Good Times at the MVSA Summer Mixer

Good Times at the MVSA Summer Mixer

Good times were had last Saturday at the first Mountain View Streets for All Summer Mixer! It was a lovely afternoon for snacks and lively conversation. The MVSA team really enjoyed reuniting with friends we haven’t seen in person for a while and also meeting new friends who share the same vision for encouraging bicycling and walking in our community.

Thanks to City Councilmembers Pat Showalter and Alison Hicks for mixing with us! It was great hearing your points of view and about your support for our mission. And thank you Jennifer for opening your home to us and hosting such a fun event. What a great way to re-engergize our new group. 

MVSA Summer Mixer
Bike Rodeo in Rengstorff Park

Bike Rodeo in Rengstorff Park

Bike to Wherever Days continue! Our wonderful Mountain View City staff hosted a Bike Rodeo in Rengstorff Park on Saturday. The participants who brought their bikes and helmets got riding safety tips from a licensed bicycling instructor, a helmet fitting, a bike safety check, and honed their biking skills on the rodeo course. What a great day!

We at Mountain View Streets believe everyone, particularly our youngest citizens, would benefit from this kind of hands on education to learn biking life skills. If you agree, join us to advocate for making biking education a mandatory part of our local school curriculum.

3rd Annual Mountain View Family Bike Ride Recap

3rd Annual Mountain View Family Bike Ride Recap

homestretch It was great to see so many families join us for the 3rd Annual Mountain View Family Bike Ride on Saturday!  149 riders joined us, our biggest Family Bike Ride crowd yet. We gathered in Eagle Park at 10am under a beautiful blue sky. After signing-in, riders socialized, chatted with Nate Baird our Mountain View Bike Coordinator, and explored the family activities including bike decorating, face painting, helmet fitting, and bike tune-ups. Before the ride Cherie Walkowiak and John Scarboro gave a short safety talk demonstrating hand signals, providing instructions for how to ride safely in “bike bus” groups during the ride, and introduced our Ride Guides (modeling the latest in helmet fashions designed by our very own Jessica Hirschfelder) who would help direct the group through the route.

The route

With John setting the pace as our Ride Leader, we set off!  We followed the route through the Shoreline West neighborhood and Mariposa Park and then back through Downtown to connect to Stevens Creek Trail and Landels School before making our way back to Eagle Park. Altogether the route was 3.6 miles. Our faithful Ride Sweep Dick Kiser brought up the rear. Back at Eagle Park, volunteer Jennifer Sumant furiously scooped out the free ice cream cones to meet the demand of our hungry riders!  Some families picnicked on the grass while the young riders lined up to grind their own smoothie on Safe Moves’ bike blender! Thanks so much to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition for providing insurance for the event, Baskin Robbins for donating ice cream, Cognition Cyclery for providing tune-ups, Maylyn Co the Injury Prevention Coordinator from Stanford Health Care for helmet fitting, and Safe Moves for bringing the bike blender. The 2017 Family Bike Ride was brought to you by Great Streets Mountain View and Safe Mountain View, two local non-profit organizations dedicated to making biking and walking safer and more pleasant in our community. We hope the Family Bike Ride promotes enthusiasm for biking and raises awareness of how the community can get involved with promoting the safety and comfort of our biking environment. Consider telling your city council members about your interest in biking with your family and the importance of safe streets for people of all ages. You have power at the local level and your voice counts. This is a positive thing and you may even find making your city better is fun. If you would like to stay informed about the plans for cycling improvements as well our future rides and events, please subscribe to our Newsletter or follow us on Facebook. If you’d like to get directly involved now, you can email Mountain View City Council at citycouncil@mountainview.gov. We can all do our part to make the future better!  

Housing & Transportation City Council Candidates Forum

CandidatesFlrumMountain View will select three new City Councilmembers this November to join the four existing Councilmembers. This new City Council will define the character of Mountain View for years to come. During their term, they will decide the intensity and type of development in the San Antonio, North Bayshore, El Camino Real Corridor, and East Whisman areas. They will decide how we will allocate space to motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders throughout the city including California Street and Shoreline Boulevard. They will tackle thorny issues like how much and where to grow the housing supply and office space, the minimum wage, and Bus Rapid Transit. How do the candidates stand on these issues? How do you stand on these issues? More than 120 people turned out at the Housing & Transportation Forum yesterday to join the conversation by submitting their questions and hearing all nine City Council Candidates articulate their vision for Mountain View. As Keith wrote in the comments of our Candidate Forum Page, “The conversation is headed in the right direction. What a special time to be in The MV!”. We agree!

See below to watch the video of the Candidates Forum and to catch the live tweets from @ladyfleur and @jakatmu

The Forum was co-sponsored Great Streets Mountain View, Bicycle Exchange, Community Action Team, Friends of Caltrain, Greenbelt Alliance, Safe Mountain View.

Special thanks to Debbie Mytels for moderating the forum and Wendee Crofoot to for organizing the event!

Candidates for Mountain View City Council

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Watch the Video

 Live Tweets

How can we make Mountain View a better place for walking and biking?

JarrettAt the our Thursday Night Live booth last week, we invited you to answer the question “How can we make Mountain View a better place for walking and biking?” We were amazed by your passionate and detailed descriptions of the street segments, crossings, and corners that need safety improvements. We’ve summarized your feedback below and will be making the results available to Mountain View’s Bicycle Pedestrian Committee, the Department of Public Works, and City Council. Please feel free to keep those suggestions coming by sending email to contactus@greatstreetsmv.org.

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More Scenes from the GSMV booth at Thursday Night Live

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