Bike San Mateo County

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=3 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="05ad05a3.jpg"> <div> <B>                               </B><B>Bike San Mateo County</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="05bd2123.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Using your bike"><U>Using your bike</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bike SMC Recommendations"><U>Bike SMC Recommendations</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Campaigns/Activities"><U>Campaigns/Activities</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Current Issues"><U>Current Issues</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dangerous Conditions"><U>Dangerous Conditions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Google Discussion Groups"><U>Google Discussion Groups</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Maps/Routes"><U>Maps/Routes</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Resources"><U>Resources</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News Archive"><U>News Archive</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bikes on Transit"><U>Bikes on Transit</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Newsletters"><U>Newsletters</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="City Links and Contacts"><U>City Links and Contacts</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Membership/Contact"><U>Membership/Contact</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Getting Involved"><U>Getting Involved</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id52.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Improvements"><U>Improvements</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id56.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In Case of an Accident Legal Considerat"><U>In Case of an Accident & Legal Considerations</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Map"><U>Site Map</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=389 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>The Courteous Bicyclist                        </B></I></div> <bR> <div> In looking for ways to enhance or initiate safe transportation infrastructure amenities and to ensure our right to travel as legitimate street traffic, many of us joined organizations, attended public agency meetings, and wrote letters to elected officials.  As the success of these efforts has served to promote more documented everyday bicycle usage, it has also brought the unintended consequence of increased friction among the user groups of motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists.  Bicyclists who pay no heed to the Vehicle Code, undermine all the hard effort put forth to provide better bicycle accommodation.  Although most bicyclists ride safely and lawfully, there remain enough two-wheeled scofflaws on our streets and sidewalks who continue to underscore the notion that "Bikes DON'T Belong".</div> <bR> <div> Bicyclists tend to overlook their most direct opportunity toward achieving safety and accommodation which involves no funding, no new laws, or waiting for advocacy groups to organize.  Rather than reinforcing an image of bicycle outlaws, it has become the mandate for each cyclist to become an individual ambassador to demonstrate that street space is deserved because of mutual user respect. </div> <bR> <div> Bike San Mateo County has authored "The Courteous Road User's Guide" to provide guidelines for all road users on how best to accommodate everyone. In addition to defining how bicyclists should conduct themselves, it explains how motorists can accommodate  bicyclists by recognizing the specific hazards bicyclists must avoid and explains why bicyclists sometimes need to "Take the Lane" in order to ride safely.  The intent of the Guide is to provide a simple educational blueprint to encourage individual responsibility to meet the social and codified obligations that all must undertake to ensure that our public thoroughfares retain and continue to maintain safe accommodation for every user.</div> <bR> <div> For a downloadable copy of "The Courteous Road User's Guide" go to: <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://bikesmc.org/CourteousRoadUserGuideR1April2012.pdf" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://bikesmc.org/CourteousRoadUserGuid"><U> http://bikesmc.org/CourteousRoadUserGuideR1April2012.pdf</U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Thanks Mike</div> <bR> <div> This December 2013 we lost a good friend, bicyclist and a great champion for bicycling. Mike Harding past away in December after a year long illness. For decades Mike worked to promote and improve bicycling in our community. He was that dependable guy that was always there to help out, getting involved to provide his experience on numerous local issues and spending hundreds of hours attending meetings and community events to help make bicycling better. Mike loved his bike and always wanted to share this with others. </div> <bR> <div> One of Mike's projects was getting the bicycle/pedestrian bridge built on San Mateo Drive in Menlo Park. In honor and memory of Mike an effort is being made to have this bridge named to honor and respect Mike. Please help this effort by writing to the Menlo Park City Council. Send your support to the Menlo Park City Council at citycouncil@menlopark.org and cc to greg.klingsporn@retrotech.org. Greg is the chair of the Menlo Park bicycle commission.</div> <bR> <div> Below are some pictures of Mike. If you have any pictures you would like posted here please email them to bikesmc@hotmail.com. Also if you would like to add your memories of Mike, let us know.</div> <bR> <div> Mike was such a great guy and we all owe him a great deal of thanks.</div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1488e8a0.png" border=0 width="398" height="394" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="14a137c0.png" border=0 width="531" height="380" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <IMG SRC="14c95300.png" border=0 width="405" height="304" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=1 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>