11/9/09 - Alta has been selected along with the
Royal Automobile Club of Victoria to run the Melbourne, Australia, bicycle share program. The program will utilize
Bixi bicycle sharing system from Montreal, launch a 600-bicycle fleet, and be funded with revenues and a grant from the Victoria Department of Transportation. Alta will provide the overall management and documentation for the bike share network.
An article from Architecture & Design Australia describes the city's motivation to take part in this opportunity to promote transportation and health benefits for the residents and workers of Melbourne. We are excited to be part of such an important and exciting project! For more information about Alta's involvement and experience in Bicycle Sharing systems please visit
altabicycleshare.com11/5/09 - Quick updates:
10/22/09 - The Santa Clarita Signal
reports on Wednesday's Bike and Walk to School Month festivities in the Santa Clarita school district. The schools have seen a great increase in the number of students arriving at school on foot and bicycle thanks to this Safe Routes to School supported program. Alta is helping to coordinate the city's program with the goal of making walking and biking to school a safe and healthy alternative to driving.
Read the full article here. You can learn more about Alta's development of Safe Routes to School programs on our
Technical Services page and visit the
Santa Clarita Safe Routes to School website for more information on their program.
9/29/09 - On Wednesday, September 30th Alta Principal Mia Birk and fellow author Jeff Mapes will be featured on
Portland's KBOO Radio Bike Show to discuss the rising popularity of cycling in America. Mapes' recent publication
"Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists Are Changing American Cities" has been a success since it hit the shelves in March and Birk's forthcoming
"Joyride: One Woman's Journey to Empower People and Transform Communities" is already generating a lot of interest. They'll be discussing the nationwide resurgence of bicycle popularity as well as Portland's status as Bicycle City USA.
Listen live Wednesday at 11:00am PST over the air in Portland at 90.7 fm or online at
http://kboo.fm/listenThen on Wednesday evening Mia joins musician, artist and author David Byrne to discuss Portland's bicycle culture as part of Byrne's presentation of his new book
"Bicycle Diaries." This sold out panel discussion at Portland's Bagdad theater also features
bikeportland.org editor Jonathan Maus and City or Portland Transportation Options program developer Timo Forsberg.
9/21/09 - Los Angeles, California will be among the cities taking part in the
National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project this fall. Says Dorothy Le of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, "We want L.A. to be truly bike friendly and we noticed that all the major bike-friendly, or getting-to-be-bike-friendly cities, all have bicycle counts. We figured, if they’re really bike friendly, these counts must be part of why they are." Los Angeles Downtown News tells the whole story in their article
"The Cycle Counters." For more information about the
National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project visit the
official website and if you'd like to get involved with LA's efforts to count cyclists visit the
Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition website calendar.
9/11/09 - Portland TV news station
KOIN channel 6 featured a series on Portland's bicycle movement as part of their
Keep It Local programming.
Alta Principal Mia Birk joined
bikeportland.org managing editor
Elly Blue to discuss Portland's "Bike Truths," a discussion of the history behind Portland's cycling popularity and the efforts made to get the city to where it is today.
Click here to watch the "Portland bike truths" segment.9/9/09 -
Alta Principal Jeff Olson will be taking part in
New York's New Amsterdam Bike Slam this week. The Slam is "a unique battle for the future of New York City transportation" with teams competing to propose the best vision for the city's bicycle transportation future. Jeff joins Andy Clarke, Executive Director of American Bicyclists and Arjen Jaarsma of Balancia for the panel discussion "Cycle Planning in the US and the Netherlands." Find out more on the
New Amsterdam Bike Slam website.
9/9/09 -
Northwest Hub, a new website for land use and environmental news in the Pacific Northwest,
reports on the
City of Portland's new Cycle Track demonstration project.
The article discusses Alta's influence on the demonstration's design and implementation through our
Cycle Tracks: Lessons Learned study published last year including the advantages cycle tracks lend over conventional bike lanes. Learn more about Cycle Tracks on our website's
Research & Studies page and
read Northwest Hub's full article on the first Portland Cycle Track.
8/18/09 - Alta has recently begun work on Kodiak Island's Trail Master Plan in an effort to organize, protect and better identify trails inside town and off the road system. The Kodiak, Alaska
Daily Mirror reports this trail plan is a long time in the making and underscores the importance of a community's trail plan.
See the full article at the Kodiak Daily Mirror.
8/18/09 - Alta is proud to sponsor the
2009 Safe Routes to School National Conference, which kicks off this Wednesday in Portland, Oregon. Alta staff including founding Principal Michael Jones and planners David Pulsipher, Hannah Kapell, and Susan Peithman are presenting about emerging trends and conducting valuable mobile workshops. We hope to see you there at our booth!
To learn about how Alta can help your community develop its own Safe Routes to School program, visit our
Safe Routes to School page. For more information about Alta's support and involvement with conferences, visit our
Community Partners page.
8/4/09 - Vancouver, BC publication The Tyee reports on "
Portland's Bicycle Brilliance," praising Portland, Oregon's bicycling friendly culture and approach to development. In the article
Alta Principal Mia Birk explains the city's efforts and process to develop this environment. "There's a myth that Portland is just a place where everybody bikes, that's just how it is," Mia says, "And that's not correct, the truth is that we made this city what it is today."
The article likens Vancouver to Portland and highlights steps they- and any community- can take to achieve the kind of results Portland has seen. You can learn more about Alta's work with the City of Portland as well as Mia's years as Portland Bike Coordinator in her forthcoming book,
Joyride.
8/3/09 - Curious about what Safe Routes to School is, how to it happens, or what it can do for a community? Ian Pari from the City of Santa Clarita has all these answers and more in
this video interview from SCV-TV. Alta has been helping the city of Santa Clarita to secure Safe Routes funding and is leading the city's Non-Motorized and SR2S programs. Among our work with the city, Alta designed the bulb-outs he refers to, wrote the non-motorized plan, and wrote the four grants he discusses. Learn more about our involvement with
Santa Clarita's SR2S program on our website and visit the
project website at
http://www.scsaferoutes.com/8/3/09 - Communities large and small in Missouri are preparing for bicycle counts this fall. Kansas City, Lawrence, and the surrounding counties are pooling volunteers to take part in the
National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Project counts under the guidance of
Alta Midwest office manager Ann Freiwald. The
Lawrence Journal-World reports that the Lawrance-Douglas County Planning office hopes to better understand where to invest in transportation improvements. Documenting these needs will help secure federal funding and grants for infrastructure improvements. These Missouri community join the many communities around the country taking part in bike counts for the NBPDP this year- visit
bikepeddocumentation.org to learn more. To learn more about Alta's grant writing and funding assistance experience,
visit our Funding page.
7/31/09 -
Alta Principal Mia Birk talks about Lance Armstrong's influence on cycling and getting more people riding in
this video for the Oregonian.
| Mia Birk talks about Lance Armstrong |
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7/8/09 - Alta
received an attention grant from
WorldChanging.com along with the
Portland Department of Transportation and
BikePortland.org for our involvement in Portland, Oregon's shift to sustainable transportation. The article discusses Portland's continued adoption of the bicycle as a primary means to getting around- recently achieving a 3.5% mode split, far and above United States' national average. The article also touches on Portland's bicycle industry and bike related business growth, a figure Alta reported in our
2008 Oregon Bicycle Related Business Study. Read the
full article here, part of WordChanging's
Attention to Philanthropy 2009 series.
6/30/09 - The 2009
National Safe Routes to School Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon August 19-21st. Alta is a sponsor of the event and we're happy to help bring communities from across the country (and around the globe) together to learn how SR2S programs across the country are changing the habits of an entire generation of schoolchildren and putting thousands of families two steps ahead of health and environmental concerns. You can learn all about the Safe Routes to School Movement and programs on the
conference website at
saferoutesconference.org and while you're there learn about registering for the conference.
Find out more about Alta's experience with Safe Routes programs on our
Safe Routes to School page.
