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News - BCNM Minutes from 10/27/2003 meeting Minutes, Oct 27th, 2003 BCNM mtg Attendees: Dan, Judy, Andy, John, Nina, Laura, Gail, Kat, Steve, Charles, Greg, Andrew, Clemente, Adam Location: La Farge Branch Library, 1730 Llano, Santa Fe, NM Agenda: 1. BIKE WEEK, May 2004 2. GOOD RELATIONS WITH POLICE 3. INFLUENCING DECISION-MAKERS 4. BIKE PARKING 5. PROTESTING 1. First Agenda Item: Bike Week/Month Bike-to-Work Day, the 4th Tuesday in May, falls on May 21st, 2004; Santa Fe Century is preceding weekend, May 16; Albuquerque Bike Swap will be May 15th Discussion of need for good press. One story idea is to interview commuters and get a nice story. Local governments should be asked to pass resolutions to support the event; a resolution used in 2000 could be updated. The City should also be an official sponsor of the event. Discussion about whether to have a central location for muffins and juice, or a variety of street corners, or bakery/coffee shops where commuters could just stop in, en route to work. Kat explained that in Boulder the corner locations for muffins and juice are well advertised, and not hard to find. There was discussion about how to pick sites, and concern that bicyclists stay off the main thoroughfares. Other sponsors/participants should be at least the five largest employers. In Santa Fe, this should include St. Vincent Hospital. Possible incentives to induce participation include: Name on an internal board, Internal recognition, some kind of contest with prizes, perhaps based on mileage; Teams and competitions; Bike Buddies, Miles traveled (ZIP codes?); Summer-long competition with commuter awards at end of summer based on mileage or number of commute trips. Party ideas: giving helmets to kids; perhaps a Bike Buddy party in April and, for example, connecting all the people who bike to St. Vincents, or Manuel Lujan Bldg; Judy is at the Dept of Health Runnels Bldg. It was noted that we should make sure that places have sufficient bike racks ahead of time. Sum Mountain might also be a strong participant - a destination for muffins and juice? How to involve the public schools? Via the PTO; Also the PE teacher at Wood Gormley is a tri-athlete, might be interested. Other schools mentioned were Salazar and EJ Martinez. It would be good to get people to pre-register via Web; also to get a count of participants, so we can send a Letter-to-the-editor about the numbers. Bike Buddies might help motivate new riders. To advertise the event: Have some kind of flyer; or cardstock handouts 2. Second Agenda item: GOOD RELATIONS WITH POLICE. Efforts on encouraging helmets? How about encouraging legal riding. Ron - an officer in dept (?). Gentle reminders to obey the law on bike racks General feeling that cyclists should police themselves. 3. This discussion also morphed into third Agenda item: A. INFLUENCING DECISION-MAKERS Perhaps post a sign on Old Santa Fe Trail. It could say: "Bicycle Coalition asks you to bicycle safely and responsibly; www.bikenm.org." Or "This neighborhood is bike-friendly." Related slogans could be on why bike-riding is good: Clean air; clean living ride a bike SF Reporter a better target for advertising - right audience for these messages. The Peace Group might be a good ally. Perhaps we could get support from the Transportation Safety Program, Safer New Mexico, Insurance companies. How about a nomination/award for a particularly friendly/supportive entity. Further discussion on how to influence decision-makers about the benefits of bicycling. Should work on the issue of economic development, work with Chambers of Commerce, realtors Need to calculate the Economic Benefits of Bicycling in SF. Tourism is a large component. Another aspect of community/civic role of bicycling has to do with responsibilities of cyclists in traffic; issues of Legal/enforcement - alternative sentences for drunk drivers, mentioned in context of legal system. Dan willing to pull together team and evaluation of economic benefits. The goal would be to create a presentation for various audiences. One person to contact early would be >>Tom Rael<<, as a supporter, a local who makes a living off bicycle tourism. Greg suggested developing a telephone tree, to find the speakers when a request is made to BCNM for someone to comment or participate in some forum. We formed the following Economic Development Committee: Nina, Dan, Steve. Clemente will also contribute; Also need to calculate health benefits. Dan will call Grants, NM, to ask about monetary benefits from the Mt. Taylor Quadrathalon each year. Will come up with a list of questions, like How many participants, etc. Nina emphasized also the social aspects; health; community building that are due to cycling, and need to be calculated, somehow. Gail should put Nina in touch with Brian D. To increase the tourism, we should get a hotel to have a bikezone; This would be a desirable item certainly, during events, like Mt. Taylor Quadrathalon in Grants, or SF Century in Santa Fe. It was mentioned that Backroads Tours, brings people through; needs good accommodations. B&Bs are also often hosts for touring cyclists. BCNM should have an internal goal for when to have this report/presentation completed and ready to take to audiences. Another way to get the word out would be via KSFR. Get on Green party show; morning café; and ask for Bike Week; Mary Charlotte, Honey are contacts there. Talk returned to promoting bicycling, and events for Bike-to-Work Day. John said we should target state buildings; some schools for improved bike commuting. Potential supporters/sponsors of Bike-to-Work Day muffins and juice were brainstormed. Judy - Santa Fe Baking Co; Clemente - girlfriend works at Cloud Cliff; Andy - Downtown would be a good site; So we formed a committee to work on Bike Week sponsors: Judy, Clemente and Andy. They will meet and discuss how to approach food providers. Discussion of having these three approach potential sponsors together, in a group mtg. To approach the businesses, we should consider how they would benefit. We could designate them as "Bike-friendly business," What other rewards are there? Gail needs to provide the committee with a List of BCNM Accomplishments and copies of newsletters, in order to give them some material to show our existence, efforts. Nina willing to contribute illustrations to our publications. Yeah! Report by Greg White, State Bike/Ped/Equestrian (BPE) Coordinator, NM Dept of Transportation Training Course for Law Enforcement coming up - topic is pedestrian safety and enforcement of laws affecting them; NMDOT will have another course in 2004 on enforcement of laws related to bicycling. Rhonda Faught, DOT Secretary, has committed to designating 500 miles of bike routes/year for each of the next four years. Greg and the BPE will work with the Districts to develop recommendations, and will produce amended bicycle guideline maps showing the routes when they are approved by the Transportation Commission. Greg reports they've identified:1100 miles roads with adequate shoulders, 1200 miles need improved shoulders The Old Las Vegas Hwy project, from Lamy into Old Pecos Trail is moving forward. There is a mtg on Oct 31, 2003 on the matter. Deputy Secretary, Chief of Design involved; Neighborhood and historic preservation; several options are being explored. A new, more bicycle friendly rumble strip design is being used in various places: The shoulder to Espanola will have a continuous 6-8' of rumble strip with gaps; 48' of rumble with 12' of gaps will allow bicycles to exit from the shoulder through gap in rumble strip. Old Hwy near Tesuque and Pojoaque will be a frontage road, also accessible to bicyclists, with a slow speed limit- 25 mph max. Roswell, Ruidoso: 48/12 broken rumble strips, also Colorado to Santa Fe road needs work Notes rather belatedly transcribed by Gail R., 1/7/04 and even more belatedly posted to the website by Dan B, 2/2/04 ...top of page