November
1999

Y2BIKE activity planning for year 2000 is progressing

• Lots of ideas are coming forth from the Bicycle Coalition's Bike Week/Bike to Work committee. 1999 was the first year to have a "Bike Week" of activities inaugurated, consisting of Bike to Work Day, Bike Saturday, and Bike to School Day. Because it was the first year of a projected decade of additional new activities, the modest start was considered a success.
• For the upcoming Year 2000, Jonathan Humfrey has again signed an agreement with the Bicycle Coalition to act as coordinator. Most of his responsibilities entail the Bike to Work Day at seven locations around Santa Barbara County, but some general promotion under the broader umbrella of "Y2BIKE" is included as well. By no means will Humfrey do everything—Bicycle Coalition members and other volunteers are being asked to help at the various sites and with all the activities.
• We're also extremely fortunate to have Dru van Hengel, mobility coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara, working on meeting coordination. She has taken a special interest in expanding our Bike Week activities. For example, she just booked Ian Munroe from the Velo Pro Stunt Exhibition team to perform BMX stunts on Bike Saturday, May 13. This is the group that did the spectacular riding and jumping at the UCSB Bike Expo last April.
• We're really looking for ideas of events to fill up Bike Week. Ideas so far have included the following:
• Local bike clubs rides on the two Bike Week anchoring weekends. It might be an ideal time to reach out to new members.
• A Bike Week art exhibition or art contest. Who has a connection to a local gallery?
• A Bike Week Film Festival like Berkeley held last spring. Who has a connection to the Metropolitan Theatres?
• Bicycle tales that anybody would like to share as part of a lecture series?
• How about local parents who would like to help with a bike-to-school day during Bike Week? Perhaps coordinated with Santa Barbara Middle school.
• Please step up and join us. Even if you are unable to come to our monthly meetings, we're interested in your help , especially if you want to spearhead one particular event that is close to your heart. We'll package and promote the entire Y2BIKE week of excitement.
• IMPORTANT DATES
• Bike Week, May 13-21
• Bike Saturday, May 13
• Bike to Work Day, May 16

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Willie & Joe visit SB
by Ralph Fertig



Willie, left, and Joe describe the benefits of bike touring. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Those lucky enough to hear Willie Weir and Joe Kurmaskie during their recent visit to Santa Barbara were rewarded with boisterous tales "from the roads less pedaled." The turnout was disappointing—only 20 people in Santa Barbara and 16 at UCSB—but those who came were enthusiastic cyclists who understood the challenges and joys of bike touring.
• Unfortunately, local newspapers failed to mention the event even though they were sent material in time. We managed, however, a half-hour appearance on the "Voice of Santa Barbara" radio talk show with Steve Fox at KEYT.
• I had the great fortune of hosting the two "adventure cyclists." What I found out is that both of them have been active in their home cities of Seattle and Portland pursuing better and safer bicycling and walking facilities.
• On Monday, October 18, we went on a three-hour bike tour of the South Coast. Both Weir and Kurmaskie were delighted to see what has been done to accommodate bicycling here, saying that what we have is obviously better than either Seattle or Portland. They also noticed how considerate the drivers were here toward others on the public roadways.
• We all commiserated about the decline in bicycling among youth everywhere, blaming what Wier calls the "milk carton effect" whereby we're told about abducted children every time we reach for the milk.
• Those of you who missed the performance are poorer for it, but you can still delight in their wonderful books and learn more about them at their websites: Weir's www.pineleaf.com and Kurmaskie's www.metalcowboy.com.

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BIKESTATION in SB ?

• An idea that has been percolating for a while is to have a bicycle center somewhere in Downtown Santa Barbara. It would be modeled after the successful one in Long Beach, with possible bike storage, rental, repair, information, showers—and of course, espresso and croissants. The City of Santa Barbara may locate one inside the forthcoming parking ramp on Anacapa Street, behind the Granada Theater. Would it succeed?

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Safe Routes to School bill is signed by Davis!

• On October 10, Governor Gray Davis signed Assembly Bill 1475, the Safe Routes to School Bill which the California Bicycle Coalition and the Surface Transportation Policy Project sponsored. AB1475 will provide about $18 million of federal transportation safety money annually for bicyclist and pedestrian projects near California elementary, middle and high schools.
• We're pleased to report that our local representatives all voted in favor of this safety bill. Thanks to Senator Jack O'Connell, and Assemblymembers Hannah-Beth Jackson and Abel Maldonado. Plus, our appreciation goes to everybody who sent hundreds, maybe thousands, of messages to their representatives.
• The next step is to make sure that our local communities will consider means of improving safety near schools and apply for AB1475 funds.

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New member

• We welcome our new Bicycle Coalition member and express our gratitude for his support for better bicycling in our community: Ward Bayly.

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South Coast velodrome may be lost

• Way back in 1992-93, the County Parks Department conducted a series of workshops to determine how the South Coast community wanted to use the Santa Barbara Shores County Park that had been purchased for $11 million in 1991. Cyclists turned out in large numbers to persuade the staff that a velodrome bicycle racing track—along with many other active recreational facilities—should be installed within the 115-acre Park. So it was accepted.
• Then in August 1993, the County put all plans on hold until pollution at the site could be treated. Now the County has reopened the planning process and on October 14, listened to a well-organized coalition of individuals who want to treat not only the entire County Park, but also the adjacent 140-acre plot where housing is planned, for "natural open space."
• The question that we must immediately ask is whether there is still interest among local cyclists to push for a velodrome? The initial planning that includes the velodrome is intact, but if we don't speak out strongly, it will be lost.

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UCSB improves bicycling



Newly striped bike roundabout south of the Library. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• A recent update from Jamey Wagner at UCSB shows that the University is working hard to improve bicycling conditions on campus. Funding for recent improvements came from the University and Associated Students, and the work required coordination among Parking Services, Budget and Planning, Facilities Management, Associated Students, and the Chancellor's Office.
• There are too many projects at various locations to list here, but they include: pave dirt bike parking lots, widen and stripe bikepaths, create pedestrian "refuge" islands in bikepaths, slurry seal bikepaths, remove some old bike racks, move bike racks from less-used locations to places of greater need, and finally, repair and re-position bike racks.

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Video cameras in Goleta

• Alternative Transportation Coordinator Wilson Hubbell reports that three intersections in Goleta now have signals that are activated by video cameras. They are improvements over the test cameras installed at two sites in Goleta in December 1995. Not only that, but the signals themselves consist of long-life LEDs, not ordinary bulbs. The new traffic signals and cameras are at:
• Patterson and University
• Patterson and Hollister
• Turnpike at San Simeon.
• Those familiar with the area realize that all three intersections are on main bicycle routes. According to Hubbell, the new cameras are able to detect bicyclists at night and in fog. Although they cost more initially, they are simpler to install, easier to maintain than in-roadway sensors, and supposedly do a better job of changing the signals for us. Please let Hubbell know how they're working, email hubbell@co.santa-barbara.ca.us or phone him at 568-3046.

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North County action

• Nipomo resident Bill Denneen has started a new email list service for bicyclists in northern Santa Barbara County and southern San Luis Obispo County. "Our mission is to make bicycle riding better," says Denneen. "We are working on bikeways in SLO and SB Counties, along the levee, through Nipomo, extension of the Bob Jones Bikepath and conversion of 101 freeway from polluting vehicles to bicycles."
• If you're interested in teaming up with others to improve conditions, visit Denneen at his two web sites: www.slonet.org/~bdenneen and members.aol.com/econotes/, or phone him at 929-3647.

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Human-powered race?



Pedaled vehicle in the Kinetic Sculpture race in Ventura. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• For years, there has been a "Kinetic Sculpture" race of human-powered vehicles in Arcata, CA, and there should be one in Santa Barbara. But we've been beat by Ventura with their "Southern California Kinetic Sculpture Race" October 9-10.
• Like Santa Barbara's Solstice Parade, the Arcata event has grown each year. It consists of sculpture-vehicles that are human-powered, bicycle-based, and have to undergo a course of travel on road, mud, sand and water. Entrants can alter them before each new phase of travel in the contest, like attach wheel treads for the sand.
• The Ventura race attracted hundreds of cheering spectators as the 14 entries worked their way around to test their machines and their muscles under different conditions. In Ventura, the Kinetic Sculpture Race was a benefit event for the nonprofit Turning Point Foundation.
• Why can't something similar be held in Santa Barbara as part of Bike Week? It would promote human-powered travel while being pure enjoyment! The Ventura ride was accompanied with lots of cheering, shouting, and blasting of air horns. Nothing wrong with more bike fun!

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Wagner promotes alternatives at UCSB
by Robert Bernstein

• Jamey Wagner has a passion for living a life he can believe in. His choice of jobs, his mode of transportation, his vegetarian diet and the way he raises his children all fit together with his world view and values.
• He happily lives the motto: "live simply so others may simply live."
• Currently he is Traffic Demand Management Coordinator for the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), as of July. His job is to get UCSB people to use alternatives to driving to campus alone.
• At age 38 and with a wife and young children he made a major career shift. For the previous nine years he taught elementary school children with learning disabilities in Ventura County and in Santa Barbara.
• It was a job he believed in, but he was ready for a change. Lucky for us: He brings fresh energy and ideas to his new job!
• Jamey started out studying Aerospace Engineering. Seeking a new direction he decided to live in Japan his junior year. He travelled by bicycle to remote and primitive areas. Bicycle travel resulted in warm greetings and invitations into peoples' homes and lives.
• He is an activist by lifestyle and by politics. He commutes 18 miles daily on an old yet good quality and well-cared-for bike. He says it is "better than going to a health club" and it gets him around fast, though he owns a car.
• He is an avid recycler and teaches the worm composting techniques he uses at home. He served as a Peace Educator for the SB Peace Resource Center. He has taught his own children the pleasure of living simply without the "monkey on your back" of too much stuff.
• He also frequently writes letters to lobby for his concerns.
• Safe bike routes, improved bike parking and making car drivers pay more of their true costs are ways he sees to promote bicycling. "Economics is what drives people," he says.
• He actively seeks constructive ideas from all of us and invites us to contact him at 893-5475 or James.Wagner@park.ucsb.edu. He is hopeful of making a difference at UCSB and after meeting Jamey, I am hopeful, too!

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Ry Finerty selected for Earth Force Board

• Local resident Ry Finerty, an eighth-grader at Santa Barbara Middle School, just joined Earth Force's 15-member Youth Advisory Board.
• Earth Force is a national organization that helps young people create solutions to environmental problems in their communities. They are currently engaged in the second half of a two-year "Get Out Spoke'n" program to make communities more bicycle-friendly.
• As a Board member, Finerty will meet in the Washington, DC area twice a year to help plan Earth Force activities. And next May, the Board will hold a national youth bike summit on Capitol Hill with Congressional leaders, experts in environment, transportation and health, and Earth Force members from around the country who are working on the bicycle campaign. Learn more about Earth Force at www.earthforce.org.

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Bikes on sidewalks?

• A spate of recent letters to the Santa Barbara News-Press dealt with the illegal presence of bicyclists on local sidewalks. The subject was raised within our email list service when a local bicycle police officer asked what the Coalition's position was and what we might do about it. At our October 6 meeting, the situation was discussed and the following motion passed:
• "The Bicycle Coalition supports those laws that prohibit bicycle riding on sidewalks as they pertain to able-bodied adults. We also believe that law enforcement officials should exercise discretion in enforcing these laws as they pertain to children and elderly adults."
• Certainly all members of our bicycling community should be setting good examples for others to follow. Besides, statistics show that bicyclists are more likely to have accidents if they bike on sidewalks instead of on the street.

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Ventura River Trail open

• The Ventura River Trail opened on October 9 to a ceremony with a high-school band and hundreds of inaugural cyclists and walkers. The 6-mile Trail is a link that connects the Ojai Valley Trail with the Omar Rains Trail at the Beach.
• Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson attended and rode an electric bike the entire 12 miles to Foster Park and back, and—according to the promoter who supplied it—the battery was still fully charged when Jackson returned the bike. The new missing link makes the "Casitas Loop" ride from Carpinteria more pleasant than ever because it avoids the industrial streets.
• Also at the ceremony was Lance Christensen, a mover in the new Ventura County Bicycle Coalition. He was passing out flyers about the first VCBC public meeting November 6th in Camarillo. If you want to know more about the new Coalition, email Christensen at lancec@std.teradyne.com.