SVBC Member Spotlight: Sue Young

We are happy to spotlight Sue Young in the latest Member Spotlights series on our blog.Sue is the Principal Program Manager in the SPARC Microprocessor Development group at Oracle in Santa Clara, but has been a program manager since age 9, growing up working in her family's flower nursery business.She is also the VP of Education with the Santa Clara SweetTalkers Toastmasters Club, where she has held other officer positions including President. Sue enjoys bicycling in search of beautiful views, connecting with people and nature, as well as bicycling for transportation, and aspires to travel the world by bicycle whenever she can. She has been involved with SVBC since 2007.Are you an SVBC member, and wish to showcase your bike club's work, events, and/or concerns? Contact us!How did you get introduced to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition?A past co-worker and past SVBC Board Member, Jerri-Ann introduced me to SVBC. I started volunteering for various events and soliciting potential donors for auction items. Soon I found myself running for the board in 2007-2009 term. I was the primary organizer of SVBC's first Annual Dinner in 2007, held at another board members' home. Christine Thorburn was the first featured guest.What kind of activities and/or trips do you use your bicycle for?Bicycling became a favorite pastime at the recreational level 11 years ago, after a friend talked me into registering for a 3-day charity ride with an all-women club based in the El Dorado Hills/Sacramento area called the Bodacious Biking Babes. I was hooked! I loved the feeling of riding a bicycle, the wonderful supportive community of bicyclists, and the environmental sustainability and health benefits.That first year of bicycling, I started with a 32 lb. hybrid town bike, sized for a 6' tall rider, until I rode up Mt Hamilton. I realized the benefits of a road bike and ended up purchasing a custom carbon bicycle because of my unique vertical challenge. Bike commuting made so much sense, I could get my exercise and avoid the commute on 101 to work. My commute became 13 miles, 3-4 times per week to Menlo Park. I continued to commute after Sun Microsystems was acquired by Oracle in 2010. Today, my commute is 3 days x 11 miles to Santa Clara with a headwind during the afternoon/evening commute. I trail run 2x per week to cross train and still ride on the weekends.How does Oracle promote bicycling to its employees and make it a positive, enjoyable commute option?Oracle promotes bicycling in many forms:

• Hosting the best ever Energizer Stations in Redwood Shores and Santa Clara sites on Bike to Work Day annually
• Flexible work hours
• A fitness center with towel service and lockers available to rent (where I keep extra work clothes)
• Personal bike lockers
• Employee shuttles from office to public transportation

Among your friends and people you know who don't ride a bike, what do you think would help encourage them to get out there? Safe infrastructure and education. Unfortunately there's an inherent fear most people have about riding a bike on public roads.I hear people who don't ride tell me that bicycling is not safe with cars. Many people only feel safe riding on bike trails. If we had a larger network of bike paths for this cross section we could get more people on bikes. If more people biked it wouldn't be a big deal. Education is an essential component for drivers and bicyclists to understand what is the safest for everyone. More bicycle safety classes for school age kids and promoting bike commuting would alleviate a lot of traffic and reduce accidents.What do you think needs to be done to achieve 10% of trips taken by bike by 2025 in Silicon Valley?Education and safe rider support / incentive programs. On Bike to Work Day, people try riding for their first time and realize how fun and doable it is. If more people with shorter commutes got out of their cars and onto their bikes they would be happier because they're getting more exercise, connecting with the community and not stressing out in their cars. If employers or government incentives were available more people might try it and stick to it. Better infrastructure would give people a sense of security. If merchants gave small discounts to customers on bikes they could reduce congestion in their parking lots and better overall for the environment.Share with us what a dream day on your bike looks like.My dream day would be a National No Car Day and we could ride our bikes having full use of all lanes on smoothly paved highways! There would be less noise and better air quality.What would you say to someone considering becoming a member of SVBC? Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is a local non-profit serving Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in promoting bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructure working with local agencies, municipalities and businesses. They work with schools providing safe routes to school programs. SVBC organizes bike friendly programs and the annual Bike to Work Day across the bay area. SVBC also connects at the state and federal levels for consistent policies. They're a worthy cause to support.Will you join Sue and the other 2,200 members of SVBC? Join today and support our work to make our streets and trails safe for all users, improve and expand bike infrastructure where you live and ride, and get more people riding!