all the difference.]
Two months ago, Southeast Uplift started a Bike Buddy Pilot Project and they’ve just released a recap of how it went.
The goal of the project was to connect newbies (New Riders) with mentors (Bike Buddies).
According to SEUL, the program succeeded,
“Most New Riders expressed an increased level of confidence in urban cycling and reported bicycling more often because of the project. New relationships were formed between citizens, and Bike Mentors expressed a level of satisfaction with their participation and a feeling of pride and accomplishment in the improvement of the cycling skills of their Bike Buddies.”
“Thank you so much for organizing this program…I feel confident as a new rider and am likely to continue to commute through the winter.”
–program participant
SEUL worked with many community partners including two graduate interns from PSU’s Masters in Public Health program who created a brochure, surveys, a news release and supportive materials for the project. Bike Mentors received training from PDOT’s Transportation Options staff.
SEUL hopes to find funding so they can take what they’ve learned from this pilot project and do a more “robust program” this Spring. For more information about the program contact SEUL Neighborhood Planner Gary Berger at (503) 232-0010 x314, gary [at] southeastuplift [dot] org.
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I would offer myself up to be a ” Bike Buddy”, but I would probably have to wear a warning label, and have my buddy sign a waiver releasing all liability first.
So, maybe I shouldn’t be a bike buddy, buddy?
The last thing this town needs is Dabby trying to teach his “buddy” how to ride a bike.
By the way, I thoroughly endorse and commend this program, all joking aside…
I’m wondering how many people enlisted as new riders in need of a “buddy”? This has always been the difficulty in this type of program, finding the newbies who are willing to risk getting a Dabbyesque mentor…
Actually, they’d probably have a life-altering experience if they had Dabby for a mentor…& I mean that in a good way.
Didn’t Carye Bye originally have the idea for doing a Portland Bike Buddy program?
Cate,
Yes. Carye Bye got the idea rolling and SEUL picked it up and ran with it.
I’m not sure who influenced who – but I did post the need for a bike buddy program in portland on the shift list last January or so – and found out through connections with BTA about the SEUL bike buddy start up and attended a couple advisory meetings and also started a listserve at that time to gather folks interested in getting a program like this at large in portland – the SEUL program only covers under a dozen neighborhoods in SE.
Both Seattle and San Francisco have city wide bike buddy programs, so it seems odd that we don’t have one. One on one mentoring is key for folks to get to the next level.
The list mentioned above is on riseup at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/portlandbikebuddy
if anyone would like to join. Some of the documents by SEUL and the Seattle’s bike buddy system are in shared folders there as well.
I’m very happy that SEUL found their bike buddy program to be successful and will continue on with it – and we’ll see if that can some day turn into a citywide program.
Carye said “I’m very happy that SEUL found their bike buddy program to be successful and will continue on with it – and we’ll see if that can some day turn into a citywide program.”
Is the ONI working with the other neighborhood coalitions/districts to get similar programs started?
FWIW, Seattle and San Francisco probably have a greater need for citywide bike buddy programs. In Portland, it’s a lot easier to just jump on your bike and go. Whereas, in San Francisco… the logical initial reaction is that “you’d have to be nucking futs to ride a bike in this crazy, congested city!”
So, by all means, a citywide bike buddy program will probably help get a larger portion of the population onto bikes in Portland, but seeing as it’s just a much kindler bicycling environment to begin with (rain notwithstanding)… the hill should be easier to climb, so to speak.
Also, as far as I know, the citywide San Francisco bike buddy program is a temporary thing — it’s for Bike to Work Week only. I don’t know that it has a year-round presence (couldn’t find anything about a year-round bike buddy program on the SFBC website, and they would know).
cheers,
~Garlynn