Lots of fun things happening on the Summer Solstice, Saturday June 19th. From noon until midnight there is the Downtown Summer Solstice Festival with bike parking from noon until 5pm on F Street just north of 7th Avenue (brought to you by the good folks at the BCA). This PDF map of the event includes the bike parking location.

Then there is the Second Annual Solstice Midnight Sun Ride, registration is at 10:30pm and the ride starts at sunset, 11:42pm. The ride goes from the bunker (near the chalet) in Kincaid Park, down the coastal trail to downtown.

This Monday, May 24th, we will be meeting for an informal fun ride down the Coastal Trail, from Westchester Lagoon to the Chalet in Kincaid Park.  We’ll be meeting around 4:30pm at the intersection of the Coastal and Chester Creek trails (view map) and leaving around 4:45pm.  We should arrive at the Rachel Carson Celebration before it starts at 6pm.  For more information about the 10th Annual Rachel Carson Celebration please click here.

You can now register for the 6th annual Anchorage Bike to Work Day 

To register a workplace team, send an e-mail to this address: BiketoWork@muni.org. Be sure to:

1. Type what you want to call your team in the subject line of the e-mail
2. Give the name, phone number and e-mail address of the team captain or contact for the team.  Contacts and name of an alternate are also stronlgy advised.
3. Provide the name and tee shirt size of all riders (including captains if they will ride). Contacts are only needed for captains.
4. A sample registration can be found here.

A drawing for team shirts will take place again this year.  Team registration will continue, but drawing for shirts will close at 5:00 PM May 10.  This will allow tme for the drawing, for contacting winning team captains and for distributing shirts prior to Bike to Work Week.

The Bike to Work survey link will also be posted to this site during Bike to Work Week.  Green Star, Inc. is accepting prizes for the survey drawing from business supporters; contact Lilly at  278-7859.

The League of American Bicyclists named May 17-21, 2010 “Bike to Work Week” and Friday, May 21 “Bike to Work Day”.  Anchorage plans to allign with this schedule, with some accommodation for those not working Friday and teachers with panniers too small to pack a year’s worth of classroom materials.

Saturday, May 1

Time: 11 am – 12:30pm
Meet at Town Square Park on the 5th Ave. side

Tour Route:

This (kid friendly!) Jane’s Roll Bicycle Tour will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the downtown Anchorage area for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Participants will view Cook Inlet, ride to Westchester Lagoon on the Coastal Trail, wind through South Addition, view a couple of 1% for Art installations, and finish up at Town Square Park. There will be numerous stops for group reflection about local and national trends regarding community livability and existing and hoped-for bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure.

Tour Leaders:
Lois Epstein – An engineer and Director of Alaska Transportation Priorities Project, a non-profit organization which promotes sensible transportation systems and policies in Alaska.

Dawn Groth – A practicing nurse, museum docent, and APU outdoor and environmental education graduate student whose interest is active transportation.  She is a Board member of Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage.

Ahh...those summer days...

Last night, I biked with my 7 year old to the rock gym to climb, the sidewalks were hard-packed and plowed. Easy riding, though I expect it will be a little more challenging now that it has snowed, especially after the streets get plowed but before the sidewalks do. Happily, riding with kids in the winter isn’t too much of a challenge, except maybe mentally. When my boy was 4, I pulled him most of the winter in his chariot to daycare, before and after work. When he was in kindergarten, and had graduated to the trail-a-bike, I used the bus and foot to get him from school in the winter because I didn’t manage to get the studded tires on my bike that winter…don’t ask me why. This year he is in first grade. I have my studded tires on. The trail-a-bike doesn’t have a studded tire, and at first I was nervous about that, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem at all. Soft trails can be a bit more of a challenge because of the extra weight I am pulling, but I can make it up all of the midtown/downtown hills with just a little extra effort. Next year maybe he’ll graduate to his own bike with studded tires, but for now this is the quickest way to commute by bike. Continue reading »

Bicycling has come a long way in the last 10 years. Our movement has grown larger and more effective; the number of people riding is growing in almost every community in the nation. We need more people on bikes more often, and the reasons just keep on growing. Whether it’s obesity, health care, climate change, air quality, energy independence, traffic congestion, economic development or quality of life issues – bicycling has got to be part of the solution. In 2010, Congress and our Federal agencies will be setting national targets and goals for 2020. They will be writing transportation, climate, health care, natural resources and other critical pieces of legislation that will shape our future. Bicycling must be prominently featured in these important pieces of legislation, documents, funding streams and programs. Continue reading »

Photo courtesy of BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News. Northbound traffic on the Glenn Highway continued to move slowly and was backed up to the Boniface Parkway overpass at 7 p.m. Dec. 15, 2009.

The headlines ring out on the ADN – Snow Creates Traffic Nightmare, or Highways Hazardous as Storm Continues. On KSKA I awoke to the same message. Roads terrible. 43 accidents in one day. Police asking that folks drive slowly and give space between the car in front of you. I knew it was snowing and I knew the bike commute could be rough with the extra snow. But I had no interest in sharing the road with impatient drivers who think giving space means a few feet between cars.  Add to that the holiday traffic and it wasnt even a question. I would walk my bike if the conditions were that bad.  But thankfully the neighborhood streets were plowed from yesterday and the additional snow on top of a firm snowpack presented no problems. In fact, as I made my way to work this morning I was astounded at how effortlessly I was moving. And all the while I was able to travel on quiet streets from East Anchorage to downtown, not fretting about the traffic, accidents and whether I would make it to work and back home without a bumper to bumper event.  If your not sure about the conditions, and drove to work, take extra time driving home to scout your route to see if the conditions are good enough to go by bike  (the route should preferably take you through quiet neighborhoods). Its far more fun and a heck of a lot less stressful than being stuck in a metal box with hundreds of other impatient aggravated drivers.  For tips on how to travel safely by bike in the winter check out our winter bicycling factsheet.

I was checking out some bike blogs this morning  and came across the following post from a bike advocate and artist from Brazil. This poster and the description by the artist, Cabelo, seemed to strike a familiar tune,

To ride a bike in the middle of São Paulo’s traffic is to run a risk, I say this without any reluctance even though this might discourage some people.  Our city has some of the most violent traffic in the world, there is no respect and drivers almost never follow the laws, because the agency responsible for traffic fines and education, the CET (Department of Transportation) prioritizes making the traffic flow, due to the constant bumper-to-bumper traffic that we live with.  That is to say that drivers who commit serious infractions, like for example drunk driving, running red lights, and speeding in residential neighborhoods, are almost never penalized.

As the days continue to grow darker, and the holiday parties click in to full effect, be careful when bicycling. Now is the time to be extra-vigilant and ride defensively. And of course make sure you are highly visible.

You can find more cool Cabelo posters here and  illustrations  here.

You will have three opportunities to catch Carl Battreall’s film Fat Bike at the Anchorage International Film Fest.

Fat Bike is showing three times near the end of a group of other festival films:

Tuesday, December 8 – 5:45pm – Alaska Experience
Friday, December 11 – 2:30pm – Bear Tooth
Saturday, Dec 12 – 5:30pm – Out North

The Film Fest describes the film as

An unknown group of cyclists embrace the beauty and challenges of riding bikes during the long Alaskan winters. Not since the early days of mountain biking has there been a more innovative, resilient and committed band of bikers. Experience the Fat Bike revolution!

You can see a trailer of the film here. And if you do head out to the Film Fest go by bike!

Planet Bike is a big advocate for bike commuting. Their website has pages devoted to grassroots strategies. One  page is devoted to “super commuters”.

“Bike Culture Magazine and Planet Bike honor our silent hero: the bicycle commuter. A supercommuter rides through every season, in all weather, day and night. Choosing the simplicity, health and pleasure of bicycling, a supercommuter prefers to ride to the grocery store, to work, to a concert or the cafe. Each issue BikeCulture chooses a new Supercommuter.”

Nancy Fresco talks about her experience as a bike commuter in Fairbanks’ super cold weather. But, she also highlights the joys of summer commuting. Alaska is a truly a unique place where we can pedal home from an evening out with friends and it still be light out.

“One night I set out for a fifteen mile ride home just after midnight. The temperature was just right; it was in the 60′s, with a perpetual gold and red sunset glowing in the direction I was heading. Hardly anyone was out that late on a Sunday night. It was quiet and calm, the fireweed was just starting to bloom, and the air smelled of spruce trees. I felt like I could have biked forever.”

Check out the whole story here .