Bike Traffic - December 2006/January 2007

December 2006/January 2007

New Projects Await Recent Staff Appointments

To make the street environment safer for bicycling, it is necessary to make traffic safe for all users. Where there are fewer car crashes, there is better bicycling.

In 2007, the Healthy Streets Campaign launches an integrated effort with Chicago Aldermen Tom Allen and Ariel Reboyras to reduce all car crashes by 50 percent in a yet-to-be-determined target zone of some 9 square miles, thus demonstrating the viability of a multi-pronged approach that could be used throughout the city and region.

Through a task force appointed local aldermen and state representatives and senators, the Drive With Care Campaign will employ street safety design improvements and special targeted enforcement.

One key part of the program is a social marketing effort that will be coordinated by Ruby Des Jardins, who comes to the Healthy Streets Campaign from the San Francisco-based Music For America, an organization dedicated to engaging young people in politics through music communities.

Des Jardins will work with CBF Chief Strategy Officer Randy Neufeld to develop and sustain the Drive With Care Task Force that is comprised of Chicago Police Department, Chicago Department of Transportation, and representatives from community groups, trauma doctors, schools and businesses.

Des Jardins also will coordinate the program’s SafeTeam to respond to all traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes in the target area; develop community-based social marketing tools and techniques; develop community support from community-based organizations and leaders; and analyze crash data.

The initiative is the first of its kind in Chicago and is funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

For GoHealthy!, Des Jardins is responsible for developing and producing marketing and promotional materials, administering household-based activity diaries, and managing personalized outreach.

Emily Willobee succeeds Eve Jennings as program director of Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassadors with Jennings departure to the Chicago Department of Consumer Affairs (see sidebar). Willobee is a graduate of University of Illinois, Chicago. She has a degree in communications.

A former ambassador who has worked in the past with CBF's student marketing program, Willobee begins her new position by looking for an assistant and planning for the annual recruitment of new ambassadors.

Outgoing Ambassadors Director Says Farewell

by Eve Jennings

I am proud of the growth and success of the Mayor Daley's Bicycling Ambassador program.

When I started with the program in May 2002, we had four seasonally-hired adult Bicycling Ambassadors who engaged roughly 10,000 Chicagoans on bicycling more and doing so safely. At the end of the 2006 season, after managing the program for four years, I was responsible for the Bicycling Ambassadors program, the Junior Ambassadors program, and tackling other objectives of the city's Bike 2015 Plan.

We had 50 teens annually participate in our Junior Ambassadors training program. We had a summertime staff of six adults, 11 teens, and a full-time, salaried Junior Ambassadors coordinator, enabling us to reach more than 40,000 Chicagoans.

I am proud of many things that we were able to accomplish: always exceeding the goals set out for us, establishing diversity in our staff that matched the diversity of the city, perfect staff retention, generating impressive corporate and local product sponsorship.

But what I am most proud of is the number of Ambassadors who have stuck with bicycling (and now pedestrian) advocacy. I look at the CBF staff and I see many Bicycling Ambassadors "graduates" doing amazing work. I am proud I could bring them in, train them, and inspire them, just as they are inspiring others now – just as I was inspired so many years ago.

I will remain a bike advocate at my new position with the city's Department of Consumer Services, where I am working on projects to protect consumers' rights. I am excited to hand over the managment of the Bicycling Ambassador program to Emily Willobee, who will usher it to the next level, making it even bigger and better.

In closing, I am thankful I could start my career at CBF, working on something that is so important to me. It is, a dynamic, visionary, and rewarding place to work. And, of course, I will remain a member."

The change occurs at an exciting time for the five-year-old program, which will see its Junior Ambassadors crew expand from 11 to 14 students next summer. "Eve set up a really amazing foundation for the program and I think it can only get better and grow from here."

Mike Erickson joined the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation staff last month as its bicycle and pedestrian project planner. As a consultant, Erickson offers professional services to clients in Northeastern Illinois that seek to make bicycling and walking a significant part of daily life in their community or region.

CBF Deputy Director Nick Jackson said Erickson has a history of working with municipalities as a planner for Metra and Illinois Department of Transportation, but he is also an advocate.
Through his recent work at Metra, Erickson offers CBF advanced training in research, technology and capital transportation grant writing.

During his work as a Planning Analyst at the Illinois Department of Transportation, Erickson assisted the Northeast Illinois region in developing the first Pedestrian and Bicycle Transportation Component for the 2020 Regional Transportation. Also from IDOT he brings experience in monitoring and analyzing transit and related transportation capital improvement programs and planning activities in the state.

Erickson has begun working with elected and community officials on various projects, such as the Elgin Bike Plan, the Skokie Valley Trail Study and bike map projects.