North Shore Cyclists The Best Cycling North of Boston

If you’ve been keeping track of our blog, then you know that right now the US House and Senate are moving full steam ahead with a federal transportation bill. While advocates in the biking and walking community aren’t crazy about the Senate bill, it is vastly better than the highly ideological House version (deemed by Sec. LaHood, “The worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen in 35 years of public service.”).

All signs are that Massachusetts Representatives are ready to vote unanimously to kill the House bill, HR 7. (National opposition to the bill was so intense that House leadership has delayed the vote – see below.) We were even more excited to find out just yesterday that Senator Brown and Senator Kerry are co-sponsoring the Cardin-Cochran Amendment in the Senate, which would fix many of the problems in the Senate bill (more here). It is a profound statement to have the full Massachusetts delegation, on both sides of the aisle, stand up in full support of biking and walking. It is also a great sign that all the work we’ve been doing for years, with our advocacy partners, with Congress, and with our grassroots supporters is making a difference!

There are still a lot of moving pieces. On the House side:

• According to Mass Transit, the White House recently issued a warning that if somehow the House Bill were to make it the President’s desk, it would meet a veto.
• Our national partners are also reporting that, because the House bill was so terrible that House leadership couldn’t garner the votes to pass it, it has been broken up into three smaller bills. The transportation component won’t be voted on until after President’s Day (probably the week of February 27). (More info here.)
• Even though the there is an amendment being introduced to restore bike funding in the House bill, killing the bill entirely is probably still the best option at this point.

On the Senate side:

• The League of American Bicyclists reports that “the bipartisan Cardin-Cochran amendment is gathering support to restore dedicated bike/ped funding and preserve local control over this small sliver of transportation funding. We are hearing that MAP-21, the Senate bill, won’t now make it to the floor until the week of February 27.”

We heard that the Senators are hearing from more constituents about this amendment than any other transportation issue – so thanks to all of you for contacting them! Thanks to you, biking and walking is front and center in the debate over transportation funding. Thanks to you, we have a fighting chance to continue funding bike lanes, mountain bike trails, multi-use paths, child bike and pedestrian safety trainings, and the many other programs and projects that our tiny stream of federal money makes possible.

If you want to thank Senator Brown and Senator Kerry for their support, please do. And please consider supporting MassBike so that we can continue to make biking a priority in Massachusetts.

We told you late last week that the crisis in federal transportation funding was only getting worse, and to stay tuned for an Action Alert. This is it. The consensus among advocacy groups, like the Alliance for Biking and Walking, Transportation for America and MassBike, is that there is no chance for salvaging the House transportation bill. MassBike is in close touch with the Massachusetts delegation and is confident that we will have their unanimous opposition to this horrible transportation bill. (Which is why we are not asking you to contact your House Representatives about killing H.R. 7 – but you can if you want.)

Hope, then, lies in the Senate. Over the past few days, two amendments have been proposed to the Senate’s transportation bill (MAP-21, or S. 1813) that would fix many of the problems relating to bike funding. Without these amendments, the three key sources of funding for biking and walking (Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails Program) will no longer receive dedicated funding and will instead be forced to compete with many other programs for a smaller pot of money.

Today, we need you to contact Senator Kerry and Senator Brown to ask them to support the Cardin-Cochran Amendment and the Klobuchar Amendment.

Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) are co-sponsoring an amendment which would give local communities more access to Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. In Massachusetts, this amendment would likely make it easier for towns and cities to access this funding.

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) amendment would restore dedicated funding to the Recreational Trails Program, a key resource for off-road trails.

In Massachusetts, these programs have been leveraged into hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in off-road trails, paved multi-use paths, and improved signage, drainage, and crossings that remove barriers to biking. Just a few examples of worthwhile projects that received funding were:

• The Independence Greenway in Peabody for path construction;
• The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail in North Adams for trail construction;
• The New England Mountain Bike Association for maintenance and improvement of numerous off-road facilities around the state.
• The Jamaica Pond Trail in Boston for both construction and land acquisition.

We are asking you to do two things:

1. Call and/or email your Senators TODAY, tell them why bicycling is important to you, and ask them to SUPPORT the Cardin-Cochran Amendment and the Klobuchar Amendment to MAP-21 (S. 1813).

Senator John Kerry: (202) 224-2742, Email (select “Transportation” as Topic)
Senator Scott Brown: (202) 224-4543, Email (select “Transportation” as Topic)

Don’t have time to write your own email? Click here to send a pre-written email message.

2. Email action@massbike.org and let us know you contacted them!

We know that we have been sending out a lot of Action Alerts on federal issues, but we want you to know that it’s only because the situation has grown that dire. Thanks so much for adding your voice to this crisis – and stay tuned for more developments!

This year MassBike celebrates thirty-five years of promoting better biking. With its humble beginnings as the “Boston Area Bicycle Coalition” back in 1977, MassBike has had a history of growth and success. Since that time over three decades ago, we have expanded into a statewide organization with three local chapters, developed strong partnerships with other advocacy groups and government organizations, and hired an efficient staff of three full-time employees. MassBike has worked continuously to foster a safer, more accessible biking environment through education, legislation, and infrastructure design.

Here are just a few of the major successes we have had over the years:

• 1970s – Launched our education program, which has since educated thousands of adults and schoolchildren on safe riding
• 1985 – Successfully lobbied the MBTA to lift their ban on bikes
• 1992 – Helped lobby for the creation the Minuteman Bikeway, now one of the most popular rail trails in the U.S.
• 1996 – Secured passage of the Bike-Pedestrian Access Law, making Massachusetts one of only three states to guarantee equal access for cyclists on the road
• 2000-2011 – Lobbied the MBTA to: allow bikes on the T without a special pass (2000), dramatically expand the hours during which bikes are allowed on the subway (2004), purchase bike racks for 250 buses (2005), revamp bus driver training to ensure that drivers are aware of bicyclists (2010), and Helped to win reduced peak hour restrictions on the T’s Blue Line (2011).
• 2004 – Passed legislation requiring the Registry of Motor Vehicles to update the Driver’s Manual to include more information about bikes and bike safety
• 2005 – Persuaded the state to create the first Bicycle Advisory Board in more than a decade
• 2006 – Worked with the federal congressional delegation to win more than $5 million over five years to help make it safer for kids to bike and walk to school.
• 2009 – Helped work with legislators to create the Bicycle Safety Act which supplies significant legal protection to bicyclist throughout the state.
• 2010 – Partnered with MassDOT and MassRIDES to expand Bay State Bike Week into a truly statewide event
• 2011 – Launched our Same Road, Same Rules safety campaign, aimed at educating both bicyclists and motorists about their rights to road.

Over the years and with each new success, MassBike has evolved to meet the needs of bicyclist in Massachusetts. Currently supported by a membership base of roughly 3,000 members, we hope you join us in supporting all of the great work we have done and continue to do to advocate for the rights of bicyclist throughout the Bay State. If you haven’t already, please follow the link to become a member and support better bicycling for Massachusetts today!

Last chance to win this vintage t-shirt!

A few weeks ago we posted about a really important survey that we would like our organization’s stakeholders to fill out. As we plan for 2012 and beyond, we are looking for your input about our advocacy priorities and some information on who you are. This is our last notice! Please take five minutes and fill out the survey for a chance to win one of 25 awesome 30th anniversary MassBike T-shirts (pictured left). In order to be eligible for the drawing, you need to take the survey by Tuesday, February 14th.

Thanks so much for your input!

You may have heard about how Massachusetts and Boston have been on the rise as great places to bike. A recent report released by the Alliance for Biking and Walking confirms it! This report is good news for MassBike, which for 35 years has been partnering with other advocacy and governmental organizations to make cycling a safe, fun, and accessible mode of transportation throughout Massachusetts.

Looking at the report closely, it shows encouraging trends on the prevalence of biking in Boston and Massachusetts. Boston maintains one of the  lowest bike and pedestrian fatality rates of any US city and Massachusetts boasts the ninth-lowest fatality rate of any state. Meanwhile, funding for biking and walking projects has continued to steadily increase both within Boston as well as across the Commonwealth.  It is always encouraging to see an upward trend since, as this report points out, biking and walking makes serious contributions to improved public health, less traffic congestion, and better air quality.

But despite this positive news for MassBike and the Bay State, there are still serious challenges facing bikers. First, it is important to note that the statistics from this report combine the numbers for both biking and walking. We all know that Boston is “America’s Walking City”, and it is unclear how much of the #1 ranking is a result of walking as opposed to biking statistics.

When you drill down a little more, you can see some figures that indicate biking still has a long way to go. In Boston as well as statewide, around 70% of those who commute to work by bike are men. (It has often been noted that women are more risk averse than men, and so higher levels of women biking usually indicate a safer biking environment.) And our rate of fatalities for children under 16 is about 50% higher than the national average, indicating a strong need to improve facilities and bike education for our youngest cyclists.

MassBike is ready for the challenge of closing gaps in bike usage and safety, especially with events like Bay State Bike Week and our advocacy for the Vulnerable Road Users Bill. Here’s to an even better 2013!

As many of you know, every month on the 2nd Tuesdaywe invite our members to the MassBike office to help us with our mailings and to meet some other like-minded cyclists. As an added incentive we always supply pizza and beverages for everyone in attendance. We highly recommend coming by to check this event out as it is always fun way to spend a Tuesday night, helping support local advocacy and enjoying some free pizza!

This month because Valentine’s day falls on the second Tuesday of the month we will be pushing volunteer night back one night to Wednesday the 15th. I hope we see one and all at this great, bike friendly event. If interested in attending please RSVP by emailing austin@massbike.org. Thanks and I will see you next week!

Things have gone from bad to worse. On the House side, there has been an all-out assault not only on bike funding, but also transit, environmental review, and basically anything other than highways and bridges. The House Bill (H.R. 7) is one of the most extreme examples of slash and burn politics, described as “uniquely terrible,” (NY Times) “disastrous,” (Rep. Nadler) and “The worst transportation bill I’ve ever seen.” (Sec. LaHood) Because the Petri Amendment failed, the consensus among a wide variety of groups is that the best hope for biking and walking is to kill the House Bill entirely and start over. Transportation for America, a national transportation advocacy group, notes,

“More than 75 national organizations signed the letter [of opposition to H.R. 7] — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AARP, the American Public Transportation Association, the National Rural Assembly, American Society of Civil Engineers, LOCUS (real estate developers), National Association of Counties— and a huge list of other individuals and state & local groups, including the governors of Oregon and Washington, several state DOTs, state and local Chambers of Commerce, and hundreds of state and local organizations nationwide.”

You may be seeing Action Alerts from national organizations asking you to contact your Representatives to ask them to vote against the bill. Here in Massachusetts, MassBike and our T4MA partners are contacting all our Representatives, who we expect will all strongly oppose the bill.

With an incredibly diverse array of groups (including the Tea Party!) aligned in opposition to the House Bill, MassBike and our partners are concentrating on what’s happening in the Senate. You may remember our post several weeks ago about MAP-21, the senate’s version of the transportation bill. Amendments are still possible in the Senate Bill, including one expected to be filed by Senator Cardin. There may be new amendments by tomorrow or Monday, and we want to have everything on the table before you spend time getting in touch with Senators Brown and Kerry.

We are working hard with our organizational partners to make sure that the votes are there to kill the House Bill and to improve the Senate Bill. (In fact, Executive Director David Watson is at a Rails to Trails Conservancy meeting in Philadelphia right now to coordinate the national campaign.) Because the Massachusetts delegation has consistently supported biking in this process so far, and we are contacting them on your behalf, we aren’t asking you to engage your Representative now. And the situation in the Senate is still very fluid, so we want to be sure that the time is right before we call on you to contact our Senators.

We are expecting to issue an Action Alert by Monday as things become more clear in the Senate, so stay tuned! When we do send out the Alert, we will need you to take action immediately.

Have you ever walked the halls of the State House? Or met your state representative or senator? Do you want to?

We are in the very early stages of planning a state advocacy summit at the State House in May. A critical part to a state summit, though, is having people from around the state participate! (Democracy doesn’t work without citizen involvement, ya know?) This includes not only knocking on your legislators’ doors, but also potentially having an information table about local bike advocacy going on in your part of the state.

To that end, we are trying to get a sense of whether those in the bike community (that means you) would be willing to come to Boston for a weekday, morning time event on Thursday, May 17. A rough sketch of the event is as follows:

• You would set up a meeting with your representative or senator ahead of time.
• The event would start around 10 AM, at which point you would pick up an information packet for yourself and your legislators.
• We would give talking points and other tips on specific pieces of legislation (like our Vulnerable Road Users Bill) before your meeting.
• Come back to the main room, let us know how things went and eat some lunch.

So our questions for you are:

(1 = not at all, 10 = count me in)

1. On a scale of 1 – 10, are you interested in participating?
2. On a scale of 1 – 10, are you interested in having an information table for your local bike group?

Please send responses to annie@massbike.org. Thanks so much for the interest!

We just learned that the Petri/Johnson/Lipinski Amendment, which would have funded for biking and walking programs in the House Transportation Bill, was defeated by a close vote of 29 – 27. We want to give a huge thanks to Representative Michael Capuano, who voted in favor of the amendment, and to all of you who asked him to support it. We lost this battle, but the fight isn’t over. For a full listing of how the committee members voted, click here.

The good news is that because the vote was so close and had bipartisan support, there is a chance that we will be able to get the funding put back in later in the legislative process. However, this is by no means a certainty. We are almost definitely going to be calling on you again soon to voice your support to your member of Congress. In the meantime, we will be working hard with our national partners to form a strategy to continue funding for biking and walking.

We got an overwhelming response from our supporters in Mr. Capuano’s district, many of whom reported that they had contacted his office. This highlights how much we depend on our members and stakeholders to be effective in our advocacy. We need your help to continue the fight for biking, so please consider joining or making a donation to MassBike. (Our online store is undergoing maintenance, so please give us a call at 617-542-2453.)

Thanks so much for your support, and stay tuned!

You hopefully saw our first report on the MBTA fare increase and service cut proposals, which will have a negative impact on anyone who uses public transportation, bicyclists included. But in addition to hurting bicyclists who use transit for part of their bike trip, all other bicyclists will also be affected. With fewer transit options, there will be more cars on the street. With more cars on the street, bicyclists (and everyone else) will have to deal with more traffic and more frustrated drivers. More traffic means more exhaust and reduced air quality that we breathe while riding. The MBTA has already conceded these points. Basically, this is a bad deal for all users of the road.

MBTA riders gathered outside the State House for a rally.

We have been hard at work with MassDOT’s Transportation Advisory Committee, Transportation for Massachusetts, and our fellow advocacy groups to try to find a better solution. In a recent meeting, the choice was framed in the following way:

1. Massive service cuts, substantial fare increase; or
2. Massive fare increase, fewer service cuts

But this is a false choice, because neither option will solve the MBTA’s underlying financial problems, and both will have unacceptable impacts on transit riders and everyone else. Without a more comprehensive solution, within a year we will be back discussing further fare increases and service cuts.

The public meetings so far have been totally packed, and also full of anger directed toward the MBTA. The reality, however, is that the T’s options are limited; it can only raise fares or cut service to balance its budget. If you don’t like either proposal, the real audience is the Legislature, because they are the only ones who can allocate more funding to the T.

What You Can Do To Help

1. Contact your state representative and senator and let them know that you want them to find a permanent solution for the MBTA and transportation funding.

2. Go to one of the ongoing MBTA public meetings to demonstrate to the T and to legislators that there is a widespread call for a real solution to this problem.

With the current threats to federal bike funding it is more important than ever to show your support for bicycling. On March 20 – 22, the 12th annual National Bike Summit will take place in Washington D.C. and bring together advocates and government official from across the country to talk about biking in America. This is a critical year for the National Bike Summit as it comes in the midst of a major vote regarding federal bike funding.

We’ve coordinated the Massachusetts delegation to the Summit for many years, and we’re looking forward to doing so again in this critical year. We typically have good representation from the Boston Metro area, but need widespread support from around the state. We hope local advocates, particularly from outside the Metro Boston area, will join us in DC to meet with their Representatives. Be sure to register before the early bird discount ends on February 3! Please follow the link to sign up for this important event.

We reported last week that the House of Representatives was moving to eliminate critical federal funding for biking and walking. The situation in the House is even more dire than we thought.

Today, the House releases its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Act. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on the bill this Thursday. Last week, we knew the bill would be bad news for biking and walking. But we didn’t think it would go so far as to completely cut bicycling and walking out of federal transportation policy.

We now know that the bill would do much more damage than initially thought, including:

• Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
• Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
• Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
• Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
• Eliminates language requiring that rumble strips “do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians or the disabled”

But there is still hope. Representative Petri (R-WI) will stand up for bicycling and walking by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School, and hopefully goes even further to address the other problems. One of our own Representatives, Michael Capuano, is a leading member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and we have already directly contacted those of you who live in his district to take action now. (If you are a Capuano constituent and did not receive our direct Action Alert, please ask him to support the Petri amendment right now – his number is (202) 225-5111, or you can email him by clicking here.)

In a couple of weeks, when the bill reaches the floor of the House, we will be asking all bicyclists in Massachusetts to contact their representatives.

This is as urgent as it gets. Even if we do win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress.

We know we are asking a lot of you and we thank you for all you’re doing to preserve biking and walking.

You could win this vintage t-shirt!

A couple of weeks ago we posted about a really important survey that we would like our organization’s stakeholders to fill out. As we plan for 2012 and beyond, we are looking for your input about our advocacy priorities and some information on who you are. To make the deal even sweeter, we increased the number of t-shirts we’re giving away to 25! Please take five minutes and fill out the survey for a chance to win one of 25 awesome 30th anniversary MassBike T-shirts (pictured left). In order to be eligible for the drawing, you need to take the survey by Tuesday, February 14th.

Thanks so much for your input!

Last Fall, you helped us defeat Senate attacks on biking and walking. But now the House of Representatives is launching its own attack. Next Thursday, February 2nd, we can expect the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to vote on its version of the surface transportation bill, called “The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.” Alarms went off when we learned that the two primary sources of federal bike funding, Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School, will be eliminated.

The legislation will be open for amendments for only a short time in the T&I Committee. If you live in Representative Michael Capuano’s district, a high-ranking member of the committee, we need your help. During Thursday’s vote, he could be the key to making sure that a pro-biking amendment passes. Will you ask him today to vote to preserve funding for biking and walking in the transportation bill?

Let him know that in his district alone:

• Nearly $2 million in Safe Routes to School funding has gone to making the streets safer for children trying to walk or bike to school;
• Transportation Enhancements has supported over $34 million in bike and pedestrian infrastructure, improving the experience for all users of the road;
• Biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips, but only 1.5 percent of federal funding.

Representative Capuano’s office phone number is (202) 225-5111, or you can email him by clicking here. Please take action today:

1. Call and/or email Representative Capuano TODAY, tell him why bicycling is important to you, and ask him to do two things:

• OPPOSE any move to eliminate the Transportation Enhancements or Safe Routes to School Program
• SUPPORT an amendment to maintain the funding to bike and pedestrian programs

2. Email action@massbike.org and let us know you contacted him!

If you don’t have time to call or email, then you can fill out an automated form here, though personalized messages are always preferable. Don’t know who your representative is?  Find out here.

Even if you don’t live in District 8, feel free to contact your representative. While he won’t be able to act on this legislation until it hits the floor in February, it can’t hurt to let him know that biking is important to you. Thanks for your support, and for helping us work toward a better state (and country) for biking.

Due to some issues with a software update, our store won’t be working for a few days. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to call us at (617) 542-BIKE (2453) to place orders. We certainly want to fill all your shopping needs, but we’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way for the time being. Thanks so much for your patience!

MassBike exists to serve the bicycling community, and that is our focus. But we also take a broad view of our transportation system and how bicycling fits into it. To advance those efforts, in 2011 MassBike joined a new coalition of transportation-related organizations, Transportation for Massachusetts (T4MA), working for an environmentally sustainable, reliable and affordable transportation system. MassBike’s participation will strengthen the coalition’s efforts around active and sustainable transportation, and the diverse viewpoints within T4MA will inform our own work for better bicycling.

The first major challenge faced by T4MA is the recently announced MBTA proposal to both increase fares and cut service. The MBTA projects that its revenues this year cannot support service at its current levels. T4MA opposes the proposal, and MassBike agrees that the MBTA’s proposal would not be good for bicyclists. In our view, the T’s proposal would significantly reduce existing opportunities for bicyclists to use bicycles in combination with public transportation, creating a barrier to biking.

You only need to look at the hundreds of bicycles parked at MBTA stations, even on frigid days like today, to see that many bicyclists are transit users and many people use bicycles to access the T. Some bicyclists, like other transit users, may simply be unable to afford a fare increase. Others will be affected if the trains, buses, or boats they rely on are eliminated. For example, we have analyzed the two bus service cut scenarios put forth by the T, the second of which would impact over 70% of bus routes that are currently equipped with bicycle racks. The MBTA has been a strong partner in improving bike access on its system, and MassBike has been working with them for many years to fully equip the bus fleet with bike racks. This project was expected to be completed this year, and the elimination of so many routes that are already accessible to bicyclists is an unacceptable leap backward.

Public meetings on the proposed fare increases and service cuts begin tonight in Newton and Worcester, tomorrow in Chelsea, and Thursday in Roxbury. More meetings continue in the following weeks all over the MBTA service region – see the calendar on our homepage for details. If you are a bicyclist whose mobility would be affected by MBTA fare increases or service cuts, please attend a public meeting or send your written comments to fareproposal@mbta.com. Make your voice heard! MassBike will continue to work with T4MA and the MBTA to find an acceptable way forward.

MassDOT is offering trainings for local officials, transportation professionals and advocates around the state on how to design for “Complete Streets.” Complete Streets is a design concept that emphasizes planning for all users of the road, including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, motorists, and people with disabilities. Even though this would seem to be a straightforward idea, it is a radical departure from traditional transportation planning, and critical to building a better biking environment.

The Complete Streets Workshops kicked off in Worcester on November 17th and have taken place around the state since then. Executive Director David Watson and I have attended workshops, and are happy to see a high level of local interest in this important topic.

MassDOT’s predecessor MassHighway adopted a Complete Streets-style approach to road design back in 2006 with the release of the Project Development and Design Guide. But many local officials and consultants have not changed their approach to road design in response to the new guidelines. At the urging of MassBike and other advocates, MassDOT has created this great new education program. We have been working with MassDOT to provide feedback both prior to the launch of the workshops and after the sessions we attended. We encourage anyone interested in learning more about Complete Streets and creating a more bikable, walkable, livable community to attend a free workshop.

Check here for the schedule, or just look at the calendar on our homepage. The workshops take three hours and are free and open to the public. You will get course materials to help you implement Complete Streets. Start making your community more livable by ensuring that roads work for everyone.

Have you ever noticed those intrepid bicyclists out there on the roads 365 days a year, no matter how low the temperature or how high the snow? Maybe you see them and just think they’re nuts, but many year-round bicyclists will tell you how much they love biking in the cold, citing the old truism, “There is no bad weather – just bad clothing.”

Thanks to a partnership with the City of Newton, MassBike will be holding a free workshop to explain how to keep warm, dry, and comfortable if you choose to bike on some of the more daunting days.

The details:

Where: Newton City Hall, Room 222
1000 Commonwealth Ave.
Newton, MA

When: Thursday, 1/26, 7:00 – 8:00 PM

This workshop is free and open to the public. You can find out more information by clicking here, or emailing price@massbike.org. We hope to see you there, and out on the streets with amazing bike gear!

You could win this vintage t-shirt!

The other day we were talking about our priorities for 2012, and we realized that we couldn’t really do this without knowing what our members think. That’s why we developed a survey to find out our members’ and stakeholders’ thoughts on what we’ve been doing and what we should do in the future. Therefore, we need you to take our survey to let us know what you think!

In return for completing our survey, you could win a free MassBike T-shirt (vintage!). We’ll be giving away 5 free T-shirts, so act now and start answering those questions here!

MassBike is pleased to present its new Membership and Office Coordinator, Austin Rand! Originally hailing from Groton, Austin left to attend college in one of the best bicycling communities in the country, University of Colorado at Boulder. During school and after graduation, Austin’s interest in bikes blossomed. He got a lot of great experience working at a number of bicycle organizations, like BikeDenver, Denver B-cycle, and the Bikes Belong national peopleforbikes.org campaign.

We’re thrilled to have him back in the Bay State, where he can use this experience to help grow our membership and increase community involvement, not to mention keeping the office working smoothly. When I asked what he was looking forward to now that he is back in his home state, Austin said “I have many fond memories of riding the winding roads in central Massachusetts and look forward to making more soon. I’m also excited to be living in Boston and can’t wait to explore the city from behind my handlebars.”

At CU Boulder, Austin raced mountain bikes while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Environmental Resource Management. After graduating, he interned at Denver Bike Sharing, the operating non-profit for the Denver B-cycle system, and helped BikeDenver (the city’s bike advocacy group) develop membership newsletters. Most recently, Austin traveled around the country managing a series of 40 national events to promote the peopleforbikes.org campaign.

He’s only two weeks into his job and has hit the ground running! On his first day, he was dealing with a (very welcome) stack of donations, membership renewals, and new members that are still rolling in from the end-of-year appeal. Once he’s done with that, he’ll be helping to brainstorm on improving outreach efforts to expand and strengthen the bicycling community around the commonwealth. And as if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he is also going to be managing the office to try to keep some semblance of order despite the flurry of advocacy, education and outreach activities going on daily.

Having another pair of hands, and especially one as experienced and competent as Austin’s, is a huge help to the mission. Next time you’re in the area, stop by the office and say ‘Hi!’ to our friendly new Membership and Office Coordinator.