Allston-Brighton bikes

Dear Friends of Bay State Bike Week,

On behalf of the city of Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Bay State Bike Week organizing committee, I would like to cordially invite you to the Bay State Bike Week Kickoff Press Announcement and mini-bike ride.

• Monday, May 11, 2009
• 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM; departing City Hall at 12:00 sharp.
• Start @ 1 City Hall Plaza, Boston, MA (at flagpole on Cambridge Street side).
• Finish @ Christopher Columbus Park, Boston, MA

Together we will bike 1 mile from City Hall Plaza to Christopher Columbus Park for the speaking portion where Mayor Menino and members of the Mass Commute team launch Bike Week. Thank you T-shirts provided to first 50 arrivals and water bottles to all who join.

R.S.V.P preferred but not required: Nicole.freedman.bra@cityofboston.gov

Sincerely,

The Bay State Bike Week Team

Come celebrate Bike Week with hundreds of cyclists and enjoy our FREE BREAKFAST, BIKE EXPO AND MUSIC on City Hall Plaza in Boston on Friday May 15th from 7 AM to 10 AM. Ride home with your gift bag and water bottle. And if that is not enough, we will personally escort you to downtown Boston. You can join any of our police-escorted cycling convoys for a safe and fun commute to work and meet new friends. Led by experienced cyclists and escorted by Boston Police, convoys follow a fixed schedule and route and originate at locations throughout metro-Boston. All convoys finish at City Hall Plaza Boston. You can join a convoy in Boston, Cambridge, Arlington, Newton, Dorchester, West Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain. More event and route information is available at: http://baystatebikeweek.kintera.org/faf/help/helpEventInfo.asp?ievent=300139&lis=1&kntae300139=46AB74DCE2174141BBB4C2A3232AE3AA

Please spread the word to ALL who may be interested!

If interested in being a ride leader for the Allston-Brighton route, contact Amy (volunteer coordinator) at: Amy@hubonwheels.org

We’re meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday, 4/28/09) at 7pm at Herrell’s Cafe. The recent weather’s been getting lots more folks out on bikes, and those of us who ride tomorrow may NEED a cold treat instead of coffee! Please join us to connect, brainstorm, and learn about various A-Bbikes and related projects and updates in person. For those unable to attend, please feel free to contact us by e-mail to learn more about how to get involved.

We’ll be meeting 3/31/09 at 7pm at Herrell’s Cafe. Please join us to connect, brainstorm, and learn about various A-Bbikes and related projects and updates in person!

Learn more about Mayor Menino’s bike initiatives and what’s in store for 2009!

Mayor Menino kicked off Boston Bikes a year ago with a strong commitment to transform bicycling in Boston. Since then, Boston Bikes has installed 250 racks, added several miles of bike lanes, started a bicyclist advisory board, worked with nearly 500 youth, and engaged over 7,000 cyclists in a variety of programs, both old and new. Hub On Wheels, Bike Friday, Bay State Bike Week, and Rock Roll & Ride were just some of the fantastic cycling events enjoyed by the Boston cycling public this year.
To learn more about the Mayor’s initiatives thus far and to find out what is in store for 2009, we invite you to join us for a public presentation sponsored by the Livable Streets Alliance. The presentation will take place on January 29th at the Boston Public Library Rabb Lecture Hall at 7:00 PM.

We also invite you to take the time to read the Boston Bikes Annual Summary. View the report at: http://www.cityofboston.gov/TridionImages/AnnualSummary2008_tcm1-3431.pdf

The first A-Bbikes meeting of this year is scheduled for the same time as the DCR’s follow-up meeting regarding the BU bridge… so we’ll plan to meet briefly after the DCR meeting, location TBD by those attending. We hope to see you there!

Excerpts from MassBike’s last update re: the BU Bridge meeting…

BU (and Craigie ) Bridge(s) Update: January 27, 2009

The DCR is holding this follow-up meeting for the first two projects in the Accelerated Bridge Program. The initial public meetings on the BU and Craigie Bridges were very well-attended by the cycling community. When the DCR presented plans that did not adequately address bicycling, the negative response from cyclists was immediate, and the DCR heard you! The DCR has now promised a series of steps to ensure that bicycling needs are better addressed on these bridges and throughout the rest of the program. At this meeting, the DCR will show us their revised plans. We need lots of bicyclists at this meeting to give a strong response to whatever we see, good or bad. Tuesday, January 27, 2009, 6-8 pm, Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center, MIT, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge.

Season’s greetings! In light of the holiday and winter season, we plan to have our last meeting of 2008 AT 6PM AT HERRELL’S CAFE. For those of us still biking, the earlier hour and a bit of warm goodness in our belly may make the ride home a bit more pleasant ;

We’ll have upbeat updates and pics from the A-BKIDZ ridenslide program (the fleet of bikes and helmets recently placed at West End House)… announce the grant award from the Boston College Neighborhood Center for our proposed pilot for “Helmets in Play”… and more!

For those of you traveling or with other plans, we certainly understand and hope to see you next year.

To ALL…
best wishes for more happiness, health and peace while peddling in 2009!

A-Bbikes

Hey A-Bbikerz… just a reminder that our next meeting is TONIGHT at 7pm!!!

At an A-Bbiker’s suggestion, this month’s meeting will be in the Community Room at the Allston-Brighton Police Station. The agenda will include updates on the bike/helmet fleet recently placed at the West End House Boys & Girls Club, the details of the proposed helmet distribution program through the Joseph Smith Community Center, our plans for an Earn a Bike program early next year, the exciting stuff going on at BUbikes and more!

If you plan to attend, please send a quick e-mail to let us know so that we have a head count for tonight. If folks are interested, we’ll meander down to Smoken Joe’s for some refreshments afterwards…

We hope to see you there!

A-Bbikes

ABbikes@gmail.com

www.A-Bbikes.org

A MassBike ride to some of Boston’s famous and lesser-known graveyards in honor of Halloween. Trip leaves at 9:30am and will be about 15 miles and take about 3 hours. We will start from the Central Burying Ground on the Boston Common near the corner of Boylston and Charles. Saturday October 25, 2008 at 9:30AM. For more information contact Dick Bauer <dick.bauer@alum.mit.edu>

If you know a kid in Allston-Brighton who wants to participate (and can get a guardian/parent’s permission) but needs a bike, helmet and/or ride to the event, please let us know at ABbikes @gmail.com and we’ll try to help out!

Check out http://www.gbnemba.org/kidsday2008.php for all of the updated 411!

TKMTB Day 2008 is part of the MA Department of Conservation and Recreationʼs (DCR) “No Child Left Inside” initiative and sponsored by the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) and Greater Boston New England Mountain Bike Association (GBNEMBA)