November General Body Meeting (open to the public)
Fri, 09/20 @6-7 PM
Discussion highlights:
- Yaoming/Ye: shared how the interview went with Peter Furth. (video to be edited and shared under our Cyclists’ Corner page)
- Yaoming/Dingfang: shared the photos they took of when they first met PN2K during our Revolutions Resolutions Jan 2015 bike event! (full story in an upcoming blog)
- Next bike event will be held Sunday, Dec 6, 2:00-5:00 PM in the MIT Johnson Z Center Lobby
- Jay led team-brainstorming session for event theme: Penguins, moose, polar bears, elf, huskies, snowflakes
- Idea from Will: next event – will feature snowflakes where attendees can write down what they want to improve about bike safety
- From feedback: cut line earlier to finish on time (we almost did it last time!)
- Jay: Bike Trivia was very successful, so people weren’t waiting in line with nothing to do. Had lots of questions & answers
Bike Safety Chat:
- Making right turns (18 wheeler)
- Yaoming demonstrates on blackboard the blindspot of an 18-wheeler truck (recreates Peter’s original drawing during video filming)
- Ye demonstrates right turning, front/back wheels, how right-hook happens (from Peter F.)
- James: suggests filming blindspot of truck vs. cyclists on the road
- Jay: maybe there is a video on YouTube; Dingfang: filming things at an intersection is hard because always moving; Yaoming: can put two cameras on either side, another on a cyclist
- Jay: drivers need to be educated – what to do to make driving test harder; incorporate cycling
- Nick: how we can make the roads safer for not only cyclists but also pedestrians and road users (additional things beyond Bike Trivia)
- Jay: can modify some of the answers currently in the Q&A sheet to be clearer; we have a lot of good questions (which is partly why trivia was so successful)
- Sensor that detects car and bike motion (like when a car is backing up) – would be good for PN2K externship to design something (would be very technical!) other idea is to design gloves (waterproof, weatherproof, etc)
Log of Bike Accidents:
- James brought in some logs of reported bike accidents over the past few years
- PN2K cyclists’ corner section is now live – been advertised to our mailing list in today’s newsletter sent out (11/20)
- Jay Morgan — looks up biking lawyer booklets from Josh Zisson (bike lawyer); can email for cards
Finboard
- Overview: Team brainstormed ideas for what we need to add in our next UA Finboard budget (besides the usual three events per cycle)
- Idea that stood out: bike safety stickers for motorists disobeying the law (e.g., illegally parked in bike lanes) “How am I doing on bike safety? Call xxx-xxx-xxxx)
- Other ideas: Yaoming – Bike Safety cones to place on intersections to prevent cars from turning into the lanes; Nick – bright green safety jackets; cooler for drinks; portable speaker for bike ride
Bike Safety Kids Youth Program
- Received funding from Community Service Fund to run our youth education kids project.
- We received funding for approximately three events (snacks, water, transportation), as well as publicity, bright colored vests, polaroid camera & film for our “Bike Safety & Me” kids books, bike safety props for the bike video, money for bike safety learning materials and decal high visibility bike safety stickers
- Ideas: Jay – create a mat where kids can simulate biking, turns, etc.
- Bike Safety Video – Raul, an attendee from our last event, sung to “What Does the Tanuki Say” — need ~3 more people to complete song-editing; need to add the photos and footage from when Carmel visited for bike safety gestures
Future & Upcoming Dates
- Invite Peter Furth to MIT to speak and educate/engage the community on urban planning for cyclists
- Saturday, 11/21: Cranksgiving bike ride
- Sunday, 12/06: (tentative) MIT PN2K December bike event
- Wednesday, 12/16: Bertucci’s fundraising date
Externship with PN2K (details below)
Title: Product Design Intern
Description: We are looking for charismatic, cheerful, creative, and high energy individuals who care about making a difference in their community. If you are passionate about improving bike safety (and in general pedestrian and road safety) on campus and within the Cambridge/ Boston communities, if you have an eye for designing sports and bicycle accessories, if you are interested in learning about how to go from market surveillance and talking to manufacturers to final product design and distribution, apply for our externship! You will have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a PN2K mentor throughout this externship. You will learn how to survey the bike safety needs in the MIT community, design a bike product to meet this need, learn how to find and negotiate with different manufacturers to create this product and then create a marketing and distribution plan for your product. You will be doing this under the support and guidance of PN2K, a non-profit organization created by MIT alums that is dedicated to improving bike safety in our local communities.
Please visit www.pn2k.org to learn more about what we do and what our organization is about. Please feel free to email us at pnnk-director@mit.edu for further questions/comments/concerns. Note, we can tailor this externship to your interests and skill level – just let us know in your cover letter! There will also be opportunities to expand this externship to a full longer term internship.
Dates: Monday, January 4, 2016 – Friday, January 29, 2016