Squeaky Wheels Year in Review – 2023

This past year has been a good year for Squeaky Wheels. After three years of limited activities and events due to coronavirus restrictions, Squeaky Wheels was finally able to return to our normal busy program. Here’s a summary of our highlights:

Chilly Hilly

Squeaky Wheels volunteers were out in force this year, supporting Cascade’s annual Chilly Hilly ride–directing bikes and traffic and supplying lots of good cheer for the annual bike around Bainbridge event.

Bike to School

Hooray for schools! This year, every public school on Bainbridge celebrated Bike to School day. For some schools, it was the first time they had celebrated since Covid arrived in 2020. Squeaky Wheels provided treats for bike riders, prizes for cyclists at each school and helped out with bike trains and organizing school events. Well over 600 children and parents participated in this fun filled educational and environmentally friendly spring cycling extravaganza.

Women don’t Cycle

After an extremely enthusiastic reception to our first screening of this inspiring film at BIMA, Squeaky Wheels held a second screening and community discussion about gender, cycling, and making our island a better place to cycle– courtesy of Lynnwood Center.

Bike for Pie

We had a fabulous turnout for Bike for Pie this year. We added our long cycling route back for those intrepid cyclists who wanted to really earn their pie by pedaling over 33 miles around the island. And we still welcomed many families on our shorter ride. Everyone enjoyed pie, music and the good weather.

Ferrymageddon

For those of us commuting to work in Seattle by bike, the closure of the Bainbridge ferry terminal at the beginning of September was quite a challenge. Squeaky Wheels worked with the ferries for several months prior to the event to develop options for cyclists. We continue to work with Washington State Ferry’s (WSF) to make terminal routing and construction changes safe for cyclists on both sides of the sound.

Sakai-Woodward bike/walk path completed

Sometimes a bad thing turns out to be-well- a good thing in the end. During Covid, Squeaky Wheels organized a Safe Routes to School bike committee in conjunction with the schools. The goal of the committee was to help schools find ways to reduce car traffic, since everyone was driving rather than sending their children to school via buses. One of the committee’s solutions was a park and bike/walk option at Island Church. Rather than blocking Sportsman’s Club Road while idling cars in front of Sakai and Woodward, parents were encouraged to drop their children off at Island Church; kids would then walk and bike to school on a temporary protected lane. This summer the lane was made permanent and the bike/walk option is now a daily solution for many children and parents.

City Thread grant and recommendations

This year, Bainbridge Island was named one of 12 cities around the country to receive a prestigious City Thread grant. Squeaky Wheels was named as the facilitating nonprofit organization for the program. This grant provided an expert team that interviewed a wide cross-section of cycling and non-motorized stakeholders in the BI community. The outcome of the project was a thorough report providing concrete recommendations and strategies for quickly building cycling infrastructure on the island. Squeaky Wheels is now working on how to implement these recommendations to create a more bike-able island.

Hello and farewell

Squeaky Wheels welcomed two new board members this year: Joe Edgell (a specialist in environmental law), is responsible for the wonderful newsletters you are now receiving, and Peter Stoddard (who brings his experience in cycling advocacy from San Francisco,) is now our new secretary. After 14 years of serving on the board of Squeaky Wheels– including roles as president and secretary — Demi Allen is moving on to bigger pastures. He is now on the board of the Cascade Cycling Club. We look forward to many new opportunities to collaborate with Cascade and Demi in the future. Finally, after two stints serving as president of Squeaky Wheels since 2019, I (Paula Holmes-Eber) am passing the baton on wards. The board is excited to start out the new year under the leadership of Alyse Nelson, who has a degree in planning and years of experience working on transportation and cycling projects for the City of Seattle.

Best wishes for a cycling filled and Happy New Year to all of our readers and supporters.

Paula Holmes-Eber