FABB Blog

 

Bike to School Day is next Wednesday

To get you inspired for Bike to School Day on Wednesday, May 7, here are a couple of Bike to School related stories:

Vienna ES bike parking

Record number of kids participate in Vienna ES Bike Friday - Vienna Elementary School holds Bike Friday every Friday from now until the end of the school year. Today 75 kids rode to school, which is 20 percent of the kids in K-6th grade. That's a record for their Bike Friday. Next week several Vienna and Reston schools are holding bike/walk challenges. See the summary from last year. Next week we'll be posting daily totals on the FABB blog.

Don't Be a Melon Head - Vienna Elementary School parent Sonya Marsden put together this video showing the benefits of wearing a helmet. Several kids demonstrate what happens when a watermelon is dropped inside a helmet vs. just being dropped. Melons were donated by Whole Foods Market and helmets were donated by Spokes, Etc. Don't Be a Melon Head.


Vienna Bike Rodeo - On Saturday, May 3 from 9 a.m. to noon at Vienna Volunteer Fire Department. Kids can learn more about bike safety at the Vienna Bike Rodeo on Saturday.

Ages: Preschool - 6th grade

Bike Rodeo will be held at the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department. Bring your bike and participate in the Bike Safety Course, Bike Inspections and Safe Riding Technique Demonstration.

Sponsored by the Town of Vienna Parks and Recreation Department, Town of Vienna Police Department and Safe Routes to School.

Reston Bike Rodeo - If you can't get to the Vienna Bike Rodeo you can always visit the Reston Bike Rodeo on Saturday, May 10 from 1-4 p.m. at Lake Newport Pool parking lot.

Labels: bike friday, bike rodeo, don't be a melon head, helmet, vienna elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 2:07 PM permalink

 

FABB at bike events in Vienna

Vienna ES bike rodeo

We attended several bike-related events in Vienna this week. Around 90 kids took part in the Vienna Elementary School bike rodeo on Monday. Trails for Youth conducted the rodeo with mechanical support from both Spokes, Etc. and bikes@vienna. Bike rodeos are one of the best ways for kids to learn the rules of the road and bike handling skills. One day all elementary kids will have the opportunity to attend a bike rodeo.

Hunter and Liz at Vienna Green Expo

On Thursday evening we had a table at Vienna Green Expo. We handed out bike safety literature and bike maps and spoke to several people about bicycling in the area. A common theme was that if we had better bike facilities more people would bike.

Maple Ave Shopping Center rack

Today there were two events in Vienna. The first was a ride from the City of Fairfax to Vienna Metro highlighting the proposed route that will be signed. Six of us left from Oasis Bike Works at 10am and took the short ride to the station. A long section of the route is along Old Lee Hwy which is narrow in a few sections and needs to either be widened or have shared lane markings installed.

Vienna Mayor Seeman cuts the ribbon

From the station we rode to Maple Ave Shopping Center to take part in the bike rack ribbon-cutting. Center shops offered discounts and other goodies and bikes@vienna contributed a bike that was raffled off (the winner will be announced on Monday). Mayor Seeman and Councilwomen Kelleher, Cole, and Sienicki were in attendance.

Eleven custom inverted U-racks are installed along the front of the shopping center. There's been a need for the racks here for a long time and it's great that the center management worked with the Town and Cris Janoski and others on the Vienna Bicycle Advisory Committee to install the racks. Thank you!

Breezer Greenway donated by bikes@vienna

Good things are happening in Vienna. What about in your community? Do you have good bike parking at local stores, schools, businesses? If not, why not ask store owners to provide it? Print out the 12 Bike Parking Essentials for Retailers flier and hand it to them. If you need help, let us know.

Update: Read the Vienna Patch article on the bike rack ribbon-cutting celebration, Maple Ave Shopping Center Welcomes Bike Racks

Labels: bike parking, mayor seeman, vienna, vienna bicycle advisory committee, vienna elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 5:14 PM permalink

 

Vienna Elementary School bike rodeo

Mayor Seeman and Bruce Wright (photo: Anne Pastorkovich)

Around 90 kids participated in the Vienna ES bike rodeo on Monday. The school is located adjacent to the W&OD Trail and close to neighborhood streets and many kids bike to the school. It was great to see so many kids having fun riding bikes and learning handling skills. Pat Childers of Trails for Youth was in charge of the rodeo. The event was sponsored by Vienna Elementary School PTA, Safe Routes to School, the Friends of the WO&D and the Town of Vienna.

Our friends from Spokes, Etc. and bikes@vienna were there to check out and tune the bikes. FABB was there to hand out the last of the county Bicycle Route Maps. The revised map should be available soon. Town of Vienna Mayor Seeman (right) was there as was Councilwoman Laurie DiRocco. Mayor Seeman said she plans to attend the Maple Ave Shopping Center bike rack ribbon-cutting event on Saturday. It's great to see so much support for bicycling in Vienna.

Labels: bike rodeo, town of vienna, vienna elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:02 PM permalink