Senior environmental studies major and the Health and Social Sciences Representative for the Associated Students, Inc., Miguel Guerrero, stands in the campus Bike Barn, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2013. Photo By Tony Santos / Xpress
A $10,000 grant was awarded to the Cesar Chavez Student Center’s Sustainable Initiatives program to host a series of bicycle safety events.
The events are set to begin in Fall 2014 and continue through the spring semester. They will include workshops on bike repair as well as bike safety.
“Our goal is to bring the SFSU biking community together and promote sustainable transportation by making biking more accessible for both new and experienced riders,” said Cameron Bingley, sustainability manager and co-president of The Green Initiative Fund.
The Sustainable Initiatives program received the grant last November from the Mary A. Crocker Trust, which donates to charitable organizations throughout the Bay Area.
But the idea to improve the Bike Barn and implement a bicycle workshop series was first pitched in July 2013 by The Green Initiative Fund, a student-lead sustainability organization.
The series was created to assess the demand for an improvement to the Bike Barn, such as adding a physical bike workshop where students could buy bike parts, get their bikes fixed and attend educational workshops and seminars.
“It is important that we host this project because it will help to increase the amount of people who choose a sustainable mode of transportation to school,” said Bingley.
The series will focus on three main themes for beginners to veteran bicycle riders: confidence building, maintenance workshops and safety seminars.
For students who are new to bicycling, the confidence building workshop will teach students the rules of the road, best possible bike routes in the city and get students on their bike to practice safe riding.
In addition to the confidence building workshop there will be informational seminars on how to ride safely with other cars as well as how to properly preform safety checks on various parts of the bike.
The student center has also created a maintenance workshop which will teach students how to properly change a flat tire, oil their bike chain and proper seat and handlebar positions.
Other universities like UC Davis have created their own successful bicycle repair shop to accommodate the bike community on their campus.
According to the UC Davis Bike Barn website, the Bike Barn services over 10,000 bikes a year at their repair station and also provide bike rentals as well as an area to purchase parts for cyclists to make the repairs themselves.
“We have a place where people can park their bikes, they should have a place to fix them too,” said Andy An, a Bike Barn employee.
For students who bike to SF State the nearest repair shop is over a mile from campus on Ocean Avenue, or nearly two miles away on Taraval.
“It is really important to teach bicycle safety, especially in urban areas,” said Caitlin Steele, the director of sustainability and energy for the University. “I hope this program helps to make sure our bike commuters arrive on campus safely.”
