3rd Annual Mountain View Family Bike Ride Recap

by | Aug 31, 2017 | Bike Ride, Events

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It was great to see so many families join us for the 3rd Annual Mountain View Family Bike Ride on Saturday!  149 riders joined us, our biggest Family Bike Ride crowd yet.

We gathered in Eagle Park at 10am under a beautiful blue sky. After signing-in, riders socialized, chatted with Nate Baird our Mountain View Bike Coordinator, and explored the family activities including bike decorating, face painting, helmet fitting, and bike tune-ups.

Before the ride Cherie Walkowiak and John Scarboro gave a short safety talk demonstrating hand signals, providing instructions for how to ride safely in “bike bus” groups during the ride, and introduced our Ride Guides (modeling the latest in helmet fashions designed by our very own Jessica Hirschfelder) who would help direct the group through the route.

The route

With John setting the pace as our Ride Leader, we set off!  We followed the route through the Shoreline West neighborhood and Mariposa Park and then back through Downtown to connect to Stevens Creek Trail and Landels School before making our way back to Eagle Park. Altogether the route was 3.6 miles. Our faithful Ride Sweep Dick Kiser brought up the rear. Back at Eagle Park, volunteer Jennifer Sumant furiously scooped out the free ice cream cones to meet the demand of our hungry riders!  Some families picnicked on the grass while the young riders lined up to grind their own smoothie on Safe Moves’ bike blender!

Thanks so much to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition for providing insurance for the event, Baskin Robbins for donating ice cream, Cognition Cyclery for providing tune-ups, Maylyn Co the Injury Prevention Coordinator from Stanford Health Care for helmet fitting, and Safe Moves for bringing the bike blender.

The 2017 Family Bike Ride was brought to you by Great Streets Mountain View and Safe Mountain View, two local non-profit organizations dedicated to making biking and walking safer and more pleasant in our community. We hope the Family Bike Ride promotes enthusiasm for biking and raises awareness of how the community can get involved with promoting the safety and comfort of our biking environment.

Consider telling your city council members about your interest in biking with your family and the importance of safe streets for people of all ages. You have power at the local level and your voice counts. This is a positive thing and you may even find making your city better is fun. If you would like to stay informed about the plans for cycling improvements as well our future rides and events, please subscribe to our Newsletter or follow us on Facebook. If you’d like to get directly involved now, you can email Mountain View City Council at citycouncil@mountainview.gov. We can all do our part to make the future better!

 

Jennifer welcoming the riders
Trish and Cherie at the Sign-up Table
Nate Baird, MV Bike Coordinator
Adding flower decorations
Adding spoke beads
Face painting
Bike Tune ups from Cognition Cyclery
Family
Eagle Park
Exploring creative possibilities at the bike decorating table
Barry and John model Ride Guide fashion
Safety Talk
Begin
Heading down Mariposa Ave
Mariposa Ave
Mariposa Park
Mariposa Park
Cruising through Downtown
Erik
Dick, our Ride Sweep
Bike blendering!
Post-ride picnic
Recharging with an ice cream cone

More ride photos courtesy of Janet Lafleur

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Housing & Transportation City Council Candidates Forum

by | Sep 3, 2014 | City Council, Elections, Events

CandidatesFlrumMountain View will select three new City Councilmembers this November to join the four existing Councilmembers. This new City Council will define the character of Mountain View for years to come. During their term, they will decide the intensity and type of development in the San Antonio, North Bayshore, El Camino Real Corridor, and East Whisman areas. They will decide how we will allocate space to motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders throughout the city including California Street and Shoreline Boulevard. They will tackle thorny issues like how much and where to grow the housing supply and office space, the minimum wage, and Bus Rapid Transit. How do the candidates stand on these issues? How do you stand on these issues? More than 120 people turned out at the Housing & Transportation Forum yesterday to join the conversation by submitting their questions and hearing all nine City Council Candidates articulate their vision for Mountain View. As Keith wrote in the comments of our Candidate Forum Page, “The conversation is headed in the right direction. What a special time to be in The MV!”. We agree!

See below to watch the video of the Candidates Forum and to catch the live tweets from @ladyfleur and @jakatmu

The Forum was co-sponsored Great Streets Mountain View, Bicycle Exchange, Community Action Team, Friends of Caltrain, Greenbelt Alliance, Safe Mountain View.

Special thanks to Debbie Mytels for moderating the forum and Wendee Crofoot to for organizing the event!

Candidates for Mountain View City Council

Vote for 3 candidates on November 4th | Register to Vote

Watch the Video

 Live Tweets

How can we make Mountain View a better place for walking and biking?

by | Aug 11, 2014 | Events

JarrettAt the our Thursday Night Live booth last week, we invited you to answer the question “How can we make Mountain View a better place for walking and biking?” We were amazed by your passionate and detailed descriptions of the street segments, crossings, and corners that need safety improvements. We’ve summarized your feedback below and will be making the results available to Mountain View’s Bicycle Pedestrian Committee, the Department of Public Works, and City Council. Please feel free to keep those suggestions coming by sending email to contactus@greatstreetsmv.org.

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More Scenes from the GSMV booth at Thursday Night Live

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Cycletopia!

by | Jul 25, 2014 | Bike lanes, Events

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Thanks to everyone who came to our Thursday Night Live booth to experience the demonstration separated bikeway and for providing your thoughts on how to make Mountain View a better place for bicycling.  We had a great time! We hope you did too!

Thanks to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and Safe Moves for your generous support and to the City of Mountain View Recreation Department for letting us take over a block of California Street.  And a big kudos to the Safe Mountain View team who were the driving force behind the event.

And now some scenes from Cycletopia!

Setting up…

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Taking a spin on the cycle track with one of our loaner bikes…. (and check out John’s impressive cargo-toting skills on the bike!)

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Youngsters create their own separated bikeways on our model streets…

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Discussing bicycle infrastrastructure:  protected bike lanes and protected intersections….

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Where do you want to see better bike lanes?  Plot it on our map….

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Visits from City Council candidates Margaret Capriles (shown below), Ken Rosenberg, Lenny Siegel, and Greg Unangst….

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A fun ride!

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“And the winner of the free bike is…”

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Envisioning Protected Bike Lanes in Mountain View

by | Jul 15, 2014 | Bike lanes, Events

Last weekend, at our Bikefest booth, these young bikers learned about protected bike lanes, saw pictures of inspiring bike lanes from around the world, and had a chance to build their own protected bikelane on our model street.

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And they also had a chance to ride through the cool demonstration protected bike lane that was hosted by Safe Mountain View:

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Missed the fun?  Don’t worry, you will have another chance to ride the demonstration bike lane and build your own on our model street at Thursday Night Live on Thursday July 24th, 5:30-8:30pm, Castro Street @ California Street

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Your Voice Needed on May 21

Your Voice Needed on May 21

by | May 20, 2013 | California Street, City Council, Council Meeting, Escuela Avenue, Events

On Tuesday, May 21 at 5PM, Mountain View City Council will discuss the future of street safety in Mountain View. If you’ve ever travelled down a street in the  Rengstorff Park area of Mountain View and thought that it could be more beautiful, livable, and safer, Tuesday evening is your opportunity to take action and make a difference!

Opportunity beckons .

Opportunity beckons .

Come to City Hall at 500 Castro Street at 5PM. The meeting will be in the council chambers which are on the second floor of City Hall- it’s well marked, you can’t miss it. Council will be discussing the Capital Improvement Program and a number of projects are included in the staff report that will improve bicycle and pedestrian safety, including the California Street and Escuela Avenue study which will analyze beautification and safety improvement measures on both streets.

After discussion, the floor is open for public comment! Now’s the time to speak for safer streets. Please tell council that you support the street safety and beautification projects in the Capital Improvement Program and particularly support the California Street and Escuela Avenue Study with the road diet alternative. 

We believe the road diet alternative is one of the best potential interventions for reducing crashes and making the street more livable while not seriously impacting drivers. If you would like more information on the road diet, please read our earlier post here.   

Hope to see you there! Bring a friend! Once again, the date is this Tuesday, May 21 at 5PM at City Hall, 500 Castro Street. The Capital Improvement Program is the first item on the agenda, so discussion shouldn’t go past 6:30PM. If you can’t make it, please send the Council an e-mail expressing support.