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IN THIS ISSUE
Bicyclists get seats on key Caltrans panel
Invest in CA's bold bicycling agenda
Monterey bicyclists defeat end run by ag interests
Job for advocates
Calendar

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BICYCLING RESOURCES 

 Sharing the road

Plain-English summary of state laws governing how and where you can ride

 

Maps 

 The web's largest index of online California bike route maps 

 

Bicycle commuting 

 Tips and information for using your bike to get to work

 

DO YOU KNOW THE ESSENTIALS OF SAFE BICYCLING?

Bike Safe Calif homepage

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CALBIKEREPORT

News from the California Bicycle Coalition 

DECEMBER 2011 

IN THE STATE CAPITAL 

Key Caltrans advisory committee now represents more than just drivers

 

After many years of being shut out, bicycling now has representation on the powerful Caltrans advisory committee that sets statewide standards for bike lanes and other traffic control devices.

 

This month, in response to legislation we sponsored last spring, Caltrans appointed transportation planner John Ciccarelli and Bryan Jones, deputy director of the City of Carlsbad Transportation Department, to two new seats added to the California Traffic Control Devices Committee to represent so-called "non-motorized" interests, including bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders. The committee sets standards for traffic signals, signs and pavement markings such as bike lanes and crosswalks. This spring we suspended our bill when Caltrans announced it would add the seats on its own.

 

The appointments are a big win for bicycling. Both are well known to CBC; Ciccarelli is a former CBC board member and the main author of our safety website, bikesafecalifornia.org

 

Until this month the committee's membership was limited to local government, law enforcement and the AAA, which has two seats. We expect to see the committee begin making more informed decisions as California continues to embrace the kind of innovative bicycling facilities that have successfully increased bicycle ridership elsewhere.

 

CBC seeks better bikeway standards

 

A big obstacle to the creation of bicycle networks in California communities is an outdated state law that limits local government to using the bikeway designs specified in the California Highway Design Manual developed by Caltrans. Yet cities and counties have no such restrictions when designing local streets and roads. What's wrong with this picture?

 

buffered bike laneLimited to the designs in the manual, cities and counties are unable to adopt designs such as cycle trackscontraflow bike lanes and buffered bike lanes that have improved safety and bicycle ridership outside of California. We're going to fix that!

 

We're sponsoring Assembly Bill 819, authored by Fremont Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, to give local agencies the same leeway to design bikeways that they have with their own streets and roads. Cities and counties will still be liable for the safety of bike facilities they build. But by eliminating the Caltrans monopoly on bikeway designs, AB 819 will lead to a huge expansion in safer bikeway designs throughout California. Let a thousand safe bikeways bloom! 

 

The bill's first hearing is Jan. 9. Stay tuned for more information. 

 

Read more about best practices in innovative bike facilities

 

Preserving funding for bicycling and pedestrian projects

 

As the Congress prepares to eliminate dedicated funding for bicycling and pedestrian programs and projects, we're asking the California Legislature to commit to maintaining the current proportion of federal funds it spends for these uses.

 

The goal is to help insulate California from the effects of a proposed federal transportation bill that would reduce federal funding used to help support local bicycling and pedestrian projects and programs and would make those uses compete for funding with others unrelated to bicycling and walking. The result would be a potentially catastrophic overall reduction in federal funding used to build local bike lanes, sidewalks and trails and support programs such as Safe Routes to School.

 

We're also asking legislators to sign a letter calling on U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate committee that drafted the federal bill, to protect federal bike-ped funding. Congressional negotiations over the bill are expected to heat up in the next month or so.

 

Three-foot-passing bill to be reintroduced

 

Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of Senate Bill 910, our bill to require drivers to give bicyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing them from behind, didn't make the issue of unsafe passing go away.

 

3-foot passing posterEarly next year we'll reintroduce the bill in a form Brown said he would sign in his Oct. 2011 veto message. We're not certain this will satisfy powerful opponents such as AAA and the California Highway Patrol, which appear ready to keep opposing clearer guidance for California drivers about how to share the road safely with bicyclists.

 

Yet bike-friendly Californians united behind SB 910 this past year and interest in a 3-foot-passing law remains strong. Nineteen other states have 3-foot-passing laws, including such progressive strongholds as Georgia, which enacted its law this summer with support from AAA South, and Oklahoma, which strengthened its law this year with support from AAA Oklahoma. How much longer can California hold out?

CBC NEWS

Invest in a bold bicycling agenda for California

 

Last month's highly successful California Bike Summit in Los Angeles produced an ambitious and inspiring agenda for transforming California through bicycling. More than 140 advocates from around the state identified their top advocacy priorities for 2012 and beyond, including initiatives to improve bikeway standards and funding, engage teenagers in bicycling, educate law enforcement about bicycling, and more.

 

To help realize this agenda, we're inviting bike-friendly Californians to invest in the California Bicycle Coalition's advocacy mission with a year-end gift. Your support will enable us to continue working with the Governor, the Legislature and staff at agencies like Caltrans to keep building the momentum of California's exploding bicycling movement.

 

Learn more about how your investment in CBC can help make California a better place to live, work and thrive.

 

Auction raises $2,571

 

Bicyclists hungry for good deals, and the 10 manufacturers and retailers that donated bikes, accessories, clothing and services, raised $2,571 for the California Bicycle Coalition at our first-ever year-end online auction.  The auction featured 17 items, including Curry Technologies' iZip Via Rapido electric bike, which sold for a winning bid of $625.

 

Other donors to the auction included Dahon, PUBLIC Bikes, Trikke, Jax Bicycle Center, Mike's Bikes, SWRVE, Sheila Moon, Mission Workshop and Reckless Behavior Clothing.

 

Many thanks to all those who bid and donated!
AROUND THE STATE

Monterey County bicyclists defeat powerful Farm Bureau, win bike lanes on Blanco Road


Blanco Road - Monterey County
Bicyclist on Blanco Road in Monterey County
Local bike advocates in Monterey County persuaded the county board of supervisors to reject efforts by the powerful Monterey Farm Bureau to keep the county from awarding a $200,000 contract to build a bike route that's been planned for more than five years. Supervisors voted 4-1 this month to approve the contract.

The bike lanes along five miles of Blanco Road were included in a regional bikeways plan in 2005 and approved by the county in 2009. The road is one of just three heavily traveled routes connecting Salinas and the Monterey Peninsula, and the most appropriate for the safety improvements the bicycle lanes will provide.  

But just as county supervisors prepared to award the contract to install the lanes, the Farm Bureau challenged the bidding process by arguing that the lanes would be unsafe for bicyclists and motorists. The county stood to lose the funding if it didn't award the contract by Dec. 31.

The bureau argued that large farm equipment used in the area made the roads unsafe for bicycling -- an argument used by ag interests throughout California to resist bicycle improvements on public roads.
PEOPLE

Jobs for advocates


The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition seeks a bicycle valet coordinator. The part-time position will help facilitate SFBC's world-famous bicycle valet program that parked more than 20,000 bicycles in 2011. 

 

The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is hiring a Safe Routes to School assistant to administer on-site bicycle and pedestrian safety education to elementary and middle school students. This is a full-time position.

CALENDAR

Coming soon! The Bicyclist's Dozen is a new monthly e-bulletin from CBC that features a tasty selection of bike-related events throughout California for those who savor life by bicycle. To receive this curated calendar comprising equal parts fun and social benefit, subscribe here and follow the prompts. Bon appetit! 

 

JANUARY

 

1/6-7
San Jose: BE-Pro Conference

 

1/14
Ocotillo: Stagecoach Century

 

1/20  

San Jose: San Jose Bike Party

 

1/21
Rancho Cucamonga: The Grape Run
San Francisco: The Architecture Ride: The Reid Brothers in San Francisco
Sponsored by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

 

FEBRUARY

 

2/8
San Francisco: Love on Wheels
Sponsored by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

 

MARCH

 

3/2-4
Sacramento: North American Handmade Bicycle Show

 

Read more at calbike.org