College students on bikes at the San Jose State Univerity Campus.

A pilot project by Santa Clara VTA may have bike share stations at Caltrain stations in Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose with satellite destination stations at locations such as Stanford, San Jose State University, San Jose City Hall and Moffett Park. From Streetsblog SF…

Despite the much ballyhooed talk by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom that his city will implement a public bike share pilot, the first bike share program in the Bay Area will likely be implemented by the middle of 2010 in Santa Clara County by the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA). While small size may still be a liability to its success and long term funding sources must be determined, the VTA is miles ahead of other transit operators in completing the process necessary to deliver a pilot.

“Bikes in general are given short shrift in suburban sprawling areas,” said Chris Augenstein, Deputy Director of Planning at VTA. “We can do a lot more to make bicycles a real mode and integrate them into everything we do.”

Read more at Streetsblog SF. The article quotes SFBC’s Andy Thornley, who doesn’t want to seem like a stick in the mud about this, but I think he’s right that the South Bay isn’t really the right place for bike share, at least in the way VTA seems to propose for Caltrain users.

When I served on the SVBC Caltrain working group I saw a lot of feedback regarding bike share as a solution to bike bumping. Over 4,000 passengers detrain at Palo Alto University Avenue every weekday; 360 of these passengers (about 9%) have bicycles. Let’s pretend VTA finds funding for 50 bikes at Palo Alto. Every one of those bikes would be used and gone for the entire work day and sitting, mostly unused, until the employee’s evening commute.

Big props to VTA for being first in the Bay Area to actually move on a bike share proposal. When and if it happens, I’m certainly curious to see how it works out.

See also:

• Why transit needs bikes.
• Palo Alto considers bike share program.
• San Jose works to increase bike commuting.
• SF MTA to require bike rentals at bus stops.
• SF bike sharing video.

Today is a national holiday to honor military veterans in the UK Commonwealth Nations, the United States, and some European nations.

The United States spends about as much on the military as the entire rest of the world combined and has been on a nearly constant state of war since the Korean War, so we naturally have many veterans to honor and care for in the 21st century.

About four years ago, counselor Gil Ramirez at the VA Healthcare System Menlo Park began leading group bike rides to help veterans recover from PTSD. I run into these men and women regularly in Menlo Park and it’s always great to seem them out there. This recent Mercury News story describes the program.

Running, swimming, skiing and other endurance sports aren’t new in the treatment of physically, emotionally or mentally wounded soldiers. But as a sustained therapy for PTSD, cycling appears to work wonders.

“Of all the sports we’ve tried,” says recreational counselor Melissa Puckett, “cycling is the one that’s been the most effective.”

It looks like these guys decided to suit up in Road to Recovery jerseys for the media photo shoot. I think there’s are a couple of different groups now, but when I see them here’s how they usually roll.

This group of vets was on Willow Road just a little south of the VA Center, and I think they looked fabulous. Allez!

Proceeds benefit World Bicycle Relief

Jazz vocalist Alexis Cole released her new CD, “The Greatest Gift” on October 13th. An interesting element to this release is that proceeds will benefit the World Bicycle Relief — an organization dedicated to providing bicycles to people in developing countries around the world. World Bicycle Relief allows these individuals access to transportation and promotes independence, empowerment, and sustainability.

Over 50,000 bicycles have been donated in support of disaster assistance and disease prevention. The Greatest Gift, an enhanced CD, includes two powerfully moving videos that document this wonderful work.

A winner of the 2007 Jazzmobile competition and an award recipient at the Montreux Jazz Voice Competition, Alexis Cole has been described as “a rising star in the jazz world” by Hot House Magazine. Her vocal talents from her three previous albums have been featured on NBC’s NY Morning Show, and in reputable publications such as Jazz Times, Time Out NY, and Jazz Improv Magazine.

Buy: Alexis Cole The Greatest Gift CD or Download MP3.