March 2020 - CalBike

Bike Shops are Essential Businesses During Stay-at-Home Orders

March 20, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

UPDATE March 31, 2020: As reported in the CalBike Report today, employees who repair and maintain bicycles and support those services are essential workers according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security guidelines and in California which references those guidelines. Below are the two relevant passages. Thanks to the 2,850+ people who added their names to our letter.

Employees supporting personal and commercial transportation services – including taxis, delivery services, vehicle rental services, bicycle maintenance and car-sharing services, and transportation network providers.
Employees who repair and maintain vehicles, aircraft, rail equipment, marine vessels, bicycles, and the equipment and infrastructure that enables operations that encompass movement of cargo and passengers.

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Bicycling is indispensable during this crisis. Californians rely on our bikes for transportation to provide essential services during this challenging time. By staying off of transit we promote social distancing and create space for more social distance among those who have to take transit. Bicycling is also a safe way to get exercise and fresh air. Riding improves our physical and mental health during this period of social isolation.

We are asking the Governor and the State Public Health Officer to clarify the existing stay-at-home order to declare that bicycling is an essential activity and bike repair shops are essential businesses. We want them to make it clear that bike shops may remain open during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The following cities and counties have declared that bike shops are essential businesses that may remain open during the statewide stay-at-home order (updated March 23, 11:00 p.m.):

City and County of San Francisco
City of Los Angeles
City of Berkeley
Solana Beach
Contra Costa County
Marin County
Napa County
Sacramento County
San Mateo County
Santa Clara County
Sonoma County
Ventura County

Please join us in calling for this clarification by signing the form below.

Please do not contact the State Public Health Officer directly. We are trying to respect her time during this crisis.

The full text of the letter follows the form.

Keep bike repair shops open

Fill out the form below to join the sign-on letter.

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March 20, 2020

Sonia Y. Angell, MD, MPH
Director, California Department of Public Health and State Public Health Officer

Dear Dr. Angell:

We are writing to request clarification of the stay-at-home order N-33-20 to specify that bike shops and mobile bicycle repair services are essential businesses.

We are grateful for yours and the Governor’s leadership in getting Californians to self-isolate and prevent the deadly spread of COVID19. We have supported that order, including by advising bike clubs to cancel organized rides because we believe that social distancing will be difficult among such groups.

However, solo bicycling is a permitted “outdoor activity” and incredibly valuable for mental and physical health. It is a lifeline for those who don’t own a car and should not take transit yet need to travel for work in an essential industry. Therefore, it is imperative that bike repair services remain open in order to service this transportation resource.

In response to significant confusion and concern, Mayors London Breed of San Francisco and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles have each clarified that bike shops perform essential transportation services. In San Francisco, “bicycle repair shops and mobile bicycle repair companies“ are considered essential, while “social distancing and consistent cleaning requirements continue to be required.” In the City of Los Angeles, “bicycle repair shops” are listed along with auto service stations and related facilities as exempt from the “safe at home” order. The Counties of Santa Clara, Contra Costa, and Sonoma have also declared that bike shops are essential businesses.

It will be extremely helpful to have clarification and consistency at the state level. As it stands, Executive Order N-33-20 refers to federally designated essential industries including “transportation infrastructure” but bicycle repair is not included in the definition of “transportation infrastructure.” California should declare that bicycle repair shops and mobile bicycle repair operations are essential businesses that may remain open, provided they follow social distancing guidelines, in order to allow for the on-going maintenance of bikes.

Bicycling is a safe mode of travel in a pandemic and should be supported as a means of essential travel. Please clarify that the state’s stay-at-home order exempts bike repair shops as essential industries during this time.

Thank you, again, for your leadership in these difficult times.

Sincerely,

CalBike calls for expanded shared micro mobility to prevent CoViD spread

March 20, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

For Immediate Release [pdf here]

March 19, 2020

Contact: Forest Barnes, forest@calbike.org, 415-484-3143

Dave Snyder, dave@calbike.org, 916-251-9433

California Bicycle Coalition Calls for Free Rides
on Shared Bikes and Scooters for Essential Travel

While Californians heed the extraordinary orders to maintain social distance, those who still have to travel risk spreading the virus if they normally rely on public transit and don’t have an alternative. Shared bikes and scooters can provide safe mobility in this time of crisis. Governments and bike- and scooter-share companies should do everything they can to encourage this healthy mode of travel.

CalBike is calling for shared mobility providers to maintain their fleets and to make them free for new users who normally rely on transit and who need to travel for essential activities. CalBike commends the Breeze Bike Share system in Santa Monica for waiving all fees and the gruv system in Oakland and San Jose for providing a $10 coupon and free rides for first responders, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and grocery store employees.

Bike use has boomed in cities around the world as people protect themselves and others from the coronavirus through social distancing. Some cities, like New York and Bogota, are building emergency protected bikeways to encourage the increase in bike use, and Copenhagen encourages people to switch from transit to bikes if possible.

This crisis shows the importance of shared micromobility and why cities should have more control over the systems, even if it means subsidizing the systems to support their operations when they are not profitable. They are as essential as public transit and provide redundancy to make our transportation system more resilient in the event of an emergency.

“There are many co-benefits of biking in addition to helping you avoid transit crowds. Sharing bikes and scooters after hand sanitizer and/or gloves affords protection. In addition, exercise is crucial for physical and mental health. Sunlight boosts the immune system, and the UV in sunlight kills the CoVid virus. Drink lots of water and enjoy community while staying six feet away from anyone,” says Dr. David Pepper, a physician and public health educator based in Berkeley, California.

“It’s great to see so many sectors of society come together to accomplish this critical goal of slowing the pandemic. I’m proud of Californians, our political leaders, and those companies and their employees who are working to keep their fleets in service,” said Dave Snyder, Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition. “We’d love to see more, and urge mobility companies to continue to provide shared bikes and scooters for essential travel, including discounts and free service to new customers, especially people providing essential services.”

Every transit passenger who is able to switch to a bike or scooter makes it easier for other transit passengers to maintain social distance when they take the bus or train, Snyder said, adding that regardless of ridership declines on public transit, “public transit remains essential and should continue to operate at full strength to provide the necessary capacity to allow passengers to maintain social distance.”

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CalBike Statement on Club and Group Rides

March 19, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

As any responsible organization should, CalBike completely supports the official order to maintain strict social distance in every occasion until health authorities lift the recommendation. It’s imperative to halt the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Solo bike riding for exercise or for essential travel is not prohibited by any official order, provided that you maintain social distance. As we noted earlier this week, we strongly encourage everyone to get on a bike and use it for essential travel and for exercise and recreation. Now more than ever, biking provides exercise that is good for your physical and mental health. Being out in the sun boosts your immune system and your mood. CalBike encourages bike riding with two important conditions.

First, CalBike recommends that organized group rides and club rides are cancelled.

Among friends and riding buddies it’s difficult to maintain social distance. This advice may change if health authorities relax the social distancing order, or if we develop specific guidelines for social distance bike rides. Social distance requirements do not apply to people with whom you’re isolating, so go for that family ride! The roads are particularly safe right now.

Second, CalBike recommends extra caution.

An injury requiring hospitalization will put unnecessary pressure on an already overtaxed health system. Now is not the time for testing your limits on your bike, but for more casual and safe rides. While less afflicted countries are encouraging cycling to give people an alternative to public transit, Italy and Spain have banned recreational bicycling because of the potential for injuries and the stress that can place on the health care system. We don’t want that to happen here so be careful.

Is Bicycling Safe During a Pandemic?

March 17, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

Support your physical and mental health during a pandemic: go for a bike ride!

It’s an upsetting and disorienting moment we are living in. Riding a bicycle can help, giving us opportunities for exercise, fresh air, and social interaction from afar.

Social distancing measures are key to slowing the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and keeping our healthcare system from becoming overwhelmed. But some of us still need to get to work, and all of us have essential errands to run—to the grocery store, or to drop off food for a sick friend, for instance. Bicycling offers a safe and healthy way to get where we need to go, as well as a way to get exercise and fresh air. According to a spokesperson for San Francisco Mayor London Breed, quoted in SFGate, it’s fine to ride your bike for exercise, as long as you maintain a distance of at least six feet from anyone you aren’t already self-quaratining with.

Enjoy the open air, get your heart pumping, and do your part to keep the social distance

Bicycling allows you to abide by social distancing measures while also getting outside, having fun, getting exercise, and having social interactions, all of which are good for mental health and immunity.

When you ride a bike, you can easily stay six feet away from pedestrians and other cyclists. You get fresh air and stimulation, and have social interactions as you pass people on the street or wave to fellow bicyclists. Biking gives you the exercise you need to keep your immune system humming, and the peace of mind that you are not contributing to the spread of the virus.

For those of us who may be taking a financial hit during this slow-down, bicycling is also the most affordable transportation mode.

And while it’s an anxious and challenging time, with event cancellations, closed schools, people working from home, and shelter-in-place directives, a silver lining is that there is less car traffic on the streets, making it more fun to bike.

Keep on riding, Governor. The joy of a simple bike ride will help to keep us all sane in these crazy times. Stay positive, and stay negative! https://t.co/r2MCQnhBfO

— California Bicycle Coalition (@CalBike) March 16, 2020

Bicycling in the time of coronavirus

Here are a few tips to keep extra safe from coronavirus while moving about your city on a bike:

Smile and say hello! Social interaction boosts immunity.
Carry sanitizer and sanitizing wipes to sanitize your hands, your handlebars, and your lock (after it contacts a bike rack), especially if you use a shared bike.
Mindfulness practice while bicycling can help with getting better at avoiding touching our faces—a challenging task that requires heightened awareness.
Wear gloves—fingered bicycling gloves work fine!—when you’re out in public.
Steer clear of people, keeping six feet of distance from them as you pass.
When you get home, wash your hands, and throw your gloves in the laundry

Transportation Tax Measure Could Fully Fund a Connected Bay Area Bikeway Network

March 17, 2020/by Jared Sanchez

In Sacramento, legislators are currently debating a 1-cent Bay Area sales tax that could raise up to $100 billion for transportation. The bill could contain enough funding to close the funding gap and finally build the infrastructure we need to create a bicycle-friendly Bay Area. However, it’s not certain that our legislators will formulate a bill that includes enough funding to do it.

The bill must be approved by the legislature, then approved by voters in November. While the chances of this proposal making it to the November ballot are hard to predict in today’s volatile environment, CalBike worked with our local partners to identify what it will cost to complete a connected bike network throughout all Bay Area cities and towns. That information will make it possible for voters to say ‘yes’ to a bike-friendly Bay Area, if and when a Bay Area transportation tax measure makes it to the ballot.

Bay Area Bicycle Advocates Did the Math

The math is complicated, but the bottom line is that existing funding sources for building connected bikeways in the Bay Area leave an $8.6 billion funding gap. Bay Area bike advocacy organizations have been fighting for these networks for decades. This sales tax offers the best opportunity in a long time to remove financial obstacles to better biking.

With full funding, Bay Area cities could build the protected bike lanes, bicycle paths, bike access on bridges across the bay, and bridges or tunnels to cross other barriers that bicyclists need to get safely to their destinations. Imagine Bay Area cities with quiet, traffic-calmed greenways, that connect every important destination without a single gap. That is what is at stake in this measure.

Will the Transportation Tax Measure Provide $8.6 Billion for Bikes?

Early drafts of the proposed sales tax measure do not set aside anywhere close to enough money for safe bicycle connections. That’s why CalBike sent a letter to the California State Bay Area Caucus to request that SB 278 provide sufficient funding for bicycling. The Caucus is composed of the 27 members representing Bay Area districts in the state legislature. Our letter urged them to fully fund biking and walking infrastructure in this transportation tax proposal.

This measure, SB 278, is our best chance to give Bay Area residents the ability to safely and conveniently move around the region without a car.

We need complete, connected, and low-stress bike networks to truly combat traffic congestion, reduce climate-destroying greenhouse gases, and fix unsafe streets. Active transportation trips emit zero carbon, promote health, reduce traffic injuries and deaths, and support the local economy. Critically, our letter to the legislators calls for building the bikeway network right away, in the next ten years, because active transportation is the most cost-effective transportation investment. Providing safe biking and walking links to transit makes the larger investments in buses and rail systems more accessible and functional for local communities.

Bay Area residents should insist that their taxes support the most cost-efficient, equitable, climate-friendly, and safe transportation option: the bicycle. CalBike is closely following this bill in Sacramento. We will watch for new developments and continue to advocate to ensure that active transportation is appropriately funded before this sales tax measure goes to the voters in November.

CalBike Advocacy for the Bay Area Bike Network

CalBike is closely following this bill in Sacramento. We will watch for new developments and continue to advocate. We will ensure that active transportation is appropriately funded when this transportation tax measure goes to the voters. We’ll need your help to convince the State Senate members who are drafting this bill to include $8.6 billion for bikes in the first ten years of the measure. Stay tuned for your chance to get involved.

CalBike Supporters Bike the Vote to Primary Victories

March 6, 2020/by Jared Sanchez

Free Webinar: Tools to Create Connected, Low-Stress Bike Networks

March 2, 2020/by Laura McCamy

Is your community’s bike network incomplete? Does it have bike lanes used by only the most fearless bike riders?

Join us on Thursday, March 5, 2020, 11 am – 12pm PT for a free webinar.

You already know the value of complete, low-stress bike networks in your community. Join us to learn about new, free, publicly available planning tools that you can use in your community to build out a complete, low-stress network. We will discuss the benefits of planning a complete bike network, the tools you can use, how they work, and where you can access them. Hear directly from the organizations that developed these tools about how they are being used today in active transportation planning projects across California.

Our free webinar will feature Brooke DuBose of Toole Planning, Rebecca Davies of PeopleForBikes, Torsha Bhattacharya of Rails-to-Trails, and Forest Barnes of the California Bicycle Coalition.

What: Free webinar on tools for building connected, low-stress bike networks in your community
When: Thursday, March 5, 11 am PT
Where: Zoom video link

The webinar was recorded. View it here.

California Needs Edge Lane Roads

March 2, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

CalBike is working to provide an important new tool to traffic engineers. It will give people who on bikes safe space to ride on narrow roads. The tool is a road design called ‘edge lane roads’ and we need your help to identify places where they should be installed.

What is an edge lane road?

“Edge lanes” create lanes that work just like bike lanes on streets that are too narrow to allow standard bike lanes. Also known as advisory bike lanes, this design is the last significant design innovation that is lacking from the U.S. traffic engineer’s typical toolbox. CalBike is committed to giving engineers this new tool.

On an edge lane road, wide bike lanes are striped on either side of the road – the edge lanes. In the center, there is a space for cars with no center line. This car lane is often wider than a normal lane but not wide enough for two cars to pass. When cars meet head-on, they negotiate the space by moving into the bike lane temporarily. The arrangement requires motorists to be flexible about the space and negotiate with each other, while giving bike riders a secure lane of their own at the edge.

Californian Michael Williams is one of the leading proponents of edge lane roads in the United States. He saw their potential while studying bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands. “It’s a way to reallocate roadway width more efficiently and more safely for vulnerable road users,” he said in a recent conversation with CalBike.

“Edge lane roads have existed for more than 50 years in other countries around the world,” Williams noted. The Netherlands alone has over 800 km installed. In the US, he knows of about 30 edge lane projects. The largest number are in Minneapolis, which has seven or eight edge lane roads. “They tried them out. They love them,” he said of Minneapolis. “They’re rolling them out all over the place.”

While Williams first saw the potential of edge lanes to create space for bikes on rural roads, they work just as well on urban streets. “An edge lane road format would be a great way to design a bicycle boulevard,” he said. “That’s really the operation you want on a bike boulevard.” He noted that Minneapolis has successfully used the edge lane treatment on urban, high-volume streets.

Why don’t we have edge lanes here?

If you’re thinking that edge lanes might be fine for the Netherlands but they would never work here, you’re not alone. “I’m all across the country advocating for edge lane roads,” Williams said. People’s first reaction is that edge lanes will create problems. “Then, when communities put them in, everybody does fine with them,” he said.

edge lane road in Ottawa We need edge lane roads in California. It’s the last important tool to add to the planner’s toolbox for safe streets. The stripes on edge lanes show all road users what is expected of them. They give people on bikes a space to ride and a line that they can expect motorists to avoid.

Where there’s room to install protected bike lanes, that is the preferred treatment on many streets. But where there isn’t room, city planners have poor choices: reject any bike facility at all, put in “sharrows” that have proven ineffective, or stripe narrow door zone bike lanes, which put bicyclists in severe danger of injury or death from a suddenly opening car door.

“A lot of times the reason for edge lane roads to be used is because people don’t want to get rid of parking,” Williams said. Thus, an edge lane treatment could help overcome neighborhood resistance to bike lanes by preserving parking and two-way vehicular travel, while adding safe space for bikes.

The edge lane road treatment is not included in any guideline that local planners in California are authorized to use. Neither the California Highway Design Manual or the more progressive guidelines from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) includes this tool. CalBike is working to change that. You can help.

Where would you like to see edge lanes?

None of the edge lane roads in North America are in California. We would like to bring this sensible road design to our urban and rural streets. Right now, we have a great opportunity to test edge lane roads in California.

California goes through a state highway safety plan process every four years. The process opens an opportunity for pilot projects to test new design ideas. As part of this process, communities can run pilot edge lane road projects.

Is there a street or road in your community that would be perfect for an edge lane road treatment? Go to Williams’ website to learn more about edge lane roads and contact him with your project.

Somerset Advisory Bike Lane from Mathieu Fleury on Vimeo.