The Alliance for Biking and Walking has launched their People-Powered Movement Photo Contest to build a photo library for biking and walking advocates. Submit up to 20 photos for a chance to win an all-expense paid bike trip to Tuscany and a year's supply of Clif Bars! Other prizes include two brand new commuter bikes and a chance to have your photos featured in the 2010 March/April issue of Momentum Magazine.

Banned in NJ: Many Jersey towns don't allow kids to bike to school. Photo: Voorhees Transportation Center Image Library, Leigh Ann Von Hagen.

This May, a bill surfaced in the U.S. Senate that would triple federal funding for Safe Routes to School programs. Livable Streets Community activists have been on the case this week, mobilizing support for the measure. In many communities, however, local policies also have to change to help kids get to school by walking or biking.

Leigh Ann Von Hagen -- a planner at Rutgers' NJ Safe Routes to School Resource Center -- writes about the uphill battle New Jersey advocates are fighting in school districts where students have actually been banned from biking:

Banning bicycling to school is way too common throughout our state. We are in the planning stages of conducting a statewide survey to find out how often bicycling is banned. We are also developing a model policy for walking and bicycling to school. It is true that teenage driving is significantly more dangerous than students bicycling when you look at crash statistics. Yet, no schools consider banning teenage drivers.

Schools often use liability concerns to get out of taking account of
walking and bicycling to school conditions. A good Safe Routes to School Travel Plan would help with liability issues.

Hagen brought the bike ban to the attention of activists in the Collingswood Streets group, who promptly got going on a campaign to convince the local school board to overturn the ban.

Also this week: The Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition is calling for suggestions on where to conduct LA's first-ever bike and pedestrian count. And in NYC, we're pleased to welcome Harlem & Hamilton Heights Livable Streets and to see the resurgence of Bike Hoboken and the Brooklyn Bridge Cycle Track Advocates.

Santa Barbara Cycle Chic. Photo: Christa Clarke-Jones

In the wiki entry, San Diego-based member Christa Clarke-Jones offers this explanation of the Cycle Chic movement:

Cycle chic
or bicycle chic is the culture of cycling in fashionable clothes. Cycle
Chic is associated with the utility cycling practiced in cities such as
Amsterdam, Berne and Copenhagen,
among others, where citizens practice a high level of bicycle usage. In
many European cities, as well as cities in China and Japan, cycling is
an everyday transport choice and many cyclists choose to wear their
regular clothes, as opposed to outfits generally associated with cycle
sport, such as bicycle shorts, gloves and shoes. Cycle chic is a
growing trend in cities that are now investing in bicycle friendly
infrastructure and facilities.

So, what
would you add to this StreetsWiki installment? Got something to say
about staying chic in more inclement conditions? What about the
benefits of Dutch-style fully enclosed chain guards? Add your two cents to the Cycle Chic entry.

Rounding out the week: TransAltMiddletown,
in Middletown, CT, is looking for people who can bring a green
transportation perpective to a new citizen’s commission on downtown
parking; Walk Oakland Bike Oakland reports on the Bay Area’s Car-Free Challenge; and Dan Knaus weighs in on crime data credibility at Cream Citizen.

So we took the “Sunday Streets” issue to the streets -- literally -- at last Thursday’s Uptown Unveiled! event at 19th and Telegraph, which itself provided a dramatic illustration of how sweet it is to block off the streets for community entertainment. Hundreds of Oaklanders filled the streets to enjoy performances, people-watching, and other free activities. WOBO’s table drew a stream of walkers and cyclists, and we tapped their creativity to gather suggestions for a name. Together with the ideas generated at Tuesday’s Volunteers Meeting, we’ve got quite a list.

Ideas include "Open Roads," "Streets for People," "Walkland" and "East Bay Easy" -- leave a comment to put in your vote!

Elsewhere, PA Walks and Bikes brought up an opportunity to participate in updating the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Pedestrian Guide; Upper Manhattan residents gave the MTA their suggestions for better routes for the Bx20 bus; and a member in St. Louis Park, MN is looking for advice about a local bridge.

Downtown San Francisco as seen from Potrero Hill.
Photo: Joe Bencharsky

This week brought urban history lessons to StreetsWiki from Livable Streets members coast to coast.

Joe Bencharsky penned a neighborhood profile of Potrero Hill, San Francisco, where his family has lived for three generations. Says Joe:

Partly because of street and freeway configuration, partly because of
topography, The Hill is an out of the way community even though it has
close proximity to some of the most active parts of The City. There are
only a few streets that circumvent the freeways that allow traffic
through to The Hill via somewhat circuitous routes.

Meanwhile in New York, Susan Donovan contributed a fascinating entry on the history of Madison Avenue Bus Lanes — a rare remnant of the Koch administration’s largely unrealized 1980 congestion reduction plan.

Elsewhere this week, the new Echo Park and Silverlake Livable Streets chapter of Los Angeles County announces a ride spotlighting roads prioritized in a proposed bike plan; the South Bronx Livable Streets group publicizes a Harlem River rezoning City Council hearing on June 23; and there are new Livable Streets groups for Detroit residents and folding bike users.

Congratulations to Livable Streets Community member silverlynx for his stunning submission to our Profile Photo Contest! Silverlynx is the captain of a tugboat on the San Francisco Bay and rides a DaHon bicycle to commute between jobs. The first prize of a bike gift basket donated by B's Bikes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn goes to him.

Winner silverlynx and runners up lizonthebus and George Osner (l-r)

Runners up include:

• lizonthebus for a photo of herself in what appears to be a brilliant BART train Halloween costume;

Honorable mention: graham

• George Osner, an urban planner and 40-year bike commuter from Modesto, CA, for his creative pose behind a bicycle dream catcher (made by his friend Craig Sawyer);
• and an honorable mention to Transportation Alternatives' Graham T. Beck for the captivating scene at right.
  

All finalists will receive a complimentary advance copy of the soon-to-be-released Streetfilms Toolbox DVD.

Finalist George Osner lists his Twitter feed (@gosner) on his profile, and we thought this would be a good moment to point you to our Twitter action too: you can follow the national Streetsblog Network @streetsblog, as well as @StreetsblogSF and @lastreetsblog. Get on the Twitter train, and don't hesitate to join the community just because the contest is done -- the benefits of being connected go far beyond bike baskets.

All you have to do is join the Community -- and post a profile photo -- between today and Wednesday, May 13 to get yourself in the running. Already a member? Just add or update a photo by the 13th and you too could win.

Why else should you join?

• We're building a national network of livable streets advocates. Your membership will grow the movement and help coordinate our advocacy efforts. We're glad you're reading Streetsblog, but it's time to take it a step further.
  
• Membership gives you a bundle of benefits, like the ability to contact other members, contribute to StreetsWiki, open and join groups, and keep abreast of  Community activity with our new account pages.
  
• To celebrate bike month!
  

Thanks to B’s Bikes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for their generous donation of this classic woven bike basket and its contents. Please note that profile images can be uploaded in jpeg, gif, and most png formats and will be judged on originality. Contact info [at] livablestreets [dot] com with any questions.