Cyclist & Pedestrian Awareness Week, Sept. 13-20, 2009

Image courtesy of Ride Solutions, MyScoper, and the CarLessBrit Museum.

Don’t forget — this week, Sept. 13-20, is Cyclist & Pedestrian Awareness Week. Feel free to list your happenings in the comments section below.

Support continues to grow for rails with trails as the Morris Area Freewheelers, a northern New Jersey bike club, has signed on to support the  VBF’s Rails With Trails resolution and efforts to require inclusion of bike and pedestrian facilities in government-funded rail enhancement projects.

With the addition of the Morris Area Freewheelers, there are now 34 national, statewide and local organizations supporting the RWT effort.

“We recognize the physical health, mental health, energy savings, and global warming implications of increasing the national bike-friendly infrastructure,” said said Jay Marowitz, President of the club.  “We feel that rails plus trails is a key component of this infrastructure and support this great project.”

Morris Area Freewheelers has over 650 members ranging in age from 18 to 84.  Most members   reside in   Morris,  Sussex, Hunterdon, Essex, Somerset, Warren, Union, and Passaic in northern New Jersey.

Join the Safe Routes to School “Dear Congress” campaign and help spread the word

Deadline: September 24, 2009

Dear Safe Routes to School supporters:

Today, we are launching our “Dear Congress: Why Safe Routes to School is Important” campaign. We need your help.

We’re striving to generate hundreds—if not thousands—of letters from children, parents, program staff and volunteers, and school and city leaders talking about why Safe Routes to School is important to individuals and communities and how it improves transportation, safety, health and the environment.

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership will bundle your letters and share them with members of the House and Senate so that they know how many people in their states and districts value Safe Routes to School. We will also share letters with the Congressional champions for the program, so they can be even more inspired.

While the timing of the federal transportation bill is still uncertain—it is absolutely the time to make sure that we have all the ammunition necessary to continue the fight to strengthen and expand the federal Safe Routes to School program in the next bill. With the many demands for transportation and limited financial resources, it’s critical that we elevate the importance of Safe Routes to School in the eyes of Congressional members; we can do this through your stories.

Here is how you can join the campaign: [continue reading…]

Submit your best bike photos, and win a bike tour of Tuscany, or a commuter bike from Breezer or DaHon! Many other fine prizes too are being offered by the Alliance for Biking and Walking, in their People Powered Movement Photo Contest. The aim is to build a library of high quality stock photos for grassroots organizations to use in their campaigns and promotional materials.

Submission deadline is Dec. 11, 2009. Individuals can submit up to 20 photos via the contest website.