Valley Transit Authority in North East Wisconsin Gets Bike Racks on Buses

Well, we made it! What started as an idea on behalf of a young biking enthusiast and the General Manager of the local transit authority to get bike racks installed on the buses in the Fox River Valley of Wisconsin has become reality. It took contributions from donors…but, it worked. Hopefully, your municipality will experience something similarly successful. Read on…

In early fall 2004, a young college fella and the Valley Transit General Manager, Chuck Kamp had some dialogue about getting racks installed on buses. While the idea was a good one, like all ‘causes,’ some challenges remained related to advancing the idea. For example, bus drivers needed to ‘buy-in’. Also, the Valley Transit commissioners needed to approve the concept, and then the local Appleton City Council needed to approve the proposal. And, what about the funding?

The initial discussion steps began in late 2004 and early 2005. Another transit system in Wisconsin that had already installed bike racks on buses was contacted. They drove a bus to Appleton to demonstrate how racks work. Bus drivers and transit commissioners became convinced that the idea would work in the Fox Cities. Approval to install bike racks on buses was achieved quickly. The idea of bike racks on buses was seen by local officials as a good one based on improving family relationships, providing multi-modal options of getting to work, and being a healthy lifestyles getting people out of the easy-chair and onto a bicycle.

So, was there a major hurdle? Yep. Funding. Money. Where was it to come from? The city didn’t believe that it could justify adding $20,000 to the budget for such an item. The concept was approved; but there was no money. What was to be done? Money was needed for the hardware (i.e. the racks) and for installation costs.

Volunteers contacted local individuals, clubs and organizations, and corporate sponsors. A grant was also written to a local Community Foundation and $4000 was granted. After raising about $8000 total, the fundraising slowed…noticeably. Then, an idea was advanced. Individuals and organizations were contacted and offered that, if they were to fund the purchase and installation of a rack and an advertising panel (a cost of about $1000 per bus), that they would be given exclusive use of the advertising panel at no cost for the first six months after installation. The idea was attractive. The fund-raising effort was back on track and within four months, the remainder of the funds (i.e. another $12,000) was secured.

All 20 racks for Valley Transit will be installed and operational by the end of May, 2006. Sportworks customer service representatives were very patient and extremely helpful as we pursued our project. They were responsive to requests for information, they e-mailed us diagrams and sent us DVD’s that we sent to prospective donors. All things considered, this was a good project all the way around.

Dick Kendall,
Appleton, WI
dkendall@ppmausa.com

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