Members of the Richmond Area Bicycle Association (RABA) contributed $16,000 to buy 240 new bicycles and helmets for area Christmas Mother programs. This surpassed the club’s goal of $12,000 and the previous record of 200 bicycles.

RABA members with the donated bikes.

The bikes were assembled on November 2 by 75 volunteers from RABA and were distributed to the local Christmas Mothers this past Saturday (December 7). EnTrust Records Management hosted the assembly party and donated secure storage for the bicycles until they could be delivered. Volunteers loaded up trucks and trailers and delivered the bikes to Richmond, Hanover, Goochland, New Kent, Chesterfield, Powhatan, Henrico, and Charles City Counties. The Christmas Mothers will give them to needy families who have applied for help.  The club works to match appropriate bicycles to the needs of the children in the various counties.

This is the 12th year the club has held its “Bikes for Kids” drive. Originally started by Dee & Suzanne Nuckols as a way to give back to the community, Andrew Mann currently heads the effort and has been a volunteer for 9 years.

“Having lived my entire life in the greater Richmond area and having biked around these roads for over twenty years, it was very important to give back to my community,” Mann said. “When Dee stated that he was ‘retiring’ from the Bikes for Kids project I knew that I had to keep it going. With a great deal of help form RABA members, the program has continued to grow significantly.”

RABA club membership is currently over 1000 members, many of whom participate in regularly scheduled rides held on weekdays and weekends. Group cycling trips and special events, such as the RABA Tacky Light Ride, are also very popular.

About a month ago, Mike Martz of the Times-Dispatch reported that the developers of the parcel east of Great Shiplock Park and below Libby Hill were proposing a new office project for the site. It was to be smaller than former proposals, which drew the ire of preservationists worried about spoiling the “View that named Richmond” from Libby Hill.

The view from Libby Hill. Credit: Church Hill Peoples’ News

Two weeks later, Leighton Powell, Executive Director of Scenic Virginia, and Robert Mills, a principal for Commonwealth Architects, a Richmond firm that is in charge of the Plan of Development for the proposed development, wrote pieces against and for, respectively, the proposed three-story office building project. I’m not here to give my opinion. What caught my eye was Mills’ mention that the plan called for including right-of-way for the Virginia Capital Trail, which must either go through or around the property after leaving the trailhead at Great Shiplock Park.

I called Virginia Capital Trail Foundation Executive Director Beth Weisbrod yesterday to get her thoughts on the proposal. She said that while her group takes no official position on the larger-development-vs.-preserving-the-view argument, “it sounds like it’s in keeping with the Riverfront Plan, and it’s incorporating the trail in a really great alignment. We support the trail’s alignment through the project, but as far as everything else goes, we can’t wade into that.””

The proposed project has the trail go along the river before joining with the yet-to-be-started section where the Lehigh Cement silos now reside. What’s more, Weisbrod said, is that the developer has “offered what we need for the temporary alignment along Dock Street. There’s an easement that goes pretty much the whole length of their property that allows for a temporary trail to go in while this construction is going on. That also is a very important piece that needed to happen and we’re thrilled about that.”

The upshot is that should this project go through, but not be completed by September of 2015,”we won’t have a hole in the trail when the bike race comes through.”

A scene from last year’s Bike Virginia Tour near Winchester. Credit: Bike Virginia

Bicycling advocacy group Bike Virginia recently announced that for the first time since 1999, its popular, six-day summer Tour will take place in the Richmond area. The 27th annual Bike Virginia Tour will run from June 20-25 and be based out of Pocahontas State Park and Chickahominy Riverfront Park. The event was held in Lexington last year.

According to the Bike Virginia website: We call the tour a “Giant Loop Tour.” We begin in our first host community, ride there for a few days, then venture out to a second location. We ride at that second region for a few days, then we bike back to the start. In Chesterfield, headquarters will be based at Pocahontas State Park for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, June 20-23.  Daily rides go on unique routes that are loops, all begin and end at headquarters. Lunch will be served to you when you return each day.

On Monday, June 23, “Move Day,” the entire tour group strikes out and moves to a second host community, which will be based at Chickahominy Riverfront Park near Williamsburg. Headquarters is based there for the second half of the tour, three days. We again enjoy unique loop rides from that spot during our stay. Lunch will be waiting on you at the end of each day’s ride. Every day of the tour you’ll have a chance to ride on new roads and see new things.

On the final day, the 6th day of the tour, we ride back to headquarters 1 in Chesterfield. Cars can be left at the first headquarters for the entire tour. We’ll move your gear so all you have to do is have fun.

Bike Virginia Events Director Shane Cusick said that in the past they’ve hosted as many as 2,000 riders. But that “this year we capped it at 1,500 because 2,000 gets a little more difficult to handle as far as the number of people on the road.”

Riders can learn more and register at www.bikevirginia.org.

On October 15 at 2 p.m. the public is invited to the official opening of the new and improved Great Shiplock Park. (If you’re not familiar with what’s been going on at this James River Park System parcel on the north side of the river, click here and here.) In her most recent email newsletter, Beth Weisbrod, executive director of the Virginia Capital Trail Foundation, gives us a thumbnail history of how the park went from overlooked JRPS parcel to ($550,000 later) the Richmond trailhead for the Virginia Capital Trail:

About 18 months ago, as we were preparing for the city approval process of our trailhead design, we were challenged by Meg Turner of Capital Trees to think bigger. She introduced us to Jay Hugo and Jill Nolt of the architecture firm 3North, who showed us in drawings what she meant — how the whole park could call out to trail users to sit, enjoy the views of the Kanawha Canal and James River, and take in the beauty and history. Lucky for us, Richmond has several corporate citizens, private foundations, other nonprofits, and individuals who also like to think big and share a passion to make Richmond a better place. What we’ll be cutting the ribbon on next week is the result of a successful mix of partners, collaborators, and generous supporters, to the huge benefit of anyone passing through downtown Richmond along Dock Street or the Virginia Capital Trail. 

Ramps now take users across the James River and Kanawha Canal from the park to Chapel Island.

Just across the entrance to the park, trailhead amenities like benches, shade structures, and bike racks encourage people to stop. The views, history, and other nearby attractions will encourage them to linger. We built ramps on either side of the Kanawha Canal locks so that wheels can easily cross them and people can enjoy the new trails on Chapel Island. We added light poles to make it safer at night, and bright LED lights along the Trail that run off of solar panels. On the western edge of the park, our friends at Capital Trees designed a biofilter to cleanse rainwater before it goes into the river. They also added landscaping, not just to make the park pretty, but to further manage stormwater in an environmentally friendly way. 

I met up with Weisbrod last week to hear about the project, and she said she’d love to see as many Richmonders as possible flood the park for the October 15th ribbon cutting. The mayor will be there, as will other civic leaders, and they need to know that while this trailhead is now complete, there is much work to do to finish Richmond’s portion of the trail.

If there’s one thing I learned at A Look into the Richmond Region’s Bike Future, a presentation and discussion held a couple of weeks ago at the Science Museum of Virginia, it’s that for Richmond to realize its potential as a bike-friendly city, especially ahead of the world cycling championships coming here in September of 2015, it’s that our leaders need to truly understand the value of becoming more bike friendly. That’s why it was good to see Councilman Parker Agelasto and Richmond’s Director of Public Works James Jackson there. It’s also why it was disappointing not to see any other council members or the mayor there.

This matters, as we learned from the video presentations given, because without that buy-in from the top, without those leaders pushing, efforts can be halting, opportunities missed. We saw examples in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C. where mayors have been out front and vocal in promoting greenways, bike lanes, bike-sharing programs and a host of other bike-friendly efforts.

I’d like to see Mayor Dwight Jones do the same here. I go back and forth between hope and skepticism, but today there are signs of hope. Randy Hallman has a front-page story in the T-D about the Richmond2015 contingent that recently returned from Florence, where the 2013 world cycling championships were being held.

Among the hopeful quotes from Jones:

“Certain things caught my attention. Florence was extremely clean. … We need to put that on our to-do list.”

“The collaboration with retail merchants and the business community was remarkable,” he said. “They showed tremendous support. There were cycling motifs and displays in windows in practically every shop. Some of the windows were extremely artistic. We have to get our art community involved.”

“We want to be proactive and do the best job we can,” he said. “This is an opportunity to show that we can do it, and just as we did with the Redskins training camp, we can do this.”

What the mayor and others need to know is that it’s not just about window dressing and preparing for the onslaught of tourists. It’s about doing the little things now that will pay dividends long after those tourists are gone. It’s about thinking about bikes and pedestrians in every road project going forward. It’s about investing, not lip service, in projects like adding bike racks or developing a bike share program.

It’ll be two years before the eyes of the world are on Richmond. But our leaders need to know that the eyes of Richmond are on them right now.

The Bicycle Film Festival is coming to Richmond September 6 through 8. The Bicycle Film Festival includes parties and rides, in addition to film showings from around the world, all at different venues in Richmond. The Bicycle Film Festival is a platform created by Brendt Barbur in NYC (after being hit by a bus while riding his bicycle in 2001) that has been a catalyst for the urban cycling movement, sharing bicycle culture with more than 45 cities around the world. The festival merges many creative communities including fashion, music, art, design, as well as all different groups of cyclists.

“Richmond has world-class trails, world-class urban rapids, and soon we’ll have world-class events like the UCI World Road Racing Championships,” explained Matt Siegel, organizer of the Richmond Bicycle Film Festival. “It’s only fitting that we also bring a world-class film festival to RVA.”

Over the last thirteen years, the Bicycle Film Festival has been covered by the NY Times on seven different occasions.  It has screened bicycle stories from all around the world in cities like Buenos Aires, Capetown, Helsinki, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Milano, Rio De Janeiro, Stockholm, Sydney, and Tokyo.  This year, the Bicycle Film festival adds Richmond to that list, with 3 amazing programs and more than 28 films from 13 countries.

The 2013 Richmond Bicycle Film Festival will include a free opening party at Bunnyhop Bike Shop (349 South Laurel Street) on Friday, September 6, and a bicycle tour of various artisan pizzerias in the Richmond area, beginning at Carytown Bicycle Company at 5 p.m. On Sunday, September 8, spectators can enjoy documentary, narrative, experimental, and urban short bike films at the Byrd Theater, such as…

Read More

The Sports Backers’ annual Anthem Moonlight Ride was yesterday. Here’s the SB’s Jackie Stoneburner with a report:

Despite a rainy forecast, 2,975 cyclists came to Sports Backers Stadium to participate in the fifth annual Anthem Moonlight Ride. The ride featured a “Full Moon” (17 miles) and a “Half Moon” (8 miles) route through Lakeside, Bryan Park and the near west end. Participants were invited to stick around for the Agee’s Post-Ride Party with Papa John’s pizza, ice cream, soda, Blue Moon beer, and a live concert by local rock/folk group The Good Birds.

Credit: Phil Riggan/Richmond.com

More than 80 riders entered the Blue Moon Costume & Tacky Light contest, which is a record number of participants. Prizes were awarded for the Best Costume and the Tackiest Lights. First place for best costume was awarded to Sue Cantrell who was dressed as a garden gnome (See left). Cantrell has won the contest for three consecutive years.

Other awards were given to the top three best costumes in the group category and the kid’s category as well as the top three tackiest lights in the group and individual categories.

The Bike Walk RVA advocacy program was the official event charity of the Anthem Moonlight Ride. The program is committed to making the Richmond area more bike and pedestrian friendly by encouraging the construction of more paved multi-use trails, sidewalks and bike lanes in the Richmond region and working to improve and expand the off-road trail systems as well. The 2014 Anthem Moonlight Ride will be held on Saturday, August 9, 2014. More information can be found at www.sportsbackers.org.

The Sports Backers announced it will partner with UnitedHealthcare to host the second-annual 2013 MARTIN’s Tour of Richmond cycling event Saturday, Oct. 5. The inaugural event in 2012 drew nearly 1,000 riders from throughout the east coast. What’s cool about the announcement is that UnitedHealthcare sponsors one of the most successful pro cycling teams in the country, and they announced that two members of the team will be in attendance for the Gran Fondo. The athletes will be announced in late September.

UnitedHealthcare’s team at the Tour de Beauce.

The MARTIN’S Tour of Richmond is opened to the public and welcomes cyclists of all abilities and levels, offering three different distances. The Gran Fondo (“Big Ride” in Italian) is 102 miles and begins at Richmond International Raceway. There are also 59-mile and 29-mile courses that start at different points along the loop. All riders finish at the raceway, and they will be able to take a “Victory Lap” around the race track as they cross the finish line. Afterward, the riders will celebrate their accomplishments at the UnitedHealthcare post-ride party featuring fun and refreshments.

Registration for the second annual MARTIN’S Tour of Richmond is now available at www.sportsbackers.org. Online registration is open through Oct. 2, 2013.

Times-Dispatch reporter Mike Martz had a really interesting piece in yesterday’s T-D on a proposal to change Floyd Avenue into a “neighborhood greenway,” making bicycles the preferred mode of transportation in the 2.25 miles between VCU and Thompson Street.

Neighborhood greenway in Portland, Ore.

“Motor vehicles wouldn’t disappear from the avenue under a concept suggested by the city and supported by the region’s transportation planning organization,” writes Martz. “But they would have to slow down and, after a block or two turn off to other city streets where cars and trucks remain the preferred way of travel.”

Bacon’s Rebellion has an interesting take on the project, which received $50,000 from the city and the Metropolitan Planning Organization to “begin designing the project,  produce a better estimate of what the total cost would be and talk to the neighborhoods that would be affected.”

Officially, the project would run between Laurel Street at Monroe Park to Thompson Street at an exit to the Downtown Expressway, crossing 27 intersections along the way. Roundabouts, speed bumps and other measures would be put in place to slow down traffic.