Big Victory for Cycling in Arlington, MA: Bike to School Ban Lifted at the Hardy Elementary School

After years of a unwritten but uncontested ban on kids biking to school, the Hardy School in Arlington, MA launched a pilot that would allow and support children arriving on two-wheels. Ever since my son Lorenzo was in in Kindergarten ( he is graduating from the 5th grade), I have questioned, challenged and uncovered what proved to be a long-standing unwritten policy among the Arlington elementary school principals that openly discouraged kids from biking to school. This unwritten policy apparently was initiated years ago by a previous superintendent on no grounds other than the fact they did not want kids biking to school.

Over the past nine months, I and several other energetic cycling advocates have met numerous times with the school committee and the superintendent to discuss this ban and to ask for another chance to get kids biking to school again. Despite an intense resistance from many crossing guards and the superintendent, we presented our Bike To School Pilot at a public Forum in Decemeber. The pilot, based on the best practices of the hugely successful Safe Routes to School program, also incorporated the concerns and structural limitations of the Hardy. In January, the school committee, community relations subcommittee (with key cheerleaders Jeff Thielman, Ron Spangler and Susan Scheffler) met with the Transportation Advisory Committee and the Hardy School Principal Deb D’Amico and agreed to allow the Bike to School Pilot, which we call Hardy Safe Routes to School.

We launched the Hardy Bike to School Pilot on Wednesday May 6th under cloudy skies but with lots of enthusiastic kids seeking out their green hand stamps! It does take much to fascinate kids around biking and walking. Although most of the kids are walking, those that biked no longer need to feel like they are breaking the law. A GO GREEN calendar was sent home in kid’s folders and their job is to track their walk/bike days.

On June 6th they will count the days they walk or bike, tally up the distance and pass in their calendars at the official GREEN BOX in the lobby of the Hardy school. Our GREEN team will tally up the total number of participants and the total mileage walked or bike, a number that is likely to be in hundreds!

On Tuesday June 9th we will have a GO GREEN party in the playground of the Hardy School. All kids who participate will be eligible for the final raffles and hundreds of dollars of prizes from Belmont Wheelworks, Quad Bicycles, ATA Bicycles and Ciclismo Classico

I wish to thank the many parents, school committee members and Principal D’Amico who have helped to make this vision of cycling to school in the Arlington, a reality, at least for now at the Hardy. We are optimistic that other Arlington Elementary Schools will choose to make a difference and begin taking small steps to reduce childhood obesity, traffic gridlock and teaching kids healthy lifestyle choices that will make a difference in their lives and our planet’s future. Cycling and walking as a form of transportation is the Convenient Truth that will help reduce auto emissions and improve the quality of our urban lives. We hope Arlington will begin encouraging parents and kids to bike and walk to school as a matter of townwide policy. Shifting habits away from always driving to school sends a powerful message to children: it inspires them and their parents to try biking and walking to do errands, to extra-curricular events and to the many sports fields around town, most of which are accessible via our wonderful Minute Man Bike Path, one of the most used ( ad loved) paths in the country.

But we still want BIKE RACKS The biggest gap in the pilot is the school department’s resistance to having a bike rack placed on school grounds despite the fact that there is plenty of room for one. While there is a bike rack on the bike path near the school, that location is inconvenient for most users and akin to having teachers park their cars block away. A bike rack not only allows children and parents to conveniently park their safely bikes out of the way of sidewalk users, but A bike rack teaches children that bikes are a vehicle that needs to be parked properly. For teachers and visitors to the school who arrive by bike, a bike rack is as much of a transportation right and courtesy as a parking lot. The biggest concern stated by the superintendent is vandelism but there is no basis for this concern. I have locked my bike around the school for six years and it has never been touched. My 30 years of cycling has taught me that the best way to prevent bike theft (in relatively safe areas) is to use a Kryptonite U lock. I have never had a bike stolen when I locked my bike properly with the right lock.

Stay tuned for updates! For now GO GREEN HARDY and please feel free to express support for our Bike to School initiatives and our need for bike racks in your comments below! Tell our town school leaders that Bikes Belong and offer a transportation choice that improves the quality of life of our community.

Go Green Party Tuesday June 9th. Rain Day June 10th
Prizes, Green Popsicles and a Special Appearance by Super Cyclist and local Cycling Legend Bobby Mac of Quad Bicycles

HARDY SCHOOL PARENTS: Hopefully many of you have been walking or biking to school over the last month. We are in our final week of our GO GREEN month. Don’t forget to track your walking or biking to school trips on the official GREEN calendar. Tally up the total and pass it in at the BIG GREEN BOX in the Main Lobby on Friday, June 6th. Remember it does not matter how far or how many days you walked, all participants have a chance to win.

Our Green Team will tally up all the totals and present the final results at our GO GREEN PARTY on Tuesday June 9th at 2:30 in the Playground! Green Popsicles for all participants. We hope you can all be there dressed in Green and ready to cheer on this wonderful initiative. We have lots of prizes for everyone that participated.

Be there, Be Seen and Be Green

Lauren and the Green Team

Bicycling with Kids: Weaving together Passion and Pedaling.

When I first learned I was pregnant with my first son Lorenzo, I admit there was a moment, OK several, OK I kind of flipped out wondering what would happen to my freewheeling spirit and my bike tour leading once I had baby in tow. As usual, I figured out a way to weave my personal and business life together with my passion to create two tours for Ciclismo Classico that would become big hits. The first: the Bambino Bike Tour was a celebration-tour that brought together our best guests for the tour of a lifetime: a tour that circumvented Sicily and ended up Cittadella, Calabria (my husband Mauro’s home town) where together with guests, family and friends we baptized Lorenzo in a tiny chapel by the sea. The second tour, The Tuscan Fantasy is a family tour based at the Fattoria degli Usignoli that is one of our best selling tours now in its 12th year ( the same age as Lorenzo).

While I hear many people define their cycling life as pre and post kids with the former being full of active adventures and the latter being more sedentary, I hope to inspire that there is a way to have both! I always tell parents (who are shocked at how we keep traveling and biking with our kids) that kids are kids whether we are at home or away and I would rather deal with them in a beautiful or fun new place on my own terms! Some parents are seamlessly able to uphold their cycling quality and quantity while others (like my husband and I) have had to modify expectations which has meant less miles but happier kids. Here are some guidelines on how to keep cycling and kids happily in your life.

1. Get the right gear that is safe, comfortable and durable. Do your research on child seats, trailers, bike and tandems then go to your favorite bike store and invest in good quality equipment that will last you years of fun! An excellent book that we give out for our tours and that has the best overview I have seen on Cycling with Kids is: Bicycling with Children by Trudy Bell. It is really the Bicycling with Children Bible! While I support equipment swaps, sharing and reselling items on craig’s list etc, I prefer complete peace of mind and have always supported my local bike shop and purchased my cycling equipment new and use it until it’s worn out!

2. Teach your kids basic safety rules and regulations. If they are in a trailer or bike seat you are mostly in control of their safety. As they graduate to training wheels, tandems and their own bikes you must teach the basics and constantly bombard them with the rules of the road and trail. Courses are available for kids but the best person to hear it from and see it executed by is you! Walk the talk. Wear your helmet. Be courteous. Follow the rules and be a safety role model. I still cycle closely behind my 10 year old daughter who bikes on her own little road bike. I constantly give her tips. Recent ones have been on blind spots, avoiding pot holes, signaling and steady pedaling. Study up on cycling safety with kids. Hint: The best method for teaching a kid how to ride a two-wheeler is down a gently sloped grassy hill that flattens out. Start them at the top of the hill, have them pedal like crazy and after several attempts, the ecstatic, unforgettable feeling of momentum takes over as they hit the flats and realize if they keep pedaling fast, the bike stays up! This method usually take about 30 minutes. If you live in the Boston area and would like to arrange a private or group cycling lesson for your child, a group of friend or their scout or girl scout troop, contact me. I am available for private or group lessons for kids of all ages.

3. Realistic expectations while keeping it fun for all. Cycling with kids starts out with setting realistic expectations for both you and your children but it also involves being a creative and fun parent so as to stretch your children’s cycling endurance. When Lorenzo was a baby he hated to be in the burley for more than an hour. I could usually stretch this by at least another 30 minutes if I included an ice cream stop or let him get out to “smell or pick the roses” or made sure that we stopped at playground along the way. As my kids have graduated from burley to trail-a-bike to their own bikes, I have maintained this simple guideline: Make it fun. Take lots of breaks and reward with yummy food, drink and play. While I do not give my kids junk food, I never calorie count when we are biking. I want them to get the connection between food calories and exercise. They get to eat what they burn so bring on the ice cream, cookies and healthy snacks! Kids get bored on bicycles especially if they are with their boring parents! Children have the strength and stamina but they don’t have the mental energy (or need to unwind ) to keep them focused for very long on the road. When biking with kids singing silly songs, telling funny stories and just plain parental goofiness (with a high degree of safety) is the norm for our family outings.

4. Make bicycling your lifestyle! The best way to get your children to enjoy cycling in small doses and understand the role that cycling plays in your life and in our planet’s health is to use your bike as a form of transportation that includes them. Give up your car for short trips; take your kids to school by bike and adopt what I call the two-mile rule: For any trip under two miles, we try to bike or walk. Trust me, it’s faster, healthier, more fun and creates better communities. Get a good lock, some sturdy panniers, reflectors and get ready to make each errand trip into a mini-outdoor adventure! Get involved with your local Safe Routes to School program. Lead rides or volunteer to be Safe Routes to School Coordinator. Some of my fondest memories are taking my kids to Sunshine pre-school along the minuteman bike path. We would sing songs, count squirrel nests and practice spelling and letters along our 10 minute, one mile commute. When we arrived at school, all of his fellow classmates loved learning about his burley and Mom’s cool bike. I earn extra points by attaching bells to the Burley so everyone knows we are coming, like Santa’s sleigh!

5. Cycling with other families and kids. Anyone with kids knows this is the best way to guarantee that your kids happily participate in any family outing is to plan to ride with other families with kids their age. For day trips, the first step is to find an easy local ride that everyone can access easily preferably by bike. An excellent web site to find any ride for any ability in your area is Map My Ride. Make sure to carry the basics: snacks, first aid kit, fun stuff for breaks (Frisbees, balls, bubbles, chalk) and basic road repair kit. For weekends or longer trips you can plan a bike camping tour. The most inspiring family and website that covers it all by family who has been everywhere by bikes is: Family on Bikes. If you are interested in a commercial tour, there are many options but hope you will consider a Ciclismo Classico Family tour. Our classic family tours are: Tuscan Fantasy, Mediterranean Multi Sport and our New England Family Adventure. but we can also create a custom family tour for you and your beloved crew anywhere on the planet.

6. HAVE FUN! Wherever you go, whatever you do with your kids make sure that you remember : The days are long but the years are short. Every tantrum passes and has the potential of becoming an unforgettable memory! If you love biking and the outdoors just keep sharing and enjoying what you love with your kids; eventually they will either love it or call you an obsessed biking hippy (like my older son) but at least I gave him the option and my other two kids, for the time being, are biking and loving it. Two out of three ain’t bad!

The Bicycle is the CONVENIENT SOLUTION!

While Al Gore’s film The Inconvenient Truth has gotten us all thinking about our fragile planet, what we need more than ever now that we are inspired to change are CONVENIENT SOLUTIONS.

I propose there be a follow-up film that would identify the KEY Solutions that can help slow or reverse this global tragedy. My vote for the most convenient and cheapest GREEN solution is the of course the bicycle. The healthiest solution that people from all walks of life can conveniently adopt to save the planet is to hop on their bicycle to get from place to place

Riding a bike we are sitting on a cure to our environmental, health and transportation problems!

Just a friendly public service announcement to get out there and enjoy your world with your kids by bike or foot this spring:

Date collected from my favorite bicycle organization: Bikes Belong
http://www.bikesbelong.org

Bicycling helps kids stay healthy & safe:

1. Children who ride a bike two or more times a week are less likely to be overweight
2. Adolescents who participate in bicycling, in-line skating, or skateboarding more than four times a week are 48% less likely to be overweight as adults.
3. Overweight adolescents who participate in bicycling, in-line skating, or skateboarding 3 to 4 days per week are 85% more likely to become normal-weight adults.
4. Adolescents who bike or walk to school watch less TV and are less likely to smoke than their peers who are driven to school. They also get more overall physical activity
5. Adolescents who bike or walk to school are 30% more likely to bike or walk to other neighborhood destinations, regardless of age, free-time physical activity, and neighborhood risk.
6. Fourth grade boys who bike or walk to school have lower BMIs and body fat than non-active commuters.
7. Kids who actively commute to school are also more likely to remain at a healthy weight.
8. Youths who regularly bike or walk to leisure-time activities have better low back strength, low back extension, hip flexion, and extension than those who ride a school bus.
9. Adolescents who bike or walk at least 8 km weekly to regular activities are less likely to suffer from lower back pain.
10. Fifth-grade students who regularly bike or walk to school accumulate 3% more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per weekday, or about an additional 24 minutes/day.
11. The more cyclists there are, the safer cycling is. In Marin County, CA, bike commuting increased 66% while bicycle crashes declined 34% from 1998 to 2008. In London there has been a 91% increase in bicycling on the capital’s main roads since 2000, and a 33% reduction in bicyclist casualties in roughly the same period. (many more facts about this)

Bicycling is the CONVENIENT SOLUTION

1. Bicycling instead of driving for 5 miles a day reduces individual CO2 emissions by 1,287 lbs annually*, about 6% of the average U.S. individual’s total emissions
2. If the number of kids who walk and bike to school returned to 1969 levels, it would save 3.2 billion vehicle miles, 1.5 million tons of CO2, and 89,000 tons of other pollutants annually. This is the equivalent of keeping more than 250,000 cars off the road for a year.
3. Assuming bicycling 5 days a week, an average car fuel efficiency of 20.2 mpg2, and an average CO2 content of 20 lbs per gallon of gas3

That’s the energy savings equivalent of:
• Replacing 13 incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs4
• Recycling 400 pounds of waste instead of sending it to the landfill5
• Replacing 2 old refrigerators with newer Energy Star models6
• Flying 2,429 fewer miles a year

And just in case you thought your air inside was better than outside:

1. Urban cyclists are exposed to less accumulated air pollution than bus commuters.
2. On the same urban route, car drivers were exposed to more airborne pollution than cyclists, despite the cyclists’ higher respiration rates.
3. Cycling and walking commuters have significantly lower levels of exposure to harmful pollutants like benzene compared with car commuters and significantly lower levels of pollutant NO2 than bus commuters.
4. Kids who ride a school bus inhale up to a million times more vehicle emissions than the average person outside the bus.
5. Cyclists are exposed to less pollution than taxi or bus passengers.

More great bike stats here. I LOVE BIKES BELONG!

http://www.bikesbelong.org/healthstats#kids

I am available at no charge to come and talk with your scout or youth group about the benefits of cycling and to lead them down the bike path to teach them basic bike path skills, safety and courtesy. Just call me!

Lauren

500+ Bicyclists "On the Hill" at the National Bike Summit

The Mass Bike delegates on the Hill!
Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead

Green Bikes Unite on the Congressional Bike Ride

After years of focusing my actual advocacy activities locally, it was inspiring and refreshing to join my Massachusetts delegates and over 500 cyclists, bicycle industry leaders and bicycle advocates from all over the country in Washington, DC for the 9th annnual National Bike Summit. Here we were educated inspired and given the unique opportunity to meet Members of Congress and ask for support and sponsorship of four specific Bicycle Goals for the 111th Congress: The America Bikes Agenda, Clean TEA (The Clean, Low Emission, Affordable, New Transportation and Efficiency Act) and Complete Streets.

The summit was launched on Tuesday 3/10 with an upbeat talk and short film about Copenhagen, the world’s best biking city where 36% of all Copenhageners cycling to work, school, university etc., on more than 300 kilometers of bicycle paths. This presentation was followed by a spirited welcome address and Safe Routes award presentation by Congressman James L. Oberstar, Chair of the House Transportation Committee who in 2000 was the inspiration for the Safe Routes to School program in Arlington, MA (even though Arlington has not followed through with the full intent of the pilot and been ironically discouraging cycling in its schools for years).

Wednesday’s exciting program was introduced by passionate cyclist and powerhouse two-wheeled advocate Congressman Earl Blumenaur (D-OR) who took down the house with applause with his Bike Partisan approach to polictics. As the founder of the Congressional Bike Caucus he spoke on how bicycle commuting will fit into President Obama’s priorities, as well as how it will help the new green economy. He also highlighted the victories that cyclists have achieved, as well as what still needs to be done. He noted that the 111th Congress offers plenty of opportunities for cycling enthusiasts to make their mark. With fluctuating gas prices and a heightened awareness of the economic, environmental and health-related benefits bicycling brings, and a documented preference for spending money on alternative transportation infrastructure, millions of Americans are ready to burn calories instead of fossil fuel. Following congressman Blumenaur were Pedaling Political Powerhouses, Congressman Dan Lipinski, Congresswoman Doris Matsui ( who received the National Bicycle Leadership award) and Senator Tom Carper.

Throughout the day were breakouts that included: Better Biking in National Parks, Bicycle Advocates and Industry Leaders United for Change, Safe Routes to School, Affirming the Rightful Place of Bicyclists in the Transportation Policy and the Economic Stimulus package–What it Means for Bicycling. Each breakout was led by panelists that are truly making a difference in our bicycling and our world.

One profound transportation idea that stood out for me personally was shared by Alex Doty (Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia). The idea is Vision ZERO,Vision Zero might seem highly impractical and unrealistic, it is primarily a challenge to our mindsets and what we have learned to accept when we drive, walk or bike. adopted in 1997 by Sweden’s parliament is a bold new road safety policy and philosophy of road safety that eventually no one will be killed or seriously injured within the road transport system. Simply stated: ethics: human life and health are paramount and take priority over mobility and other objectives of the road traffic system. While this In fact, Dr. Claes Tingvall, the Director of Traffic Safety for the Swedish National Road Administration, believes developing countries can spend an extra 1% in cost and reduce fatalities by 90%. “Safety is very seldom expensive. The expensive thing is to modify what you did wrong in the beginning,” Tingvall believes. I am sure the families of 42 thousand American car crash fatality victims can better appreciate this Vision ZERO policy and how senseless and likely preventable their loved ones deaths were.

The content packed summit continued at lunch with a powerful talk by Larry Seltzer the President and CEO of the Conservation Fund. With his numerous examples, his beautifully crafted talk reminded the audience of Nation’s precious landscape heritage and how, for our electronics addicted children most of whom suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder must fight hard to defend our parks, green space and bike paths.

The afternoon of breakouts and networking continued with an array of excellent sessions. I personally followed my passion and attended the Safe Routes to School Times Three at which I had the pleasure of hearing from Deb Hubsmith, the Director of Safe Routes to School and Robert Ping, the State Network Manager for SRTS. Yon Lambert the Pedestrian and Bicycle Coordinator for the City of Alexander also spoke. There is lots of great stuff happening around the country, I only hope we can get Arlingtonians to drink the koolaid, especially the crossing guards who are so adamantly opposed to bicycles.

At 4:00 we all gathered in the Auditorium and sat with our state delegates for an unique pep rally by the one and only Richard Fries. Richard, marketing director for Best Buddies and evangelist for Bikes Belong, introduced American Idol alla Washington, DC. Offering up a panelist of Advocates as judges, he invited up a handful of delegates to “make the ask” to demonstrate their and be “judged” on their pitch to congress. Needless to say, satire taught us how not to look and what not to say as we went up on the hill to ask for support for our cause. Later on that evening, fancy drinks and lots of bike talk with movers and shakers around the country including Tim Bluementhal, the powerhouse and passionate director of Bikes Belong (who generously sponsored my stay in DC) Bikes Belong is a quality organization that works to put more people on bicycles more often. From helping create safe places to ride to promoting bicycling, Bike Belong carefully select projects and partnerships that have the capacity to make a difference.

On a chilly but gorgeous Thursday morning, we all put on our finest, classic Washington wear: black suits, ties and very uncomfortable shoes. After a final pep talk from Oberstar, we all made our way to “the hill” with our fellow state delegates. Our Massachusetts group included: Mass Bike Director, David Watson, Landry’s Owner Tom Henry, ABAC director Jack Johnson, Richard Fries and Mass Bike President and LAB board member John Siemiatkoski.

My advocacy up until now has been liimited to the Arlington principal and superintendant’s office so being able to bring issues that are so dear to my heart into the offices and hopefully minds of key decision makers was quite a thrill. The “best” was left for last as we all excitedly made our way down the winding halls of the Senate building and regrouped in front of Senator Kennedy’s office. We were introduced to one of his aids and led to a large room filled with historic photographs of the senator and his brothers at various stages of their political career. Here we gave our final pitch for American Bikes and were met with mostly enthusiasm but at the same time it was clear that we need to get these young politicians out on bikes and really experiencing the benefits of bicycling.

After our long day of “asks” we all reconvened for drinks and celebration in the Senate building. Hearing the room buzzing with conversation and enthusiasm reminded me of one big happy group ride in which we are spinning forward focused on a mutual goal while being completely connected to all the moving parts.

The following day, I quickly assembled my brand new Bike Friday Green Tikit and took it on its FIRST ride down Pennsylvania Ave! Coincidentally a bearded gentleman pulls up on his Green Bike Friday (World Tourist) and we ride to the Capitol together for the 10 miles Congressional Bike Ride along bike paths and byways around the city. Before packing up by bike and heading home, I took a little spin to the monuments and reflected that despite the challenges we all face in these tough times, the 2009 Bicycle Summit was a powerful reminder of the great things that are happening in the world. While we must face the reality that the “Inconvenient Truth” reveals, I dream that more people recognize that the bicycle offers a Convenient Solution to the myriad of economic and ecological problems humans face; that a solution as simple as two human powered wheels can save the world!

PLEASE join your local bike advocacy group, The League of American Bicyclists and Bikes Belong. Your contribution will make a difference!

Bill Koch Slide Festival Slide Show