July
1997

Gary Wissman is new Coalition President

• Bicycle Coalition elections for officers and directors were held at our regular monthly meeting June 4. Because there were so many good nominees, the Board of Directors convened a meeting and voted to increase the number of directors from three to five. So there are now nine capable individuals, four officers and five directors, working hard with you to better bicycling conditions for us all. Contact any of us to share your concerns and inspiration.
• To better acquaint you with our new officers, outgoing director Benjamin Sawyer has interviewed and photographed them. Our new president Gary Wissman is included here, and the other officers will be covered next month. Congratulations to all involved. Together, we'll be pursuing effective, ongoing advocacy for bicyclist recognition and rights.
• Gary Wissman
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• Gary takes over as the third president of the Coalition, following the extremely productive tenures of Trisha Davis and Ralph Fertig. His election comes at a time when the Coalition has become a significant voice for bicycling in the overall transportation picture of Santa Barbara County, as part of a more visionary and sustainable view of quality of life in human scale urban living.
• Gary's involvement with the Coalition dates to its beginnings. In fact, he attended his earliest meetings as the representative of the Air Pollution Control District, where he has worked in a variety of positions since 1980.
• Fresh from a most successful chairing of the Bike to Work '97 committee, Gary steps into the leadership and coordination role of the Coalition's multiple activities of advocacy for greater bicycling infrastructure, planning that involves a future with the bicycle as a serious transportation mode, and multiple educational issues having to do with the immediate and long-term values of cycling and accompanying safety issues.
• In his new role, Gary's philosophy is to stress the planning aspects for greater bicycling opportunities, and getting them funded—the same reasons he got into the Coalition in the first place. As he says, "People need choices in transportation. Without facilities, bicyclists don't have choices. I want to see bicyclists get their fair share of funding."
• In terms of the urban environment, Gary views bicycling as transport that brings the community together with bike lanes and the nature of riding, whereas the automobile infrastructure—freeways, roads, parking—tends to divide communities.
• These concepts certainly fit with a growing sentiment nationwide regarding creating more "human friendly" and environmentally sustainable communities, with transportation as a core issue. It's an exciting time, with the outlines of new visions beginning to enter the public consciousness. The national Pro Bike/Pro Walk 98 conference, to be held in Santa Barbara in 1998, and with which the Coalition is deeply involved in the planning process, will highlight many of these issues.

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New Coalition officers and Directors

• President - Gary Wissman
  Vice President - Robert Bernstein
  Treasurer - Owen Patmor
  Secretary - Sandra Wintermoss
  Director - Alan Bergquist
  Director - Rob Dayton
  Director - Ralph Fertig
  Director - Wilson Hubbell
  Director - Ann Lawler

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Tour de France on the Web

• Follow the Tour de France this July 5-27 at these web sites:
• www.letour.com
• http://strindberg.ling.uu.se/~erikt/.TourDeFrance/welcome.html
• http://velonews.com/races/road/97tdf/tdf.html
• http://outside.starwave.com/events/tdf97/

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County awarded $47,000 to track bicyclist accidents

• Wilson Hubbell, alternative transportation coordinator for Santa Barbara County, announced that his application from the California Office of Traffic Safety for funding a Geographical Information System (GIS) was granted. The GIS will integrate a map with a database of information on bicyclist and pedestrian accidents. The intent is to identify conditions that contribute to accidents within the unincorporated County.
• Another application—from the City of Santa Barbara for a video camera and services to produce bike safety videos—was turned down. As this goes to press, we still haven't heard about an application from the Santa Barbara Bicycle Project to hire an Effective Cycling instructor and safety equipment for kids in our earn-a-bike program.

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The costly car

• "Unlike most Americans, I am not working to buy an automobile, not spending my life as a car potato, not needing a ton of rubber, steel, and wheel to conduct my days; not devoting 7000 miles per year to shop and chauffeur, and another 3000 to trips and commuting, not to mention the $6500 per annum cost of the auto."
• — Jane Holtz Kay, author of Asphalt Nation

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Castillo bikelanes open



New paving and striped bike lanes on Castillo Street escort bicyclists to and from the waterfront. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• A three-block section of Castillo Street in Santa Barbara now has striped bikelanes that provide safer bicyclist access to the waterfront. The section runs between Los Banos del Mar pool at Cabrillo Boulevard and Montecito Street. To make room, parking places were removed from one side of the street. The Beachside Merchants Association studied the situation, weighed benefits, and recommended the changes.
• Although the adjacent Castillo undercrossing of Highway 101 is now under reconstruction and hostile to bicyclists, the new design will provide drier street conditions and striped bikelanes as well. The intent of all this is to offer bicyclists a continuous 20-block bike route from Mission Street to the beach. The busy Castillo intersections at Carrillo and Montecito will still require attentive navigation, but the new bikelanes provide an overall improvement. Thank City officials, local merchants, and especially senior transportation planner Rob Dayton for their fine efforts.

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New coastal bikepaths may get funded

• Thanks to Brooks Firestone's Local Government Financial Assistance bill (AB 1431), Santa Barbara County residents will likely benefit from funding for projects related to offshore energy development. Hopefully, it will include bikepaths in Gaviota and Goleta. Funds available vary annually, but for the upcoming cycle, $3.4 million is available statewide. The state pays 90% of the project costs and the sponsoring agency pays 10%. The County has proposed the following:
• Bike paths along San Jose and San Pedro Creeks in Goleta.
• A planning study to identify and assess missing Gaviota segments of the Coastal Trail.
• The Bicycle Coalition has written letters in support of these projects. Now it's in the hands of the State Resources Agency.

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Thank these Bike to Work ‘97 sponsors

• Our Bike to Work '97 events that attracted 1700 bicyclists on May 20th to sites all over Santa Barbara County were supported by 88 organizations, government agencies, and businesses. When you next talk with officials or patronize the businesses, thank them for their considerate support of bicycling in our community:
• Advanced Computer Communications * Air Pollution Control District * All American Auto * American Lung Association * Associated Transportation Engineers * Bakers Square Restaurant * Balance Bar * Barnes & Noble Bookstore * Be Bop Burgers * Bicycle Bob's * Bicycle Connection * Bicycles Unlimited * Bike Barn * Block Buster Video * Body Therapy Institute * Box Shop * Cathedral Oaks Club * Channel Paper * Chaucer's Bookstore * Chumash Casino * City of Carpinteria * City of Lompoc * City of Santa Barbara * City of Santa Maria * City of Solvang * Coca Cola * Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf * County of Santa Barbara * Crispin Leather * Crunch Wells / Lavosh Hawaii * Dr. J's Bicychiatry * Earthling Books * Electric Transportation Company * Engles Communications * Firestone Vineyard * Gold's Gym * Goleta Valley Athletic Club * Grande Affair Party Rents * Great Harvest Bread Company * Hazards Cycle Sport * Hendry Telephone Products * Hot Spots Espresso Company * Jandd Mountaineering * KHTY Radio * KMGQ Radio * KSYV Radio * Lazy Acres Market * Lightning Cycle Dynamics * Little Caesar's Pizza * Lompoc Grind * Lompoc Transmissions * Lompoc Valley Bicycle Club * Luigi's Pizza & Pasta * Mail Boxes Etc. * Main Street Cycles * Mi Amore Pizza * Mollo & Sons * Naked Foods * Natural Cafe * New Frontiers * Open Air Bicycles * Pacific Travellers Supply * PacTuCo * Palazzio Trattoria Italiana * Paparazzi Pizza & Pasta Ristorante * Pedal Power Cycles * Pierre Lafond * RP Printing & Graphics * Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition * Santa Barbara Bikesmiths * Santa Barbara County Health Education * Santa Barbara Handball Club * Santa Barbara News-Press * Schuyler Collision Repair * South Col * South Side Coffee Company * Starbucks Coffee * State & A Bar & Grill * Stratford Coffee House & Cafe * Traffic Solutions * Tri-County Produce * Ucen Dining Services * UCSB Parking Services * Valley Auto Specialists * VeloPro Cyclery * Vons Markets * Walnut Pier * White Lightning.

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Firestone’s bicycle bill passes Assembly

• Our local Assemblyman Brooks Firestone has been shepherding his bill, AB 1020, through the state legislature. The bill will increase funds available in the Bicycle Lane Account from the current $360,000 a year to $1-$5 million a year. Since that's for the entire state of California, it still won't go very far, but it's a vast improvement. [See April 1997 Quick Release for details.]
• On May 28, it passed the Assembly with a vote of 65 to 4. In July, it heads for the Senate Transportation Committee, then Senate Appropriations, then Governor Pete Wilson.
• Our senator Jack O'Connell is not on the committees, but he can still influence fellow senators. Contact O'Connell and Wilson urging them to support the clean, healthy, sustainable transportation that bicycling brings us all.
• Senator Jack O'Connell
  State Capitol Building, Room 2187
  Sacramento, CA 95814
  phone 916-445-5405
• Governor Pete Wilson
  State Capitol Building
  Sacramento, CA 95814
  phone 916-445-2843
• Note that the current appropriation is a tiny fraction of California's $5.9 billion transportation budget. Bike lane funding hasn't increased in 25 years despite inflation, population growth and increased demand.

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Is it legal to prohibit cyclists from Cabrillo Boulevard?



A bicyclist who was heading east on Cabrillo stops and attempts to cross the busy street (with slow moving traffic due to the construction) to get to the detour bikepath that is teaming with rental quadricycles at the moment. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Reconstruction of the Sycamore Creek bridge on Cabrillo Boulevard, near East Beach in Santa Barbara, is progressing. Among the many warning signs is a graphic one that prohibits bicyclists from using the east-bound roadway in the construction area. It's small and up high, so most people wouldn't see it—if at all—until they are almost on the bridge. Curiously, there is no sign for west-bound bicyclists on the equally-narrow bridge, possibly because it's easier to reach the detour bikepath.
• The question is whether the citing of bicyclists on the bridge would hold up in court, or whether it is without basis in the California Vehicle Code? Does anybody know whether this abridges our rights?

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SB bike cops going strong



Santa Barbara bike policewoman Cindy Ingram shows off the bikes at a department auction and fair June 14. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• A decade ago this month, pioneering police climbed on mountain bikes to patrol Seattle. The following year, the Santa Barbara Police Department sent officers for training in this new approach to enforcement. The result was the City's bicycle tactical patrol force—the first in Santa Barbara County—that now consists of four full-time, two part-time, and other biking officers.
• The bike police achieve three times as many citations as other City enforcement groups, according to supervising Sergeant Dave Gonzales. Officers on bikes, with their slower pace and closer community contact, are more aware of what's going on around them than those in motor vehicles, says Gonzales. The bike is a stealth vehicle that allows officers to approach violators without being noticed. In one case, drugs were snatched from a dealer's hand before he knew what happened. Santa Barbara's Westside appreciated a trial use of bike police last year so much that at the urging of residents, the City made them permanent.
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• While it may or may not be related to bike patrols, statistics about reported bike thefts in Santa Barbara show a remarkable decline. Data supplied by public relations officer Lt. Nick Katzenstein to the Coalition shows a drop in the last five years ('97 is projected). Perhaps, suggests Katzenstein, bicyclists are getting smarter about locking their steeds. We like the trend.

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Coalition membership

• We thank the individuals who have renewed their Coalition memberships for 1997 and welcome the new support of: Bill Bearden,Kathy Blake, Martin O. Conoley, Tim Dewar, A. Brian Epstein, Dan Gira, Linda Hill, Renate Kowal, Steve Mack, Lisa Quick, David C. Ridenour, Robert Sedivy, and Ko Tsukada.
• Welcome on board! Contact any of us with your concerns, problems, praise, or just to chat about bicycling.

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“Redefining the Good Life”

• A recent Wall Street Journal analysis of American spending trends bodes well for bicycling. Americans "have grown less house-proud and car crazy during the 1990s, and are plowing more of their income into goods and services they think will help them stay healthy, on the go, and in the know: mountain bikes, educational toys, museum memberships, chiropractic sessions, computers and home entertainment centers."

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ISTEA Update

• The Federal battle continues to renew ISTEA, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 that provides funding for bikeways and other bicycling facilities.
• When House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster lost the vote in June on his budget amendment to increase transportation spending by $12 billion over 5 years, it disrupted his plans. Now Shuster is considering a one-year bill in order to come back next year to try for more funding. Pro-bike member James Oberstar has expressed agreement, but others disagree. Shuster said there would be no action in the House until after the July 4th recess.