Green Streets Initiative

May 29, 2009 Walk/Ride Day Newsletter

Here is a summary of our most recent edition of our newsletter! You can view the articles in full and all of our upcoming events here.

May 2009 Update    Dear Green Streets friends,    This is a great time of year to get out of your car! Even if you are not in an area with formal Walk/Ride Day celebrations, you can celebrate them on your own or start them in your own community. To motivate you, here are a few quotes from notable bicycle enthusiasts:   "To get to know a country, you must have direct contact with the earth. It is futile to gaze at the world through a car window."                         --Albert Einstein   "Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride."                         --John F. Kennedy Celebrations come in all shapes and sizes. The key is to celebrate those people who go green already while enticing those who don't to join in. We can help you figure out simple and fun ways to introduce Walk/Ride Days to your community, workplace, school or retail establishment. Harvard Square's Patios in Bloom This Walk/Ride Day is also the Patios in Bloom event in Harvard Square! You can walk your way to good food and special deals at a number of Harvard Square restaurants! Some of the participating restaurants also offer Walk/Ride Day incentives! Participating Walk/Ride Day sponsors include Grendel's Den and Veggie Planet. The event will run throughout the day on Friday, so come for lunch or dinner! Check the Harvard Square website for more information.   Boston's Bike Friday's Start This Month! Boston's signature summer bicycle activity -- Bike Friday -- will be kicking off on the May Walk/Ride Day! This is a great opportunity to give bike commuting a try if you live and/or work in the Boston area. Escorted bike convoys will depart from points outside Boston and descend on City Hall Plaza for free breakfast and entertainment at 7:30 am. Registration is free, but you must register ahead of time for convoys. And stop by the Green Streets table to paint cool stencil designs on your own clothes or bags!   The next Bike Friday Walk/Ride Days are July 31, August 28, and October 30. (There's also a Bike Friday on June 19.)   It's Not Too Late to Receive Zipcar Cash When You Donate to Green Streets!! Don't miss the opportunity to get Zipcar Cash for your donation to Green Streets in the month of April! New Zipcar members receive a dollar-for-dollar match of their Green Streets donations of up to $75 in Zipcar credit, and current members receive up to $50. You can make donations to us on-line, by mail, or in person at the Walk/Ride Day Big Green Party in Harvard Square.    Walkable Cities and Suburbs Would you be willing to get rid of your car in order to live in a special community? That is exactly what some families of Vauban, Germany did! This suburban community is proving that you don't need to own a car in order to live outside of the city. You can read the full article and interesting responses in the New York Times here! You don't have to pack up and move to Germany to find a walkable suburb! You may even already live in one. Click here to read a recent article in the Boston Globe on walkable Boston suburbs!   Please Check In on Walk/Ride Day! Here are some of our recent raffle winners:   Susi Ecker was entered in the Walk/Ride Day Raffle by checking in through our web site. Susi bikes 25 miles a day for her commute to and from work. She takes her bike on the T and even on a recent trip to Portland Oregon! Susi was the recipient of an EMS gift card.   Chris O'Connor was also the lucky recipient of an EMS Gift Card. Chris participated in Walk/Ride Day by walking the 2 miles of his daily commute.     Catherine Allen was the winner of a Green Streets T-shirt. Catherine walked four miles to get to work on Walk/Ride Day.   Beverly Neugeboren also won a Green Streets T-shirt by checking in on-line. Beverly walks to work everyday!   Don't miss out on your chance to win prizes like these as well as many others! Check in here for the May Walk/Ride Day!    And let us know how it goes!!! With best regards, Janie Katz-Christy, Director Green Streets Initiative, Inc. www.GoGreenStreets.org walk-ride-days@comcast.net

April Newsletter #2!

Here is a shortened version of the most recent edition of our newsletter. You can read the articles in their entirety here!

April 2009 Update #2    Dear Green Streets friends,    Happy Earth Week to everyone! Though our April Update went out last week (you can still read it here!), we have a few things to remind y'all about, and some fun news!   Remember to Donate to Green Streets In the Month of April to Receive Zipcar Cash!! Don't miss the opportunity to get ZipCar Cash for your donation to Green Streets in the month of April! New Zipcar members receive a dollar-for-dollar match of their Green Streets donations of up to $75 in Zipcar credit and current members receive up to $50. You can make donations to us on-line, mail them to us, or in person at the Walk/Ride Day Big Green Party in Harvard Sq.   Check-In Online and Join Our Roster of Raffle Winners! Here are just a few of our previous On-Line Check-In Raffle winners:  Tammy De Sola and her son are  won 2 passes to the Omni Theater at the Museum of Science. Seth Molloy won a gift card to Eastern Mountain Sports. Seth traveled by bike on Walk/Ride Day. Rebecca Wish Esche also was the recipient of an EMS Gift Card for entering the Walk/Ride Day On-Line Raffle!      The Healy School Kicks off Walk/Ride Days! The Healy School in Somerville celebrated its first Walk/Ride Day last Friday! The weather was beautiful and everyone was excited to be outside. Two "walking school buses" started from opposite ends of town and made stops along the route to pick up other people. The event was featured in USA Today (click here). Thanks to Shape Up Somerville Coordinator Nicole Rioles and Tufts Tisch Scholar Laura Bernescu, and all the other parents and city staff and others for helping get the event started! Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Holds Environmental Fair  The Green Streets student coordinator at CRLS organized an Environmental Fair in April to help raise awareness on what students can do to help the environment. Green Streets brought paint and supplies for students to decorate their clothes, book bags, and more.

Somerville's Healey School Kicks Off Walk/Ride Days!

The Healey School in Somerville, MA kicked off Walk/Ride Days last month with Walking School Buses and now plan on making these a monthly installation. The Healey Waking School Bus was featured in the Somerville Journal. You can read the full article about all the great work the Healey School is doing here!

10+ year Arlington MA Biking Ban Lifted!!

After years of a unwritten but uncontested ban on kids biking to school, the Hardy School in Arlington, MA launched a pilot that would allow and support children arriving on two-wheels..... This unwritten policy apparently was initiated years ago by a previous superintendent on no grounds other than the fact they did not want kids biking to school. Over the past nine months, I and several other energetic cycling advocates have met numerous times with the school committee and the superintendent to discuss this ban and to ask for another chance to get kids biking to school again.


PLEASE!!  We would love and need your comments and support; your support will help the “movement” towards getting town-wide support for cycling to school

Click here to read and learn more:

http://www.laurenhefferon.com/

-Lauren Hefferon is the Founder and Director of the Italian bicycle tour company Ciclismo Classico

25 Miles a Day and That's Not All!

On a daily basis my joy of commuting 25 miles roundtrip by bicycle to work and back home on Boston's city streets is interrupted by angry motorists, screaming, honking, or trying to cut me off. So, I was surprised and thrilled one morning while riding into work when a very friendly enthusiastic cyclist pulled up behind me at a light and called out, "It's you!!!" I looked over at the young woman and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you."

She said, "You wouldn't know me, but I recognize your bike covered with buttons and the pink fuzzy dice hanging off the back of your seat. I drive my car past you while you're riding your bike every morning on my way to work. You inspired me to commute by bike too, but I must admit I'm a bit scared of riding in traffic." I was so excited to hear that I was someone else's inspiration to start cycling that I spent the next 5 to 10 minutes giving her advice. I spent so much time discussing what dangers to look out for from motorists and pedestrians, how to make herself more visible with reflective clothing and blinking lights, what gear to buy to stay comfortable out in the elements, and how to enjoy the day no matter what comes your way, that I was late to work!
 
She really made my day and I hope she continues to ride and becomes more empowered as she gains confidence riding in city traffic. Truly, the positive experience of cycling to work every day overpowers any negative interactions I encounter along the way.

-Susi Ecker

The Green Streets Initiative: Changing the World, One Car and One Month at a Time By Alyson Gagne

 Alyson is originally from New Hampshire. She currently lives in Allston and will graduate from Boston University in May with a bachelor's degree in print journalism. This article was written as part of her senior magazine journalism project where she worked on a team to produce a "green"-themed magazine.  Alyson gets around mostly using her bicycle.

If you want to save the environment, you do not need a million-dollar charity in your name. You do not need to grow out your hair and chain yourself to a tree. You do not need to be a hippy or a former vice president of the US to save the earth. The great thing about saving the environment is that we can all contribute by doing something small to make a big difference.

That’s the idea behind the Green Streets Initiative, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, MA. Its members ask local residents to leave the car at home just one day every month and use alternative transportation to get to work.

These are what Green Streets calls its Walk/Ride Days, encouraging people to walk, ride a bike, take public transit, or use some other kind of alternative transportation to get to work on the last Friday of every month. As a fun twist, Green Streets also asks participants to wear green, prompting the slogan “Go, and Wear Green.”

“Part of Green Streets’ success has been in being a small, but repeating commitment,” according to the website. “Even if people don’t participate the first month, often they do the next.” Green Streets was founded in 2006 by a group of parents in Cambridge who wanted to make their streets quieter, cleaner and safer for their children to play and get to school. It began by focusing on the schools in their city; now all public and private schools in Cambridge participate in the monthly event. Soon the idea spread to neighboring Somerville and Medford and is starting to make its way into Boston. There is even a chapter in Portland, Maine and one starting as far as the United Kingdom.

Janie Katz-Christy, director of the Green Streets Initiative, says the organization is concerned not just with environmental health, but also with public health and the benefits to the community that widespread use of alternative transportation can bring. Biking and walking can lead to healthier lifestyles—“More active commutes means less time in the gym,” she says—and can encourage people to shop at distinctive local places instead of huge box stores outside the city. “That’s not necessarily a green issue, but it’s an important issue.” One of the founding purposes of Green Streets was also to make the streets safer for people on foot or bike. “The more cyclists there are, the safer each one is,” Katz-Christy says.

To participate in Walk/Ride days, people can sign up on the Green Streets website. This enters them in a monthly raffle and makes them eligible for discounts at participating local sponsors. Sponsors include everything from bike and sports equipment stores to local restaurants to yoga lessons or tax preparation services.

The members of the Cambridge City Council, as well as Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons, participate in Walk/Ride days. Mayor Simmons also called for “Nine in ’09,” challenging the residents in her city to participate in nine Walk/Ride days in 2009. Katz-Christy suggests companies encourage their employees to join by offering them incentives; some companies distribute prizes like free movie tickets or enter their employees in raffles for free bicycles if they use alternative transportation. Senior members of management are encouraged to lead the way and set an example. “We’re all pretty impressionable,” Katz-Christy says. “If we see effective, successful people do it, we might do it ourselves.”

Katz-Christy sees the future of Green Streets in the expansion of Walk/Ride days within her own local areas as well as farther afield. She estimates that presently thousands of people participate in Walk/Ride days. She encourages people to use them as a stepping stone to increase their use of alternative transportation. For those who want to do more, information is available on the Green Streets website about how to start a chapter in their own communities.
Learn more at www.gogreenstreets.org

Get On Your Bike

“Bicycling is a fantastic way to get around,” says Janie Katz-Christy. But many people don’t consider it for their commute. “ A big reason why is perceived safety. Biking in the city can indeed be intimidating, but once you know the basics you’ll be cruising like a pro. Most importantly, sidewalks are for walking. Riding a bike on the sidewalk is unsafe for pedestrians who are slower than bikers and have no way to predict their movements. The road is the safest place for a bicyclist.

“Bicycles are vehicles and belong on the road,” according to the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. You have the same right to be on the road as a car. You are also required to follow the same traffic laws, such as stopping at stop signs and red lights, yielding to pedestrians and signaling all turns. You must also follow the flow of traffic, including using appropriate lanes at intersections. Riding against traffic is the single largest cause of collisions between bikes and cars. All bicycles should also have a white light on the front and a red light or reflector on the back when riding after dark.

Ride with authority and take up a lane of traffic if you need to. “Make sure to always take up as much space as you need for safety, and don’t let other traffic push you into the gutter,” says MassBike. “Motorists may act impatient but they aren’t likely to pass unsafely.” In fact, trying to stay out of the way of cars is usually less safe than maintaining your rightful place in traffic.

Here are some other tips from MassBike for riding a bike in traffic:
- Ride at least four feet from parked cars, out of the “door zone.”
- Move in a predictable straight line and avoid swerving.
- Yield to pedestrians, and when passing from behind announce your presence.
- When city busses stop to pick up and drop off passangers, pass on the left.
- Always wear a helmet. Brain injuries are the leading type of fatal and disabling injuries to bicyclists.
- When parking your bike, lock every removable part you can (including wheels) and take any you can’t   with you.
- Register your bike at your local police station.
- Check with your local mass transit provider for ways to bring your bike onto public transit.
- If you are still nervous, consider taking a class. Ask about classes at your local bike shop.