Fort Collins' Own BHA Design Leads Boulder's Valmont Bike Park Design Team

We've got the expertise, we just don't have the . . . what? Vision, political will, money, drive, organization? BHA design, based right here in river city, headed by landscape architect and planner Bruce Hendee, was chosen as the lead designer for Boulder's Valmont Bike Park. Read about it here, on BHA design's blog
or here on the Valmont Bike Park blog.

BHA Design is designed the new on-street bike parking in Fort Collins that was installed last month.

Fort Collins Bike Co-op Seeks Volunteers: HELP (WANTED)!

Bike Mechanics– Experienced or apprentice mechanics to help with Earn-A-Bikes, prep library bikes, and restore impounded and donated bikes.

Bike Co-op Greeters- Friendly greeters needed every day the Co-op is open. Help Co-op customers with bike problems, issues and answering questions.

Bicycle Retrieval Squad- Help needed to retrieve lost and abandoned bikes as necessary. Have a truck? All the better. Or use our bike + trailer to bring bikes in.

Bike Co-op Art Department- Help wanted to provide artwork for shirts, murals, posters, diagrams, signage, decals, and countless other fun stuff!

Bike Library Checkout Volunteers- Meet, greet, and entertain visitors to the Fort by checking out library bikes from the kiosk or Bike Co-op during the week.

Community Outreach, Bike Safety & Mechanics Classes- Join our team to take bike ed. To school groups, CSU and other community groups.

Earn-a-Bike Assistants- Help organize, coordinate, and promote our E-a-B program to any & all who would like to build and earn their own recovered bike.

Fundraising and Grant writing needed- Help us find that next mini-grant, major donation, and $5 monthly subscription to feed the Bike Co-op system!

Ghana Bikes Project- Help us & the World to send 450 abandoned bikes to Ghana with the Village Bicycle Project.

Iron mongers, tinkers, tinsmiths and blacksmiths needed- we need help recycling iron, steel, aluminum and more to keep it out of the landfill.

League Cycling Instructors in Training- Join our team of League of American Cyclists Bike Ed instructors who will develop and teach Bike Ed. To schools!

Newsletter Editor- We need a wordsmith to help us tell the world what we’re doing! Work with all our lead volunteers to keep people informed, inflamed, and inspired!

Racing Volunteers- Help monitor, and cheer the National Collegiate Cycling Championships in May 2009 and 6 day races around the oval this summer.

Valet Bike Parking- Bike Parking at community events make the Co-op more visible in town, spread the word, and ask for tips and donations to the Co-op.

Volunteer coordinators- Every single activity listed above needs help with coordinatin’, innovatin’, and activatin’. Maybe that would be you?!

Tabling- Customer service and sales people need to help spread the work about the Bike Co-op and our need for volunteers of all flavors!

Check out the Co-op web site today and get in touch!

On Street Bike Parking in Downtown Fort Collins: The Back Story

The story that follows, from the Coloradoan, announces 5 brand new on-street bike parking racks in Old Town Fort Collins sponsored by New Belgium Brewing. This brief note brings you a few photos and a little bit of the back story of how these racks came to be. (Maybe our Bike Coordinator, Dave Kemp, will follow up with some further commentary). About 2 years ago the folks at Matter Bookstore and the Bean Cycle asked for an on-street bike corral to accommodate all the bikes in front of the Bean (bottom photo above). One business on the street objected to the loss of one automobile parking spot.

So Dave Kemp went to work and came up with five spots around Old Town for racks like the one shown in the first photo - a net gain of something like 100 parking spots since each rack holds twenty or so bikes! Nice work, Dave!

Now all we need is that on-street rack in front of the Bean Cycle!

Colorado State University Could Learn from Harvard for Bicycle Parking

The shelter at right is built just for bicycle parking. CSU could benefit from some of these with video surveillance to cut down on bicycle theft.

Read the full story.

Keep Your Bike Secure

FIFTEEN
THOUSAND
BIKES
are reported stolen in New York City every year. Experts believe that this figure represents only 20% of the actual total, only those that were reported. The real number is more like 75,000 bike thefts per year. Police recover less than 2% of them. If you've never had a bike stolen, you might not anticipate how really bad it can make you feel. Here at Bicycle Habitat we thought it would be a good idea to give our customers some tips on how to avoid theft.

Valuable advice from New York City pros on how to keep your bike from being stolen.

Fort Collins City Council Passes Bike Plan Revision, Creates Bicycle Advisory Committee

On October 7, 2008 Fort Collins City Council unanimously passed the bike plan revision and instructed the City Manager, Darin Atteberry, to create a Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) before the end of 2008.

Yesterday, Nov, 7th City Bicycle Coordinator, "DK" Dave Kemp sent out a press release announcing the creation of the BAC. Kemp also convened two public meetings November 18 and 24 to offer the public "more information" on the BAC. For details: http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bac-pr.pdf

The actual purpose of the BAC is explained in a document release by the City Bicycle Coordinator: "Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee Development Proposal" here: http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bac-dev.pdf

The good news here is that this board (a sub-committee to the Transportation Board, which considers all City transportation issues) will include representatives from 12 other city boards, commissions, and public entities, including:

- Air Quality Board
- Youth Advisory Board
- Parks & Recreation Board
- Natural Resources Advisory Board
- Senior Advisory Board
- Economic Advisory Commission (AND, curiously, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce)
- Downtown Development Authority
- Bike Fort Collins
- Bicycle Cooperative of Fort Collins, Inc. (yah, that's the Bike Co-op)
- Poudre School District
- Colorado State University
- UniverCity Connections

In addition there will be two "at-large" members "representing different geographic areas of Fort Collins. (If you live in a "different" geographic area of Fort Collins, please raise your hand.)

The Mission and Purpose of the BAC:
"The Fort Collins Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) would be a citizen advisory committee which reports to the Transportation Board. BAC members would have interest in or knowledge of bicycle related issues. The Committee's role will be to review all issues related to bicycling in the areas of engineering, enforcement, encouragement, environment, community and economy. The types of activities include, but are not limited to the following:

- provide group liaison between the City and the community and community groups on issues related to bicycling.
- Fostering the interchange of ideas from existing City Boards and Commissions, as well as other community stakeholders, such as Poudre School District, Colorado State University and the Downtown Development Authority and others as appropriate.
- Promote bicycling as a viable form of transportation.
- Act as a sounding board for citizens who have bicycle-related questions and concerns.
- Assist in the development and dissemination of bicycle safety awareness and education and encouragement materials to the community.
- Develop implementation strategies for recommendations in the 2008 Bike Plan.
- Assist with the development of evaluation metrics for determining success of bicycle programs and facilities.
- Review proposed capital improvement projects, street improvements, traffic signal projects, and parking facilities projects.
- Initiate requests to City staff and other appropriate agencies on issues of concern to the Committee related to bicycling.

The new, revised 2008 Bike Plan (which you can view here:
http://www.fcgov.com/bicycling/pdf/bike_plan-2008.pdf?20081028)
lists a host of projects that the new BAC can address. Among them, recommendations from UniverCity Connections that include turning Canyon Avenue into a "bicycle boulevard," completing east-west cross streets for cyclists in Downtown Fort Collins, and much more.

One of the first things that should be done is remove the signs shown in the photo at the head of this post.