ACTION ALERT: TOMORROW--Please turn out for the Bike Bill Hearing at the State House. The legislature's Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on the Bicyclists' Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (H. 1411) this Wednesday, April 27 at 10:00 a.m. in State House Hearing Room B-1. This is a crucial piece of legislation that codifies bicyclists' right to be on the road, requires police to receive training in bike laws, and mandates that drivers check before opening their car doors.

ATTEND! We need you to show your support for this bill! It is essential that we have a good turnout of cycling advocates.

MassBike is coordinating testimony for this hearing from key advocates and organizations. Even if you can attend only for a few minutes, just your presence and your name on the sign-in list will be seen as important support by the legislators.

If you cannot attend, please send an email supporting the bill to the bill's sponsor Rep. Anne Paulsen ( Rep.AnnePaulsen@hou.state.ma.us).

CELEBRATE! On Tuesday May 3, at 4:30 PM, bicyclists will gather in Boston City Hall Plaza to receive a proclamation from Mayor Menino and send it off for the start of the northeast leg of the National Bicycle Greenway Mayor's Ride, a 51-city tour to show how bicycles can improve the health of cities as well as commuters.

The Boston rally will include people on old- fashioned "HiWheelers", teens participating in earn-a- bike workshops, bicycle commuters, and members of local bike clubs and advocacy groups.

It is being organized by the Boston Bicycle Festival, a non- profit working in partnership with the city to promote bicycling as a way of making Boston a better place to live and work. Other participating groups include MassBike and Bikes Not Bombs.

Boston Bicycle Festival Executive Director, Steven E. Miller said, "The Boston contingent is part of a national effort, culminating in Chicago, IL on July 30, to raise public awareness that cycling, in addition to being fun, is part of the solution for concerns around the need for better nutrition and more physical activity, transportation and environmental pollution, and the desire to increase the attractiveness of urban areas as a place for young families to live and work."

Click here to view the press release

PARTICIPATE! Boston-area Transportation Management Associations (TMAs) along with the City of Cambridge and Harvard University will sponsor the 2005 BIKE WEEK COMMUTER CHALLENGE: The Commute of Champions.

Bike To Work Week commercial (click here)

Click for more information on Bike Commuting

Click for stories of 1000 people being given free bikes.



Free Bike Tune-ups!
Wed. May 11: Mass General Hospital (Garage Bike Cage)
Thu. May 12: Verizon Building, 125 High Street (Garage)

CALENDAR
Sun. May 15: Bikes Not Bombs Bike-a-thon (9 am)
Mon. May 16: RedBones Bike Party (Davis Sq, 7- 10pm)
Thu. May 19: Back Bay Bicycle Breakfast (Boylston Plaza, Prudential Center, 7:30-9:30 am)
Sun. May 22: Boston Bike Festival Monthly Ride "The hills of Boston" (Meet at the rear Giraffe entrance to the Franklin Park Zoo, 9:30am)
Wed. May 25: Bike Bash (Kings, 10 Scotia Street, Back Bay, 5:30-7:30pm)

Fighting for a Cause, and Injured Along the Way
Bike activist Noah Budnick has battled for years for safer streets for city cyclists - especially the streets leading to the Manhattan Bridge bike path.

But after a crash in early April near the same bridge path he fought to make safer, Budnick was left unconscious in intensive care with severe head injuries.

"It's an unfortunate irony that Noah crashed at the very location that he has been working for two years to improve," said Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, the advocacy group where Budnick has worked since 2001. "It's just unacceptable that access to the bridge continues to be hazardous," White added.

"When there's an issue regarding bicycling or bicycling access in New York City, Noah's the spokesperson," said Jon Orcutt, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a former director of Transportation Alternatives. "Noah's the guy who shows up, and Noah's the one who's in a position to improve things for cyclists."

Noah is currently making remarkable progress with his recovery at Boston's Spaulding rehabilitation center.

Do you wish that someone would sweep the sand and trash from the bridges in the Boston area over the Charles River? Have you noticed that Boston and Cambridge, the cities on either side of the river, have been working for weeks now on cleaning their streets? You may not know it, but the bridges are the responsiblity of the State's Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR).

The Boston Bicycle Planning Initiative conducted a survey of seven bridges and submitted the results with documenting photographs in a letter to the DCR on April 21 requesting their immediate attention the the safety of bicyclists. MassBike, Bikes Not Bombs, and WalkBoston signed on to this letter.

Join hundreds of other cyclists on Sunday May 15th for the 18th annual Bikes Not bombs Bike-a- thon! Bicyclists of all ages and abilities are encouraged to ride-- there are three rides of varying levels to choose from.

Why ride? Because BNB has given 21 years of service for local and international development! Now in their 12th year at the Bicycle Recycling and Youth Training Center in Roxbury, they must raise $325,000 annually to cover expenses. This money overs six areas of youth programming: Earn-A-Bike, Vocational Training, Summer Youth Programs, After- School Tutoring, Girls in Action, and Bicycle Education Courses in public schools. The budget will enable BNB to ship over 2,000 bikes in 2005 to Central America and Africa, providing technicians' salaries, specialty tools and collaboration on project development.

The Senate today started floor debate on their transportation reauthorization bill, the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Equitable Transportation Efficiency Act of 2005 (SAFETEA). The bill contains numerous programs to enable communities to improve conditions for bicycling including continuation of core programs such as transportation enhancements, and two new programs: Safe Routes to School (funded at $70 million per year for five years) and Fair Share for Safety (requiring states to spend their safety construction funds in proportion to the percentage of bicycle and pedestrian fatalities). The debate is expected to last through the end of this week, and resume the week of May 9 after a Senate recess.