2010 YEAR END REPORT Pedestrians and Cyclists Gather for the Grand Re-Opening of the New South Street Bridge in November, 2010

2010 YEAR END REPORT Pedestrians and Cyclists gather for the grand re-opening of the new South Street Bridge in November, 2010

The Bicycle Ambassadors are a program of

For additional information please contact:

Breen Goodwin Education Director 215.242.9253 ext.5 [email protected]

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 2 INTRODUCTION: BRIEF HISTORY AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Funded through a $450,000 Transportation Enhancement (TE) grant the Bicycle Ambassadors Program contract started in June 2008. The purpose of TE grants are to provide people with a richer quality of life by funding community programs and projects to improve the social, cultural, aesthetic and environmental aspects of the community. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), via the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), was charged with handling the monies for TE projects in the region. The City of Philadelphia was the primary sponsor for the Bicycle Ambassadors program and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (BCGP) was the organization contracted to implement the program. The contract was designed to facilitate two full seasons of the Bicycle Ambassadors program in 2009 and 2010. The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia was responsible for the required 20% community match of the TE grant ($90,000).

In 2008, the BCGP prepared for the first year programming by researching national best practices, testing, piloting and designing outreach styles, as well as developing materials. The BCGP launched a successful first year of programming in 2009 and improved the program tremendously in 2010. In 2010 the Bicycle Ambassadors program educated 24,770 people (29,761 weighted), a nearly 25% increase from 2009 when the Bicycle Ambassa- dors reached 20,873 (24,428 weighted). In 2009 the Ambassadors taught 27 classes, during the 2010 season the Ambassadors nearly doubled classroom education by teaching 53 classes. Additionally, the 2010 Ambassadors hosted 57 service stations that provided valuable opportunities to speak directly with bicycle riders. As a second year program, less time was spent figuring out how to implement the program, and more time was spent effectively educating the community. This is probably a reason why in 2010 the Ambassadors reached 3,897 (5,333 weighted) more people than in 2009. Since the Bicycle Ambassadors program was only funded through TE grant funding for 2009 and 2010, and the program has been such a success, the BCGP is actively pursuing funding for future years.

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 3 WHAT DO THE BICYCLE AMBASSADORS DO? Bicycle Ambassadors encourage and educate adult bicyclists to ride more often and more safely as well as educate motorists on the rules of the road and provide tips for sharing the road. Ambassadors attend community events and create events to teach bike safety, sharing the road, bike lane and bike path etiquette and how to bike to work and school. The Ambassador message is conveyed through face-to-face inter- action, allowing for an organic conversation targeting the specific interests, questions and needs of each individual. Ambassadors work in the neighborhoods of Center City, University City, and Fairmount Park.

WHO ARE THE BICYCLE AMBASSADORS? Bicycle Ambassadors are a team of adult safety educators who do outreach and education to bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorists. Often, Ambassadors travel to events by bicycle, many times with a cargo trailer full of information in tow. The full time Ambassadors work from May through September. In 2010 the BCGP hired and trained a dynamic team who raised the standard for the Bicycle Ambassadors program.

MEET THE 2010 BICYCLE AMBASSADORS

w Age range: 22 to 27 years old w 1 Fluent Spanish speaker w 2 women, 3 men w 2 Ambassadors with bicycle maintenance experience w 4 Caucasian, 1 African American w 4 Ambassadors had teaching or coaching in their w 5 Ambassadors with Bachelors Degree, 1 pursuing a background Graduate Degree

Brian Davis began tap dancing at the age of nine in his home town of Seattle, Washington. He has learned repertoire from nationally acclaimed dancers while participating in annual national tap festivals in cities all over the country. In 2005 Brian was chosen to dance with Savion Glover in a “Dance This!” and won the 2008 Philly Tap Challenge. As a 2009 graduate at the University of the Arts, he earned a BFA in Modern Dance and a Musical Theater Minor. In Philadelphia, Brian was a member of Tap Team Two and taught at dance education and outreach programs with After School Activities Partnerships (ASAP). Since the Bicycle Ambassadors season ended, Brian has moved to New York City to begin auditioning for larger scale performances, and continues to teach tap to children.

Jonathan Farbowitz grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After graduating with a BA from Vassar College he developed a passion for bicycle commuting and maintenance. He has participated in bike repair collectives such as Time’s Up in New York City, Bike Farm in Portland, Oregon and Bike Church in Philadelphia. He has also worked in education as a reading tutor and at an after school program serving students in South Philly. Jonathan’s interests include filmmaking, creative writing and democratic schools. Jonathan helped wrap up the Bicycle Ambassadors season by teaching classes through the end of September. Since the Bicycle Ambassadors season ended Jonathan has moved to New York where he is interning at the Brooklyn Free School and teaching bicycle repair to middle school students in an after-school program. Jonathan recognizes that experience of working as a Bicycle Ambassador has provided him with a new level of confidence in teaching, public relations and conducting advocacy campaigns.

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 4 Hannah Lee moved to Philadelphia in 2008, after completing her undergraduate degree in Intercultural Studies and Spanish at Houghton College. Since moving to Philadelphia she has discovered the great joy of commuting by bicycle. While completing an AmeriCorps volunteer year at Project H.O.M.E., Hannah realized her passion for helping marginalized people by offering them care, support and educational opportunities. Currently Hannah is obtaining her Masters in Social Work degree at Bryn Mawr College. In addition to biking, Hannah loves hiking, camping, and spending time outdoors. Since the Bicycle Ambassadors season ended Hannah has embarked on her last year of graduate school for Social Work and sees her completed degree looming closer and closer. Hannah recognizes that the experience of working as a Bicycle Ambassador provided her with new skills in public speaking and outreach, an ever growing passion to advocate for the rights of bicyclists, and tools of perseverance to face life challenges head-on.

Celia Marraro’s love of bicycles is what initially drew her to the Bicycle Ambassador program. Celia graduated from Gettysburg College in 2008 with a B.A. in Art History and English. Afterwards she lived in Washington D.C. where she worked for a woman-owned law practice specializing in environmental law, as the firm’s resident writer. Since the end of 2009 Celia has lived in Philadelphia and has been serving local charter and magnet schools as a substitute teacher. Since the Bicycle Ambassadors season ended Celia has decided to apply to law school. Celia’s experiences as a Bicycle Ambassador provided her with a better understanding of non-profit work and allowed her to gain more experience in the world of advocacy and glean from it a burgeoning interest.

Julian Root grew up in Huntingdon Valley, PA and moved to Philadelphia in 2005 to attend Temple University, where he graduated with a BA in English in 2010. He wrote extensively for the student-run newspaper there, mostly covering concerts and cycling related issues. His interest in cycling blossomed in 2008 when he took a semester off from his studies to undertake a self-supported bicycle tour from Bar Harbor, ME to Portland, OR. While not on his bike, Julian may be found troubadouring the streets, coffee shops, and bars of Philadelphia with his banjo or guitar, performing with a vast array of different local talents. Since the Bicycle Ambassadors season has ended, Julian has traveled to Austin and New Orleans, and is now back in Philly, regularly performing by himself and with his band, while also submitting work as a free- lance writer. He has also been riding his brand new locally built custom touring bike.

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 5 2010 SEASON REVIEW

The 2010 Bicycle Ambassadors program relied on four primary types of outreach and education: event outreach, classroom/clinic education, service stations and on-street outreach.

Event outreach occurred at community events such as a farmers’ market, transportation fairs, festivals, and block parties. The Ambassadors conducted general outreach at these events by setting up a table with information available and inviting conversations with the public by standing in front of the table. Event outreach was valuable because it allowed the Ambassadors to bring the bicycle safety message to a larger audience.

Classroom education took place in an interactive presentation setting or on the road with students. Over the past two years the Ambassadors program has developed four classes: Urban Riding Basics, a Fix-A-Flat clinic, Bike Cleaning 101 and Street View Essentials, with the Urban Riding Basics as the most popular class. This 60-90 minute presentation covered topics including proper helmet and bicycle fitting, rules of the road, route selection, urban hazards, locking a bicycle, and packing/strategies among other topics. Classroom education was different from the other types of outreach because participants choose to be involved and were therefore highly motivated to learn. While classroom education was often the most effective and enjoyable form of outreach, it was the most time consuming to schedule, which is a consideration for program improvement in 2011. Bicycle Ambassadors taught 53 classes during the 2010 season, a dramatic increase from 27 classes taught in 2009. Street View Essentials is a one-on-one 60-minute on-street bicycle safety clinic with an Ambassador, educating a bicyclist on safe urban riding practices. A huge advantage to this type of education was that the Ambassador could cater to the needs of the individual. The Bicycle Ambassadors conducted 3 Street View Essentials clinics in 2010 with a total of 10 students.

Additionally, this year the Bicycle Ambassadors implemented the service station as a new form of outreach. Ambassadors tow a cargo trailer with a table, pop-up tent, bike pump, banners and education materials to set up a service station at a busy corner in the city (usually one with a bike lane) or a local multi-use trail. The advantage to service stations was that they provided passersby’s with the opportunity and choice to talk to the Ambassadors. The Ambassadors found these interactions to be generally brief and targeted to the specific interests of the individual. The BCGP attempted to engage volunteers in hosting service stations with the intention of developing a self-sustaining service station program beyond the life of the Bicycle Ambassadors season. While there was some success with volunteer involvement, the program did not have the infrastructure in place to effectively develop a reliable volunteer corp. This experience did serve as a lesson learned and is considered for program changes in the future years.

The Bicycle Ambassadors program took a different approach to on-street outreach in 2010. In 2009, on-street outreach was conducted in an unstructured manner and it took a great deal of energy for the Ambassadors to implement. In 2010, the Bicycle Ambassadors Coordinator selected particular intersections, stretches of road which had dangerous interactions with motorists and/or locations targeting specific populations. The team of Ambassadors reached out to the pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists at these locations and educated them on how to best share the road and increase safety for all road users. In on-street outreach, Ambassadors attempted to speak with any passerby who would give them a few moments, making this a very challenging form of outreach, but again providing the Ambassadors

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 6 with a broader audience. With the help of the Coordinator, the program limited unstructured on-street outreach opportunities and focused more on select locations targeting either dangerous intersections or populations most likely to get into crashes.

With a dynamic team of Bicycle Ambassadors and a growing bicycling community in Philadelphia, the 2010 Bicycle Ambassadors were able to address community concerns about urban bicycling safety, removed abandoned bicycles from Center City, and diversify overall bicycle outreach and education efforts throughout Philadelphia.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2010 BICYCLE AMBASSADORS SEASON INCLUDE:

THE WALNUT STREET AND CHESTNUT STREET BRIDGE CAMPAIGNS: Over the last two years the Bicycle Coalition has received a number of emails and phone calls regarding the safety of the Chestnut and Walnut Street Bridges. In both locations the bike lane crosses over a right turn only lane and motorists regularly speed into the turn lane without yielding. In late June the Ambassadors started a campaign to educate motorists and bicyclists on how to safely navigate this type of dangerous situation by drawing attention to the importance of yielding. To increase awareness the Ambassadors staged them- selves on the bridges during rush hour, holding up “YIELD TO BIKES” signs with diagrams of the specific traffic pattern. The Bicycle Ambassadors also used this opportunity to talk to bicyclists about riding on the sidewalk, an option that many bicyclists chose to avoid the dangerous yielding situation in the on-street bike lanes. The goal of this multi-pronged approach was to help bicyclists understand their rights and responsibilities as well as to remind motorists to yield to merging bicycles. Ambassadors noticed that during these outreach opportunities, yielding compliance by motorists improved.

I BIKE PHL PHOTO CAMPAIGN: Toward the end of the season the Ambassadors were searching for a new approach to outreach and therefore developed the I BIKE PHL Photo Campaign in August. The Ambassadors continued to attend primary outreach events, including farmers markets and hosting service stations, but also set out with an I BIKE PHL sign and camera on a specific mission: to capture photographs of Philadelphia bicyclists that express the diversity of the Philadelphia bicycling community. The I BIKE PHL campaign directly engaged the bicycling community by capturing the faces of Philadelphia bicyclists. All photos and rider “bios” were posted on the BCGP education blog. A particularly effective outcome of this type of outreach is that the Ambassadors were able to speak directly with a very diverse population of urban bicyclists, increasing the audience of the Bicycle Ambassador message. Also, any bicyclists who were featured on the BCGP education blog were invited to visit the blog and share with their friends and family, further increasing the scope of outreach for the Bicycle Ambassadors.

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 7 DIVERSIFYING OUTREACH To appropriately meet the needs of a diverse population of bicyclists and pedestrians in Philadelphia, the Bicycle Ambassadors program continued to diversify education and outreach efforts throughout the 2010 season:

w In May the Bicycle Ambassadors were able to join Gearing Up, a Philadelphia- based nonprofit organization that provides women in transition with the opportunity to safely ride a bicycle for exercise, transportation, and personal growth. Ambassadors took each graduating woman out on a one-on-one street view essentials ride, reinforcing urban riding safety, how to lock a bicycle, and even how to effectively use the SEPTA bus bike rack, which the Ambassadors towed to Neighborhood Bike Works for instruction and practice.

w Over the 4th of July weekend the Ambassadors attended the free ice cream festival at Penn’s Landing, doing outreach to over 2000 people; families, pedestrians, and bicyclists in just two days.

w One of the more unique Ambassador requests of the season came from Good Shephard, a local homeless shelter. Ambassadors set up multiple service stations during lunch hour and spoke to the homeless men and women who gather for food, many of whom arrived by bike or had a bike that they would ride on occasion. These events allowed the Ambassadors to interact with a very different demographic than they usually would at festivals and farmers markets as well as provide support and education to an underserved population, of which many use a bicycle as a primary source of transportation.

w The Ambassadors were able to expand outreach efforts by partnering with one of the county committees of the BCGP to take part in a campaign called Bike the Pike. After the tragic death of a Haverford University professor this past summer, BCGP county advocates wanted to put together a campaign to address safety issues at the intersection of West Chester Pike and Interstate 476. The Ambassadors were able to assist with knowledge of how to run an on-street education campaign.

w Lastly, all primary outreach materials have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese.

ABANDONED BIKE REMOVAL: Removing abandoned bicycles from the city has many positive impacts, including freeing up much needed parking space, cleaning up the city, and donating abandoned bikes and parts to Neighbor- hood Bike Works for afterschool programming. Over the course of 2010 the Bicycle Ambassadors program completed four abandoned bicycle removals (February, July, August, and September). Throughout Center City Philadelphia, Ambassadors tagged abandoned bicycles with a bilingual neon orange tag stating in English and Spanish, “This bike has been identified as an abandoned bike. It will be removed if it is not relocated within seven days. Please call 215.242.9253 with questions.” Each tagged bicycle was recorded and entered into a database. All tagged bicycles were left for at least seven days so that bicycles that were inadvertently tagged can be identified by the owners

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 8 and taken off the abandoned bicycle removal list. When at least 20 bicycles were tagged and confirmed abandoned, the City of Philadelphia Streets Sanitation assisted with removal by providing a truck and workers to assist with removal. Abandoned bicycles and bicycle parts were donated to Neighborhood Bike Works to support their Earn-a-Bike classes in the Philadelphia region.

In July, the Ambassadors removed 27 bicycles, the most ever removed in one day and donated them to Neighbor- hood Bike Works. On August 13th the Ambassadors hosted another dead bike removal, removing about 18 bicycles or parts, and again donating them to Neighborhood Bike Works. The removal received press from WHYY for efforts to clean up the city. The final abandoned bike removal of the season happened at the end of September. The BCGP has approached the University City District (UCD) to assist with their abandoned bicycle removal in West Philadelphia and found that they already have a system in place. A successful collaboration has arisen from this where the BCGP sends UCD information about abandoned bikes to crosscheck for any registered bikes before removed tagged bicycles from Center City.

SOCIAL NETWORKING: The Ambassadors continued to expand social networking efforts in 2010 through the website, blog, Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page, Twitter, and blog are all connected so when a blog post is published our friends through Facebook and Twitter are also notified. The blog was the primary place for the I BIKE PHL campaign photos to be published. As of December 2010 the Bicycle Coalition Facebook page had 1885 fans, the Bicycle Ambassadors Twitter account had 1291 followers and the education blog had 8879 visits (6506 absolute unique visitors).

MEDIA AND PUBLICATIONS

w 09/29/10 —Area bicyclists launch new safety campaign (Delcotimes.com) w 09/24/10—Could Philadelphia Become As Green And Progressive As Portland? (Philadelphia Magazine) w 09/24/10—Bicyclists’ demonstration near Marple accident site to be share the road plea—(Inquirer) w 09/10/10—Bike Temple initiative gathers momentum (Temple News) w 09/03/10—Philly 2nd Annual Naked Bike Ride set for Sunday (Philly.com) w 09/02/10—Bicycling Q&A with Max Rosen-Long (Citypaper, pg 8) w Planet Bike 2011 Catalog: “Advocacy in Action,” pages, 24-25 w 08/12/10—Abandoned bikes to be confiscated in Phila. (KYWNewsradio) w 08/09/10—Grassroots group teaches bicycling rights and responsibilities (PlanPhilly) w 08/09/10—Meet the Bike Ambassadors (PlanPhilly) w 06/07/10—Keeping Philly’s wheels turning (PlanPhilly) w 06/03/10—Hearty Trail Mix (South Philly Review) w 06/02/10—Philadelphia pedal pushers taxi their services (UC Review) w 05/27/10—Cunnane whips the motorized competition (Bicycle Retailer) w 05/26/10—Biker wins 6th annual bike-car-transit commuter race (PlanPhilly) w 05/21/10—Hop on the Huffy and Ride (NBC10) w 02/22/10—GreenSpace: Biking is good for us, good for the Earth, and plain fun (Inquirer) w 02/11/10—Welcome to Bike-a-delphia (Keystone Edge)

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 9 METRICS OVERVIEW

TRACKING METRICS In order to keep track of how many individuals were reached through outreach efforts, Ambassadors filled out an evaluation after each outreach opportunity. This activity functioned not only as a debriefing of the day’s events but as an accurate, quantifiable and qualitative evaluation of the direct impact the Ambassadors had on that specific outreach. The Ambassadors met weekly for a team meeting where evaluations were collected by the Bicycle Ambassadors Coordinator and added to the database, among many other administrative tasks. In 2010, event evaluation forms were updated and improved, resulting in greater accuracy in metrics tracking.

DESCRIPTION OF WEIGHTING In addition to the normal tracking of outreach events, additional weight is given to participants involved in a class because class participants learn more information in an hour than in a brief conversation on the street. It is very important that this increase in education be reflected in our metrics. The Bicycle Ambassadors program developed a tool to weight these interactions by the amount of time spent with people in a presentation. The average length of a conversation with an individual on the street is about 2 minutes. These 2 minute contacts count as educating 1 person. When teaching in a classroom setting, where the same people are engaged in the presentation/discussion for an extended period of time, their time is given more weight. For every 5 minutes a person spends in a presentation their time will count as 1 “person”.

Equation: (minutes of presentation/5 minutes) * (number of attendees) For example: 10 people attend a 60 minute class (60/5)*10 = 120 weighted people educated

BREAKDOWN OF METRICS The following chart includes a breakdown of the 2010 outreach metrics. The 2010 Bicycle Ambassadors exceeded the goal of 250 outreach events and 20,000 people educated.

Event/Outreach How many people How many people How many people Weighted number Month Opportunities received literature? did we helmet fit? did we educate? of people educated January 0 0 0 0 0 February 2 24 0 34 298 March 6 310 9 330 630 April 9 350 0 355 557 May 59 2,771 84 2,181 2,883 June 83 5,914 70 5,634 7,375 July 77 7,653 37 7,974 8,532 August 55 4,059 6 4,150 4,370 September 31 2,358 38 2,612 3,843 October 13 1,403 40 1,052 825 November 7 378 0 448 448 December 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 342 25,220 284 24,770 29,761

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 10 BREAKDOWN OF OUTREACH BY TYPE The following chart is a breakdown of the various types of outreach by the total number of outreach evaluation forms completed. In 2010, 342 outreach evaluation forms were completed. Each form was coded with one of the following labels: Event, Class, Service Station, On-Street, Street View or Other.

Outreach by Type

Event

Class

On-Street

Service Station

Street View

Other

Event

Class

On-Street

BREAKDOWN OF OUTREACH BY NEIGHBORHOOD Service Station The following is a breakdown of the neighborhoods the Bicycle Ambassadors worked in by the total number of out- Street View reach evaluations completed (342 completed in 2010). Each evaluation was coded with the appropriate neighborhood Other in which the outreach took place: CC = Center City, UC = University City, FPCenter = Fairmount City Park, OTHER-PHL = within Philadelphia City limits but not Center City or University City and OTHER = outside of Philadelphia. University City

Fairmount Park Outreach by NeighborhoodOTHER: Philadelphia OTHER: Non-Philadelphia

Center City

University City

Fairmount Park

OTHER: Philadelphia

OTHER: Non-Philadelphia

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 11 LESSONS LEARNED

As a second year program, the learning curve was still quite steep and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia continued to learn valuable lessons about how to improve the Bicycle Ambassadors program. The most valuable lessons include:

QUALITY OVER QUANTITY: The Ambassadors expressed that the most effective outreach and education events were those with a captive audience, especially classes. While outreach at a variety of events and festivals is important for expanding the audience of the Ambassadors, it is also very important that the Ambassadors are able to reach individuals on the cusp of change (just about to start commuting to work, but don’t know the laws) or those already bicycling rather than those who don’t even have a bicycle.

FULL TIME COORDINATOR: For the Bicycle Ambassadors program to continue to grow and develop, it is necessary that the program is operated by a full time coordinator. This past season a part- time coordinator filled the role of scheduling and Ambassador organization, but there needs to be a person who centralizes and focuses the effort on it, full-time, especially since the Ambassadors are full time employees.

EXTEND THE SEASON: May is Bike Month and it is very important to have the Ambassadors training in April in preparation for May. Local students return to college in the Fall and many take to bike again or for the first time in an urban setting. With the way the season currently runs, it is very difficult for us to do adequate outreach to the student population. In September, Ambassadors taught classes at University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Temple University. Bike Temple (Temple University’s bicycle program) asked us to do an education series. Most of these classes took place after the last “scheduled” date of the Ambassador season. One of the major drawbacks of our current program structure is that we are not around when students are in session. This should be a serious consideration for future funding.

CAPTAINS: Identifying major Ambassador responsibilities for the season and distributing the work by identifying captains was very effective for the 2010 Ambassador team. By identifying a captain, it was clear who was to step into the leadership role for each responsibility. Captain responsibilities included: storage maintenance, bicycle maintenance, abandoned bike removal coordination, events, membership, and social networking. Future responsibilities could include: photography, ambassador team morale.

VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT While the BCGP tried to incorporate volunteers into service stations and outreach events, there is a gap between Ambassadors and volunteer involvement. To grow volunteer involvement it must be some- body’s clear responsibility to engage and schedule volunteers to be part of Ambassador events.

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 12 INSIGHT FROM THE BICYCLE AMBASSADORS: At the end of the season the Ambassadors spent a few days review- ing their experiences from the season and recording this valuable institutional knowledge. During this time the Ambassadors were able to write a script for the classes that we teach, update and improve many of our forms and provide the BCGP with valuable feedback from their experiences. Some of the major concerns from the Ambassadors were the lack of benefits, including healthcare and paid days off. The opportunity for honest feedback from the Ambassadors about the season and their job responsibilities is incredibly valuable to continuing to improve the program and must be part of season wrap-up each year.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2011 BICYCLE AMBASSADORS SEASON

After two successful years of the Philadelphia Bicycle Ambassadors program, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, with the support of the City of Philadelphia, is looking ahead to the future of the Bicycle Ambassadors program. In 2009 and 2010 Ambassadors spoke with over 45,000 people about the rules of the road and sharing the road between pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. With the enormous growth of bicycling in the past few years, doubling of bikes on the road from 2005-2008, a program such as the Bicycle Ambassadors is essential to the safety of Philadelphia’s residents, workers and visitors.

As the adult education and encouragement program in Philadelphia, Bicycle Ambassadors help to bridge the gap between people who want to start riding and the lack of education available to teach these new riders. Although riding a bicycle in an urban environment is a very efficient mode of transportation, new riders and experienced riders alike need to be educated and/or reminded of the rules of the road and be encouraged to follow these rules. The Bicycle Ambassadors are not an enforcement program; rather we engage the public through grassroots efforts and help each individual reach the conclusion that following the rules is in their best interest and the best interest of the community. Without this education, new riders figure this out by trial and error. Trial and error is not an acceptable means by which to learn how to drive a vehicle and it should not be the standard for learning how to drive a bicycle. Some proposed program changes could include:

w Increasing the Bicycle Ambassadors season from 4 months to 6 months w Decreasing the number of Bicycle Ambassadors from 6 to 4 w Fund a full time instructor position w Increase capacity of program to include greater Hispanic outreach w Increase the number of classes taught in both English and Spanish

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 13 The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is currently compiling information based on Philadelphia crash data. The initial findings are striking and offer a clear path for future Bicycle Ambassadors outreach efforts.

w Focus efforts in the areas of Philadelphia with the highest incidences of crashes—Center City & West Philadelphia specifically. Bicycle Ambassadors should also branch out into the neighborhoods around West Philadelphia and Center City as many of the people traveling to CC and West Philadelphia live in the surrounding communities.

w Increase outreach efforts with the college age population. By extending the season into April and September, our staff will be available to get onto college campuses and talk to the growing number of college students riding their bikes for transportation and recreation.

w Late afternoon and early evening are times of conflict. The Bicycle Ambassadors would like to be able to work with the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Police Department to host a few Bike Light Giveaway campaigns during the spring and fall.

PROGRAM PARTNERS & SPONSORS

The Bicycle Ambassadors and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia would like to thank all of our community partners and program sponsors. Community partners include: University City District (UCD), Fairmount Park, Penn Police, City of Philadelphia, Center City District, Schuylkill River Development Corporation, Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW), Gearing Up, and Bike Temple (Temple University). UCD has provided a great deal of support to get the program up and running including grant writing, program marketing, graphic design, storage and meeting space.

The program seeks direct program sponsors to offset some of the costs of the program through monetary or in-kind contributions. Thank you to the following 2010 Bicycle Ambassadors sponsors: Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), Advanced Sports, Inc (aka: Fuji Bicycles), Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS), Planet Bike and Kryptonite.

CONCLUSION

The 2010 season built off many of the lessons learned in 2009 and was able to effectively offer more services to encourage and educate the Philadelphia community on how to ride more often and ride more safely. As the Bicycle Ambassador program became a more consistent fixture in the community, we were able to offer more services and reach many more people with the Bicycle Ambassadors safety message in 2010.

We would also like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the 2010 Bicycle Ambassadors. Your hard work, commitment, and teamwork made the second Bicycle Ambassadors season a resounding success!

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 14 PRIMARY FUNDING AND SUPPORT

LOCAL PARTNERS

CORPORATE PARTNERS

Bicycle Ambassadors 2010 Report » 15