One Street News

July 2011

Vol. 4, Issue 6

  1. One Street Launches Components Arm
  2. VISTA Transitions
  3. Resources – Fietsberaad
  4. Hot Topics – Why Fuel Taxes Should Be Used for Bicycle Facilities

One Street Launches Components Arm

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director

You might remember my rant in our April newsletter regarding the unacceptable extinction of basic bike parts. Our work to serve the bicycle needs of impoverished people through our Social Bike Business program has been seriously compromised as these bike parts vanish.  

Well, I’m happy to report that my rage has found a productive channel. This spring the One Street Board of Directors approved our launching a new program called One Street Components. Most exciting is that we have partnered with a local design school, Ecosa Institute, to design our top priority bike part on the brink of extinction: durable, repairable, recyclable and affordable shift lever sets.

Read more in our Press Release, and please pass it on to folks you think might be interested. If you’d like to help fund this innovative effort to design and produce bike parts for the needs of impoverished people, please find details at the bottom of our One Street Components page. 

VISTA Transitions

One Street is honored to be chosen for the AmeriCorps*VISTA program for our second year. This domestic version of the Peace Corps has brought us two super stars to each focus full-time for a full year on our Social Bike Business program: Michael Dummeyer, wrapping up his year with us, and Temmy Bowler, starting this week.  

Michael brought his passion for social business, ensuring that our work with our local partners keeps to the highest standards of businesses that serve social needs. He helped create our first Social Bike Business brochure that has caused countless “Aha!” responses from people we approach about the program. Through his outreach and research he brought clarity to our messaging and planted seeds of interest with local leaders across the U.S. Keeping his sights close to home, he also roused interest in a Social Bike Business program with local partners right here in Prescott, Arizona. Keep an eye out for updates on this budding program. And please join us in cheering for Michael and a job well done. Fortunately he isn’t going far—just about six blocks west on the same street to join the Coalition for Compassion and Justice as their VISTA member working to build their events and social businesses.

Temmy is ready to dig into the program and offer her experience from her recently completed Masters degree in Business Administration and her many years in management for major retailers such as Kohls, Borders and Brown Shoe. In her interview for the position, she admitted that she was ready to step away from this profits-based setting and to learn how to give back to communities through business. Temmy chose VISTA as her way to learn this other side of providing for people’s needs. She noted her astonishment that during her degree program not one mention of social business was made. Her choice of One Street and our Social Bike Business program for her VISTA service will certainly give her that missing piece of the puzzle! 

Resources – Fietsberaad

Fietsberaad specializes in compiling the best resources for improving bicycling policy. While they are based in The Netherlands and have many great Dutch cycling resources, their resources come from around the world and will inspire your bicycle campaigns no matter where you are based.  

Hot Topics – Why Fuel Taxes Should Be Used for Bicycle Facilities

Have you ever been stumped by an official who claimed that bicycle facilities should never be paid for with transportation funds that come from fuel taxes? This misleading assumption is particularly pervasive in the U.S., but is also quite common in any country that uses fuel taxes for building roads. This article from Governing magazine provides lots of great material for responding to such false statements so you and your officials can stay on track to ensure transportation funding always provides for the safety of bicyclists.