Author: RideCoordinator

Two Rides With 2012 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000 + a Potluck Meeting

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Please join me for two rides with the 2012 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000, which are 23 students from the University of Texas riding from Austin to Anchorage this summer. They will be passing through Eugene July 9 and 10.

Monday, Noon, I’ll lead from Cafe du Hall, riding to Richardson Park (possibly Highway 36) to meet these riders and escort them to the Northwest Youth Corps facility. This ride is 41 miles and 700 feet elevation gain.

Tuesday, 7AM, I’ll lead from Northwest Youth Corps to Harrisburg and return to Eugene about 60 miles and 700 feet elevation gain.

Pace will be 12-15mph. Please wear your GEARs jersey (now available at Paul’s BWOL).

Richard Hughes
President and Chair of the Board of Directors
Greater Eugene Area Riders Cycling Club(GEARs)
The Voice for Bicyclists
http://eugenegears.org/
PO Box 5506
Eugene, OR 97405
541-933-5542

General Meeting and “POTLUCK”, Monday, July 9, 6:30 to 8:30pm
Northwest Youth Corps, 2621 Augusta Street, Eugene, 97403

Please join GEARs in welcoming the 2012 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000.

On July 9, their route will come through Eugene for the first time in the ride’s history. The organization has a long history of developing friendships and relationships with hosts, and we hope that you will consider joining us for the potluck.

Please RSVP to Garry Swanson, garry@eugenegears.org or 541-726-3997 and sign up to bring a main dish, salad or desert to share. Let’s give a real Eugene GEARs welcome to these 23 young men and women! They are excited to come to Eugene, and to meet people in our city.

The organization, made up of University of Texas students, annually bikes from Austin, TX to Anchorage in 70 days between June 1 and August 10. Their ride will cover over 4,400 miles, and they will be raising over a quarter-million dollars for cancer research. I encourage you to learn more about their organization by visiting: http://www.Texas4000.org.

LAB League Certified Instructor training in Portland, July 6-8

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Via LeeAnne from the BTA (I also should have spread the word sooner but there you have it).  I’ll be an assistant LCI Coach for this course and hopefully certified to lead Seminars in the future so that we might be able to have one locally.

Road One/Traffic Skills 101 is a prerequisite for this program. There just happens to be one being held in Eugene June 23/24- Register here! There is also one being offered in Bend next week (June 21-23)- Register here.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance is hosting an League of American Bicyclists (LAB) League Certified Instructor (LCI) Training on July 6-8 and I have done a terrible job telling people about it.  There are 5 spots still available in the seminar and I need at least 3 more people to sign up for it to actually happen.  Please consider signing someone from your organization up if you would like to have a staffer who can teach the League’s adult education program (Traffic Skills 101).

More info and to register click HERE! The deadline for signing up is Friday 6/15 with a possibility to extend to Wednesday, 6/20, and the cost is $300 plus a LAB membership year long membership.  Sorry again for the short notice (see?… a terrible job).

My goal for hosting this seminar is to further entice Physical educators and Health teachers at elementary schools and middle schools in Oregon to be trained to teach bike safety education to students.  I will incorporate the Traffic Skills 101 class into the curriculum training to give the teachers as many certifications as possible while being trained. This will help principals, teachers, administrators and parents get behind this needed education program.  Please help me promote bike safety education and prepare teachers by helping me fill this LAB LCI training!  If you were ever planning to take this course, let it be now!
Thanks so much and let me know if you have any questions.
LeeAnne Fergason:  Education Programs Manager
leeanne@btaoregon.org, 503-226-0676 x26
Bicycle Transportation Alliance
618 NW Glisan, Suite 401, Portland, OR 97209 

July Meeting & Potluck with 2012 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000

Posted on by RideCoordinator
Please join GEARs in welcoming the 2012 LIVESTRONG Texas 4000.
Monday, July 9, 6:30 to 8:30pm
Northwest Youth Corps
2621 Augusta Street, Eugene,  97403 (linked map below)

 

On July 9, their route will come through Eugene for the first time in the ride’s history. The organization has a long history of developing friendships and relationships with hosts, and we hope that you will consider joining us for the potluck.

Please RSVP to Garry Swanson, garry@eugenegears.org or 541-726-3997 and sign up to bring a main dish, salad or desert for the  POTLUCK.  Let’s give a real Eugene GEARs welcome to these 23 young men! They are excited to come to Eugene, and to meet people in our city.

The organization, made up of University of Texas students, annually bikes from Austin, TX to Anchorage in 70 days between June 1 and August 10. Their ride will cover over 4,400 miles, and they will be raising over a quarter-million dollars for cancer research. I encourage you to learn more about their organization by visiting: http://www.Texas4000.org.




Basic Confident Cycling Class

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Come join us for a FREE Confident Cycling Class!

Date: Saturday, June 16
Time: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Location: Eugene, Cascades & Coast Adventure Center, 3312 Gateway Street (near Best Buy)

This 3-hour class guides cyclists in the laws and rules of the road as well as informs the most common crash scenarios. The course covers state laws as they pertain to bike riders, crash avoidance techniques, and includes a student manual.   Adults and children above 12 years of age are perfect for this packed, 3-hour course. This curriculum is provided by the League of American Bicyclists.

IMPORTANT- To register, please contact SmartTrips Program Coordinator, Claire Otwell, at (541) 682-6213 by June 14th. Registration is required for this event.

GEARs holds Confident Cycling classes every month ranging from 3-9 hours. See the full schedule here.

 

24th Avenue Appeal Dismissed

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The appeal to the administrative order that removed parking and bump-outs along 24th Avenue to allow installation of bike lanes from Chambers to Friendly has been thrown out!  The decision was made yesterday and announced today. The project will continue with: removal of the existing “bulb-outs”, adding bike lanes on both sides of 24th (4-5 ft on 1 side and 5-6 on the other), consolidating parking to one side, removing the painted center line, adding one new marked crosswalk (at Fillmore), and adding a school zone near ATA/Family School. You can read a bit of history of the project here.

The hearings official states that while the main issues from the appellants were related to the community outreach and citizen involvement, the Eugene City Code states that removing parking comes down to the City Traffic Engineer having to consider certain factors in that removal. Once the Traffic Engineer demonstrated that those factors were considered the Administrative Order is able to stand.

This is great news for people who use (or want to use) 24th as their East-West corridor. Many neighbors and community members came out to speak up for these needed changes. This project is underway now and we should be able to enjoy the finished product during this summer! To those who worked hard to help foster this project along, thank you very much. As we continue to work with city staff, neighborhood groups, and community leaders to make improvements for cycling in Eugene we continue to learn the best way to make projects happen that benefit everyone. We certainly learned a lot on this project and hopefully we can take that knowledge forward and create even more positive change.

 

National Call-in Day for Transportation Bill

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Today is the national call-in day on the transportation bill. The window is closing fast on our last real chance to impact the final bill. Whether or not the bill prioritizes repair of our roads and bridges, preserves local communities’ access to funds that can make walking and biking safer, or helps struggling transit agencies keep buses and trains rolling along OR if it focuses on building more roads for sprawl. We need your help now.

Attached is a script with the three priorities to choose from to push on in the calls.

Transportation for America also has a page where you can get more info and look up your legislator if needed (likely DeFazio, Wyden, & Merkeley if you’re on this list).

Please call now. Thanks!


Rep. Peter DeFazio, Phone:(202) 225-6416
Sen. Ron Wyden, Phone:(202) 224-5244
Sen. Jeff Merkley, Phone:(202) 224-3753

Script:

Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [PLACE]. I’m calling to ask Representative/Senator [NAME] to support several important provisions from the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill during conference committee. The conference committee on the transportation bill must do at least three things:
  1. Preserve the Senate provisions that provide dedicated funding for repairing our roads and bridges — and hold states accountable for repairing them.
  2. Protect my community’s access to funds in the Senate bill that make walking and biking safer by preserving the local grant program created by the Cardin-Cochran amendment,
  3. And keep the flexibility for public transportation “operations” in the Senate bill that allows struggling transit agencies of all sizes to maintain service during a fiscal crisis.
Please support the provisions in the strong, bipartisan Senate transportation bill during the conference. Thank you for your time.