Bike Walk Alliance for Missoula

Missoula Mayor John Engen proclaimed Wednesday, May 16, 2012, as Ride of Silence Day in Missoula, Montana. Watch the video on YouTube.

Read the proclamation here. Join us on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm for this slow, silent ride through Missoula.

BWAM will be hosting the 6th Annual Missoula Ride of Silence on May 16, 2012 beginning at the Missoula County Courthouse on Broadway. Please plan to arrive by 6:30pm for the 7:00pm ride. See the worldwide Ride of Silence website for more information and background about this important worldwide event. See the article in the Missoulian issue Monday 5/14/12.

More details will be posted here about our local ride. Helmets will be required and while we invite riders of all levels, all riders must be comfortable riding for at least 1 hour at 10 miles per hour.

Link to our Contact Form and select Ride of Silence to ask a question about how you can participate or help with the event.

Bill Nesper, Director of the Bike Friendly Community Committee of the League of American Bicyclists, announced during his presentation about the benefits of being Bike Friendly, that Missoula has achieved Gold Level after having been a Silver Level community since the program began in 2003. We, who bike in and around Missoula, know how much the cycling environment has improved over the years. We have now been recognized as attaining a status awarded to only 14 other previously selected Gold Level BFC’s. Missoula and Durango, Colorado awarded Gold Level BFC status.

As described on the League of American Bicyclists web site, “Applicant communities are judged in five categories often referred to as the Five E’s. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you in or heading to downtown Missoula and looking for a great beverage treat? All during May, National Bicycle Month, Liquid Planet is again supporting BWAM with $1.00 of each Velo Valencia sold being donated to BWAM. Stop in at 223 North Higgins Avenue and let them know that you are a BWAM supporter and enjoy this white chocolate mocha with orange zest and a dash of cinnamon and sugar during the month of May. Liquid Planet management and staff recognize the importance of supporting biking and walking and its impact on the vitality of Missoula by offering their support to BWAM for this the 5th year honoring National Bicycle Month.

Sponsored by The League of American Bicyclists and Bikes Belong,  the National Bike Challenge starts May 1 and we urge our members to join the fun,  sign up now, and you can start logging your warm-up miles  to see how it works.  Riders will compete for prizes and awards on both the national and local level, including a grand prize trip through California Wine Travel by Trek Travel.

Bike Walk Montana (our new upcoming statewide advocacy organization) has already registered Montana to participate.  You can sign up as an individual or as a team,  log your miles, both commuter and recreational, and encourage others to join you.  Every time you log in, you can see how many points you and other riders have,  how many points your community has, and how many points Montana and all other states have.

Please help to spread the word.   Let’s see how many BWAM members and friends we can get to participate and how many miles Montana can log!  While the prizes are fun, the real fun is seeing more people biking more miles!

Register at Endomondo where you’ll find all kinds of information.  Spread the word to all your friends and encourage them to sign up, too.  The challenge was originally restricted to ages 18 and older but that has recently been changed, so do recruit those high school kids!  See video here.

The following webinar will be at 1PM, Wed. April18 at the Office of Planning and Grants meeting room in the basement of their City Hall office. In coordination with OPG, BWAM is hosting this informative web based seminar (Webinar) provided by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. This webinar will focus on success stories and lessons learned from the four Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) communities in the U.S. The NTPP program was established in 2005 “to construct…a network of nonmotorized transportation infrastructure facilities, including sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian and bicycle trails, that connect directly with transit stations, schools, residences, businesses, recreation areas, and other community activity centers.” U.S. federal transportation legislation (SAFETEA-LU) provided $25 million for each of the four NTPP communities – areas with unique physical and demographic characteristics, and at various stages of implementing their respective nonmotorized networks — and was designed to develop statistical information on transportation mode share shift before and after program implementation.
Learn which specific programs and projects succeeded, what may be replicable and transferable to other communities, and how much money should be budgeted for success. The pilot communities will provide insight on various aspects of planning and project implementation, including innovation, leveraging resources, capacity building and the importance of community input and partnerships. A representative from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center will also discuss the importance of evaluation, and the development and implementation of a common methodology for data collection and analysis.
Presenters are Ted Curtis, Columbia, Missouri; Dan Dawson, Marin County, California; Tony Hull, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Emily Vetting, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.

Bob Wachtel did not realize that he could make a difference until he became a founder of BWAM and a member of the Missoula Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Board (BPAB).  He never dreamed that he could be involved in public work championing a walk and bike friendly Missoula or that it was something for him.  Bob worked for more than 30 years at the University of Montana and liked to ride his bike the two miles each way to campus year round.  He never thought about going to public meetings or working on committees and boards.  It never crossed his mind that he could have so much influence and impact on what happens in Missoula.  When he retired, he decided he needed something more to do and upon seeing an ad for an opening on the BPAB, he applied for the volunteer position, not sure what he could offer.  He never thought of himself as someone who could influence community policy and he didn’t have a clue how fascinating it can be to be on the inside and learn how everything works.  One thing led to another.  Now he is one of the most influential citizens on bike and walk topics in Missoula and is colleague with scores of people, and finds it to be a huge source of purpose and satisfaction in his life.

If you have the slightest interest in improving cycling and walking in Missoula, come spend two hours with the BWAM Advocacy Team.  BWAM is providing a workshop about how to get involved in public processes on Wed. March 28, from 4-6 PM in the small conference at the library, Come and learn how to get involved in these Missoula processes that are currently addressing critical and fascinating topics related to biking and walking.  Even if you don’t think this is for you but are just curious, you are encouraged to attend.  One reason that Missoula is a great place to live is that we can positively influence what happens in our town in lots of different ways.

Register here.  Or contact Greg or Robin at BWAM if this time doesn’t work for you and you would like to explore this further some other time.

With My Own Two Wheels: The Bicycle as a Vehicle for Change Around the World weaves together the experiences of five individuals in India, Guatemala, Zambia, Ghana, and California into a single story about how the bicycle can change the world — one pedal stroke at a time.  Sounds too good to miss!   Sponsored by Missoulians on Bicycles (MOBI), Adventure Cycling Association, and UM Campus Recreation.

Thursday, March 15th, 7pm, Room 131 of Charles H. Clapp Building (formerly the Science Complex) room U of M Campus.
To get a sneak peek, check out the movie trailer:

http://vimeo.com/19734902Inline image 2

After several long weeks of intense work from advocates around the country and our partners at America Bikes, we are extremely pleased to report that the Cardin-Cochran amendment has been accepted as part of the base Senate transportation bill, MAP-21. Read more on the America Bikes website.

The Missoula Metropolitan Planning Organization invites the community to a Kick-Off Public Workshop on Thursday, March 8, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Parkside to participate and comment on the 2012 update of the Missoula Long Range Transportation Plan.

Do you have an idea for a new bike trail or sidewalk project?  Do you see the need for better bus service in your neighborhood?  Please bring your ideas to the workshop where your input can have an impact on what projects are constructed in the future. 

The 2012 Long Range Transportation Plan Update takes a comprehensive look at Missoula’s transportation system: sidewalks, bike lanes, trails, transit and vehicular transportation with the intended goal to identify transportation needs and lay out a plan on how to match these needs with available funding.  Read the rest of this entry »