The Ohio Departments of Transportation and Public Safety have awarded Yay Bikes! a $150,000 grant to provide a cyclist safety campaign for OSU students  this fall! The campaign is designed to reduce the number of car/bike crashes on campus and within the University Area by addressing the specific behavors known to lead to crashes. It will include:  

1. Data collection and analysis of unsafe bicycling and driving behaviors, and bike/car crashes
2. A research-based mass media safety campaign targeting specific behaviors
3. An "onslaught" of bicycling education classes, workshops, rides, volunteer experiences, etc.
4. Lights handouts for ill-equipped bicyclists

There are volunteer and internship opportunities associated with this project; we also request financial support to help YB! develop organizational capacity as we implement the campaign. Please contribute in any way you can! And please give BIG props to all the people at ODOT, ODPS, OSU Transportation & Parking, and MORPC who worked so hard to make this campaign possible -- there are many unsung heroes out there who care about us cyclists!

Yay Bikes! is now offering up to 5 internship positions to OSU students beginning June 14. We  will hire one media intern, one data intern, and up to three outreach/PR interns to support our safety campaign this fall. These will be unpaid (sorry, guys!) internships, but they will be far richer experiences than most organizations offer. If you or someone you know might be interested, learn more by accessing FutureLink or contacting Meredith. 

 

YB! is partnering with Franklinton Cycleworks to offer a series of four 1.5-hour bicycle safety and maintenance courses this summer:  

1. Bike laws & riding tips (classroom)
2. Traffic skills (on-road)
3. Basic bicycle maintenance (workshop) 
4. Road-side repair (workshop)

Classes are free for low-income residents of Franklinton and the Hilltop, with free safety accessories to all who complete the four classes; otherwise they are $15 per class or $40 for the series, with 25% off safety accessories. The first classes will be offered June 18 (9-10:30 a.m. classroom, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. on-road) and June 25 (9-10:30 a.m. maintenance workshop, 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. repair workshop). If you or someone you know are interested in these courses, contact Meredith for registration info!

 

On June 2 from 7-9 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. we'll be conducting observations of cyclists' behavior on OSU campus, which will be used to help us discern which risky behaviors to target during our safety campaign.  

 

All volunteers will be required to attend a brief instructional session on Tuesday, May 31 at 4 p.m. or Wednesday, June 1 at 12 p.m. Please RSVP to Meredith with 1) which shifts you can volunteer for and 2) which intro session you will attend. Additional details will follow! 

 

Yay Bikes! will remain within Summit on 16th UMC, but we're relocating to a different space in the church. Join us at 10 a.m. on June 4 to clean, sand and paint primer in the new office. Pizza will be provided to all volunteers! RSVP to Meredith.