July 2022 - CalBike

CalBike Bids a Fond Farewell to Outgoing ED Dave Snyder

July 27, 2022/by Laura McCamy

CalBike’s long-time executive director, Dave Snyder, is moving to a new and exciting position as senior director of local innovation at PeopleForBikes. This is an excellent opportunity to take a look back at CalBike’s accomplishments during his tenure, how our organization has grown in size and influence, and what the future holds for CalBike.

Reviving the bike movement and setting a standard for bicycle advocacy

Before he came to CalBike, Dave Snyder was already a leader in the bicycle advocacy movement. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition was founded in 1971 during an earlier bike riding boom but was nearly dormant by 1990 with just a couple of members when Dave Snyder came to the organization.

Then in his early 20s, Snyder started his stint as SFBC executive director without a salary. Then a $10,000 grant gave him a part-time salary as the organization’s first paid staffer, and, he recalls, “With the help of a lot of people, I was able to build it up.”

At first, SFBC was little more than a newsletter, but in 1996, the bike coalition was organized as a legal entity. By the time Snyder left in 2002, the group had 4,500 members and was recognized as a political force in San Francisco. The foundation he built was strong, and the group has continued to grow in the two decades since. SFBC is now one of the biggest local bike advocacy groups in the country, and the biggest in the state, with over 10,000 members.

Growing the movement

In the 1990s, Snyder was a founding member of the Thunderhead Alliance, a national coalition of active transportation advocacy groups. And while he was a peripheral agent in the early days of Critical Mass, the rule-breaking and awareness-building group rides that originated in San Francisco and spread around the globe, he was a regular participant and did come up with the name.

In the years after he left SFBC, Snyder worked to expand the movement for a more just San Francisco by working at the intersection between transportation and land use policy. He founded Transportation for a Livable City (now just Livable City) and the San Francisco Transit Riders Union. He served as transportation policy director for the think tank San Francisco Planning and Urban Research and as a director of the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District.

Building a statewide coalition

Asked why he was drawn to CalBike, Snyder says, “As a local leader, I understood the importance of having a powerful and effective group in Sacramento. I wanted to make sure that our movement had that base covered.”

The group had just two employees when he came on as CalBike’s executive director in 2010. During the 12 years of Snyder’s tenure, CalBike has added staff and consultants, quadrupled its reach, and quintupled its budget.

Snyder has led the CalBike team to a string of critical victories:

The Three Feet for Safety Law requiring motorists to give bicyclists 3 feet of space when passing
Legalizing protected bike lanes
Pushing Caltrans to reform its Complete Streets policy and then implement that policy
Defeating a helmet mandate
Increasing state funding for biking and walking infrastructure from $100 million to over $1 billion in 2023.

One of CalBike’s most significant victories in recent years is the $10 million statewide e-bike incentive program, which should begin offering vouchers to help people afford e-bikes soon.

And some of the exciting campaigns that started during Snyder’s leadership, including the Bicycle Safety Stop, a bill to legalize safe street crossings, and the fight to save California bike sharing systems, continue moving forward, led by CalBike’s strong policy team.

The next chapter for Dave Snyder and for CalBike

In his new role at PeopleForBikes, Snyder hopes to “take some ideas I’ve been working on in California and push them out at a national level.” He will continue to advocate for some of the same priorities that CalBike does, plus “new and innovative things I don’t even know about yet.”

Because People for Bikes wants Snyder to focus on states with political potential and a large population, California is at the top of his list for bike advocacy, and CalBike looks forward to partnering with him in his new role.

As for CalBike, our dedicated team will continue to expand the organization’s influence on active transportation policy at the state level and strengthen relationships with partners. And the leadership change gives us the opportunity to add fresh voices and perspectives to our movement.

“CalBike needs someone who has an expansive vision for how big and powerful this organization can be and the ability to take us there,” Snyder says.

CalBike’s operations manager, Kevin Claxton, will fill in as interim executive director while the Board of Directors launches a search for the next executive director. CalBike views this transition as a sign of the growth and strength of our movement for just, equitable, and safe streets for all Californians as we add another ally at the national level.

And we are incredibly grateful for Dave’s contributions: his optimistic and visionary approach to advocacy, tempered with realism; his humor and warmth; and his unwavering commitment to working toward the world as it should be — filled with bicycles and joy. And he’s given CalBike the gift of building a strong team that will carry us into the future. With the help of supporters like you, we know we can continue building the joyful and equitable communities California needs.

CalBike Staffers Reflect on Bogotá Bicycle Adventure

July 22, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

In March, the city government of Bogotá, Colombia, through BiciActiva, invited three members of CalBike’s staff on an all-expenses-paid bicycling tour of Bogotá and its environs. It was an amazing cross-cultural experience that showed the potential to build biking infrastructure and culture with a tight budget and a lot of creativity.

CalBike staff witnessed cargo bikes and daily commuters in the city center and neighborhoods and saw masses of recreational riders in bike jerseys riding popular routes over the weekend. We traversed Bogotá via a vast, connected network of ciclorrutas, brightly painted and often protected bike lanes and off-street paths. These ciclorrutas are used by commuters, vendors, cargo bikes, and people of all ages to travel all over the city, separated from high-traffic automotive routes.

Colombia is not a wealthy country, nor is Bogotá a wealthy city. But the Bogotanos have built a city of bicycles and a culture of bicycling that many California cities can only dream about.

All over the city, we rode on protected bike lanes that connected one to the next. Around us, the streets were filled with buses, motorcycles, and taxis — and just a few individually owned cars. Along with the bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes crisscrossed the city. On the outskirts of town, we saw hundreds of people riding up into the hills for fun with friends.

And on Sunday, 121 kilometers (75 miles) of city streets were closed to cars and filled with people of every social class, every race, young and old, during the weekly Ciclovía, all of them biking, walking, rolling, or skating. A group of teens popped wheelies. A grandmother and grandchild walked together. A little girl trailed her father on a tiny bike. Two young people skated by dressed to the nines. It was such a beautiful vision that, at times, it felt like a dream!

Spending four days in the bicycling capital of the Western Hemisphere with Colombian bike advocates was incredibly inspiring, and the staff returned ready to push even harder to make California’s cities more like Bogotá, with webs of connected bike infrastructure everywhere. Jenn, Kevin, and Dave share their reflections on their experience.

What was the most inspiring thing about your trip to Bogotá?

Jenn: The thing that struck me the most was the culture of bicycling! There is a very different feel to the traffic culture. I live in Berkeley, one of the more bikeable cities in California, and people regularly harass me even though I’m following the rules. Drivers often assume that cars have the right of way even when they don’t. In Colombia, as our hosts told us repeatedly, people on bikes always have the right of way! It’s not the people on bikes who understand this. Drivers yield to bikes, and I almost got the feeling that they were protecting us.

Dave: The most inspiring thing was Ciclovía — 121 kilometers of major thoroughfares closed to cars and open for people to bike, run, skate, or whatever. It completely transforms the city every single Sunday. We should figure out how to do that here because doing it a few times a year just doesn’t make the same statement. A weekly event normalizes the idea that streets sometimes should be used for human joy instead of automobile movement.

Kevin: Like Dave, I was struck by Ciclovía. I have enjoyed LA’s CicLAvia for the past few years, but to participate in the original event in Bogotá (which has been operating since the mid-1970s!), was both an honor and a dream come true. Riding a bicycle is my favorite way to explore a city, and it was so special to be able to explore Bogotá during Ciclovía, an event that should be a model for cities across the world.

What made a culture of bicycling possible in Bogotá?

Jenn: I don’t know enough about the history of bicycling in Bogotá to fully answer that question, except to say that visionary leadership beginning many decades ago helped to create the infrastructure and build a culture. But one thing that really struck me was how much bicycle advocacy continues to thrive and make a difference. Lorena Romero Fontecha, one of our new Colombian friends, who is a committed bike advocate and the driving force behind Radio Biciactiva, showed us a particular protected bike lane and told us an inspiring story that happened just in the past couple of years: She said that on a dangerous street with fast-moving car traffic, neighbors decided that the street needed a protected bike lane. They asked the city — to no avail. So they went ahead and installed their own pop-up, guerrilla-protected bike infrastructure. The city ripped it out. So what did they do? They installed it again! Again, the city ripped it out. When they installed it a third time, the city gave up and went ahead and added more resilient materials to make it permanent.

Dave: I don’t know, but what struck me the most was how intense the recreational bicycle culture was. The roads leading to the hills outside of town were packed with bicyclists, thousands upon thousands, with whole neighborhoods of restaurants and businesses set up to serve them. The popularity of bicycling for fun clearly supported the development of bikeways for transportation.

What did you bring back to your work for transportation justice here in California?

Kevin: Our travels in and around Bogotá provided me with a clearer picture of how we might reshape California’\ transportation system and culture. I say culture because I sensed a kind of mutual respect and camaraderie infused in the network of ciclorrutas and city streets that I feel is often missing from California’s roadways. On Bogotá’s streets, there is truly a symphony of movement. And in Bogotá, the bicycle plays just as important a role for industry and transport as it does for recreation and joy. The bicycle is provided its own respected space separate from and alongside cars, motorcycles, pedestrians, buses, trains, and shared vehicles. I admired the sharing of space I saw throughout the city and felt a sense of community with other road users.

And finally, what was the most fun part of your trip?

Dave: Ciclovía. Dancing in the streets with my fellow travelers. And strengthening the friendships among Colombian and Californian bike and justice advocates.

Jenn: Well, for me, surprisingly, it was going mountain biking. I am a committed bike commuter, and I get a lot of joy doing my errands by bike, but I have never been very athletic or much of a recreational cyclist. I had never been mountain biking, and boy, was it fun! Our amazing bicycling tour guide, Andrés from Monte Adentro, took us all around Bogotá to explore the urban infrastructure but also took our group up into the Andes to ride around near the town of Guatavita. We explored trails near a gorgeous reservoir and a pre-Columbian cemetery. It was possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. And it was just incredibly fun to ride on trails — especially on a very cool e-bike that Andrés lent me. We learned about the Muisca people who have lived in that region for millennia and whose ritual use of gold was the source of the legend of El Dorado.

Kevin: Exploring the city by bike and foot with our lovely hosts. During the short few days we visited Bogotá, I’m sure we rode at least 25 miles in and around the city alone, on ciclorrutas, riverside paths, up winding hillsides, through small neighborhood streets, across rainy parks, and in lively neighborhoods. And we did all this alongside our hosts: passionate and generous bicycle advocates and partners, including our colleague Lorena Romero Fontecha, who made the entire opportunity possible.

Executive Director Dave Snyder Announces Departure

July 19, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

July 19, 2022

Contact: Kevin Claxton, kevin@calbike.org, 909-274-0137

CalBike Executive Director Dave Snyder Leaving to Join PeopleForBikes

CalBike to Begin Executive Director Search

Sacramento: CalBike’s Executive Director, Dave Snyder, will leave the organization in August to take a position as Senior Director of Local Innovation at national advocacy organization PeopleForBikes.

Since joining CalBike as Executive Director in 2010, Snyder has grown the organization into a respected voice for bicycling in the state’s capital and an influential leader among organizations that advocate for bicycling in communities across California. CalBike is grateful for his tenure and excited to continue collaborating with him in his new role at PeopleForBikes.

“I am glad to have had the chance to serve CalBike’s mission as its executive director for a decade,” Snyder said. “We’ve built a strong team that is ready to take this organization to the next level as a powerful voice for equitable and prosperous communities where bicycling is an easy and safe choice for all Californians.”

Under Snyder’s leadership, CalBike’s tenacious, hardworking team has passed model e-bike legislation, pushed through Complete Streets reform at Caltrans, defeated a helmet mandate, legalized protected bike lanes, and gotten several bills passed to protect bicyclists, including the Three Feet for Safety Law requiring motorists to give bicyclists 3 feet of space when passing. They have gotten more funding for bicycling as well, securing an increase in state-level funding for biking and walking from around $100M to over $1B, and winning $10M for e-bike purchase incentives.

CalBike has helped to coordinate more than twenty local advocacy organizations with a combined membership of over 100,000, influencing elections for the California State Assembly and Senate and building support for ballot measures such as the successful defeat in 2018 of a proposed repeal of the gas tax.

“We’re incredibly grateful to Dave for all he’s done for the California Bicycle Coalition, and we’re delighted he’s staying in bicycle advocacy. Dave has built a strong, talented team to continue this legacy of building safer, more equitable communities so all Californians can prosper. We’re also excited about CalBike’s next chapter and have begun the process to identify new executive leadership to take us to the next level,” said Cynthia Rose, CalBike’s Board Chair.

The Board has appointed Kevin Claxton, CalBike’s Operations Manager as Interim Director. “I’m delighted to take the helm at CalBike, supporting staff and board as we continue the great work that Dave has led. It’s a critical time for transportation, with many terrific opportunities for our policy team to advance our mission to create healthy, equitable communities through bicycling.”

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Update: E-Bike Voucher Program Moving Forward — Slowly

July 15, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

When the legislature allocated $10 million for e-bike subsidies in the budget for this fiscal year, it included language stating that the program would launch on July 1, 2022. However, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has moved more slowly, so the program is not yet ready to launch. Here’s what we do and don’t know about California’s statewide e-bike voucher program.

What’s the current status of the e-bike voucher program?

CARB is working on selecting a vendor to administer the program. We expect the agency to announce the vendor soon.

When will e-bike vouchers become available?

It’s not clear yet how soon the program will begin offering vouchers for e-bike purchases. Once a program administrator is in place, we hope to start getting more information, including a timeline for implementation.

What is CalBike’s role in the e-bike voucher program?

CalBike advocated for the $10 million budget allocation to help Californians buy e-bikes. We continue to follow the program closely and work with CARB to ensure that the vendor administers the program effectively and equitably.

CalBike doesn’t have any authority to set the rules of the e-bike program or give out vouchers. Our role as an outside watchdog allows us to advocate for things that will make the program successful, such as providing large enough grants to make an e-bike truly affordable.

CalBike will also continue to spread the word about e-bike vouchers, particularly once they become available so that the program is a success and we can have a much larger budget allocation next year!

Who is eligible for an e-bike voucher?

The eligibility criteria haven’t been firmly established. Still, early indications are that there will be an income eligibility requirement, with all or most of the first $10 million in funding going to low-income California residents.

We hope to get more information about eligibility once the vendor outlines an implementation plan, and we will share that information once we have it.

How much will the e-bike subsidies be?

The program administrator will set e-bike subsidy levels.

How do I apply for an e-bike purchase voucher?

There’s no application process in place as yet; the program administrator will put that in place.

What if the e-bike program runs out of money?

If the e-bike program quickly distributes all its funds, that would demonstrate the demand for this subsidy, and we would consider that a success. CalBike will advocate for more funding in future budgets, and we hope the program will secure funding to continue without interruption.

How do I find out more about e-bike purchase incentives?

Please sign our list to get updates about the program. Going forward, we expect to send more frequent updates as the details of the e-bike voucher program unfold.

It’s Time for California to Stop Building Freeways. Full Stop.

July 14, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

We were disappointed to see AB 1778, Assemblymember Cristina Garcia’s bill to end freeway expansion in environmentally disadvantaged communities, die in the Senate Transportation Committee. But, at CalBike, we know that we often lose before we win. We’re in it for the long haul because critical advances like refocusing California’s resources away from climate-killing car-expansion projects and toward active transportation are worth fighting for. That’s why CalBike joined 17 other advocacy organizations to send a letter to Caltrans asking for a list of legacy freeway projects.

A change at Caltrans with a loophole big enough to drive a truck through

Transportation and environmental justice advocates won a victory in May when L.A. Metro canceled a plan to widen the 710 freeway in Southeast Los Angeles County, an area already overburdened by pollution. It’s the kind of project AB 1778 targets, but it represents another challenge in greening our transportation system. Caltrans started planning the 710 expansion in 1999 when California’s climate goals and priorities were very different from today.

Recently, Caltrans leadership has embraced its Complete Streets policy, including bike and pedestrian safety improvements in many more new projects. But legacy projects, some of which have been in the pipeline for years, may not meet those goals.

The groups signing the letter to Caltrans have requested a list of all projects that will increase vehicle miles traveled, so those projects can be reevaluated through the lens of community needs for public health, climate change mitigation, and transportation equity.

Why freeway-building should stop

Not every freeway project is the same, and there may be freeway projects that serve drivers’ interests. However, most freeway expansions and extensions are counterproductive in several ways:

More lanes = more congestion. It’s counterintuitive but also empirically correct that widening highways increases congestion rather than reducing it. If you live near a freeway that’s added lanes, you have probably experienced increased traffic due to induced demand.
Freeway construction often perpetuates environmental injustice. From San Francisco to San Diego, California cities have built freeways through historically Black, Latino, and Asian neighborhoods, breaking up communities and driving people from city centers. The practice isn’t consigned to history: It wasn’t long ago that City Heights CDC had to fight hard to reduce the impact of a freeway expansion that would primarily serve suburban communities but was routed through a disadvantaged San Diego neighborhood already suffering from elevated pollution levels.
California needs transportation alternatives, not more cars. Electric cars are a vital element of our climate solution, but they are just one element. We need to fundamentally change how we get around to have any hope of mitigating climate change. This means more public transportation, better biking and walking routes, and more options for all Californians. Freeways often create barriers and hazards that discourage active transportation. We need to start thinking about tearing them down, not expanding or extending them.

Moving forward without freeway expansions

Supporting AB 1778 and seeking transparency on legacy road-building projects is just the beginning of CalBike’s efforts, joining many community organizations already doing this difficult work. Alongside the many environmental, social, and racial injustices, we see reducing freeway construction as a broader transportation justice and equity issue, and we will continue to partner with others at the state level to improve health and safety for all California communities.

California’s 2022 Budget: Better, but Still not Enough for Active Transportation

July 7, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature officially agreed upon next year’s state budget on June 30, 2022. It is the biggest budget ever set in California, and it includes the most significant amount dedicated to active transportation: $1.05 billion in additional funding.

However, a $1.05 billion increase is only a drop in the bucket of the budget’s $47 billion allocation for infrastructure. The total biking and walking safety allocation represents only 2% of California’s infrastructure budget. It certainly isn’t enough to transform California’s communities into places where the average person will consider biking a safe and convenient transportation option for short trips. In a state ravaged by climate change, we must do better. In reality, even the $2 billion CalBike advocated for was just a down payment on the funding needed to prepare our state for a transition to low-carbon transportation.

Active transportation gets a much-needed boost

The Active Transportation Program (ATP) will receive most of the $1.05 billion increase. The increased ATP budget is significant because the program has historically been short on money compared to the number of projects in the pipeline across the state. The total amount available in Cycle 6 of the ATP is $1.65 billion, a substantial increase over past funding rounds. The additional money will allow the program to greenlight many more projects, so you can expect new and improved biking and walking infrastructure in many communities around California over the next few years.

But CalBike’s work is far from done because the increase doesn’t keep up with the growing demand for active transportation infrastructure improvements. In Cycle 6, local and regional agencies have submitted over $3.1 billion in projects (which have a total cost of over $4 billion), so the infusion is not even close to enough to cover basic active transportation needs, not to mention the transformative changes we need.

Envisioning transformative change for California streets and neighborhoods

California needs transformative change in how we get around, and we need it NOW. Our climate crisis keeps escalating, so we don’t have another 10 years to ponder the next steps. We already know what we need to do because other cities and countries are leading the way, taking steps to make their cities more bikeable, walkable, and sustainable.

California’s 2022 budget is a missed opportunity to allocate the funding California needs to build an equitable and sustainable transportation system that will achieve our state’s climate goals. This year was a critical time to invest in transformative changes since we have an almost $100 billion budget surplus. In an uncertain economy, we may not have another opportunity like this for many years.

EVs won’t save us

Bikeway design guidelines are particularly important at intersections.

The budget for active transportation is small compared to the investment in automobiles in many ways. For example, it includes a $10 billion investment in electric cars over six years, a valuable contribution to climate change mitigation. But EVs still have significant carbon footprints, and mining for the lithium needed to build electric car batteries brings its own environmental havoc. Walkable, bikeable communities are a better solution to the climate crisis.

Policymakers continue to propose investments in electric vehicles as the primary solution to climate collapse, and EVs alone won’t meet California’s climate goals. And the focus on electric cars is even more shortsighted because it fails to meet our societal goals to reduce traffic violence, increase public health, develop more vibrant local communities, and undo the harm that freeways and large roads impose on us all. We don’t just need more infrastructure — we need a transformative mode shift. Continuing to funnel state money into electric vehicles keeps outmoded and harmful mobility patterns in place.

A roadmap for better biking

We must make it convenient and comfortable for many more Californians to take short trips by walking and biking, not driving. To do that, California needs to move quickly to make biking easier — and the signed budget just doesn’t include enough money to build bike infrastructure fast or create the connected networks we need for genuinely bikeable neighborhoods.

CalBike continues to advocate for a separate pot of money for connected bike networks. The fund would give money to communities that commit to building fully connected bike networks quickly — in five years or less. We believe that, by putting some of these projects on the ground soon, we’ll be able to demonstrate the potential of safe, protected bike networks to transform how Californians get around. That will encourage other communities to invest in their own bike networks.

Think about what you need in your community to close the gaps and create safe bike networks and even bicycle highways to get you where you need to go. Neighborhoods with all the services residents need within a 15-minute bike ride would improve safety, air quality, and quality of life. Those are the types of projects that this budget should pay for in every community throughout California. With our historic surplus and in the face of a looming climate crisis, now is the time to transform our state.

We can’t drive ourselves out of the climate crisis. California’s 2022 active transportation budget is an excellent step in the right direction, but we need much more investment in safe streets. CalBike will keep pressing for that funding.