Newsletter Archive
Email Newsletter 11/07/99
From pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org Mon Nov 8 16:00:11 1999
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 00:37:19 -0500 (EST)
From: "James D. Lowenthal" <pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org>
To: Undisclosed recipients: ;
Subject: November e-news
Contents:
* Next meeting: Wed., 10 November
* Pioneer Valley Bike Week 2000 launched -- Bike-To-Work Coordinator
Sought
* New PV Bike/Ped Plan -- Public Comment period through Nov. 18
* MB/PV in the news (UMass RideShare; Northampton candidate
questionnaire)
* Northampton Safer Streets Task Force: Traffic Calming and Bike Lanes
on the way!
* Norwottuck RT wins national Millenium Trails status
* Other RT updates: public hearings on Manhan and Northampton RT's;
public info meetings on Williamsburg RT; funding for UMass RT
Connector; summary of PVPC RT org. mtg.
* Clean Water Action Environmental Organizing Conference Sat. 11/13
* Website and listserve
Dear Pioneer Valley Friends of Cycling,
Lots going on in the PV this month! Below you'll find summaries of
recent events, notices of upcoming ones, and an open advertisement for
a Bike Week 2000 coordinator. For more information, check out the
MassBike website at www.massbike.org -- and please, if you aren't paid
up, remember that to carry out its local and statewide advocacy
efforts, MassBike depends on member support for its income. When you
ride on a bike lane or bike path, or find that bikes have been
accommodated in a new road project, or find a legislator supporting
alternative transportation, thank MassBike -- and send in your dues!
Next meeting: Wed., 10 November
===========
Join us for inspiring activism, pleasant comraderie, and pot-luck
munchies at
Seelye Hall Room 204, Smith College, Northampton
7:00 pm, Wed., 10 November 1999
Pioneer Valley Bike Week 2000 launched -- Bike-To-Work Coordinator Sought
=============
On Thursday, 28 Oct., the Pioneer Valley Bike Week 2000 effort was
kicked off with an organizational meeting called by Pioneer Valley
Planning Commission's Catherine Ratte. Present were many of the
area's most visible and active bicycle and transportation
professionals and activists, including rep's from UMass, PVPC, State
Legislature, Northampton and Amherst Planning Dept's., and MassBike.
With help in the form of a $98,000 federal Transportation Demand
Management grant, the ambitious program is off to a great start.
Bike Week 2000 has three major components:
1) Bike Commute Week (14-20 May 2000)
2) Alternative Commute/Prevent Air Pollution program
3) Development of Bicycle Infrastructure
MassBike/Pioneer Valley has agreed to support all the efforts with
volunteer hours, but especially the first part (Bike Commute Week).
To be most effective, BCW should be a well-oiled and -organized
machine, and that calls for a
===> committed Bike Commute Week Coordinator <===
This person would be in charge of coordinating an organizing/steering
committee, PR, logistics, volunteer recruitment and management, and
breakfast sites, e.g. major employers and schools. FUNDS MAY BE
AVAILABLE TO PAY PART-TIME SALARY. If you're at all interested and
willing to help out, even if it's at something less than BCW
Coordinator level, please contact James Lowenthal
(pvweb$NO$SPAM$@massbike.org) and/or Catherine Ratte (PVPC) at
cratte@k12s.phast.umass.edu.
New PV Bike/Ped Plan -- Public Comment period through Nov. 18
=====================
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission's latest updated version of the
Pioneer Valley Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan is out -- and public
comments are being solicited through Nov. 18. Please check out the
plan at www.pvpc.org and send in your feedback! Thanks to Jeff
McCollough, Catherine Ratte, and many others for their hard work on
this ambitious and forward-thinking plan, which provides towns and
cities in the Valley with a specific blueprint for how to make their
communities more bike- and ped-friendly.
MB/PV in the news (UMass RideShare; Northampton candidate questionnaire)
============
MassBike/Pioneer Valley has made headlines again:
1) A Gazette Hampshire Life cover story by staff writer Steve
Pfarrer -- himself a cyclist -- on Rob Hendry and UMass's Rideshare
(and other) efforts to reduce automobile trips to campus included some
great coverage of MB/PV:
http://www.gazettenet.com/10151999/valley_l/17509.htm
2) Jami Albro-Fisher's hard work writing up, sending out,
and collecting questionnaires for Northampton's mayoral and city
council candidates and then submitting them all to the press paid off
in the form of an article in the Gazette the day before the election:
http://www.gazettenet.com/11011999/politics/18153.htm
Looks as if all the most bike-friendly candidates won (clearly many
citizens saw the article before voting).
Northampton Safer Streets Task Force: Traffic Calming and Bike Lanes
on the way!
========
The Northampton Mayor's Safer Streets Task Force has met three times
now, and most of the news is good. The SSTF has, for the most part,
embraced the idea of including bike lanes as an element of much-needed
traffic calming on City streets. Striping a bike lane makes motorist
and cyclist placement more predictable, and has the added benefit of
making the road appear narrower, which tends to make motorists drive
more slowly. A demonstration project on Elm St. -- site of a recent
pedestrian fatality -- will likely be the first tangible result.
Other ideas the SSTF has endorsed or is considering: safer crosswalks
(raised, textured, shortened by sidewalk extensions); additional and
improved school zones; formation of a Traffic Bureau or Commission to
coordinate traffic and traffic calming efforts in the future;
education programs; improved enforcement of speeding and other traffic
laws.
Norwottuck RT wins national Millenium Trails status
============
Thanks to Amherst's Barbara Francis, who collected and submitted all
the requisite letters of support and paperwork, the Norwottuck Rail
Trail has been chosen as the Massachusetts member of the national
Millenium Trails program. NRT Advisory Committee Chair Art Swift
actually went to a White House dinner celebrating the 50 awardees!
Though the designation is mostly a formality (rather than, say, the
cash needed to finish the darn thing), it may leverage a bit more
recognition (read: $$$) from the Powers That Be in Boston, and it's
certainly a nice feather-in-the-cap for all the people who worked so
hard to make the Rail Trail a reality.
Other RT updates: public hearings on Manhan and Northampton RT's;
funding for UMass RT Connector; summary of PVPC RT org. mtg.
========
Upcoming public hearings/meetings:
* Wed., Nov. 10 (same day as MB/PV mtg.): Williamsburg RT to
be discussed in W'burg Select Board meeting
* Tue., Nov. 16: W'burg RT discussion in meeting sponsored by
Burgy Bikers
* Tue., Nov. 30: 75% plan for Manhan Rail Trail (N'ton CC Chambers)
* Tue., Dec. 7: 75% plan for extension of Northampton RT from
Look Park to the Williamsburg line (N'ton CC Chambers)
UMass RT Connector: is *supposed* to be advertised for construction
bids in late November. Fingers crossed!
Regional Trails Network meeting, 10/22: Organized by PVPC and the
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, this meeting (attended by MassBikers Jim
Desmond and Jami Albro-Fisher) laid out the problem of getting TEA-21
Enhancement projects (e.g., Rail Trails) completed in Massachusetts,
which ranks LAST of all 50 states in actually spending Enhancement
funds. Several strategies for loosening the purse strings and getting
projects moving along more smoothly were discussed.
Clean Water Action Environmental Organizing Conference Sat. 11/13
=====
When: Saturday, 13 November 1999
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
What: Western Massachusetts Environmental Organizing Conference
Where: Mt. Holyoke College, S. Hadley
Cost: $12 in advance, $15 day of conference
Contact: Clean Water Action, 413-584-9830
This one-day conference is designed as a networking opportunity for
any group working on environmental issues in Western Mass. There will
be an opportunity for MassBike to share with everyone else the status
of our various bicycle projects in the Valley and to learn what other
people are up to in such areas as Clean Energy, Air Quality, and Toxic
Waste, and to hear invited speakers share advice on dealing with the
press, diversifying activist coalitions, being effective at public
hearings, etc. The idea is to build coalitions and develop contacts
instead of re-inventing the wheel. Contact Jami Albro-Fisher
(jami.fisher@the-spa.com) to coordinate travel if you plan to attend.
Website and listserve
=
Keep up to date by visiting our chapter Website
(www.massbike.org/groups/mbpv) and/or joining the interactive MB/PV
listserve (send email to mb-pv-request@external.umass.edu to
subscribe), which includes -- free of charge -- this E-newsletter!
-----------------
Faithfully yours,
James Lowenthal