Anne Ng - An Enduring Wheel Person - 2024 Tim Oey-L (wheel) Award Winner
Celebrate Anne Ng for her unwavering dedication to making bicycling safer and more accessible for all! As one of SVBC’s founding members, Anne has been a driving force in our mission, shaping a more bike-friendly future for our community. In recognition of her incredible contributions and longtime service, we are proud to honor her with the 2024 Tim Oey-L (“Wheel”) Award—a testament to her lasting impact on SVBC and beyond. Check out her journey!
Anne Ng is one of the most gentle bicycle advocates you will ever meet. She has quietly and steadily accomplished a great deal for the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition to make Silicon Valley more bike-friendly while using her bicycle as her primary mode of transportation ever since she arrived in 1979.
While growing up in Chicago Illinois, Anne got her first bike for her 7th birthday – a blue 24” wheel J.C. Higgins single-speed girls bike from Sears.
24” wheel blue J.C. Higgings single speed girls bike
She was determined to learn how to ride it. With help from her neighbor Margaret Andersen, learn she did and she has been rolling ever since. When she was 12 she outgrew her first bike and upgraded to a 26” wheel single-speed bike with balloon tires that carried her through her college years. She recalls being the only one biking around Knox College in Galesburg Illinois.
In graduate school in Atlanta where she got a masters in physics, she was confronted with her first hills so got a 3-speed. Bicycling there was terrifying because cars were not bike-friendly and there were no other bicycles on the streets.
In 1976, she and her young family moved to Seaside where her kids got banana seat bikes and the whole family bicycled around regularly. There were no bike paths yet in that area.
In 1979, she moved to Cupertino and first encountered the Santa Clara Valley Bicycle Association (SCVBA) through its Spinning Crank newsletter that she picked up at the Cupertino public library. She continued to read the Spinning Crank and ride her bicycle until a turning point in 1988 when Dean Prescott, the president of SCVBA at the time, sent out a plea for volunteers so SCVBA would not disappear. At a meeting at Dean’s house in Sunnyvale, Anne volunteered to be the treasurer and membership chair, Bill Michel became the president, Jim Stallman became the secretary, and Ellen Fletcher (the only person from the old guard to continue) volunteered to be VP and continue as the newsletter editor.
From that point on, Anne held regular newsletter mailing parties at her house where volunteers would affix mailing labels to newsletters and send them off. She also worked diligently to sign up new members.
In 1992, Anne became a co-founding board member of the new Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) which incorporated and became an official 501(c)3 non-profit that replaced SCVBA. Anne continued as treasurer and membership chair for many years and started personally delivering SVBC new member packets by bicycle. Anne delivered these packets by bicycle for more than 30 years!!
Janet Anvik (left) and Anne Ng (right)
Delivering new member letters and donor thank you cards by bike!
During her volunteer tenure, Anne has been a steady advocate speaking at meetings in support of better bicycle facilities and doing other volunteer duties. Anne also helped install a ghost bike for Jeffrey Steinwedel who was killed in 1996 on Stevens Canyon Road in Cupertino by a quarry truck driver and later a second more permanent ghost bike memorial near that same location for Kristy Gough and Matthew Peterson, two bicyclists killed in 2008 by a sheriff’s deputy who crossed a double yellow line with his car.
Anne is a trail builder and has served as a board member of the Friends of Stevens Creek Trail since 2008 – actively helping run events, tabling at Art & Wine festivals, and more.
While never a high-profile “leader”, Anne always did what needed to get done and led by example – riding her bike everywhere to get around. Now 83, Anne’s rides are shorter but she keeps rolling forward.
In recognition of her long-time service to Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and advancing its mission of making bicycling safe and accessible for everyone, SVBC is recognizing her with the Tim Oey-L (“Wheel”) award for 2024. We hope you will all join us to celebrate Anne and her accomplishments at our February 6, 2025, Membership Party.
