St. Johns County Bike Route Map

The St. Johns County Bike Route Map project aims to bring all types of cyclist together and provide a platform for what we at Velo Fest Community Initiative like to call "passive education," educational messaging when users aren't aware of. In both planning and execution, the maps also aim to capture the curious non cyclist to perhaps entice them to see the community in a different way. Originally executed in 2013, with a run of just 5000 copies on a shoestring budget and a lot of learning, the original map was so well received that the community of residents, businesses, visitors, and even local governments wanted more. With your generous donation our goal is to bring 10,000 free maps to the community in 2015. First time around the theme was education, this time, interconnectivity, both conceptually and practically. The plan is to focus on four areas, places to go, people to meet, things to do, things to eat, which will provide a greater reach into the community for the purpose of driving our message of creating informed road users with the goal of bringing more awareness to safer cycling in St. Johns County. With our dedicated team of volunteers and interns, we plan to execute this project successfully again and put our cause on the map...pun intended.

We will start our project with the tried and true face to face ask. Or in our case, calling directly to our community groups including the chamber of commerce, department of economic development, tourism development council, and various associations. Next the plan will be to leverage our existing database of members and their reach. We have made it a point to not create a completive club and focus on advocacy, which has created an extensive network around the region from commuter cyclists to professional racers. Using social media including blogging, public media, Facebook, and Twitter, Velo Fest will share the campaign and provide small donation amounts to bring in more contributors which also helps us satisfy our mission of awareness along the way to completing the project. Additionally, over the next 2 months, as we prepare for our annual festival, we will have several expo booths at large events where we can collect donations as well.

• January 30- Campaign Start
• February 1- Chamber of Commerce Blast/ Master Design Concept Complete
• By February 11- All major contributor calls completed
• February 5-March 15 Active Social Media Campaign/ MAP GIS Complete, excluding donor locations
• February 7 Dolphin Pack Event Miami Florida (2000 attendees)
• February 13 & 14 Donna Marathon Expo (16,000 attendees)
• March 1 - Chamber of Commerce Blast Follow Up
• March 15 Final Push
• March 17 Final Donor list to map maker/designer
• March 18 Go to Print, typically 5-7 day turn around

Our county suffers, as do most in Florida, from decades of car centric focus. The inability of our residents and business owners to have any tolerance for bicycles over the years has led to a cultural wedge, an "us vs. them." The amount of deaths and collisions began to escalate dramatically, hitting an all time high in 2013 of 200+ collisions and 8 deaths. As a community, the general public is requesting guidance on how to address the issue and has embraced all educational messaging. With transportation money not readily available, educating ourselves and creating a mutually beneficial environment on the road is the only way to fix this problem in the short term.