It is expected to be cold and rainy, maybe windy, and maybe some snow too. And while we all love soaking up sun on the morning of Bike to Work Day, eating bacon and sipping coffee watching all those bicyclists roll by and enjoy the camaraderie and fun of biking to work, we realize that many who were planning on biking are hedging and waffling or have already called it. For those on the fence, BCA says give it a go. First, as long as you have the right clothing you will be fine. You might be a bit chilled when you start but you will warm up, and there is lots of coffee along the way to keep you warm and moving.  Second, if you can brave the cold rain and snow, then biking on sunny glorious days will be a breeze. So set your sights high. And roll out on that bike tomorrow. You may just find that biking in the rain is fun!

And below is the list of all the Bike Stations and Sponsors. (and here is a map of all the stations)

Thanks to all of our Bike Station hosts for sticking it out tomorrow.

Location: Glenn Highway Multi-use bike path at Muldoon intersection.
Schedule: We planned 6:30 to 8:30 am.
Description: coffee, water, and snacks.

Location: Corner of Elmore and Ambassador Drive

Schedule: 6:30-8:30am
Contact Name: Sandy Cunningham, Kim Marcucci
Description: Blueberry Station (blueberry inspired breakfast for bicyclists!)

Location:  Westchester Lagoon by the Cozy Cafe

Schedule: 6:45am – 8:45am

Description: coffee, water and various treats

Location: 2515 “A” Street (Corner of A and 26^th)
Schedule: 7:00 – 9:00
Description: Treat Station will be operating 7:00 – 9:00 and include cinnamon bars, fresh fruit, and coffee.

Location: Tudor and C St – northeast corner near the big red fish

Schedule: 6:30 to 8:30 AM
Description: Stop by for Coffee, Rolls and Water – and other treats to keep you fueled on your way to work.  The station is sponsored by the CRW Engineering Group CReW.  Kaladi Brothers provides the most excellent coffee.

Bayshore Clubhouse

Location:   Dimond Blvd & Victor Rd, SE Entrance to Campbell Creek Trail
Schedule:  6:30 AM to 8:30 AM
Description: Dino’s donuts, energy bars, juice to go.

Location: Elmore and Abbott

Schedule: 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM

Description: If you happen to be in the area, stop by the Trek Store of Anchorage aid station at the corner of Elmore and Abbott. Treats courtesy of House of Bread with Kaladi Bros. coffee on hand. Our location will be open from 6:30am to 8:30am.

Location: A Street in front of Barnes and Noble

Schedule: 6:30-9:00am

Description: Trail Angels” Smoothie Stop is not on your map this year. PDC Inc. Engineers, Bettisworth North Architects, and Acai Alaska are again sponsoring this station in front of Barnes & Noble. Free smoothies from Acai, Great Harvest cookies, other healthy snacks, and prize drawings. We’re here to absolve people’s guilt when they hit the Bacon Station!

Location: NW corner of Spenard and Intl Airport Rd
Schedule: 7-9am
Description: refreshments, safety info, and transportation swag.

Location: Corner of 7th anf St.

Schedule: 6:45-9:00am

Description: Free coffee for Bike to Work Day participants.

and there will of course be the BCA Bacon Station with Spenard Roadhouse, Kaladi Brothers Coffee, Snow City Cafe Green Star AK, Great Harvest Bread Co. and Midnight Sun Brewing Co. all sponsoring the station.

Location:  Chester Creek trail just east of the Seward Highway

And a big thanks to the Municipality for putting Bike to Work Day together!

It is time to gear up for the 2013 Summer Bike, Walk  & Bus Commuter Challenge

The competition begins May 27th and runs through August 16th, so get your co-workers ready to start biking or walking or going by bus!

Join the Alaska chapter of the American Institute of Architects and Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage in a friendly competition to encourage bicycle/pedestrian/public transit commuting and see which businesses can get the greatest percentage of employees commuting to work by bike, foot or bus.

Register between May 10th and May 28th

We will post the link to the website where you can register your team and your teammates can track their progress over the summer.

The competition begins on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.  But you can join in at any time throughout the summer. The Summer Bike Challenge competition ends on August 16^th.

Go to:

http://commuterchallenge.bicycleanchorage.org

to register. Register yourself and your team and then share the commuter challenge link with teammates. they should be then be able to individually register and join your team.

What are the rules?

1. The businesses in each class with the highest PERCENTAGE of total employee trips to/from work made by bike, foot and bus win. 

The goal of the challenge is to get more people to go by bike, foot or transit. So we focus on the percentage of employees in your business that are going to work each day by bike, foot or transit. It is pretty simple to track. We will take the total number of employees in your business and multiply that by the number of days in the challenge (five work days per week) to determine the total # of commute trips made by your employees during the challenge (if you can count up the total vacation days we will be able to reduce the total trips days to get an accurate number of bike/ped/bus trips). You and your co-workers track the number of trips to and from work by bike, foot or bus and we will calculate your business’ overall % of commutes to and from work by bike, foot or bus. The businesses in each class with the highest percentage of commutes by bike, foot and bus win.

2. You compete among businesses of similar size.

We have divided the teams into five classes this year (see below for how to register). The business classification is based on the total number of employees, not the number of employees in your office that may bike, walk or take the bus. This encourages team captains to get as many people in their business to bike, walk or take the bus (even if it is just one trip a week) as every trip helps increase the percentage of trips by bike, foot or bus.

The Business classes (based on total # of employees) are:

• X-Small: 1-4 employees
• Small: 5-15 employees
• Medium: 16 – 50 employees
• Large: 51-200 employees
• X-Large: More than 200 employees

3. Track your trips

This year we will be using an interactive online tracking program created by Becky Boone at Resource Data Inc. Big thanks to Becky and Resource Data Inc. for creating this software and hosting!. More details will be up on how to register by May 10th.  This software will provide up-to-date results on how each team is doing in the challenge.

We have changed the rules to include those walking and taking the bus, or combining the bus with a bike commute. The tracking software will ask you your mode of choice. If you combine biking with the bus, you will have to just enter biking as your mode and include only the distance you travel by bike.

4.  This competition is for businesses located in the Anchorage bowl.

We know folks across the state want to participate but this is a challenge for Anchorage.

5. Awards, the Awards Party, and Sponsors

There will be an awards party and celebration (location and date TBD but it will be the week of August 19th). Last year we had great door prizes thanks to our amazing sponsors including:

AIA Alaska, Speedway Cycles, Alaska Railroad, REI, Steamdot, Paramount cycles, Spenard Roadhouse, Fire Island Bakery, Midnight Sun Brewery, City Diner, Great Harvest, Deb Winkelman, Alaska Club, Alaska Wildland Adventures, Beartooth, and Side Street Espresso.

And of course there will be some fantastic trophies for the winners that you can display in your office for the entire year.

Award recognition will be given in the following categories:

• Business winners for each category
• Most individual miles by bike and by foot (first, second and third place)
• Most trips made (first, second and third place)

We welcome sponsors and prize donors.  Let us know if you’d like to be a sponsor and contribute to this celebration of people power.  Contact catherine@callbluesky.com to find out how you can contribute.

Watch for competition updates on BCA’s Facebook page and our website.

The BCA-AIA Summer Bike Commute Challenge is all wrapped up. It again proved to be a fun and engaging competition with over 40 teams participating and over 47,000 miles commuted by bike. The average percent of trips made by bike in Anchorage is reported to be 1.5%.  The competition is broken down into classes based on employer size and business compete to have the highest percentage of trips by bike.

Our 2012 Bike Commute Challenge winners are:

• X-Large (over 200 employees): Conoco-Philips with 1.2% bike commute trips.
• Large (between 51-200 employees): Alaska Center for the Environment & Trailside Discovery Camp with 10% bike commute trips.
• Medium (between 16-and 50 employees): ECI/Hyer Architecture and Interiors – Hyer’s Flyers with 17% bike commute trips (and winner second year in a row).
• Small (between 1 and 15 employees): Kittelson & Associates with 39% bike commute trips (and winner second year in a row).

For the most miles biked, the top three individuals are:

• Cindi Pannone (USKH ) with 1539 miles.
• Kelsey Clinton (Alaska Center for the Environment/Trailside Discovery Camp) with 862 miles.
• Art Copoulos (ConocoPhillips) with 852 miles.

For the most trips made out of a possible 136 trips, the top three individuals are:

• Marcus Geist (USKH) with 112 trips.
• Jim Gove (ANTHC, CHS, Hepatits & Liver Disease Clinic) with 108 trips.
• Raylene Erickson (Anchorage School District Education Center) with 104 trips.

Our awards ceremony would not be possible without our sponsors. A big thanks to:

• Alaska Wildland Adventures
• The Alaska Railroad
• The Alaska Club
• The Bear Tooth and Moose’s Tooth
• City Diner
• Deb Winkelman Bike Jewelry
• Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop
• Great Harvest Bakery
• Midnight Sun Brewery
• Paramount Cycles
• Resource Data, Inc.
• REI
• Sidestreet Espresso
• Speedway Cycles
• Spenard Roadhouse
• Steamdot Coffee

Here are the full results

Continue reading »

May 9th Is National Bike to School Day. To celebrate Bike to School Day and in an effort to inspire students and teachers to bike to school, we have found an especially uplifting and inspiring story about a 6th grader who loves to bike. We hope you enjoy this story as much as we do and that Nathan’s story inspires you to go by bike.  And with that, I am excited to offer the second in BCA’s series, I Bike Anchorage.

Brian Litmans, BCA Board President

Nathan Shuttleworth: Leading a new generation into year-round bike commuting

by Tim Woody

Any cynical adult meeting Nathan Shuttleworth for the first time is likely to be overcome by a restored feeing of optimism. This is the kid you want living next door: smart, unerringly polite, and inquisitive. And, at the age of 12, he’s a year-round bicycle commuter in Anchorage.

Nathan first started riding a bike to school at Kasuun Elementary a couple of years ago when he was in fourth grade. But this past winter, he took it up a notch and rode through winter after investing in studded tires with money he had received for his birthday and earned by clearing snow from a neighbor’s driveway.

“I’m in debt right now. I owe my parents money,” Nathan said after mentioning that he also recently upgraded to a new bike, a Novara Bonita, because his old bike was “completely trashed.”

But like most bike commuters, he can’t help himself. “I love to ride. I always thought it was fun to ride to school. It’s easier than walking.”

Nathan is simply inspiring, said his school librarian, Amy Dalton, who is a year-round bike commuter herself. Since Nathan started riding in winter, even his teacher has started riding to school, Amy said.

“Here’s a boy that just stands out in a crowd. He surpasses any kid that we have deemed a leader, just by example, and the way he conducts himself every day,” Amy said. “I just adore this kid.

“There’s just not too many Nathans out there. He’s not looking to be like everybody else.”

That’s a good thing for a sixth-grader who pedals through dark, snowy mornings while many of his friends are happy to hitch a ride in their parents’ SUVs. “Some of them think it’s kind of weird that I’m the only one riding to school,” Nathan said.

He admits that environmental concerns are a factor in his decision to travel by bike, but Nathan says it’s really just more fun. His younger sister’s babysitter routinely offers him rides to school, but he prefers to pedal.

His ride to Kasuun is short — a mile or less, each way — so Nathan is looking forward to middle school next year for the simple reason that it’s farther away and he’ll be able to ride longer.

He already has supportive parents, but he’s hoping to find a more supportive school, where maybe the bike racks won’t be buried by snowplows, and maybe the administrators won’t discourage winter biking, as happens at his current school.

Anchorage’s elementary school administrators may not be ready for 12-year-old winter bike commuters, but that’s probably because they’ve never previously encountered a kid like Nathan Shuttleworth.

He’s a force of nature in the form of a determined and independent boy.

Who knows? He might even be a force for change.

This is the second in a series of I Bike Anchorage stories  about the city’s devoted bicycle commuters — riders who see bikes not as toys, but as a viable means of transportation for getting to work and school, shopping, and running errands. These profiles will appear quarterly and be written by Tim Woody, a year-round bike commuter and author of a blog called Bicycles & Icicles. If you would like to nominate a profile subject, drop Tim an email at icybikes@gmail.com. Tell him a little about the person’s commuting habits and why he/she has an interesting story to tell.

Winning Bicycle-Pedestrian Campaign Training

Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage and Alaska Trails are collaborating with several organizations to bring the Alliance for Bicycling & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists to Anchorage.

On May 7th, the Alliance and the League will be hosting an evening workshop for organizations working on transporation/sustainability issues. This is an incredible opportunity for advocacy and business organizations in Anchorage to learn more about how we can build successful campaigns and collaborate to achieve our missions and make our cities and Alaska more bicycle-friendly. We hope you can attend this important workshop, where we can all collaborate and discuss how to make Anchorage and Alaska more sustainable and livable. It would be great if you could join us.

Please register as soon as possible so that we can prepare enough training materials.

The Advocacy Advance partnership between the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists invites Alaska bicycle and pedestrian advocates to attend an evening advocacy campaign training on May 7.

Hosted by Alaska Trails and the Bicycle Commuters of Alaska, this workshop – modeled after the Alliance’s signature Winning Campaigns Trainings – uses proven curriculum, targeted specifically to the unique needs and experience of bicycle and pedestrian advocates.

Participants will receive a crash-course in key organizing tactics for identifying, strategizing and implementing campaigns that transform the transportation landscape in Alaskan communities. Content will address the mechanics of public funding campaigns in preparation for the Action 2020 Workshop held on May 8.

Continue reading »

In mid December, BCA was excited to see that Senator Begich’s amendment to a transportation safety bill passed unanimously through the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The amendment encourages states and local governments to design and build roads that are safe for both motorized and non-motorized users.  In a rare bipartisan effort, after introducing the measure, Senator Begich worked with Senator Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, to ensure the amendment allows states the flexibility to write a policy that works best for their state. This common sense measure does not add any cost for the federal or state governments and does not require one design for all roads; it just requires smart planning. As a result, the amendment passed the committee with unanimous support. That’s impressive  because every other vote that day in the Committee fell along party lines and shows the type of strong leadership Senator Begich has brought to Washington D.C.

The Begich safe roads Amendment is good for Alaska. According to the 2009 American Commuter Survey more people commute to work by biking and walking in Alaska than in any other state. Unfortunately Alaska also has the third highest rate of biking and walking fatalities. One in every seven traffic fatalities is a bicyclist or pedestrian. Nationally, pedestrian deaths and injuries are increasing. By ensuring that bicyclists and pedestrians are taken into account in the design phase, the Begich safety amendment saves lives and money by building our streets right the first time.

Another step to improving safety for pedestrians and bicyclists is to build new biking and walking infrastructure on existing roads, and Senator Begich has been a consistent supporter of that too – from his days as Mayor of Anchorage to his current role as Senator. As Mayor he championed improvements to Strawberry Road and 9^th Avenue in Anchorage. This year in the Senate, he championed maintaining the Transportation Enhancement fund, the main source of federal funding for biking and walking projects. The program sets aside one to two cents of every transportation dollar for things like sidewalks, bikeways, and other uses that make our roads safe and complete. In Alaska these funds have been used for projects like the Blue Ice trail at Portage and improving access to Chester Creek trail and UAA trails here in Anchorage.

On behalf of all those who currently use their bicycle for transportation, as well as those who would but are still apprehensive about getting on a bike and mingling with motorists on the streets of Anchorage, BCA thanks Senator Begich for his leadership in making our streets safer for all users.

Bike to Work Day is just around the corner. We hope you have already registered. If not go to the Muni’s Bike to Work day page and register today to be eligible for a Trek 7.1 RX donated by Chain Reaction Cycles!

This year we are very excited to bring back the popular BCA Bacon Station. You can find us on the Chester Creek trail in the park just east of the tunnel under the Seward Highway. We’d like to thank Spenard Roadhouse for donating the bacon, Raven’s Brew Coffee for the coffee and Great Harvest Bread for the cookies!

This year we are also excited to see several businesses taking the lead and hosting their very own coffee and treats stations throughout the city.

We will be providing more details on all of the Bike Stations soon.  For now we know of the following stations:

• Chain Reaction Cycles will be at it again with the station located on Elmore at the Elmore/Abbott intersection. Their station will be sponsored by House of Bread.

• Newcomers to Coffee & Treats, CRW Engineering Group and DOWL HKM will put aside their relentless rivalry for one day—and one day only—to offer a joint venture replenishment station for Bike to Workers. Stop by the NE corner of Tudor and C Street (in front of the big red fish) for treats and prizes!

• South Central and ANTHC will again have a station outside of the ANTHC building (near Elmore & Tudor)

• Thompson & Co. Public Relations will be providing goodies and coffee from Kaladi Brothers Coffee at 9th and E. St.  The Anchorage Downtown Partnership will be there with raffle drawings for dining certificates at downtown restaurants.

For those who fear they may get sweaty, all the Alaska Club locations are offering free showers to anyone who brings in their bike helmet on Bike to Work Day, Friday May 20^th.

View Bike to Work Stations in a larger map

In addition to the morning Coffee and Treats, South Central and ANTHC will have a blessing of the bikes and pizza party!

12:15PM

Blessing of the Bikes located behind the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium building adjacent to the bike trail at Tudor and Elmore.

4:30PM—6:30PM

Bike Bash Pizza Party for the whole family!

Pizza Party featuring live music and the chance to bike through a giant inflatable colon.

Bash located behind the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium building adjacent to the bike trail at Tudor and Elmore.

Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 20th. Team registration is open. In 2010 more than 2,500 cyclists were counted at key intersections on BTWD. Businesses and organizations can register teams and take an online survey for drawings of prizes and tee-shirts. Fun events will take place before and after the workday. For more information and registration go to www.muni.org/biketowork Contact: Anchorage Health and Human Services (907) 343-4715.

Don’t forget about the Bike to Work Festival! The Festival will take place Friday, May 6^th at the University Center Mall from 5:00-8:00 PM. Get ready to ride by learning about bicycle commuting, safety, products and more. The utility cycling contest “Freeze Your Keys” concludes, and Off the Chain bicycle cooperative will offer bike valet services and accept bicycle donations.  More information: www.muni.org/biketowork Contact: Green Star at (907) 952-0047.