Champe Burnley and I made the trip up to Capitol Hill on 3/6 to join the other 500 bike advocacy types who were there for the LAB Summit and take part in Lobby Day. After marching from building to building as we visited the offices of most of Virginia’s senators and representatives, we had a productive lunch with Ginny Sullivan of Adventure Cycling, where we gave her some suggestions for improving their East Coast Route, and requested that they produce a new map that follows US Bike Rt. 1 through Richmond and on south to the NC border. Following that, it was more walking and more visits, until it was time for the Reception.
Here we soon felt like we were at a pep rally as Congressman Jim Oberstar was introduced by LAB executive director Andy Clarke.
Oberstar, a veteran, hard core cyclist who represents the district in Minneapolis where the bridge collapsed, has been cycling’s point man (with significant assistance from Oregon’s Earl Blumenauer) in Congress for a number of years and has been responsible for many of the programs like Safe Routes to School that have advanced the cause. With the Democrats attaining a majority in the House, he now finds himself as the chair of the powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where I just heard him on the radio roasting the President of Southwest Airlines for their failure to perform required maintenance on their planes. Supporting himself on a cane since he is about to have a hip replacement, he gave a rip roaring speech about the progress we are making, and urged everyone in attendance to keep pushing and keep the momentum going.
Then we observed the presentation of LAB’s National Bicycle Leadership Award to House Chief Administrative Officer Dan Beard, who had just announced a Capitol Hill bike sharing program which will go into effect within the next few weeks, where members and staff will be able to use a fleet of bikes that will be spotted around the Hill to get between buildings, run errands, and get some exercise on their lunch breaks. This just one portion of Beard’s “Greening the Capitol” initiative.
Just a few words about the monthly membership meeting at VHDA on 3/13. Lightly attended with only about 20 showing up, I started the program off by giving a report which mentioned the upcoming National Duathlon Championships, on the weekend of 4/26 & 27 on the same site (along 2nd Street behind the Ethyl Building) where the World Championships were held last October. Again, the SportsBackers have issued the call for volunteers for course marshals and other tasks. (Particularly needed are mountain bike riders to help with the Saturday events, which will feature some off-road, Xterra-like categories, in various age groups.) If you can help, log on to the SportsBackers website where they have an on-line sign up form. Following that we were treated to three excellent PowerPoint presentations:
- by Virginia Capital Trail Executive Director Beth Weisbrod, who gave us a progress report on the Trail construction followed by a plug for the Cap2Cap Trail ride on 5/10 (which RABA is partnering on and handling the Dorey Park end of). Brochures with entry forms are in all the Bike Shops. Get the date on your calendar and plan to ride it, and/or volunteer to help us with the usual details of parking, registration, SAG & rest stop. A little more than 600 rode it last year; and we are expecting more this year, so your support will be needed.
- by MS Society Development Director Christine Roberts, who told us about the Bike MS Ride (old timers will remember when it was called the Virginia Dare, as it had been named by Jerry Hefele, who was in attendance at the meeting) which, in its 23rd year is back on its old 150 mile over two days route from Richmond to Williamsburg and back on the weekend of 5/31 and 6/1. This year’s minimum fundraising goal per rider is $250 and all the details are on the www.bikeMS.org website.
- and lastly by Kim Berry, (should be fun in that office now, as the new BikeWalk executive director, replacing the retiring Allen Turnbull, has been announced, and her name is Kimberly Perry) who told us about this year’s BikeVirginia, which will run from 6/20 to 6/25. With the theme of “The Crooked Road” and country music history, it moves way out to the Southwest corner of the state, starting in Bristol, going into Tennessee for some segments, and over to Abingdon for the Barter Theater and a Creeper Trail option. With a firm cap of 2000 registrants, and over a thousand already signed up, you’d better get on board at www.bikevirginia.org if you don’t want to get closed out. We concluded the meeting by drawing for some nice door prizes that Kim had brought with her, among whose winners were Kim Moore with a Polartec water bottle, and several of us who won some sharp Bike Virginia cycling socks.
This is an excerpt from an article in the RABA newsletter, with material of local interest edited out.
Bud, Champe, Allen, Barbara, and Sheryl all attended the Bike Summit. More reports may show up soon, so keep checking this site!
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Interesting! In my area they recently had a charity bike ride for Habitat for Humanity, which was a huge success. I haven’t been riding much lately because of joint pain, but have been doing some new exercises and using a cream called Joint Medic; so I hope to be ‘back in the saddle’ soon!