Category: Meeting

General Meeting & Elections PLUS a Bike Swap

Posted on by RideCoordinator

GEARs will hold its annual meeting and Bike Swap on Tuesday, November 30, from 7 to 9 pm at The Vets Club (1626 Willamette St., Eugene).

The GEARs Annual Meeting will take place from 7-7:30pm, when club members will elect the 2010-2011, GEARs Executive Board.

Following the Annual Meeting, a Bike Swap will offer cyclists an opportunity to sell and exchange bicycles, bike parts and accessories. Each “seller” who is not a GEARs member will be charged $5. Memberships are available starting at $12/year at the event or online at http://eugenegears.org/membership

Both events are open to the general public.

FrankenBike via flickr

Bikestravaganza: Off the Chainring Tour

Posted on by RideCoordinator

For our September general meeting GEARs is pleased to present Joe Biel and Elly Blue in their Travelling Bikestravaganza!  Please join us on Thursday, September 9th from 6pm to 8pm for a traveling road show of bicycle talk, movies, zines, and transportation activism and advocacy. Elly Blue and Joe Biel will present short videos and a slideshow about Portland, Oregon’s famous bicycle culture and infrastructure, followed by an interactive discussion of the future of transportation infrastructure and advocacy in our town and beyond.

Elly Blue and Joe Biel after talking with local bike advocates at the Twin Cities Zine Fest on July 10, 2010. Photo credit: Sarah Morean.

Joe and Elly are avid bike journalists and filmmakers (not to mention organizing conferences, publishing zines, going on cross-country bike tours…) from Portland.  Everyone is welcome to attend and participate in the conversation. Microcosm Publishing will have a table of books, zines, and movies.

Thanks to the generous support of our co-sponsor, LiveMove, this event is free to the public!

Who: Joe Biel and Elly Blue
What: Bikestravaganza: Off the Chainring Tour
Where: University of Oregon

McKenzie Hall, Room 240A

When:Thursday, September 9th

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
They even made a video promo:

Maximizing Our Transportation Dollars

Posted on by Paul Adkins

Surface Transportation Program- Urban (STP-U) funds; where we’re getting it right and where we might be missing the boat.

On Thursday the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) met at the Eugene Public Library and the main item on the agenda was the STP-U funds allocation for 2011-2013. For more information on the MPC you can visit the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) website, though it gives no great description of who makes up the MPC or what it does so we’ll have to do a separate story on that sometime. According to the LCOG website STP-U funds “are the only revenue source allocated and programmed for eligible projects solely at the discretion of the MPO” (Metropolitan Planning Organization, that is LCOG).  They also state that the “Surface Transportation Program (STP) provides States with flexible funds which may be used for a wide variety of projects on any Federal-aid Highway including highways, bridges on any public road, and transit facilities. Bicycle and pedestrian improvements may also be eligible activities under the STP.” The funds have to be met by a local match (minimum 10.27%) . These applications next move to the Citizen Advisory Committee for comments (they are meeting on March 18th 5:30 p.m. at the Eugene Public Library) then it goes back to the MPC for final approval on April 8th (11:30 a.m. at the Eugene Public Library). If you’d like to see the complete packet of applications see this PDF file from the LCOG site. You can submit comments until April 5th at the contact information at the bottom of this post.

So what are some of the projects for the upcoming cycle and are we using these ‘flexible funds’ to their highest potential? You can see the list of projects and how they meet “Regional Priority Criteria” on this PDF. We’ll do a breakdown of the projects here (based on the jurisdiction) and look at where they make some great strides for active transportation and where we might be missing the mark. Continue reading “Maximizing Our Transportation Dollars” →

Fun & Important Gatherings Over the Next Two Weeks!

Posted on by RideCoordinator

Winter in the Willamette Valley doesn’t mean hibernation for cyclists. Recreational rides are happening and important advocacy projects are still prevalent. There are several GEARs rides happening each week. Check out the Rides section of the site to see those or download this months ride list here.
The coming two weeks hold even more fun events for the local cycling scene.
Here’s a run down on some of them:

January 16th:

The Tweed Ride has happened a couple times in Eugene already. This winter bundle up in your finest for this dapper ride. Leave from Wandering Goat and wander around town showing off your cycle chic style.

Tweed Ride

Street Skills for Families is a bike course directed at students living in the 4J school district and is part of the Safe Routes to School program. Class attendees will not only learn about basic traffic skills but also learn how to perform a bicycle safety check, how to properly fit a helmet, how to size a bicycle for a child, and how to properly carry things on a bicycle. The class will be held at McCornack Elementary from 12-3 pm. A light lunch will be available beforehand (11:30 AM) and afterward we’ll meet up with the Kidical Mass group for Soup and a Unicycle show (see below). More information and registration at the Eugene SRTS site.
Street Skills for Families

This months Kidical Mass ride will meet at its usual spot (Monroe Park) at 3:00 p.m. and then ride West to meet up with the group from the Street Skills for Families class. Then the group will ride back to McCornack Elementary to enjoy some free hot soup and a Unicycle show from the McCornack unicycle team. See the Kidical Mass site for more information on those rides.

January 20th

The City of Eugene will be holding a hearing on the Riverfront Research Park Conditional Use Permit that has been approved but which has been appealed. Come to this hearing to give your input on the importance of this area as a vital connection for cyclists from the University area to the river path system. You can find more information at the Connecting Eugene website.

January 24th

The Fourth Annual Eugene Walking & Biking Summit!!!
Why go?! How about:
Free Off the Waffle breakfast & Full City Coffee
Free Child Care
Great speakers
Important input on Eugene’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
An awesome Fashion Show
Informative and interesting booths
Raffle Prizes
…Need you more?!
Join the event on Facebook

Eugene Walking & Biking Summit
WalkBike Summit Card2

As we reach these events we’ll be doing more in-depth stories on each event and some wrap-up as well.

Board Nominations for GEARs

Posted on by Paul Adkins

The GEARs Nominating Committee has come up with our Executive Board Nominations for 2010. We are very excited to have the volunteer effort and commitment of these folks to help in reaching toward our mission. Here they are. Their bio’s are included below and the election will take place at the General Meeting on November 9th, 8pm at the Keystone Cafe. There are no Board positions that are contended.

Executive Board Nominations:

Sue Wolling -President
Sue has been a GEARs member since the club was founded in 1991. She likes relatively long rides (40-90 miles), but really doesn’t care about speed as long as she’s home by early afternoon. She hopes GEARs can welcome riders who seek exercise, fun and friendship, no matter what pace. While Sue loves recreational cycling, her real passion is bicycling as transportation. After learning about bike advocacy on the Eugene Bicycle Committee, she established the Eugene Bicycle Coalition, which merged with GEARs in 2008. Sue hopes that GEARs can help develop safe, efficient bikeways, education and incentives to promote bicycling, and a culture that makes people choose to hop on a bike, whether to get to work/school, run errands, or for fun on the weekend.

Price Armstrong -Vice President
Price has been a cycling activist since his days as an undergraduate working as the lead coordinator for the community bike program at Hampshire College. Since coming to the University of Oregon, he has had the privilege to work with the Bike Loan Program, the transportation student group LiveMove, and as a Graduate Assistant for the Sustainable Cities Initiative. With climate change, an obesity epidemic, and a unstable energy costs upon us, Price cannot think of a better way to spend his time than with GEARs, advocating for active transportation options. He is currently a Masters of Public Administration student with a concentration in transportation policy.

Richard Hughes -Treasurer
Richard has been a member of GEARs since 2007 and Treasurer for the last year. Also he has been instrumental in directing the Bike Rewards Program, in which retailers offer discounts to members. This program alone has been responsible for a significant increase in our membership. Retired in 1994 as a senior manager in L.A. County Government, where he was responsible for a staff of 300, collecting and accounting for $50 million annually. Richard has lived in Ashland, Santa Barbara, Thousand Oaks, Tehachapi and now Eugene for the last 8 years.

Sarah Thorpe -Secretary
Sarah is eager to start working with GEARs this fall. Sarah recently finished her internship with the City of Eugene Transportation Planning and is looking forward to continuing her work with Eugene’s bicycle community with GEARs. She graduated with a BA in Planning, Public Policy and Management from the UO this June, 2009. Sarah grew up in Ashland, OR, and is a proud member of the Eugene Concert Choir.

Shane Rhodes -At Large (also: Newsletter, Website Director)
Shane Rhodes is the Program Manager for SRTS at Eugene School District 4J. He has worked in the bicycle industry since 1995 as a cargo-bike courier, League of American Bicyclists Instructor, and as an advocate for cyclist and pedestrian issues in Sevilla, Spain, the Bay Area of California, and Eugene. He serves on the cities Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and would probably be a transportation policy wonk if he didn’t think real change comes from the grassroots. When not riding between meetings to make Eugene a better town for families to choose active transportation he can be found gardening with his wife Melissa, daughter, Isadora, and their four chickens.

Gary Cook -At Large (also: Ride Coordinator)
Gary has been cycling in and around Eugene for 36 years on the same bike. He knows the roads and streets well. He has been a GEARs member for about fifteen years.

Paul Adkins -At Large (also: Advocacy & Education Director)
Paul joined the GEARs Board in the Spring of 2008. With a background in communications and marketing, he works at Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life; on their website and community outreach. He earned a BFA from Kent State University in 1995, and led mountain bike tours for years before moving to Oregon in 2007. Now, Paul and his wife, Monica, live car-free with their four young kids: Rainy, Torrent, Dare, and Sanguine. Paul lived in Atlanta, one of America’s worst biking towns, as well as a few of America’s best biking towns: Palo Alto, San Francisco, Missoula, and now Eugene. Paul also serves on the Board of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance in Portland.

There are many other volunteer opportunities within GEARs. If you think GEARs should be working on a particular issue, please bring it to our attention. The best way to get involved is to attend a general meeting and/or ride and let others know your interest. We really do appreciate all the help we get.

LTD West Eugene EmX Extension

Posted on by RideCoordinator

There are a some rumors floating around regarding the West Eugene EmX extension.  Last fall GEARs was active in gathering information and giving feedback on different alignments. LTD has gathered more information and is holding more community input meetings that we, as cyclists, need to attend to discuss how this transportation corridor affects us.  Having traffic (even nice bus ‘traffic’) along a stretch of ride that is currently quite and pleasant doesn’t sound very ideal and LTD has certainly heard that.  However, there are a lot of barriers to some of the other alignments they are looking at.  Some of those are coming from community members and some from the actual physical environment.   We need to be sure that our voices and concerns are heard.

If the best alignment is somewhere along 6th, 13th, or 11th rather than the Amazon creek area but the opposition to those areas are pushing LTD to look at Amazon because there is simply less resistance than we need to push back and have our voices heard as well.  If, however, it makes sense to have the alignment near the Fern Ridge Path then we need to make sure it makes that path a better path rather than a less desirable one.  How could it be better with buses near the trail?   Continue reading “LTD West Eugene EmX Extension” →