FABB Blog

 

Faces of Fairfax – Jeff Lewis

Jeff Lewis

FABB recently had the pleasure of having a long conversation about bicycling with Jeff Lewis, a teacher from Vienna. Jeff has been using his bike for transportation to and from work for several years. He told us that he enjoys being outside, getting exercise every day, and helping the environment. He likes to serve as an example to his students for using bicycles for transportation and recreation, believing that young people respond more to the actions rather than the words of adults. He also said that after one of his cars “died” last year, he was so comfortable with his bike commuting that he decided not to get another one. He mentioned that having one car payment instead of two really makes a difference in the family budget.

Jeff rides every morning with his 9-year-old daughter to Wolftrap Elementary before continuing on to Oakton High School where he teaches Spanish. At other times he bikes with both of his daughters to get ice cream in town, pick up a few items at the grocery store, or just to ride on the W&OD Trail. He is pleased to see that his daughters seem to feel the same sense of independence and adventure when biking that he felt as a kid.

In response to our question about what he enjoyed most about biking, Jeff said that time spent biking with his two daughters is something he would always treasure. He then returned to the sense of adventure he felt as a kid and continues to feel:
When asked what he would like to change to make it easier and safer for him to ride, Jeff replied that more dedicated bike lanes would make a big difference. “Biking is so much safer and more enjoyable when you can be confident you aren't going to get run over,” he said. He added that there should be better driver's education about the rights of cyclists as well as how and when to pass a cyclist.

Labels: Faces of Fairfax, oakton, vienna, w&od trail, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Steve Ward at 3:26 PM permalink

 

Bike to School Day 2013 - Summary report

Thanks to Jeff Anderson, leader of Wolfie's Bike Train at Wolftrap Elementary School, FABB member, and recipient of this year's WABA Education Award, for the following summary report of Bike to School Day. If you have more news, please leave a comment. The event was a great success and we hope the turnout is an indication that more kids will be biking to school and for other short trips in the years to come:

Marshall Road ES

The second annual National Bike to School Day was held on May 8th. More than 1,400 schools across the nation participated with 85 in Virginia. Of those 85, 35 were Fairfax County Public Schools. This was a 75% increase over last year's 20 schools participating. Rain threatened some of the planned events with some schools opting to postpone until May 10th. A few intrepid schools, including those who run bike and walk events all year, carried on and fortunately the weather cooperated. Maybe it was a result of Vienna-based Wolftrap Elementary taking part in broadcasting WJLA ABC7's morning weather report as they prepped for the day and scaring the weather demons away.

In preparation for May 8th, a few schools, Marshall Road ES and Oak View ES, held bike rodeos the weekend before whilst Vienna ES held a bike and trail safety session during school the Friday before. This is great news as we need more bike and pedestrian safety curriculum to be taught to future members of FABB.

Wolftrap ES - Check out all the bikes!

Many schools ran their first ever bike to school day events. In Reston, all seven elementary schools participated for the first time and ran a "most bikes in the rack" challenge. Hunters Woods ES has a very challenging transportation climate. They are a "Magnet" school which means they draw kids from around the county. They ran their first bike train (35 bikes) with a Fairfax County Police Bike Patrol escort. Terraset racks were full with around 115 kids bikes. Thanks to the Reston Association's PBAC for getting the word out and recruiting their members to volunteer their time. Leading up to Bike to School Day, Kent Gardens in McLean used a bicycle to teach simply machines as part of their Science, Technology, Engineering & Math program/ They had over 100 bikers riding to school.

Hollin Meadows ES

At the other end of the County, Hollin Meadows ES ran their postponed event on the 10th and had over 90 bikes in their racks. Delegate Scott Surovell led one of the groups riding to school. Flint Hill ES (which had 61 kids bike) in Vienna had a fun spin on the day by awarding PE credit for distance walking or biking if they mapped out their route on google and showed the PE Teacher.

And the fun wasn't limited to elementary schools. Kilmer Middle School participated as they always do with over 110 bikers whilst three other middle schools (Rocky Run, Luther Jackson and South County) ran smaller sized events. Even two high schools, Annandale and Woodson, participated - a first for FCPS. Woodson has four History teachers who regularly commute to work via bike, so look for big things from them next year.

Reston bike patrol at Hunters Woods ES

In Vienna, six elementary schools ran their Bike/Walk Challenge week, now in it's fifth year. It's a week long challenge of getting kids to walk or bike to school, challenging parents to avoid KissNRide and challenging each other to massive trophies - the Challenge Cup and the Bike Cup. This year, Wolftrap ES walked away with the Challenge Cup with over 1150 trips to school made by students over the course of 5 days. Vienna ES retained the Bike Cup after first timer Westbriar ES took the lead early, only to be overtaken by Wolftrap with 102 bikes in the racks on National Bike to School Day. Wolftrap went into the final day with a lead in the Bike Cup but Vienna pulled out a huge bike day w/ 113 bikes in the racks, surpassing Wolftrap's second 100+ bike day.

One of the Hunters Woods ES bike trains

Bike trains were running all over Vienna all week - some with bike patrol police escort and teachers and some with local Professionals and 6x World Champions. Congrats to the kids of Cunningham Park, Louise Archer, Marshall Road, Vienna, Westbriar & Wolftrap for recording over 5,000 trips by foot or pedal. Rumor has it those 7 schools in Reston are gearing up for a Reston vs. Vienna Challenge. Wouldn't that be fun......

Overall May 8th - National Bike to School Day in Fairfax County was a great success and we look forward to International Walk to School Day in October.

Side Note: Arlington Public Schools participated for the first time this year, with all 31 schools promoting the day and running various events. Although Fairfax is 7x larger than Arlington, wouldn't be amazing to see all 140 FCPS elementary schools participating!

Labels: bike to school day, hunters woods elementary school, kent gardens es, vienna bike/walk challenge, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 12:36 PM permalink

 

Wolfie's Bike Train article at NWF

How One Parent Made Biking a Priority for Fairfax County Public Schools is the title of a good article on the National Wildlife Federation Global Warming blog about FABB's Jeff Anderson and Wolfie's Bike Train that he leads:
On a related note, the National Wildlife Federation office in Reston has had an informal bike sharing system for many years. In 2010 they won the Bicycle-Friendly Employer Challenge at Reston's Bike to Work Day

Labels: jeff anderson, national wildlife federation, wolfie's bike train, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 11:04 PM permalink

 

Bike to School Day in Fairfax

Wolftrap ES

We just received some photos from Bike to School Day taken at several Fairfax County schools. Here's an early report from Jeff Anderson:

• 80 at Wolftrap Elementary School - Principal Dr Blain, Charlie Strunk of FCDOT and Linda Watkins of Inova Safe Kids Coalition all rode w/ us.
• 50 at Marshall Road ES - Two teachers rode w/ the kids
• 40 at Oakview ES - There are 3 bikes usually and the best part was Mrs. Glazewski, the school Principal, rode her bike in from Centreville and led the bike train around the school to the bike racks!
• 25 at Louise Archer ES - Principal was happy this happened.

Marshall Rd ES

Louise Archer ES

Oakview ES

Update May 10: See a video of Wolfie's Bike Train from Vienna Patch, Video: Students Ride for National Bike to School Day. The accompanying article summarizes the day's activities.

As a bicycle instructor I would have liked to see the kids stop at the stop sign and signal before turning. With a large group like that it's difficult for each student to stop but the danger is that kids learn to roll through stop signs.

Wolftrap Elementary has made great progress regarding kids biking to school, from biking being banned at the school seven years ago to having around 70 kids biking yesterday.

I especially like the final quote from the video: "We did it mommy!"

Labels: bike to school day, louise archer elementary school, marshall road, oak view elementary school, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:01 PM permalink

 

Wolftrap Elementary bike rodeo video

Jenifer Madden has posted a good video of the Wolftrap Elementary School bike rodeo that was held on Sunday. The video is on her blog and is entitled Bike Rodeo Rustles up Kid Safety.

Trails for Youth conducted the rodeo that was paid for by a grant from Prevention Connections. Mechanics from Spokes, Etc. and bikes@vienna were on hand to check out the kid's bikes. FABB was there to hand out bike literature and discuss biking in Fairfax. FABB's Jeff Anderson, the crazy biker dad, was key to putting it together. Tomorrow he'll be leading Wolfie's Bike Train on Bike to School Day.

Labels: bike rodeo, jeff anderson, jenifer madden, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 8:49 PM permalink

 

Bike events this weekend

• Fairfax to Vienna Metro Ride - Leaving at 9:30am Saturday from Oasis Bike Works, the ride will be a chance to follow part of the proposed bike route from GMU to Vienna Metro. RSVP.
• Vienna Bike Rack Ribbon-Cutting - 11am-1pm Saturday at Maple Ave Shopping Center, 311 E Maple Ave, Vienna. Win a Breezer bike donated by bikes@vienna. See the event flier for a list of other giveaways.
• Cancelled - Wolftrap ES Bike Rodeo on Sunday. Due to predictions of rain, the bike rodeo is rescheduled to Sunday, May 6 from 12-2pm.

Labels: town of vienna, vienna metro, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 10:32 PM permalink

 

Wolfie's Bike Train rolls in the cold

Wolfie's Bike Trail didn't let a little cold  weather keep them from riding to Wolftrap ES in Vienna. Way to go Wolfie's. See more on Facebook

Update: It looks like you must be logged in to Facebook (and be a friend of Jeff Anderson?) to see the photo and comments.

Labels: vienna, wolfie's bike train, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 5:20 PM permalink

 

Wolfie's bike train rolls again

The Vienna Patch has a good article on the bike train (or bike bus) at Wolftrap Elementary School, Make Way For Wolfie's Bike Train. Jeff Anderson, who leads the bike train, is a FABB member:Here's the video from the article:

Labels: bike train, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 11:17 PM permalink

 

School bike racks in Vienna

John Brunow of bikes@vienna has been providing bicycle parking at two Vienna elementary schools, Cunningham Park and Wolftrap. The racks, which are event racks that we've used for bike valet parking in the past, are getting a lot of use as you can see from the photo. Many schools have no bike parking. At others kids are not even allowed to bike. It's great to see that this experiment in placing racks at these schools seems to have worked well. Let's hope it's incentive for the schools to do more to encourage kids to walk and bike to school.

Back in November of last year members of the Fairfax County School Board and Board of  Supervisors had a joint meeting to discuss in part the need to get more kids walking and biking to school. During that meeting Dean Tistadt, Chief of Facilities & Transportation Services for Fairfax schools said that if a school needs a rack he would provide one instantly. Maybe it's time to take him up on his offer.


Thanks to John for providing the racks not only here but at the Vienna Farmers Market, located next to the W&OD Trail, each Saturday. It does make a difference.

Labels: bike racks, cunningham elementary school, town of vienna, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 7:34 PM permalink

 

Wolfie's Bike Bus

Approximately 35 Wolftrap Elementary School students took Wolfie's bike bus this morning as part of Bike/Walk to School Week. The bus was organized by Jeff Anderson, a Wolftrap ES parent.

The cyclists rode about 2 miles through neighborhoods starting at Liberty Tree Lane, picking up other cyclists along the way. The kids had a great time, many riding to school for the first time, several wanting to ride again tomorrow. Let's hope the bike bus becomes a regular way for Wolftrap kids to get to school. Thanks to bikes@vienna for providing the bike racks.

Read more about bicycle buses (or bicycle trains as they are sometimes called) and about Safe Routes to School.

Labels: bike bus, safe routes to school, wolftrap elementary school

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:42 PM permalink