BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

As some of you know I'm now an SPC Commissioner. One of the things I want to make sure happens at SPC is that we start to make it more transparent and hears from people who ride bikes and walk at every opportunity that is presented. That's difficult in that to understand what goes on there currently, people need to speak a pretty specialized language. Many people don't even realize what SPC is or why it's important. I want to change that. One opportunity to do that is by getting citizens to speak during public comment periods. Few if any actually do this. At my first commission meeting last month a man spoke during the public comment period and the comment from the chairman was along the lines of "we almost never get people to comment." So I want to make sure that you know of all the opportunities to comment and are heard and that people on important committees like the Transportation Technical Committee (TTC) hear you. And that the Commissioners hear you. There is both at TTC meeting AND a Commissioners meeting approaching. The first thing on the agenda is public comment. You don't even have to stay for the rest of it. TTC: 10am, Thursday, June 19th at Two Chatham Center, 4th Floor 112 Washington Place Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3451 (near Consol Energy Center) http://www.spcregion.org/about_comm_ttc.shtml Commission Meeting: 4:30pm, Monday, June 30 at Two Chatham Center (I believe it's on the 4th floor) As for what you say, it's really up to you. The people in the room are the major transportation decision makers from around the region. Simply introducing yourself and telling a very short story about why/where you bike, what it means to you, and why you hope that the people present do more to fund and prioritize biking and walking would be terrific. P.S. I will probably not be present for the Commissioners meeting on the 30th because I will be returning that day from a trip to Copenhagen with the Mayor and County Executive to study their bike/ped infrastructure there.