In Boulder we do both a bike co-op/ community bike shop and we are the advocacy group. It mostly has to do with it being kind of a small town for 2 membership groups and the people involved. I got involved with Community Cycles, but my background was being the E.D. of the Philly Bike Coalition and over 15 yrs being employed in bike advocacy. It has some issues, but I think overall it gives the bike community & our members a lot of value. The issues for the org would be in prioritizing resources.
I think the co-op movement would have a lot to gain from being more involved and more professional around advocacy issues. I would say that the traditional advocacy groups do a good job of getting things done for bicyclists, but I can think of a number of issues where either the traditional bike advocacy movement is either not quite aligned with the interests of community bike shops, or things that could go a long way to helping community bike shops are totally ignored by the advocacy groups - mostly relating to funding and changes that could really go a long way to advancing the capacity of community bike shops. But these are either just not on their radar or are just not important to them. I think this applies more to the national orgs- who would have more control over working for changes that could impact a lot of community bike shops- than on the local level. But I still think even on a statewide level in my state, community bike shops should be brought into the conversation more than they currently are.
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Sue Prant
Advocacy, Development and Walk & Bike Month Director
Community Cycles
3172 29th Street
Boulder, CO 80301
Phone: 303-564-9681
e-mail: sue@communitycycles.org
www.CommunityCycles.org
Much conversation here from California, we have yet to have our Governor sign a 3-foot minimum safe passing law! Come on California Bike Collectives, lets all get behind this one. We are putting the request for calmer street actions, for safer auto and truck passing of bikes, and eliminating the close 'buzz' passes. Assembly Bill AB1371 is going toward the governor for a third time.We at LibraryBikes.org have been a large player in pushing this law (see www.BikeSacramento.org). Many people come to our shop and are discouraged to take bike riding seriously for transportation because it is not safe enough. We need this minimum standard that 20 other states have already approved, a minimum of 3-feet space between bikes and passing cars.This advocate cry in California stated from our shop more than three years ago! Yes advocacy works from bike collectives.Bill Wright BurtonDirector, LibraryBikesOakland SPOKES is launching a hyper local/National Community Bike Organization (CBO) Campaign and is setting up a community bike lounge in partnership with Pop Up Hood Oakland to host “Bay Built Bikes” by East Bay Area Community Bike Organizations (CBO) and, local mechanics/builders and bike art vendors.
This Bike lounge will display and consign Bikes built by Bay Area mechanics as part of the campaign Headquarters for SPOKES National’s Community Bike Organization Project. Our goal is to collectively advocate for earmarked City, State, and Federal Funding of our communities’ CBO Projects. This lounge will have commuter accessories, and catered café fixings from Awaken Cafe, Bicycle Coffee, Numi Tea, and Rock the Bike smoothies in its cool Old town Location. We will be having daily opportunities for you as **members to reserve space to do workshops, and host bike-related social events.
Our soft opening will be held in conjunction with Oakland’s First Friday on May 3rd 2013. Following that, our grand opening will take place in the middle of the Bike to Work After Party and we will be hosting the official Bike to work “After Party -After Party”. We plan to have DJ music by Abel Dee and special guests and perhaps some Bike Flix to keep the pedals turning.
The lounge will have a map of the East Bay covering an entire wall as focal accent. This map will have pushpins for all the CBO’s. Bike routes will be marked out on the map in red and will begin from the SPOKES Community Bike Org Hub on the map along routes to each site pinned on the map. This map will serve as a visual guide to patrons of where all our shops are located in reference to each other the hub and their lives. The SPOKESHOP community bike lounge will also provide your organization with a space for exposure in Downtown Oakland where you can showcase your bikes, bike art, bike jewelry and swag for sale.
Each member shop or org will need to contribute their high quality logo and a “Bay Built Bike” or bike product(s) to be part of the for sale consignment exhibit. We will highlight your logo, branding and location on a string of *banners in the lounge. Your product or bike will be mounted on the wall or rack with a short bio of your organization and name of the builder or artist behind the product. All sales will be tracked as consignment and you will have the opportunity to refresh your line of products as it sells. Our goal is to help our businesses or organization further penetrate the bike movement and bike industry and send business as well as awareness to the customers in your community. Through crowd funding and a capital campaign, we intend to raise funds to advocate for bikes as part of community economic development.
In order to participate, we require you to be a **member of the Community Bike Collective.
https://sites.google.com/a/richmondspokes.org/about/programs-1/cbc
This successful model will serve as a hub of resources for cyclists in East Bay by providing them with maps and quick commuter tips.
Increase your sales and impact while celebrating green mobility today. Join us now!
https://sites.google.com/a/richmondspokes.org/about/programs-1/cbc
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