soon, looking forward to bigger groups and getting more Kidical.