Bike Smart! Youth Bicycle Safety Program coordinates with schools and community organizations to teach bicycling skills to Santa Cruz County youth.

The Bike Smart! program has established several health and safety related goals. We encourage you to learn more about our program goals, as well as contact us to find out how you can support our work.

Interested in getting involved? Learn about volunteer opportunities.

News!

Starlight Elementary Bike Fest Rodeo!

On May 21st, more than 50 Starlight Elementary students arrived at school to participate in the first ever Starlight Elementary Bike Fest. The free, fun day of bicycle-related activities was organized in conjunction with the launch of Boltage at the PVUSD school site. Boltage is an innovative program that blends technology and incentives to get kids to bike and walk to school on a more frequent basis. Students are issued radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that are tyically zip-tied onto backpacks. Every time a student rides, walks, scooters, or skateboards to school, they go past the solar-poweredRFID reader on the school blacktop and a loud "ding" indicates that their trip was counted and automatically uploaded to the Boltage website. Students can then log on to see how many miles they've traveled through the year, how many calories they've burned by using active transportation, and the amount of greenhouse gas they have spared from the air by not traveling by car. With each counted trip, they also get closer to winning prizes.

At the Starlight Bike Fest, students were able to register for Boltage, receive a brand new helmet (donated by Specialized and fitted by Healthy Start), get their bikes finely tuned by the Bike Shack mechanics, participate in a Bike Smart! rodeo course (staffed by Jovenes Sanos and the Watsonville Police Department), and feast on scrumptious snacks donated by the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Thanks to everyone who helped make the Starlight Bike Fest a success! For more information about Boltage, please visit www.boltage.org.

Martha Bedal Memorial Fund

Richard Bedal and Ecology Action are proud to announce the arrival of the Martha Bedal Memorial Fund, established in honor of Martha Anne (Gaydowski) Bedal, who passed away in September 2009 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Contributions to the Fund will help support the Bike Smart! Youth Bicycle Saftey Program.

Martha Bedal was one of the first volunteers to assist with Bike Smart! in its infancy and she continued to devote her time and spirit at Bike Smart! events until her health prevented her from participating. She also volunteered for the Santa Cruz County Cycling Club for many years, leading weekly club rides and teaching a cycling class to both new and returning cyclists. There is no doubt that her dedication and passion for cycling throughout the years resulted in a safer cycling community.

To learn more about Martha's life, please click on the "Martha Bedal Memorial Fund" link to the right.

To contribute to the Martha Bedal Memorial Fund by mail: send a check made payable to Ecology Action, with Martha Bedal Memorial Fund" in the Memo line, to:

Evan Parker

Ecology Action

877 Cedar Street, Suite 240

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

ATTN: Martha Bedal Memorial Fund

For an online donation: please visit the Ecology Action website (www.ecoact.org) and click on the "Donate Now" button. Once at the Ecology Action Donation webpage, select the Martha Bedal Memorial Fund from the pull-down list of causes

Bay View Elementary 5th Graders Go on Bike Smart! Pedal-Powered Field Trip—Community Ride and Fender Blender Fruit Smoothies

“This is what they’ll remember,” said Mr. B about his class’ recent bicycle field trip to the Santa Cruz Lighthouse. Indeed, learning experiences like this are unique in a child’s education. This November, Stu Branoff’s 5th grade students participated in in-depth bicycle training by Ecology Action’s Bike Smart! Youth Bicycle Safety Education Program, which culminated in a community ride to West Cliff Drive.

On a sparkly crisp autumn day, the 23 students, accompanied by five adult ride leaders, set out on bike from the school. The route through the neighborhood was peaceful, punctuated only by the enthusiastic calls of the young bicyclists as they communicated with each other on the group ride: “stopping!”… “right turn!”… “caaaarrrr!”, peppered with the occasional “hey, that’s my ‘uncle’s’ house”.

“I feel like a mother duck leading a train of duckling on these community rides,” Saskia Lucas says, grinning. Saskia runs Bike Smart! and is the program’s lead instructor. “It’s really cute and wonderful to see youth out exploring their world by bike and being such responsible and safety-minded cyclists.”

However, the riding didn’t finish when the group arrived at Lighthouse Field. On the ride, Bike Smart! staff had pedaled a special bicycle equipped with a bike-powered blender, as well as a trailer carrying a cooler filled with fresh fruit, yogurt, juices and reusable cups. It was a recipe for…fender blender smoothies! Student took turns pedaling madly to crank out refreshing and healthy smoothies which were enjoyed by all.

The four-part Bike Smart! training, funded by a federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Grant, included: a classroom presentation—a theoretical introduction of bicycle safety; bicycle skills obstacle course (a.k.a. “rodeo”)—on-bike practice; community ride practice—on-road drills of safe cycling technique; and community ride. Targeted skills included: making hand-signals, doing shoulder checks and obeying traffic laws.

Since the Bike Smart! events, Mr. B reports hearing, “many students say that they use the skills they have learned on the community ride while they are bicycling on their own or with their friends and family. Combining the use of the Bike Blender with the community ride was [also] a great way to reinforce the health factor of the event.”

That’s music to Saskia’s ears. “It’s a win-win for everyone. We achieve our goal of developing responsible and skillful young bicyclists and promoting healthy life-styles and the kids really have fun. My goal is that some day every child gets the opportunity to experience this kind of fun and meaningful in-depth bicycle education.”

To see more photos from the event, visit the Gallery page on the Bike Smart! website.

For more information about Ecology Action’s Safe Routes to School programs and for bicycle safety resources, visit www.SafeRoutesSantaCruz.org.

Thank you
Bike Smart! sponsors

Martha Bedal Memorial Fund