JP Bikes First Meeting!

Got this awesome email today, if you live in Jamaica Plain and you cycle you need to be at this bad boy!

Also be sure to check out JP Bikes page here. (currently under construction)

When: October 21st
When: 7pm
Where 20 child st, JP

Greetings all,

As you may know, JP bikes has been in the works for a while. The time has come to start pulling together resources to make this happen. We will have our first meeting at the AGGASIZ school in Jamaica Plain (which is located: 20 Child St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130) at 7:00PM SHARP! Please bring snacks, a pen, a notebook, and an open mind as we will be brainstorming, planning and acquiescing on some crucial topics facing Jamaica Plain bicyclists (of which we number some 900!!). We’re looking for people to head a steering committee to get things in order, so if you know a friend or relative who has the fortitude to help lead us into the next year, please bring them. We will keep the duration of the meeting reasonable and keep the things moving.

If you need more information, you can reach me, Rajen Bhatt at this email address: [email protected].

Let’s make this happen.

Regards-
Rajen

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First RozzieBikes Meeting

A new bike group is being started to work on improving conditions for bicycling in southwest Boston. The first meeting of RozzieBikes, centered on Roslindale, on Wednesday, October 22, at 7:00 pm at 28 Sheffield Road #1, just off Walter Street near the intersection of South Street. Refreshments will be provided. People from West Roxbury and Hyde Park are welcome, too.

For further information, contact Doug Mink, [email protected]

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Street Talk Series: Transportation Reform For The US- Are Americans Ready?

“Transportation reform for the US- are Americans ready?”
Thu. Aug. 21, 7 – 8:30 pm
by Gary Toth, Director of Transportation Initiatives for the Project for Public Spaces
@ LivableStreets office space, 100 Sidney Street, Central Square, Cambridge [ map… ]

free and open to the public, donation suggested, beer/sodas provided compliments of Harpoon Brewery!

“The decisions engineers make will affect people’s lives. The street can’t be looked at as just a vessel for cars. It’s a place with many uses. What we want to do is try to help foster sustainable, livable communities,” Toth says.

That’s strong stuff coming from an engineer with 34 years experience inside the highway bureaucracy. And it’s not just a line he throws out to soothe angry citizens’ groups–Gary Toth during his tenure at NJDOT actually changed the way engineers think. In the old days, NJDOT would give most street widenings the green light, but Toth is dedicated to halting this vicious cycle. Instead of funneling all traffic from every residential and commercial property onto the strip, NJDOT is encouraging towns to create networks of streets with mixed-use developments, dispersing traffic over the whole system. The idea is to create livable corridors rather than endless sprawl. Sounds simple enough, but it’s actually a revolutionary change in suburban transportation and land use planning. He notes how Kentucky, Utah, Florida, Vermont and other states are joining New Jersey in seriously studying Context Sensitive Solutions–the discipline’s name for looking at streets and roads as something more than simply a way to move traffic. “It’s becoming a national movement with 20 or 25 states already showing some signs of getting away from the same old myopia.”

Gary has left NJDOT to focus on bigger transportation reform in America. He is an integral member of the T4America Coalition, which is working to shape the content of the next federal transportation bill. He is currently one of the eight instructors for USDOT’s “Training Course on Transportation and Land Use.” He is also a member of the Sustainable Urban Design Working Group of the American Public Transit Association and a member of the Strategic Highway Research Program’s Technical Coordinating Committee for Capacity. He was also part of the Sustainable Transportation Study Team charged with creating a conceptual plan for presentation to the US Congress, which ensures that the surface transportation system will continue to serve the needs of the U.S. throughout the 21st Century. Gary works part time for the Project for Public Spaces as Director of Transportation Initiatives.

Gary was featured in the article, “Rethinking the Urban Speedway,” (pdf) (For decades, highway engineers focused on designing wider, straighter, faster roads. Now, moving traffic quickly is no longer the sole goal), Governing Magazine, October 2005. “The traditional engineering solution to road problems is to make the road wider, straighter and faster,” Toth says. “Well, wider, straighter and faster is not always better.”

This event is sponsored by LivableStreets Alliance

Click here for more information

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Next AB-Bikes Meeting

The fledgling AB-Bikes is having it’s next meeting! If you live in the Allston Brighton area and you ride bikes you should go check these people out. They are just getting started and I am sure they are headed towards greatness.

Got this today.

Our monthly meetings are on the last Tuesday of the month… so here’s
a reminder that we’ll be meeting in the Jackson Mann Community Center
auditorium at 7pm on 7/29/08. If you plan to join us, please mark your
calendar and RSVP (with yes or maybes for a rough head count and
contact information in case there’s a change in plans) to
[email protected]

Please share this information and invitation with anyone who may be
interested. For more information about A-B bikes or to participate
online by posting on our blog(s) and/or joining our Google group,
please check us out at our website

All interested in supporting our mission to work to make Allston-
Brighton a more bicycle friendly and safe community are welcome to
join!

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Allston Brighton Bikes: First Meeting Tonight!

Got this in my email today:

5/27/08
7PM
smoken joes barbq
351 washington street, brighton
CONTACT: [email protected]

our first meeting is informal…
proposed agenda: introduce ourselves, brainstorm, collect contact info

this meeting will be about 30 minutes, with time afterward to hang out for refreshments/networking/socializing
about bike issues in our community.
(we expect to meet regularly with a more structured agenda in the future)

kinds of activities that have been proposed: local advocacy (racks, signage, lanes), rides (community, mountain, road); resources (information about inexpensive helmets, legal counsel with expertise w/r/t bike accidents and legal issues; other resources that may be helpful to the Allston/Brighton bike community); education (of bike community, business community, drivers, local EMS, fire and police). specific activities/issues/priorities of the group will be decided by those who participate.

Sounds like this could be another really cool local bike group. If you live in the area and ride bikes you should for sure check it out. More info at their website here. (they are also starting a site on BostonBiker!)

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