Denver Bcycle is open for business! Be among the first to secure the early registration rate for a year of fun, fitness and convenience. Most trips people take in cities are 3 miles or less.. the perfect distance for a bike ride. Save money, time and eliminate the hassle of finding and paying for parking by signing up for bike-sharing!

For the League of American Bicyclist blog story click here.

For Google’s release click here.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, click here.

For the Portland News story click here.

For the Huffington Post report click here.

RSVP for Vest Fest West Event Now! Here’s the link: Vest Fest West Event Facebook Page

What: Vest Fest West

When: Saturday March 20, 3pm - 8pm

Where: Jackson’s, 1520 20th Street

Why: A benefit event for BikeDenver!

Vest Fest is Saturday March 20 at Jackson’s from 3-8pm. $25 at the door includes food & open bar. $10 of your entry will directly benefit BikeDenver, so mark your calendar and bring your friends! Hearty thanks to the guys at Vest Fest Events for selecting BikeDenver as beneficiary, it’s our first big fundraiser and we can’t wait to get the bicycle community out to celebrate bikes, beer and spring! RSVP now and post this opportunity to invite your friends!

A bit of history: The first Vest Fest originated in Chicago, where the theme centered around embracing winter & and wearing a vest (a puffy or outdoor related vest seems to be the be the vest of choice) but people also create their own vests or use any type of vest. (Creativity also scores extra points when the Vest in Show awards are handed out). Vest Fest Chicago boasted over 300 attendees this past November to benefit a local homeless shelter. After launching in Denver, Vest Fest Events plans to expand to San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in 2011.

A bit about the location: Jackson’s is providing the entire 2nd floor area for this event, including the patio beer garden, where Vest Fest afficianados may wish to prove their meddle and test the elements (with patio heaters). Of course, the weather could be 20 degrees or 60 degrees in March in Colorado.

A bit about what you get: In addition to food, libations, good company and that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you help out a non-profit, there will also be prize drawings and silent auction items (including 2 bikes!) from Patagonia, New Belgium, Trek Travel, Wynkoop Brewery, Wahoo’s, Trio’s Enoteca, The Oxford Hotel, Osprey, Jamis, Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop and more.

A bit about entertainment: Since it will the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, a multitude of games will also be on. Stay tuned for news as we make entertainment additions like AWESOME Sprints, bike jeopardy, silent auction, and Todd Van Fleet Fine Art Photography.

For out-of-towners: A special Vest Fest rate has been arranged at the historic Oxford Hotel. Guests seeking reservations should call 800-228-5838 or visit The Oxford Hotel.

BikeDenver is recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization. BikeDenver’s mission is to promote and encourage bicycling as an energy efficient, non-polluting, healthy, and enjoyable transportation alternative within the City and County of Denver.
http://www.bikedenver.org/

Vest Fest Events is an Illinois registered General Not For Profit (102.10). The organization hosts events that raise money and awareness for selected local non-profits/charities. For more information, visit http://vestfest.org/.

BikeDenver will host a Traffic Skills 101 bike commuting class at Bicycle Village Aurora (2802 S. Havana) 6-9pm Friday April 9 and 9am-3pm Saturday April 10. The class is open to the public and we are accepting registrants now.

Course Description: Traffic Skills 101 is a League of American Bicyclists (LAB) class that teaches cyclists the proven techniques they need to ride safely and legally in traffic or on the trail. The class covers bicycle safety checks, fixing a flat, on-bike skills and crash avoidance techniques and includes a student manual. This fast-paced, nine-hour, insured certification course presents the tools you need via a half-classroom, and half on-bike experience to give you a full understanding and confidence in vehicular cycling.

The course will be taught by BikeDenver League Cycling Instructors (LCIs). LCIs are League of American Bicyclists (LAB) certified experts in bicycle education and safety. Traffic Skills 101 is a prerequisite for LAB Instructor classes. To learn more about the LAB Instructor Program, click here.

BikeDenver trainers certified 29 Traffic Skills 101 participants and 10 new LCI’s in 2009.

The course fee of $75 covers your manual and instructor fees.

Participants will need to bring their own bicycle (equipped with front light and rear reflector) and a helmet and be prepared to ride in cold weather.

Sessions will be held in the evening from 6-9pm on Friday, April 9, and continue from 9am-3pm on Saturday, April 10.

Refreshments will be provided. Please pack your own light lunch.

Bike parking is available outside the building.

Class size is limited to 15 to ensure a 5:1 Instructor ratio.

See the LAB website for additional detail on the Traffic Skills 101 class here.

Register by March 26 to secure your place by contacting Piep van Heuven: piep(at)bikedenver.org.

(KUSA TV) DENVER - Sharrows may sound like a funny name, but Denver’s Public Works department says the new street markings serve a serious purpose: protecting bicyclists. See the video and read the full story here.

Workers with the department have been placing the symbols, which show a bicycle logo with two arrows above, on 11 streets around Denver, including Logan Street. The sharrows, or sharing arrows, are meant to show bicyclists where to ride if there are parked cars on the street. The city says opening car doors are a serious danger for bicyclists and these symbols help them avoid accidents.

Emily Kreisa, a senior city planner with the City and County of Denver, says the markings also serve to remind drivers to share the road with bicyclists on busy streets.

“We feel that the neighborhood streets that have the low volumes are all bicycle friendly, so we focus the additional safety measures on medium to higher volume streets that really provide the links through the city, so we’re really providing a connected network to important destinations,” Kreisa said.

The sharrows are a part of the city’s larger integrated bike plan, which also includes bike paths and bike lanes.

The project is funded as a part of the Better Denver bond levy, passed by voters in 2007. The bond provided funds to enhance city facilities and to maintain roads, including repaving and pavement markings.

“This is an overall piece of the whole entire budget puzzle to make sure that we are providing a safe environment for all of our roadway users,” Kreisa said.

9NEWS Intern Allison Emanuele contributed to this story.

(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

(KUSA-TV) DENVER - People choose where they live for many reasons. For Sharon Madison, it’s about the outdoors. She loves to spend countless hours on her bicycle. She says she spends 250 to 300 miles a week on her bike.

The city of Denver wants more people to bike, maybe not as hardcore as Madison, but simply to use something other than their cars to get places. See the video and read the full story here.

One point four percent of Denver already uses the bike to commute, according to city officials.

“We would really like to increase that number and beyond that commute trip make it so that a 7-year-old on a their way to school feels safe riding their bike or a senior citizen that would maybe take their car a few blocks to the library to get that new library book is comfortable on their bike,” said Emily Kreisa, the bicycle planner recently hired by the city.

Denver Public Works believes one way to get more people biking is to improve the existing bike lanes. Some end abruptly and lead no where, others are poorly marked. Over the next few months, the department will spend $250,000 of the federal stimulus money on 11 city locations, connecting existing bike lanes to others and upgrading the signage.

“What we’re really trying to do with the bicycle infrastructure is link important destinations downtown to rec centers, to parks, to different shopping districts,” Kreisa said. “It’s really about making smart decisions on where we’re locating these facilities so that people are going to use them.”

There are about 350 bicycle routes in Denver that system connects with over 800 routes in neighboring municipalities. The improvements, Denver says, will make the routes more cohesive.

The city plans to improve lanes at the following locations:

Mariposa Street - 8th Avenue to Colfax Avenue
Larimer Street - Broadway to Downing Street
Champa Street - 19th to 24th Street
Welton Street - Colfax Avenue to 14th Street
Tremont Street - 16th Street to Broadway
Stout Street - 30th Street to Downing Street
31st Avenue - Downing Street to Race Street
Martin Luther Kind Boulevard - Elizabeth Street to Quebec Street
Yale - Syracuse Way to Quebec Street
22nd Avenue - Park Avenue West to York Street
East 12th Avenue - Clayton Street to Madison Street

Madison says she supports the move.

“I do not ride the bike path, I’m always on the road, so for safety reasons it would be nice to see more bike lanes and more bike paths,” Madison said.

The city also plans to update this bike route map. Right now it costs $5, but by the end of the year, it will have new routes and it will be free, available at any city center, rec center or a library.

Future possible bike lane improvements or additions will be in the Denver Public Works budget.

The department tells 9NEWS next time it’s working on a street - it will consider alternative modes of transportation.

(KUSA-TV) DENVER - The city of Denver wants people to pedal to work and to run errands, instead of drive their cars - so much so that it is working with a group which will soon provide the bicycles for you to do just that. See the video and read the full story here.<

Starting in late April, weather permitting, Denver will have the first city-wide bike sharing program in the country.

“The idea is that we want people to take very short trips,” Parry Burnap, Executive Director of Denver Bike Sharing, said. “Forty nine percent of American car trips are under three miles. Just think about that and the impact on health, the environment, the sense of community. We’re trying to get people out of their cars for those short trips and combine a bike trip with a light rail experience or an RTD experience.”

The use of bicycles during the Democratic National Convention inspired the creation of Denver Bike Sharing, a non-profit organization.

The organization will own and operate 45 to 50 stations with 500 bikes across the city. The stations will bare the name B-cycle. B-cycle LLC is the designer of the bike sharing system owned and operated by Denver Bike Sharing.

The stations are essentially automated bike racks, with credit card terminals.

Riders can either buy a year-long unlimited membership for $65 or pay at the time they rent the bike.

The first 30 minutes is free, the following half hour will cost $1.10. There is an escalating price beyond the second half hour.

Burnap says if corporations sign up their employees, the yearly fee is $55. Students will pay a $40 yearly membership.

“The core business district is our main focus, but we’ll have surrounding nodes in Cherry Creek North, Lower Highlands and here in DU,” Burnap said. “The idea is to make them as dense as possible so that they’re reliable, you can predict you’re going to get a bike and you’ll find a place to return it when you need to.”

The University of Denver has been the test site for the program.
Three stations with 30 bicycles are available to 200 students and staff.

“Just an easy way to get from one end of campus to the other,” graduate student Kristi Roybal said. “I get off the train, I can pick one up right here and then take one over to my school. It facilitates easy transportation.”

DU’s Director of Campus Activities Carl Johnson said bike sharing has been very successful at the university.

In the first 10 days to two weeks, the bikes were used several hundred times.

“This is an option to have a bike on campus but also to be tied to the greater city,” Johnson said. “Once these kiosks are around the city, I think it will give them (students) a great opportunity to go out and explore their city.”

Burnap says Denver Bike Sharing will not be a year-round program, at least not the first year. The bikes will be available March through November.

“The thing about bikes is, it’s such a simple act with which you control your weight, you see your neighbors, you smell flowers and by the way you’re working to protect the planet and address climate change, reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and it’s empowering to know you can do something about issue so daunting and have fun,” Burnap said.

Riders will be responsible for their own helmets.

Web site: www.denverbikesharing.org

Membership: Early membership registration starts Tuesday.

(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

ACT Act Introduced! The Alliance for Biking and Walking asks you to join a Virtual Lobby Day March 11

(Wednesday, March 3, 2010, Alliance for Biking and Walking) Representative Earl Blumenauer just introduced the Active Community Transportation Act, H.R.4722. This groundbreaking bill creates a competitive grant program with $2 Billion to help communities build bicycling and walking networks. For the first time, communities would be able to compete for multi-year funding to build active transportation systems, just as they do for transit and road infrastructure.

Though many of you will be coming to DC next week for the National Bike Summit, this is a great opportunity for other leaders and members of your organization not traveling to DC to participate in an important way. Working with our America Bikes partners, we encourage your organization to participate in a Virtual Lobby Day next Thursday.

“Too often we take for granted the value of being able to bike and walk to work,” said Blumenauer. “It’s unfortunate that many communities don’t have the infrastructure in place to make active and healthy forms of transportation more accessible. The ACT transportation grants will make it easier for people to get out of their vehicles and onto sidewalks or bikes, boosting both heart rates and community vitality.”

We thank Representative Blumenauer and the other original sponsors - Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Bob Filner (D-CA), Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and Jim Moran (D-VA) - for championing bicycling and walking.

TAKE ACTION
Given the timing of the bill’s release, we have a unique opportunity to conduct a Virtual Lobby Day and present a strong and unified voice on Capitol Hill, Thursday, March 11th. In conjunction with the National Bike Summit we ask that you call your representative next Thursday at the same time that over 700 Summit participants will have in-person meetings in congressional offices.

NEXT STEPS
On Wednesday March 10th we’ll send a second alert with a link to the League of American Bicyclists on-line action center where people can easily contact their representatives. We encourage you to use the talking points below to send your own alert encouraging your members to participate.

TALKING POINTS
Please call your representatives on March 11th to ask them to co-sponsor H.R.4722: “The Active Community Transportation Act.”
Tell Them:
Bicycling and walking are part of the solution. Half of all trips in the United States are three miles or less, yet the majority of these short trips are made by car. Shifting more of these short trips to biking and walking would not only reduce congestion, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and our dependence on oil, but will also improve physical activity, safety, and livability.
Investing in bicycling and walking infrastructure works. Commuting by bicycle has increased 43 percent since 2000 - and by 69 percent in designated Bicycle Friendly Communities that have invested in infrastructure improvements.
Please co-sponsor the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R.4722).