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The mission of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Bicycle Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.
The Collective was founded in April, 2002, by five enthusiastic bicycle advocates. We set out to share the virtues of bicycling with our community and build the bicycling environment with a creative advocacy organization. Along with providing the gathering place, tools, education, art projects, and shop services, the Collective is about having fun while helping others.
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The founders of the Collective know the benefits of bicycling for transportation and want more people to travel by bike. Why? We believe this form of clean, healthy transportation is not only more sustainable but more enjoyable. In addition, by putting more bicyclists on the road, we are creating safer conditions for existing bicyclists as motorists become more aware of bicyclists on the road.
To convert more would-be bicycle commuters, we are partnering with the city, county, and state governments to provide the knowledge of safe and effective cycling. Our goal is to instruct safe riding skills and simple maintenance to as many people as possilbe. With knowledge and experience, bicycle commuting can become more convenient and efficient than any other form of transportation around town.
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It is our commitment to cycling in the Salt Lake Valley that has led us to create educational programs and provide refurbished bicycles back to the community. The Collective provides the following community services:
- Refurbished bicycles for nominal resale and charity purposes
- Community bike shop with seven full work stations with full tool sets for bicycle repair
- Bicycle parking at downtown Farmer's Market and other events
- Road I Effective Cycling courses for adults
- Kids I and Kids II courses for kids and their parents
- Earn-A-Bike program for kids
- Bicycle mechanic courses and certifications
- Recycling and art projects
Annual Reports
Some of these files are large, so be patient with the download.
A common reference for bike advocacy is the 5 E’s: education, engineering, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation. The Collective is playing a role in the following ways:
Education The Collective offers regularly-scheduled safety courses for adults and kids, formerly known as BikeEd courses taught by League Cycling Instructors (LCIs).
Engineering We have been urging transportation agencies to adopt complete streets policies and accommodate all road users including bicyclists and pedestrians. Salt Lake City recently adopted a strong complete streets policy.
Encouragement At the Collective’s community bike shop at 2312 S. West Temple, everyone is welcome to search for a used bike or use our stands and tools to fix up their own bike. The Collective’s volunteer mechanics refurbish bikes for donation to low income families, help kids build their bikes in our Earn-a-Bike courses, and offer free bicycle valet at events. We are launching a new "trips for Kids" program this year to provide the gear and supervision to take kids out into the wilderness and go mountain biking.
Enforcement The Collective is asking Salt Lake City Police Department and the County Sheriff’s office to start keep better records of accidents, ticketing law breaking cyclists but then offering our BikeEd courses for a waived or reduced fee.
An Example is here:http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_8680689?nclick_check=1
Evaluation The Collective represents a large and diverse body of local cyclists and accepts feedback from that group. We conduct a yearly self-evaluation in our annual report, and we survey our BikeEd graduates to gauge the positive effect.
The Bicycle Collective is educating the bicyclist, which is arguably the most effective way to improve safety on our roads. More bicyclists will increase motorist awareness and help us get the attention of transportation planners, engineers, and law enforcement.
Some of the Collective's accomplishments for 2008:
Last year we held # Open Shop Nights and # Volunteer Nights.
- Refurbished ~300 bicycles that are now providing the world's most efficient transportation to their new owner
- Refurbished and donated 127 bicycles to low income families (including through the International Rescue Committee (IRS), DCFS, Catholic Community Services)
- Hired a Volunteer Coordinator
- Trained 11 new League Cycling Instructors (LCIs). LCI Certifications were granted after completion of the 9-hr Road I course and a weekend-long training seminar. Two training seminars were hosted in Salt Lake City and Logan in April.
- Parked over 5,500 bikes at our Bike Valet at the Downtown Farmer's Market, Twilight Concert Series, Outdoor Retailers' Show, Arts Festival, City Weekly Rec Festival, andthe BodyWorlds exhibit
- Trained over 150 new youth mechanics through YouthCity, YWCA youth programs, and South Salt Lake Recreation Center who participated in the Earn-a-Bike program by building their bikes from scratch at our Community Bike Shop. Each earned bike comes with safety education and a new helmet.
Thank you for your support toward our continued success!
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