Silicon Valley bike advocacy – how to stay informed

During last week’s rant regarding inaction versus involvement, a few people mentioned that you don’t know how to find out what’s going on. How can you help if you don’t know the issues and agenda? Here’s a partial guide to where I turn for discussion.


Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

The Twitter Firehose

Most of the good discussion these days seems to happen on Twitter. You can still follow along if you don’t create an account, though it might be a little easier if you do. Please feel free to tweet your own horn because I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few. People and hashtags to follow include:

Facebook

I know of a few Facebook pages where discussion tends toward South Bay issues. These include:

  • I Walk I Bike I Vote, which is probably where you’ll find the most current and provocative discussion on items like the San Tomas Aquino Trail, Levi’s Stadium, regional planning agency decisions, land planning, taxes and so forth.
  • Friends of Caltrain, because so many people who ride the train also ride bikes.
  • Whoever posts to Western Wheelers Bicycle Club in Palo Alto does an amazing job tracking current bike issues all around the Bay Area.
  • San Jose Bike Party for silly fun on a bike.

I’m sure there are more — please post your suggestions in the comments.

Email discussion lists

These are through Google Groups. As before, please add your suggestions below.

Forums, News, etc.

Occasionally I still take a peek at North California regional discussion at BikeForums.net.

Streetsblog SF occasionally covers South Bay issues. (See, for example, today’s story about how Mountain View’s decision to reject Google’s office expansion may impact Google’s bike plan funding.) Streetsblog receives funding from San Mateo County Public Health to cover Peninsula transportation. I’m told they seek funding for same for Santa Clara County.

I’ve devoted a lot more editorial space and time covering South Bay issues over the past year. Should I continue and expand this? Should I start a Silicon Valley bike discussion forum? Would anyone like to help with improved South Bay bike issue coverage?

Don’t forget to visit the Bike Silicon Valley website. Current issues on their home page include the Lincoln Avenue road diet (super important!), funding for bike parking at Caltrain (super important!), and bike lanes on El Camino Real in Menlo Park (super important!).

The tools are in your hands — go and do great things!

2 Comments

  1. Wow! there sure are a lot of bike related activist blogs that are concerned with the SF Bay area. We sure need more of that in Santa Cruz. I can’t because I’m too busy working as a carpenter to pay of my over priced house but i know there are some people over here that have more time and better writing skills than me.
    Get on it!
    I’ll even send some money if it’s worthy.

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