Sylvia Bingham Fund

Promoting Bicycle Safety & Social Justice Causes

The Sylvia Bingham Fund

BICYCLE SAFETY

Annual bike ride in Cleveland Sept. 16

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Once again Francoise and I will be joining Sylvia’s friends in Cleveland for our 8th annual bike ride to remember her and others killed biking in Cleveland. She was killed biking to work on 9/15/09.

We will visit her best friend Jill, Jill’s husband David and their year-old baby named…. Sylvia (nicknamed Via). I hope you will take a moment on the 15th to reflect on Sylvia and how important it is to make the roads safer for cyclists. One concrete thing you can do is to use the Dutch Reach when exiting your car and tell others to do so. Up to 20% of major crashes are because cyclists are “doored.” See the Dutch Reach graphic posted here.

BIKELASH: Pedaling on a Collision Course

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Cyclists report “BIKELASH” around Cleveland as numbers of bike riders increase and motorists must share roads.

Channel 3 in Cleveland (WKYC) did an excellent story in October, 2014 on the dangerous phenomenon of “bikelash”. It begins: “Today’s cyclists still fear for their lives. The number of Cleveland area cyclists commuting on 2 wheels has increased 285% since 2010. As Cleveland grows into a cycling city, it is not without growing pains. Imagine a morning commute with profanities screamed at you, objects thrown your way and drivers intent on running you off the road. Cyclists tell Channel 3, this is what they go through too often….”

Read Complete Story >>

SBF Participates in Bike Ride to Promote Safety and New Law

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Steve represented SBF in a jointly sponsored bike ride November 12 to promote safety and especially California’s new law prohibiting vehicles from passing bikes with less than 3 feet clearance. The other sponsors were Trips for Kids,  Alcohol Justice and WheelEscape,  whose director, Kathy McLeod, a bike instructor certified by the League of American Bicyclists, gave a short safety lesson before the ride to the 15-20 kids and adults on the new 3-foot law and bike safety in general.  The ride was held in the low-income Canal District of San Rafael, in an effort to reach a population little-served by the more traditional cycling organizations.

SBF Participates in Bike Ride to Promote Safety and New Law

“Vision Zero” – A Goal of No More Deaths

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This is a great interview with an extraordinary bike activist, who headed the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition for 12 years, and is now leaving for a fellowship to study Vision Zero in Europe, a commitment by public entities to eliminate bicycle and pedestrian deaths altogether.

LeahShahum, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

LeahShahum, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Melissa Balmer, Director of Women on Bikes California/ PedalLove.org, talks with Leah Shahum, who after 12 years is stepping down as Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Melissa Balmer: After 12 very successful years as the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition you are stepping down to go on an exciting new adventure on a German Marshall Fund Fellowship to research the effects of Vision Zero. Please share with us what the Vision Zero concept is and why you wanted to participate in this fellowship.

Leah Shahum: Vision Zero is a simple yet profound concept that we can prevent traffic fatalities and serious injuries if we change our mindset to no longer accept these tragedies as inevitable. If our communities truly prioritize safety – that means elevating safety in every decision made by City officials regarding how we design our streets, how police enforce, and how policies and funding decisions are made – we could eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Communities in Europe have made that choice and are seeing tremendous success. For example, Sweden, the birthplace of Vision Zero, has seen a 30 percent decrease in traffic fatalities since 1997, when it committed to Vision Zero.

I’m proud that our advocacy at the SF Bicycle Coalition, along with partners including Walk SF and neighborhood groups, moved Vision Zero onto the forefront of San Francisco’s political forefront in the past year, with commitments from the Mayor, Police Chief, and other city leaders. But now we need to figure out how to actually implement this bold, yet achievable, vision of eliminating traffic deaths on SF’s streets by 2024. And I believe San Francisco, along with New York City, can succeed and serve as models for other US cities.

This Fellowship will give me the chance to visit cities that are successfully implementing Vision Zero for safer streets and increased biking and walking – including Stockholm, Rotterdam, and Berlin – and find out how these communities have made the tough choices and moved their communities from ones that considered traffic violence inevitable to stoppable. I believe Vision Zero is the next major strategy for American cities to move the needle toward safe, healthy, accessible transportation systems that will keep our communities thriving.

Read Complete Interview >>

Errant Comments by WTAM 1100 Talk Show Host Mike Trivisonno Help Generate Support for a Bike Cleveland Safety Campaign

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Ride Together

Cyclists gathered at the downtown Cleveland Bike Rack for the launch of Bike Cleveland’s citywide bike safety campaign.

For bike lovers in Cleveland, the irony is probably sweet.

A mean-spirited comment about cyclists last year by WTAM 1100 talk show host Mike Trivisonno helped generate support from Clear Channel for a citywide bike safety campaign launched on Friday by Bike Cleveland, the city’s largest, non-profit bike advocacy organization.

During a program last September Trivisonno, who has been critical of cyclists who ride on city streets, said he “wouldn’t feel bad” if he ran over and killed a bicyclist who accidentally fell off a bike in front of his car.

Read Complete Story >>

Information About Ride of Silence

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Ride of SilenceRide of Silence events are held every year on May 18 at 7:00 PM in hundred of locations world wide.The first Ride of Silence took place at White Rock Lake in Dallas in 2003. This unformal event, attended by 1000 cyclists, was organized by Chris Phelan to honor the memory of his friend Larry Schwartz who was killed by a school bus mirror on May 4 2003.

The mission of the world wide Ride of Silence is to honor bicyclists killed by motorists, promote sharing the road, and provide awareness of bicycling safety.

For more information go to http://www.rideofsilence.org.

2010 Ride of Silence Events Report
Total 2010 Riders: 1138
Total Reported: 3 Cities

Ohio
Cleveland, 350 Riders

Two starting points (Cleveland City Hall and Whole Foods Market) converged at a central meeting place (University Hospitals). 350 riders, mostly wearing white.

We had wonderful support from Cleveland Police as well as a number of other police departments along the route. It was an uplifting and inspirational event that included speakers who talked about the growth of bicycling for transportation and the need for all road users to respect each other and share our roadways.

Speakers also included Bob who has rebuilt his life after being partially paralyzed in a crash, Alex who read a statement from the parents of Sylvia who was killed by a right-turning truck and Gary who talked about his co-worker Charles who was killed while commuting to work.

This event has helped galvanize and strengthen the budding bicycle advocacy movement in northeast Ohio.

Photos From Rides of Silence in Cleveland

Photos From Other Rides of Silence by Friends and Family Members

Why Europe is Safer for Bikes

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This study was done for the city of Vancouver, BC – Cycling for Everyone, Lessons for Vancouver from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. It explains how Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have made cycling so much safer than cities in North America.

Memorial Ride in Cleveland – September 22, 2009

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On Tuesday September 22, 2009 about 150 Cleveland friends, neighbors and sympathetic bike riders joined a silent memorial ride to commemorate the death of Sylvia Bingham. She was killed on September 15 while riding to work.

This Little Light

Alex Talks About Sylvia and Bicycle Safety
Sylvia Bingham Memorial Ride: I Ride For Everyone Who Can’t

The Sylvia Bingham memorial ride will be taking place this Tuesday, September 22nd, at 8:00am (that’s the same day as the general interest meeting, just 12 hours earlier). Here are the details: Meet at Sylvia’s Tremont home at the intersection of Fairfield and West 11th at 7:30 AM. The ride will begin at 8:00 on Tuesday, September 22nd–on the 1 week anniversary of Sylvia’s accident. We will have a limited number of white “I RIDE FOR SYLVIA” T-shirts available for a goodwill donation. Please wear white shirts. Helmets are required, and loaners will be available at the site if you don’t have your own.

This is an incredibly important event for all of the greater Cleveland cycling community, and we hope you can make it out. 4000 More will be helping organize carpools (with bike racks, of course) to head out from Oberlin in time for the ride– if you have a car and want to help get people out, or you don’t but you want to be there, PLEASE email [email protected] and we will help you get transportation.

I Ride For T-Shirts

These are our shirts. The design, inspired by Sylvia’s idea, was a collaborative effort by her friends. On Monday night, Ayla and Alex went to the Oberlin College Silkscreen Studio to print shirts for Tuesday’s ride. Thanks to guidance and help from Asa, a senior at Oberlin, they were able to print 200 shirts by hand. Above is Alex holding a freshly printed shirt in the studio and two bikers at Sylvia’s house before the ride. We will be printing more “I Ride For” shirts for the next ride on October 17th so be sure to let us know if you would like one. We ride for Sylvia.

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