One Street News

April-May 2012

Vol. 5, Issue 4

1. Uganda Trip Planning Begins
2. Event Success and Shift to Africa to Velo-city
3. Resources – Dutch Intersection Design
4. Hot Topics – Helmet Laws Undermining Bike Share  

Uganda Trip Planning Begins

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

Over the past year, many generous supporters have contributed toward my next Uganda trip to offer follow up training to Ride 4 a Woman (R4W). We are still working on fundraising, but we’re nearly there. During my last trip I was able to guide the R4W leadership team through the basics of organization development and how to teach their members bicycle riding and repair. Now they are ready for the next level as they build their programs that are empowering women with bicycles. Read more about that last trip and our goals for this next one on our One Street to Uganda web page.  

In recent discussions with R4W leaders we decided that even though we are still about $2,000 short of our ideal budget for the trip, we’ve got to begin planning. We’ve decided on either December or January for the trip. This is a good time as it is between rainy seasons and the number of tourists visiting Bwindi is lower than other dry seasons. This gives us some extra time for fundraising, but not much. In the coming months we will be reaching out to potential funders to help us through this final fundraising stretch.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all the supporters of this trip so far, especially Cyclists for Cultural Exchange and the Robin Lee Whittlesey Foundation as well as all of the individual supporters who have given so generously. 

There are two very important ways you can help this effort:

1. Donate money – click Donate Now (note the trip with your donation)
2. Forward this newsletter to people you think would be interested

With your help we will meet our fundraising goal that will ensure that my trip includes the bicycles, tools and program supplies that R4W so desperately needs in order to keep up with the demand for their programs.  

Event Success and Shift to Africa to Velo-city  

Our City to Velo-city event on April 26th was an outstanding success, helping us raise enough to ensure that our three ambassadors can join us at the Velo-city conference in Vancouver in June. They’re looking forward to helping transform Prescott into a bicycling city with what they learn at the conference. Taylor Kuyk-White, our coordinator for City to Velo-city this year, did an excellent job pulling all the pieces together. But none of it would have been possible without our sponsors, auction item donors and attendees at the event. Read more about the event and find a list of sponsors and helpers on our City to Velo-city web page. If you’re in the Prescott area, be sure to thank these wonderful supporters in person when you drop by their businesses or see them around town.

After two successful years helping bicycle ambassadors from Prescott, Arizona (our home base) attend the Velo-city conference, the One Street Board of Directors has decided to shift this program to a part of the world where bicycle ambassadors need our assistance even more. African bicycle advocacy leaders have become an important and integral part of One Street over the years. Many are our most active partners for replicating vibrant bicycle campaigns and programs. A few have even joined our board, making “them” the same as “us.” But we often miss seeing these colleagues at the annual Velo-city conferences.  

This year was particularly difficult as Vancouver is a long and expensive way from Africa and no matter all of our fundraising attempts, we were not able to raise the funds for just three of our African colleagues to attend the conference. This is not only disappointing to us personally. During our Board discussion of this problem we all agreed that the conference needs African input. Through our work with leaders on that continent we have found that their programs and campaigns often bring brand new ways of looking at bicycle initiatives. The conference gains when Africa is well represented.

So, starting right after Velo-city 2012 this June we will change our City to Velo-city program to Africa to Velo-city and begin offering our assistance to our African colleagues as well as the European Cyclists’ Federation, the proprietors of the conference, to find ways for more Africans to attend. Velo-city 2013 will be in Vienna next June – much closer to Africa – and we are looking forward to seeing our African colleagues there. 

If you have suggestions for ways to raise the travel funds for African delegates to attend Velo-city 2013, please email Sue Knaup at: sue{at}onestreet.org.

Resources – Dutch Intersection Design 

No one would argue that the Dutch lead the world in creating communities that entice even the most timid cyclists to choose bicycling for most of their trips. In some cities in the Netherlands, cycling is the most common way to move about – more than driving, taking transit and even walking. But when it gets down to the details, especially at intersections, many people outside the Netherlands love to argue about the Dutch bikeway designs. Take a look for yourself at these intersection design videos and see what you think. Keep in mind that these are the designs that have caused an over 50% bicycle mode share in some Dutch cities.

• Junction design for safer cycling (Netherlands)
• Junction design the Dutch cycle friendly way
• Dutch junction design - for safer cyclists
• Video of a Dutch roundabout with priority for cyclists
• Video of a Dutch signalized intersection 

Hot Topics – Helmet Laws Undermining Bike Share

Over the years, we’ve found that overzealous bicycle helmet promotions are undermining bicycle advocacy by portraying bicycling as far more dangerous than it actually is. The harm is particularly apparent with efforts to attract new riders to everyday cycling. The most extreme overzealous bicycle helmet promotion comes in the form of mandatory helmet laws. Whether these laws have age limits or not, they put the official stamp on bicycling as a dangerous activity. Read more about this serious problem on our Bicycle Helmets web page.  

An interesting offshoot of this issue is occurring in cities that have a mandatory bicycle helmet law but also want to install a bike share system. Bike share systems are growing in popularity worldwide as a way to encourage people who don’t usually cycle to try bicycling for their short trips. They offer free or low cost bicycles at stations placed around the city so these new or visiting riders don’t have to invest in their own bike just to try it out.

But cities with mandatory helmet laws must also provide helmets with their public bike share systems. Consider sanitation: Would you want to put a sweaty, dirty helmet on your head? What about helmet sizes and proper fit? Helmet promoters always stress the fact that if a helmet is not the proper size and is not perfectly adjusted to the rider’s head it will not offer any protection. And if bicycling is so dangerous that it requires a helmet, why would new riders even try it? What a dilemma! 

Recently Mexico City hit this very dilemma as soon as they approved their bike share system. Their response was to immediately repeal their bicycle helmet law and they’ve never looked back. But some cities such as Vancouver, British Columbia (the location of Velo-city 2012) and Melbourne, Australia seem more attached to their helmet laws as they struggle to coordinate their helmet requirements with their new bike share systems. Read this interesting article from Vancouver to get a local perspective on this issue.