September
2000

Bike medics serve Fiesta



American Medical Response paramedics on bikes serve the Santa Barbara Fiesta crowds. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• The American Medical Response ambulance company deployed its paramedics on bikes to serve the Santa Barbara Fiesta parade on August 4. They cruised along the parade route on bikes that were equipped with medical supplies, radios, cell phones and pagers.
• This is the fourth year that AMR has placed paramedics on bikes. Overall, it's good recognition that, when traffic congestion and crowds increase, bicyclists can get through when motorists cannot.

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“Kids on Bikes” asks $25,000

• The Bicycle Coalition's new Kids on Bikes Committee hit the bikeways on August 11. That's when it submitted an application for $25,000 to ACE, a California organization, to develop a strategic plan called the "Safe Routes to Schools Through Safe Communities Project." The plan aims to reduce or prevent motorist-related injuries to students walking or biking to 30 South Coast elementary schools.
• The problem
  We're all aware that fewer kids are biking to school due to concerns about traffic and personal safety. The problems involve wider streets, more traffic, faster traffic, more motorist violations, law enforcement, school policies, and neighborhood conditions. Around our schools we get normal traffic plus school buses and soccer moms in SUVs. Children are walking and biking through all this, singly and clustered, talking, playing, easily distractedšwe're putting our youth at risk.
• ACE to the rescue
  Three California organizations are addressing our safe school problems by funding an Active Community Environments (ACE) project. ACE is a joint program of the University of California, San Francisco; the California Office of Traffic Safety; and the California Department of Health Services.
• Community coalition
  Our Kids on Bikes Committee wants a broad-based coalition of safe-community groups to develop and market a strategic school safety plan. This strategic plan might suggest, for example, establishing bicycling/pedestrian education programs, or maybe car-free zones. The plan will identify strategies for each school including specific locations where traffic calming, traffic signals or crossing guards are needed.
• Plan development
  In order to develop this strategic plan, the coalition will make a community assessment of the 30 schools. It will include pedestrian and bicyclist route maps for each school to identify hazards along students' routes of travel. These maps will be created with the help of students, parents, and the PTA's Traffic Safety Committee. The new coalition will hold public workshops to present the hazards identified through the mapping process, and explore potential safety strategies. The coalition will also consult with law officials as well as public works and transportation staff of Santa Barbara County and the cities of Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. The coalition will finally formulate a strategic plan based on the input.
• High-visibility projects
• The application proposes to initiate small-scale improvements aimed at visibility and community support. Four possible high-visibility projects are:
• A school mini-grant program
• Maps of suggested student routes to each school
• Annual Bike-to-School and Walk-to-School events
• A teacher/parent training course for safety education.
• The proposed mini-grant program would award selected schools or PTAs $500 apiece to initiate small-scale improvements at the school aimed at furthering the goal of the Safe Routes to School project. There would be two grant cycles within an 18-month period, with up to ten schools awarded per cycle.
• What a great proposal! We should hear whether we will get the grant by early September.

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Thanks to local groups

• Ann Lawler, head of our Kids on Bikes program, reports that to date, eleven regional agencies and groups have come forward to support their Safe Routes to School Through Safe Communities Coalition. They submitted letters in support of the group's application for a $25,000 grant. Our thanks to the following:
• Boy Scout Troop 122 (via Michael Powers)
• Caltrans
• Hazard's Cyclesport
• Santa Barbara Area Council of PTAs' Safety Committee
• Santa Barbara City Police
• Santa Barbara City Public Works
• Santa Barbara County Public Health
• Santa Barbara County Public Works
• Santa Barbara County Association of Governments
• Steve Morris' Defensive Driving School
• Traffic Solutions
• The letters submitted by these organizations, agencies and businesses attest to the enthusiasm generated locally by the proposed project. Watch for a response to the proposal in early September.

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Video signal control

• The County has determined from tests started in 1995 that traffic signals controlled by video cameras are superior to in-street sensor cables. Alternative transportation coordinator Wilson Hubbell reports that all new County signals will have video sensors and old signals with sensors in the pavement will be updated.
• This is great news for bicyclists for whom street sensors often fail to detect them. When video cameras are installed, the old in-street cables will be inactivated and abandoned. The cameras are more expensive initially, but are more cost-effective in the long run. We thank the County for this important improvement!

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Bike commute help

• One very useful online forum for those who bike for transportation is Commute Logistics. There are 307 subscribers who discuss bicycle transportation issues such as equipment, dangerous situations, safe behavior, clothes packingšoften with home-brew solutions. To join, send an email to: commute-logistics-subscribe@topica.com

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Bike commuting shows increase

• The countywide Traffic Solutions program reported last month that bicycle commuting to work has been increasing since 1993. The numbers range between 3% and 4% of the total workforce, but the 3.85% proportion measured this year is the largest ever.

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Clean Air Contest

• Our County's Air Pollution Control District and Traffic Solutions program are running a "Kids Care for Clean Air" contest. It's a calendar contest for kids 5-12 years old who submit pictures showing "fun ways to get around without creating air pollution." Winners get savings bonds and calendars, and the cover winner gets a new bike from Velo Pro Cyclery. Details from Mary Byrd 961-8833, or Mindy Norris, 568-2917.

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Maldonado votes for bicyclist safety

• In a reversal of his earlier vote against the Safe Roads bill SB 1629 in the Assembly Transportation Committee, local Assemblyman Abel Maldonado voted in favor of an ammended version of the bill on August 7. Then, as a member on the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Maldonado again voted for the bill on August 24. Our gratitude goes out to Maldonado and all those who contacted him before these two critical votes.
• The Safe Roads Bill requires bike and pedestrian access on highways constructed after 2001 where it's feasible and warranted. The League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties recently dropped their opposition to the bill when ammendments gave jurisdictions greater latitude.
• The bill now goes on an end-of-session fast track to the full Assembly and Senate, then if passed, on to Governor Gray Davis.
• Of additional importance to bicyclists are two other bills that were also approved by Maldonado in his two Assembly committees:
• SB 1772 will increase state bicycle account funding from $1 million to $12 million a year.
• SB 1809 will increase funds set-aside for Transportation Enhancements projects.

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Bike commute winners

• Last spring, the Bicycle Coalition conducted a contest for the best essay on the topic "Why I love to bike commute." Coalition vice president and Quick Release editor Ralph Fertig ran the contest, but couldn't resist the temptation to write an entry himself and submit it along with the others to the other Board members for anonymous judging. It (ahem) won a respectable ranking and is being published here as one of the better entries.
• Why I love to bike commute
  by Ralph Fertig
• It's October! I know when it's October because the coots are back. Groups of the plump ivory-billed birds scurry near the bike path as I pedal past.
• When I'm on my bike, I'm wired into the flux and flow of our planet. My senses are electrified. I'm exhilarated by the hot sundowners thrashing noisy branches in the fall. I'm dazzled by the roadside vinca that celebrates spring with improbable blue flowers. I deeply inhale the jasmine in grandmothers' summer gardens as I pass by. I join surfers and lovers along Butterfly Beach to watch the winter sun drop behind the city. Orange clouds crowd the sky and city lights reflect in our pacific ocean.
• We live in perhaps the most beautiful place in our country. Most choose to live here because they treasure the sublime beauty that enriches us all. And many choose to turn the task of going to work into a spiritual odyssey on their bikes. It's an odyssey that energizes in the morning and calms in the evening. It frames the day with sensibility. It's a trip that focuses and sharpens. I grin and greet complete strangers along the way. I'm part of my community, I wave at my neighbors, I feel at ease in this magic place where we all live.
• Cool fog pools in low spots on the golf course as I pedal by in the morning. Seagulls flock and strut. The sun glances upon our purple mountains. It stretches sunbeams across the grass. Metal cars with strapped-in people crawl upon the freeway. Then I suddenly realize what's different. The coots have flown north. I'm assured that it's April once more.

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Bicyclists get temporary bridge



The temporary bike/ped bridge helps connect communities during reconstruction of the University Drive bridge. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• If you've biked on the North Goleta bike route, you crossed over Maria Ygnacio Creek on a deteriorating concrete bridge on University Drive. The old bridge has been demolished and a new one probably won't be finished until February.
• The County, however, recognized the importance of the bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians. After consulting with Wilson Hubbell, County employees Ron Bensel and Mohammed Wahiduzzaman had the temporary bridge built. Our thanks to the County Public Works people for recognizing the importance of biking and walking in our community.

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“Kids need to be independent”
by Robert Bernstein

• "Kids need to be independent" says Caroline DeLoreto of the value of bicycling for young people. At age 17, her independence and energy have carried her on cycling adventures impressive for a cyclist of any age.
• Caroline has been cycling since she began riding to school in second grade. School was right next door, and walking was OK, but biking was more fun!
• By the time she was attending Santa Barbara Middle School (the biking school of America) she was riding a good deal further than around the block. John Siegel-Boettner turned Caroline and other students on to cycling in his Mountain Biking class and from his passion for cycling.
• Jim Brady, Caroline's eighth grade math teacher, took 10 students on a six week, 1,500 mile mountain bike dirt trail cycling adventure along the Continental Divide from Canada to Colorado.
• Caroline loved it and loves every aspect of cycling. She raced with the Echelon Junior Team and she also cycles for every ordinary trip around town. She has a 1966 VW bug, but rarely uses it, except to give an occasional ride to her younger brother.
• As she is starting her junior year at Bishop Diego High School, she has an ambitious vision of getting kids to bike, especially targeting those who are still in grade school. She plans to do a survey to learn why kids do and don't bike to school.
• She wants to know if they need bikes or if the problem is with overly fearful parents. Or, if the problem is a genuine lack of safe routes to school. She feels that if there were safe routes, more people of all ages would ride a lot more than they do now.
• Her personal obstacle at Santa Barbara High School involved having her bicycle stolen while locked up, due to a terrible lack of security and indifference of the administration. Her response was to transfer to Bishop Diego.
• There is too much traffic congestion according to Caroline, and people could really help if they would just ride a bike. The bus would be OK, too, but buses don't go everywhere conveniently. "It's frustrating," she says.
• In addition to playing volleyball and softball in her spare time, Caroline works as an assistant at Bikesmiths. She loves fixing things and she loves understanding how things work. That includes understanding how the universe itself works, which is why she wants to study physics and to become a teacher.
• She is excited to be working with the Bicycle Coalition as she believes that a group gives power beyond that of one person. We are certainly thrilled that Caroline is working with us. Caroline's energy, enthusiasm and vision are inspiring and contagious!

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No new highways

• Caltrans Director Jeff Morales, two months into his new job, told the San Jose Mercury that the era of major California highway projects is over.
• "In terms of new freeways, new bridges ... we're done for all practical purposes," said Morales, a transit specialist. "The challenge becomes now operating it."