November
2000

Santa Barbara proposes projects for improving bike transportation



One of the proposals is more bike lockers at bus stops. This is the stop at Arrellaga and 101. Although there are lockers for 8 bikes, 3 others are locked to the nearby fence. One was missing its unsecured front wheel that may have been stolen. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• This November, we have a major opportunity to make a difference. The City of Santa Barbara is considering measures that will best satisfy their 1997 Circulation Element.
• On October 12, Rob Dayton presented a list of 40 suggested projects to the Transportation and Circulation Committee. Nearly all of them effect bicyclists in some way, but half benefit us directly.
• The entire plan is scheduled for approval in December, so this is the month where we must speak out or suffer the consequences of having bike projects removed or relegated to low priorities. We've listed the projects that mostly effect bicyclists, but it's nowhere near final. It can be expanded with new projects, and those on the current list can be deleted or modified. They will be ranked in importance, and the top ones will become part of the City's six-year Capital Improvement Plan.
• What can you do? Send letters that express your feelings, pro or con, about transportation projects to these two important City committees:
• Transportation and Circulation Committee
  c/o Helene Buchman
• Planning Commission
  c/o Bettie Hennon
  Both are at 630 Garden St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
• Each project must have some relationship, even if remote, to the Circulation Element or the Bicycle Master Plan. To view them both, go to the City's web site: www.ci.santa-barbara.ca.us/departments/public_works/transportation/alternative/ and click to either one of them. Watch discussions by both of groups on TV Channel 18, or in person. Your action is crucial to success or failure for bicyclists.

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List of bicyclist-related proposed projects with abbreviated descriptions

• Bicycle Locker Program, $ 125,000. Fund bike locker installations at transit stops and other strategic locations.
• Arroyo Burro Multi-use Pathway, $ 990,000. Construct a multi-use path along Las Positas, from Modoc to Cliff.
• Bicycle/Pedestrian Mission Interchange Improvements, $ 1.0 million. Provide bike lanes and help pedestrians.
• Cliff Drive Improvement Plan, $ 150,000. Consensus building process with residents for improvements.
• Cliff Drive Bike Lanes & Sidewalk, $ 1.5 million. Cliff Drive between Las Positas and Castillo.
• Roundabout at Las Positas/Cliff Drive, $ 750,000. Construct roundabout to improve vehicle flow.
• Intersection Control at Channel Drive/Cabrillo Blvd, $ 200,000-$ 600,000. Signal or roundabout.
• Shoreline Drive Park Expansion Project, $ 674,000. Road narrowing project nearly funded for implementation.
• Bike lanes at Garden Street Interchange, $ 45,000. Design and stripe bike lanes through the 101 interchange.
• Cacique Street Sycamore Creek Bridge Replacement, $ 2.5 million. Reconstruct bridge for motor vehicles.
• Las Positas Development Plan, $ 100,000. Work with residents for car, bicycle and pedestrian travel, 101 to State.
• Calle Real Development Plan, $ 100,000. Work with residents on Calle Real two-way, Treasure to Las Positas.
• Ongoing Bicycle improvements, $ 200,000/year. Includes parking, signage, signal loop work and maintenance.
• Alternative Modes Marketing, $ 200,000 to kick off, $ 75,000/year. Promote, educate, and advertise alternate modes.
• Mission Street Improvement Plan, $ 100,000. Work with community to improve Mission between 101 and State.
• Arroyo Burro Creek Bridge from Calle Cita to Hope, $ 2.5 million. Construct ped/bike bridge across the creek.
• Neighbors for Livable Streets, $ 200,000. Develop program to reduce vehicle impact and identify improvements.
• Implement Neighbors for Livable Streets, $ 400,000. Provide annual funding to implement program.
• Four Bridge Corridor Improvements, $ 500,000 each. Work with neighbors to develop and construct elements to enhance walking & bicycling to & from four bridges at Junipero, Ortega, Micheltorena, and Anapamu Streets.

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Carrillo bikelanes



New bikelanes on Carrillo Street, here heading toward the Ocean, will encourage greater fitness among our cycling friends. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Not all cyclists are strong enough to pedal up Carrillo Street as it climbs over the Mesa in Santa Barbara, but the recent completion of bike lanes along the side increases their sense of safety when they do. Motorist speeds will probably also decrease because of their narrowed lanes, making conditions even more favorable.
• Try it some fine day. Views of the mountains, Downtown and Channel Islands are spectacular. And be sure to thank the City for accommodating us on our streets.

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Help us help you

• When you think of charity donations, you may not think of our Bicycle Coalition at first. However, we are a 501c-3 nonprofit educational organization and donations to us are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
• Please consider us when you are filling out a workplace donation form for United Way—just write our name in the blank space provided for other groups. We have been helped by Coalition members in the past through United Way and greatly appreciate their contributions.
• Also, as the year end approaches, many of us are considering sharing the rewards of a robust economy with others. Please think of us. Our volunteers work hard for better bicycling.

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Can we find an exec director?

• Our Bicycle Coalition will celebrate its 10th Anniversary this coming January 2001. We have been wonderfully successful in improving bicycling conditions and awareness within Santa Barbara County since 1991. Questions of where we hope to be in another decade arose at our September 16 Retreat, and they were reconsidered at our Board of Directors' meeting October 24.
• One major question in our minds is whether we can manage hiring an executive director. Looking at other bicycle advocacy groups within just California, at least four have paid directors. They are the Silicon Valley, San Diego, San Francisco, and California Bicycle Coalitions. Yes, they all have lots more than our 194 members, but most of the money to support a paid position comes from grants and gifts, not membership fees. Also, the individual would probably be a half-time employee, and would be responsible to a large extent for coordinating fundraising and awareness activities. Perhaps they could be paid in rent or other tax-deductible donations.
• If you have any ideas about this, or know of somebody who might be interested in the job—or you yourself are—contact our president Robert Bernstein at 685-1283. We feel that the year 2001, our decade anniversary year, is the right time to push for a jump in our effectiveness.

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Bike rack installed

• We're pleased that the County has put a bike rack in front of its Jury Assembly Building across from the County Courthouse. Thanks go to Betty Kane for this.

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Meetings to consider youth safety

• The Safe Routes to School Through Safe Communities Project, sponsored by the Bicycle Coalition and other regional groups, is planning three organizing meetings in early November. Please help identify and reduce impediments to safe bicycling and walking to schools by attending one of the meetings. They have an identical agenda, so attending one is enough:
• November 8, 9 or 13, 7:00 PM
  Santa Barbara Public Library Townley Room
  40 East Anapamu St, Santa Barbara.
• The Safe Routes to School Through Safe Communities Project is inviting school administrators, PTAs, local businesses and interested individuals to attend the meetings and become involved. The intent of the Project is to bring to the table the talents, creativity and resources of a wide variety of people and organizations, including professionals in transportation, education, law enforcement, and health.
• A Safe Routes to School Strategic Plan will be developed and marketed to South Coast decision makers. Each school will be asked to help identify its problems and solutions. Involving the children, parents and local community in thinking about the problems and potential solutions in the context of their local area is key to local ownership and success of the Project.
• Eleven local agencies have already committed to join with the Bicycle Coalition. The beneficial outcome of the Project could be far reaching into our community's future.
• If you want more info, or can't attend the meetings but want to help, please call Project Directors Wilson Hubbell at 568-3046, or Dru van Hengel at 564-5544.

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Governor vetoes SB 1629

• After a year of vote-by-vote promotion of the "Good Roads Bill" by 75 organizations, Governor Gray Davis vetoed the bill. Considered by many as the most important bicyclist-related legislation in California history, the loss was especially painful to sponsors California Bicycle Coalition, California Association of Bicycling Organizations, and the Planning and Conservation League.
• The Good Roads Bill would have required bicyclist and pedestrian accommodations on most new road projects. "We'll lick our wounds and come back at 'em again," vowed the CBC executive director Chris Morfas.
• Not all was lost this legislative session because our Governor signed into law the following:
• SB 1772, allocating $7.2 million annually over the next 5 years in bicycle account funding.
• SB 2140, outlining a voluntary regional planning process to demonstrate smart growth alternatives (the original bill required the planning).
• Then again, our Governor vetoed:
• SB 1809, increasing Transportation Enhancements program funding to $18 million per year.
• Overall, it was a session of advances in spite of the loss of SB 1629. Maybe the increased awareness generated by the bills will propel better things in the coming year.

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Carol Freeman bikes everywhere
by Carol Freeman



Here Carol Freeman takes a break along the Ojai Valley Trail and demonstrates her Brompton folding bike partially collapsed. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• I'm over from England, taking a few months out after five years hard work helping create the UK 5,000-mile National Cycle Network, which opened in June this year, and building Safe Routes to Schools. Cycling in Europe is booming—new ideas, new projects, good media coverage, even government support at long last. But as here, vehicle traffic is still solidly on the rise, and so the road environment overall is increasingly a challenge for cyclists.
• The cycling and the sea drew me to Santa Barbara—as well as an interesting placement at the university. It's a great place to cycle. Your excellent cycle map, along with good quality signing, means the routes are easy to find and enjoy. The combination of traffic-free sections and on-road lanes is similar to our network in the UK. Drivers here are more courteous (even in Isla Vista!)—they stop at junctions, largely obey speed limits, don't park in bike lanes, and cyclists too observe the law more closely. There is less conflict between drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. I like it!
• My lifestyle here, as in England, is to live without a car. I have a Brompton Bicycle that folds to suitcase size in 10 seconds and easily goes on any bus, so getting around is fast, convenient, and cheap. I travel into Downtown Santa Barbara from Isla Vista by bike and/or bus, and cycling around downtown is magical. This works for longer distances too—I can cycle down to Carpinteria and come back by bus all for one dollar!
• In Europe now there is greater acceptance that global warming is a reality—the papers carry regular pieces ("will insurance premiums rise because of more storm weather?" or "will London have to improve its sea defenses?"). Not that people want to give up their cars—they don't! As you know they protest forcefully at high fuel prices—but they buy cars that are twice as fuel-efficient as here.

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Plan ahead

• Few things are more exciting than to be surrounded with hundreds of bicycle advocates who are talking about their successful programs. There are two big conferences coming up in '01 and '02:
• Velo-City, 17-21 September 2001.
  Glasgow/Edinburgh Scotland.
  www.velo-city2001.org
• Pro Bike/Pro Walk, Sept 2002.
  Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
  www.bikefed.org (details later)

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MTD to mount new racks

• Thanks to a grant from the local Air Pollution Control District (APCD), the Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) 40-foot Nova buses will all have bicycle racks. Currently, only the three express, long-distance routes guarantee bike racks.
• They plan to have the racks all installed by the end of the year, a spokesperson for the MTD stated recently. This will be a big step forward for "multi-modal" bike-bus travel on the South Coast, and we should thank the APCD and MTD for their efforts.

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Beachway safety?



The popular Beachway in Santa Barbara attracts residents and tourists alike. The new Skaters Point is at the left. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Although most people applauded Santa Barbara's new Skaters Point beachfront park, some were concerned that larger numbers of inconsiderate skateboarders and inline skaters would create more hazards on the Beachway. Those fears seem to be unfounded.
• The young people who are attracted to the park often arrive by bus or bike, and are used to controlling their actions around others. Skaters Point has become a stopping point for Beachway users, with many bicyclists pulling off to watch the action. Although it's open to everybody, young men are the main participants. It's gratifying to see them enthusiastically engaged in healthy activities.