March
2000

Bike Week 2000 Committee expands bike activities

• As Bike Week this May 13-21 approaches, Bike Week 2000 meetings are heating up as ideas and plans tumble forth from committee participants. Santa Barbara City­s Dru van Hengel and Bike Week coordinator Jonathan Humfrey are doing an super job organizing things. Everybody is delighted with Judith Geiger­s Bike Week 2000 logo design that will appear on posters, T-shirts, and probably elsewhere.
• A large number of events are being planned as the preliminary schedule below shows. Events will be added and moved around as plans solidify over the next 11 weeks.
• If you have any ideas for Bike Saturday or Bike to School or anything else, contact van Hengel or Humfrey or the Site Coordinators listed below, or come to one of the upcoming meetings. And feel free to initiate your own bike event at your business, place of worship, restaurant, shop, museum, or elsewhere—we­ll be glad to add it to the momentum of our celebration of bicycling.
• May 13
• BMX State Qualifiers at Elings Park, Santa Barbara
• Bike Saturday, De la Guerra Plaza, Santa Barbara¾swap meet, bicycle safety instruction, try out Spinning courtesy of Goleta Valley Athletic Club, vendor displays, "do it yourself" bike repair class, Velo Pro stunt riders, turn bike parts into art with Art from Scrap, food (for sale, hopefully)!
• May 14
• Cross Country Mountain Bike Race, Los Olivos¾races, barbecue, live band, expo area
• Bike 2 Worship
• May 15
• Bike 2 School Day, La Cumbre Junior High School¾and other days throughout the week
• "Freedom Machine" UCSB¾presentation on the history of bicycling, body image and women
• May 16
• Bike 2 Work Day, seven locations in SB County
• Associated Students at UCSB Bike Expo
• "Freedom Machine" Santa Barbara¾presentation on the history of bicycling, body image and women
• May 20
• Tour de Cure bike ride
• Drop in at the Museum of Natural History
• Echelon and Cyclone Bicycle Clubs criteriums and road races
• May 21
• Bike 2 Worship
• Echelon and Cyclone Bicycle Clubs criteriums and road races
• "Bicycling in Vietnam" slide show¾Santa Barbara
• In addition to the above bike events, Goleta Valley Cycling Club will be scheduling Bike Week rides, Bike to School events may be any day, Cycles 4 Rent is offering special bike rental rates, and local retailers and restaurants will be offering special deals for people arriving by bicycle.

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Bike Week 2000 Site Coordinator List

Bicycle Coalition­s new web site

• The Bicycle Coalition's webmaster Ralph Fertig has updated our web site with content nearly the same as before, but it­s now easier for visitors to navigate and will be easier to add or modify the major categories in the future. When you have the chance, check things out at: www.sbbike.org.
• There are now 10 major categories on the site:
• Who We Are
• Bike Week 2000
• Meetings and Events
• Bike Santa Barbara County
• Quick Release Newsletter
• Bicycle Commuting
• Youth Bicycling
• Bicycle Web Resources
• Decide to Ride Video
• Pro Bike/Pro Walk Conference
• Two categories are currently empty and need your help. They are the "Bike Commute" that covers bicycling for transportation, not just commuting to work, and "Youth Bicycling" that will cover bike-related activities that are available for our young people.
• Please contact Fertig at rhfertig@sb.net or phone him evenings at 962-1479 if you have ideas (or better yet, actual text and photos) for the above categories, or the site in general.

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New members

• We welcome our new Coalition members and thank them for making bicycling better for us all:
• Bob Cooper
  Jeff Irelan
  Mark and Shira Musicant

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Jameson bridges

• The County­s Wilson Hubbell reports that design is moving forward on new bridges for North Jameson Lane in Montecito. The roadway will also be widened for full-width bikelanes on the sides.

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Report limits CREF bike funds

• In a report released February 24, staff of the County­s Planning and Development department recommended projects for Coastal Resource Enhancement Fund (CREF) grants, but three out of four that had bicycling components were excluded. The recommendation will go to County Supervisors on March 7 for a vote.
• Shoreline Drive Park extension in SB City was recommended to receive $65,281, but the following proposals were excluded:
• The Bicycle Coalition­s application ($11,700) for a coastal bicycling brochure, web site help, and advertising.
• A Summerland bikelane and sidewalk study report ($60,000).
• Isla Vista coastal access, parking and circulation ($100,000).

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De Anza Trail sign dedication

• An historic sign commemorating a Goleta campsite of the Juan Bautista de Anza expedition of 1775-76 will be dedicated this month. This will be the third marker installed by the National Park Service in our County; others have already been installed at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Refugio State Beach. This ceremony will be on Patterson Avenue near the Atascadero Bikepath at 2:00 PM, March 19. Bicyclists are welcome to attend the event.
• The new sign will say, "Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Campsite #76, on February 25, 1776."
• The de Anza expedition of 240 people, soldiers and families, traveled 1,296 miles by foot and horseback from Mexico on their quest to found the Mission and Presidio at San Francisco. On February 25, they camped north east of the Indian villages called Mexcaltitan, along Atascadero and Maria Ygnacio Creeks.

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Milpas Street bikelanes retained



Corner of Milpas and Quinientos Streets during reconstruction in the Milpas/101 area; new bikelanes will be installed in March. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Thanks to the Santa Barbara City Council, its Transportation and Circulation Committee, City staff and Bicycle Coalition members, bikelanes on Milpas Street will not be replaced by parking.
• Bikelanes have been in City plans for traffic improvement for several blocks around the Milpas/101 intersection since 1993. But it was only in January of this year that the owner of the Eyeglass Factory on Milpas (near Trader Joe­s) realized that public parking spaces that had been in front of his store before construction began would become a bikelane when the street was repaved in March. He wrote a letter to the City Council asking that the parking spaces be reinstalled instead of the bikelane.
• On March 10, the matter went to the SB City­s Transportation and Circulation Committee, where it was unanimously voted to keep the bikelane on Milpas Street as designed, and deny the request for parking instead. This followed a city staff presentation by Dru van Hengel that recommended bikelanes. Bicycle Coalition members Ralph Fertig and Ko Tsukada spoke about the desirability of them.
• Then on March 22, the City Council voted in favor of keeping bikelanes on Milpas between the roundabout and Quinientos. The owner of Santa Barbara Eyeglass Factory spoke at great length about how necessary the parking is in front of his store for customers. Dru van Hengel pointed out that a large portion of bike-car accidents involve opening car doors and parking cars. Councilman Dan Secord stressed that bicyclist safety is the major issue. Gil Garcia noted that the City­s Circulation Element directs them to encourage alternatives. Gregg Hart suggested that nearby parking on Quinientos might be cut to 15 minutes to serve the customers.
• The final vote passed with one dissenting vote. We­re thankful to the City­s staff, committee, and Council for making our home safer and more livable.

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Safe biking to school



School House Road, a direct route to Montecito Union School, is being studied for the addition of a sidewalk/bikeway. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• The passage of AB1475, the Safe Routes to School bill, has made about $36 million available to California jurisdictions over the next two years. There are two deadlines for funding application this year: April 27 and November 9.
• To our knowledge, there is only one project within Santa Barbara County that will help kids bicycle to school: a proposed bikeway along School House Road in Montecito, between Montecito Union School and Hot Springs Road. At a meeting February 24, Supervisor Naomi Schwartz met with local residents, school officials, PTA members, and Wilson Hubbell from the County. They were all in agreement that student safety is very important and they hope to create a proposal in time.
• It was noted that in the last decade at Montecito Union School, student bike use has dropped to a quarter of what it was, while enrollment has doubled. The superintendent of schools deplored current traffic congestion, and hoped to restore bicycling to its former usage.
• The City of Santa Barbara is indeed applying for funding under AB1475, but it­s for new sidewalks near city schools. Obviously, it­s a great idea to improve safety for kids walking in their neighborhood. It may additionally encourage more bicycling by kids on the new sidewalks too, but it­s unwise for us or the City to advocate a practice that­s illegal. For the fall application, Dru van Hengel from the City said that they were open for project ideas that would make bicycling safer for kids. Let­s help her.

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Cirone and biking

• Santa Barbara school superintendent Bill Cirone will devote a 15-minute TV talk to encouraging young people to bike and walk to school. This comes after Bicycle Coalition president Robert Bernstein talked to him and sent material that points out the decline in exercise and increase in motorized travel.
• The live interview will be on KEYT-TV's morning show, March 7, between 6:15 and 6:30 AM. Related radio commentaries for KTMS and KEY Radio will be recorded for later air time.

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Safe Spring Break

• On Wednesday, March 15, from 10:00 AM.-2:00 PM, C.D. Coffey from Traffic Solutions will set up a display of transportation and bicycle materials at Santa Barbara City College for their "Safe Spring Break" Fair.
• What Coffey needs is a person from the Bicycle Coalition or cycling community who can do bicycle safety inspections. This is a good opportunity to get SBCC students into more biking and on board for Bike Week 2000. Contact Coffey at ccoffey@sbcag.org or 568-3293.

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Goleta bikepath lights possible



End of lighting on the Atascadero Creek bikepath. The County hopes to extend lighting to the University. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• The very popular Atascadero Creek bikepath between UCSB and Santa Barbara has 120 lights along half its length. Now there­s a chance to finish the job with an additional 107 lights that will complete the lighting to the University and also fill in a few dark sections along residential streets. The County­s alternative transportation coordinator Wilson Hubbell has applied for $149,500 from the state­s Bicycle Transportation Account for lights; an additional 10% amount will come from the County­s Measure D tax.
• In addition, a separate but similar proposal for $195,000 was made for lights on the nearby Maria Ygnacio bikepath in Goleta.