2022 was a year of transition. We emerged slowly from some of the most difficult days of the pandemic, and underwent change, but gathered speed.

We sharpened our focus on community impact.

We powered some of our most successful bicycling events, including our premier annual Bike to to Work and Wherever Days, which exposes thousands of people to the benefits of bicycling, and the annual Silicon Valley Bike Summit, Silicon Valley’s largest gathering of active transportation leaders and organizers from government, the private sector, non-profits, and the general public.

We saw our network of hundreds of “biketivist” activists press for needed safe-roads improvement across the 35 cities and entities that make up Silicon Valley.

Through it all you as sponsors, partners, donors, members and volunteers came through, with your contributions so vital to our work. Thank you!

Take a closer look.

A First-ever Strategic Plan

We reviewed social and transportation trends, talked with experts and people in many walks of life, and arrived at the SVBC Strategic Plan – our first ever – laying out our community-building mission and detailing our strategies and tactics moving forward.

Mission:

To build healthier and more just communities by making bicycling safe and accessible for everyone.

Strategies:

Programs: Introduce people of all ages, abilities, ethnicities, and cultures to the joy of bicycling for everyday use through fun and educational activities.
Pedal Power: Build the power of the bike movement with active, diverse residents creating change in their local communities.
People-centric Streets and Communities: Make bicycling the easiest and most obvious transportation choice by creating connected, comfortable bike networks and ensuring new development is planned around people, not cars.

Learn more: See the full strategic plan.

Bike Parking service at Levi's Stadium — Bike Parking

Volunteers check in and look after the bikes of attendees at a 49ers game. Levi’s Stadium is one of many venues where Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition enables you to arrive by bicycle, rather than car, and to check your bike securely, through our Bike Parking service.

Advocacy on the Move

SVBC, one of the largest bicycle coalitions in the nation, through the umbrella organization and local teams, engages across the 35 cities and entities of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

Our nine local teams now have over 900 biketivists – people just like you! – who are residents of the communities. SVBC has a goal of growing to 10 local teams.

As a team member, we help you all come together to advocate for what's important in your city. We organize monthly Biketivist forums as learning opportunities so that you all continue to be effective advocates. In the past year, SVBC hosted a series of forums with topics ranging from Safe Routes to School, San Jose’s budget process, the intersection of transportation and housing, and more – to spread education and awareness around policy issues, with an average attendance of 60-70 people. More are coming for biketivist impact in 2023. Check out a forum!

Together, the teams have conducted over 20 campaigns in the past year. Some of their wins include:

Sunnyvale: Hosted Safe Streets Save Lives event which included close to 200 people, urging the city to prioritize safe streets recommendations. Separately, the City Council voted unanimously in favor of the Sunnyvale Avenue Caltrain underpass to be bike-pedestrian only, rather than also including vehicles.
San Mateo: Approval and installation of the North Central Bike Lanes project, which adds bike lanes on key east-west and north-south routes that have seen 11 percent of all bike-related collisions in the city in the past five years.
Redwood City: Protected Bike Lanes on a stretch of El Camino Real to be constructed in 2023.
San Jose abolished parking minimums.
Los Altos: Approved installation of buffered bike lanes on El Camino Real.
Santa Clara: accepted the Pruneridge Complete Streets Plan with a car lane reduction and a buffered bike lane, consistent with the bike lanes on either end of the two-mile gap.

In addition, SVBC wrote over 50 support letters endorsing bike-pedestrian projects across the two counties. SVBC staff was also on the evaluation panel for the One Bay Area Grants (OBAG), City/County Association of Governments Active Transportation Program(C/CAG ATP) grant, Stakeholder advisory group for the North Fair Oaks Railway Crossing Study and C/CAG's micromobility study in San Mateo County.

Programs that Move People Forward

SVBC ran a full schedule of social rides, service, and education; including delivering food to those in need, e-bike education, adult and family cycling, safety and maintenance education.

Among the highlights, our premier initiative, Bike to Wherever Day, Bike to Work Day and Bike Month series, coming up in May. Across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, nearly 4,000 of you pledged to ride in Bike to Wherever Days last year, a record number.

Bike to Wherever Days had its origins as Bike to Work Day. But with pandemic-related workplace closures, the event evolved to embrace Bike to Wherever Days, with both also known as BTWD. The days feature events and support especially to encourage new people to try riding a bike, fall in love with bicycling, and then keep the flame going through our other programs.

BTWD is our strategic plan in action: It starts with a fun program that serves as a big magnet to pull you to try riding a bike.Then, once you feel the joy, to provide you with other ways to keep riding, including classes, regular social rides and volunteer activities. And ultimately to attract you into advocacy and leadership work. When we ask people how they became active with us, BTWD is cited most often

But there’s much more to our programs:

Fifty-two volunteers delivered 874 farm-grown veggie boxes — nearly 9,000 pounds of food — to low-income households on the Eastside of San Jose through our program partnership with Veggielution, Eastside Connect.
Taught 179 people about e-bikes, and had 313 participate in our adult education programming.
Hosted 13 bike rides and rode with 229 people over 121 miles on our monthly ride series.
Through our Bike Parking program, parked 4,935 bikes at venues from major sports events and concerts to local activities.
WIth our increased programs team capacity (two more program coordinators and a Director of Education) we have deepened our commitment to relationship and partner development with community groups and organizations.
18 total nominations for Bike Champion of the Year across San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties.