November 2022 - CalBike

Bicycle Advocacy Projects Young People Can Do to Get People Riding in 2023

November 28, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

Growing recognition of bicycling as an effective carbon-free transportation option has led more youth to get involved beyond just hopping on and riding. Bicycle advocacy can be a terrific basis for a community project for school, or just for fun.

We’ve put together some projects that serve as a good entry point to bicycle advocacy for high school students or anyone who wants to get more involved.

What is bicycle advocacy? The basics.

A bicycle advocate is anyone who works to make our streets safer and more inviting for people who ride bikes or someone who helps people feel more comfortable riding.

Successful bike advocates:

Work in coalition. Bike advocacy isn’t a solitary activity. You can work with other bike advocates or collaborate with people working toward related goals, such as pedestrian safety, transportation justice, equitable access to public transportation, etc.
Find the helpers. As Mr. Rogers said, it’s crucial to find your helpers. For bike advocacy, helpers can include local bicycle coalitions, your peers and other community members, local government or agency staff, elected officials, or other bicycle advocacy groups.
Educate yourself about what would make your community more bike-friendly. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel; people are probably already working on solutions to make your neighborhood more bikeable. Find out what others have done in the past and what plans there are for the future. Your efforts will be more successful if you can show how they align with plans that are already in the works.

Here are six bicycle advocacy projects you can do to make a difference in your community.

Form a bicycle school bus

A bicycle bus is a group ride to school. Bike buses are becoming increasingly popular, especially after a large bike bus of elementary school kids in Portland made the news.

Benefits of a bike bus:

There’s safety in numbers, so riding together makes it safer and easier for students to bike to school.
Introducing young people to the joy of biking wherever they need to go is an excellent way to create lifelong riders.
Bike riding promotes health.
It’s much more fun to ride with friends than get dropped off in a car.
Bike buses replace car trips and ease congestion at school drop-offs.
Seeing young people ride will encourage others to join.

Is your school or another in your community easily bikeable for some of the students? You could be the catalyst by starting a bike bus.

Getting started:

Figure out the route. Is there a bike-friendly route that is close to where many students live? Ride the route ahead of time to determine how long it will take and any obstacles along the way.
Work with school and parent groups. It’s critical to get buy-in from parents and your school to make your project successful. Spread the word through parent and school email groups, and attend a PTA or school board meeting.
Where will students park their bikes? Work with the school to ensure that there’s enough secure bike parking on school grounds. Do some research on recommended bike parking and advise your school on best practices.
Do you need more help? Depending on the age of the group riding together, you may need additional adults or responsible youth leaders to ride with you. If the students in your group are high school age, you may be able to ride together with little or no adult supervision. However, if you create a bike bus for elementary school kids, plan to have one adult for every 3-5 children on the ride. That shouldn’t be hard — many parents will want to ride along.
What days will you ride? Set up a regular schedule so people can plan on joining the bike bus. Pro tip: Start with one day and let your bicycle bus grow organically.

More resources:

Host a bike and helmet decorating event

Riding is more fun when your bike and helmet are personalized. And you don’t need expensive materials: colored duct tape, markers, glitter, and stickers are all great for decorating bikes and helmets.

Benefits of a bike decorating party:

A decorating party lets people show off their creativity and could get them to ride more.
A decorated helmet is more fun to wear, especially for younger kids, and turns safety equipment into a fun accessory.
This event boosts equity, allowing kids whose families might not be able to afford a fancy helmet or bike to make their gear unique and colorful.

Getting started:

Who will you invite? Figure out your target audience. Is this for students in your grade or some younger classmates or neighbors? That will determine the materials you need and how you spread the word.
Get materials. You can buy materials for decorating at a local art supply store, or a big box store such as Target. Thrift stores can also be a great source for fabric and other decorative items and, if your community has a resource like SCRAP in San Francisco that sells recycled materials, you can save money and find cool stuff for your art party.
Find a venue. An outdoor space such as a park, parking lot, or schoolyard will work well for your decorating party. Get permission (if needed) and make sure attendees will have access to bathrooms and water for washing up.

More resources:

Check out the Scraper Bike Team and follow these instructions for creating a Scraper bike.
How to yarn-bomb a bike.
More bike decorating ideas.
Decorate a bike helmet with markers, turn it into a bug, use spray paint — or come up with your own crafty idea!

Lead a community or fundraising ride

School isn’t the only destination for a group ride. You could organize people to ride together to a farmers market, performance, community event, or other destination. It could be a one-time event or a regular outing.

You can also do a ride to fundraise for or bring attention to a cause that’s meaningful to you. For example, the Ride for a Reason started out with just four people whose children went to Oakland public schools. They rode to Sacramento to bring attention to the lack of funding for public schools in 2008. By 2022, the ride had grown to 250 people and also raised money for local public schools.

Benefits of a community ride:

Riding with a group is a great way for new riders to learn the ropes and gain confidence. When you create a community ride, you help grow the bicycling community.
There’s safety in numbers.
Your visibility on the streets increases awareness that bike riding is popular and fun for people in your neighborhood.
Riding together builds community and strengthens relationships.
Community rides can bring attention to places lacking bicycle infrastructure and build pressure to fix the problem.

If there’s somewhere you would like to take a group by bike, organizing a ride is a terrific project.

Getting started:

Figure out start and endpoints. Find a good meeting place to start the ride, such as a park or public plaza.
Scope out the route. Ride from the starting point to the destination beforehand and determine the timing and route for your group ride.
Where is the bike parking? Find out where people can park at the destination, so you can let your riders know.
Get help. Depending on the size of your community ride, it’s likely you’ll need help before and during the ride. Having several riders familiar with the route assigned to ensure that no one gets left behind will make the event safer and more enjoyable for everyone.
Spread the word. How will you organize the ride and let people know about it? You could create an event on social media and ask people to RSVP, post flyers, spread the word through your local networks, or get the ride listed on the calendar of your local bicycle coalition.

More resources:

Create a traffic-calming street mural

A new study has confirmed that artwork painted on the roadway helps slow down cars and make the streets safer for people biking and walking. And a street mural can be a fun and collaborative community project that enhances the neighborhood. You could paint a circle in the middle of an intersection or add a colorful design to a bike lane to set it apart from the rest of the roadway.

Benefits of painted streets:

Calms traffic
Adds color and art to the neighborhood
Provides a fun, creative project where people of all ages can participate

Getting started:

Get permission. You’ll need to go to your local public works department to get permission to paint on a municipal street. That could involve going to committee meetings, lobbying your city council, and meeting with other local officials. Be patient — the process of getting approvals, especially if it’s something your community has never done before, can take a while.
Connect with artists. Who will design your mural? Do you want to hire a professional muralist to do the design or lead a youth group to make the artwork?
Find funding. You’ll need money for paint and, possibly, to pay an artist for a design. Make sure you use a type of paint that your city approves for street painting and that will last through rain and being driven over.
Get a group of painters. The painters don’t have to be experienced artists. Your muralist can draw the outline and give instructions, and people of all ages can play a part in putting paint on the pavement. You’ll need to work quickly, particularly if you need to block traffic while painting, so a big group is recommended.

Pro tip: If the steps to create a permanent mural are too much, use chalk to draw on the pavement and create temporary artwork. You won’t need the permits and you can still bring the community together for a day of fun that reclaims common space for people who walk and bike.

More resources:

YouTube video about painting on asphalt

Community bike shops provide low-cost or free bikes

Bring a bicycle education class to your school

Giving people the knowledge and skills they need to ride safely is a terrific way to get people biking. A bicycle education program is the best way to gain skills, but most people don’t have the time or inclination to seek out a bike riding class (or think they already know it all).

Benefits of a bike education class:

Educates people on how to ride more safely
Encourages people to ride more
Creates confident, safe bike riders who understand the rules of the road

Getting started:

Find bike instructors. The League of American Bicyclists has a certification program for bicycling instructors, and you can find one near you on their website. But first, contact your local bicycle coalition. Many bicycle advocacy groups offer biking classes with certified instructors, and they may be able to help you arrange bike riding classes at your school.
Coordinate with school administrators. Work with school personnel to get the required permissions and find an appropriate space. You might need outdoor space if your class includes on-bike training.
Find funding. You’ll need money to pay for the instructor’s time and materials, if any. Find out the costs and ask your bicycle coalition and your school for financial support. You could do a fundraising ride for bicycle education!

More resources:

Advocate for a bikeway that will make your community safer

Is there a street you’d like to ride but it doesn’t have a safe bikeway? Join with your local bicycle coalition and other local safe streets advocates to ask your community to prioritize this route for improvements or to build a specific bikeway.

Benefits of advocating for a new bikeway:

If you’re successful, you’ll create a new biking route or make a current route safer.
You’ll learn valuable lessons about how local government works that you can use to advocate for other causes.
You’ll connect with your local bicycling community.
In the process of pushing for a new bikeway, you’ll learn more about safe bike infrastructure design and implementation.
It’s an excellent way to learn more about how your local government works.

Getting started:

Connect with your local bike advocacy group. Find out if they already have a campaign on your street that you can join. If not, ask them to add your bike route to their list of campaigns.
Learn the repaving schedule. Your city probably has a public works department that’s in charge of road repairs. Find out when the street that needs a bikeway is scheduled for repaving; that’s the best (least expensive) time to add a better bikeway.
Connect with the agency in charge of this route. If your city has a person or a department in charge of bike infrastructure, let them know where you see a need. Some communities have citizen-led bicycle advisory committees; go to a meeting and ask to get your bikeway on the agenda.
Conduct a public comment training. Meet with others who support your cause and brainstorm the most effective messages for upcoming meetings about it. Write down ideas and practice making public comments so you’ll make a big impact when you get to speak.
Go to city meetings. Brink your issue to your city council’s transportation committee. Don’t give up — infrastructure changes can take time.

More resources:

For more ideas: join your local bicycle coalition

Here are two more ideas you might want to consider:

Bring bicycle repair resources to your school. One of the biggest reasons people don’t ride is that their bike breaks down, and they don’t know how to fix it. See if there’s a traveling bike repair van that could come to your school. Or partner with a community bike shop to host a bike repair class for youth.
Create a bike donation drive. Ask people in your community to donate bikes they don’t need anymore to a community bike shop. You can also connect people who need a bike with a low-cost or free donated bike.

One of the best ways to jumpstart your bicycle advocacy is to team up with experienced and passionate advocates. You’ll find them at your local bicycle coalition or other safe streets advocacy group. They can connect you with bike advocacy projects and a community of people who care about biking, like you.

San Francisco Voters Lead Surge in Car-Free California Streets

November 14, 2022/by Laura McCamy

Photo courtesy of Kid Safe SF.

The Slow Streets movement, spawned during the lockdown phase of the pandemic, has largely faded as communities remove barriers and erase safe spaces. But the experience of streets centered on community and placemaking seems to have given a boost to the movement for car-free spaces. Bike activists, including CalBike and many local bicycle coalitions, have worked for years to create more space for people biking and walking in California, and combined with a growing awareness of the need for change, those efforts have borne fruit.

Cities across California have removed vehicular traffic to create safe spaces for people to walk and bike. One particularly notable example is JFK Drive in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, because of the deep-pocketed opposition to the project and the people-power that overcame that opposition at the ballot box, but there are many exciting new car-free spaces around the state.

Car-free spaces open across California

Business districts that would have once fought to keep car traffic now celebrate car-free space that attracts shoppers and diners. Over the past year, we’ve seen some exciting new open streets in California cities, including:

Gaslamp Promenade, San Diego. A section of Fifth Avenue in San Diego’s historic Gaslamp district has been converted to pedestrianized plazas for much of the day, while allowing vehicular traffic for deliveries for a window of time in the morning.
State Street Promenade, Santa Barbara. Ten blocks in the heart of Santa Barbara’s retail and dining district are now safe space for people biking and walking, with plenty of room for outdoor dining and markets.
San Francisco Shared Spaces. San Francisco has created a program for regular, permitted, open streets in neighborhoods across the city. The spaces are sponsored by local businesses, merchant associations, or community organizations and include weekend outdoor dining and shopping experiences, space for farmer’s markets, plazas for outdoor socializing, and more.
Griffith Park, Los Angeles. The park that’s home to LA’s Hollywood sign is also a popular spot for recreational rides in a city that isn’t always bike-friendly. After years of conflicts between people on bikes and people in cars, and a deadly collision earlier this year, the city closed a section of roadway to cars, with a promise to study more road closures in the future.

This isn’t a comprehensive list; we probably missed some fabulous car-free spaces around California. Please let us know if we left your local reclaimed street off the list.

San Francisco voters choose car-free JFK Promenade

JFK Drive is a main thoroughfare through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Though the park is designed as a place for recreation and respite from city life, motorists often used the park’s roads as a cut-through to get to the ocean or travel between neighborhoods, creating dangerous conditions for people on bikes.

JFK promenade KId Safe SF — *Photo courtesy of Kid Safe SF*

Over the years, San Francisco has slowly expanded car-free space on JFK Drive, first to every Saturday, then to Sundays as well. Each expansion of the beloved space for people to bike, walk, skate, and dance was met with loud protests, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition fought hard to make it happen.

Then came 2020, and San Francisco temporarily made a large section of the street car-free 24/7, giving residents safe outdoor space for exercise and recreation. As the pandemic waned (will it ever really end?), advocates came together to campa i gn for a permanent closure and, in April 2022, the San Francisco City Council voted to make the JFK Promenade permanent.

That seemed like the end of the story, until a wealthy board member of the de Young Museum, which sits off of, and can be accessed by, JFK Drive, put Measure I on the ballot to restore car traffic on weekdays. Proposition I also included allowing cars on the Great Highway (a coastal road that had become the Great Walkway during the pandemic, with plans to study weekend open streets) as a bonus, though almost all the backing for the measure came from people and organizations with interests in Golden Gate Park.

Car-free advocates countered with Measure J, to keep the roadway open to people. “Throughout the campaign, hundreds of volunteers spent thousands of hours talking to voters across San Francisco about the value of safe, protected open space, and more than a dozen local advocacy organizations came together to support the car-free JFK Promenade,” Robin Pam from Kid Safe SF told CalBike. “The force of passionate volunteers and partner organizations powered the campaign from start to finish, and ultimately made the difference on election day.”

On November 8, that hard work paid off with a resounding victory for open space. Prop I lost by 25 points, with almost 63% of San Franciscans voting no, and Prop J passed by 22 points, with 61% in favor.

“By passing Prop J and rejecting Prop I, San Francisco voters showed their strong preference for public spaces that prioritize safe access and recreation for kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and all San Franciscans,” Pam said. “We’re proud of this community and the growing movement for safe open space, safe streets, and active transportation in San Francisco and beyond.”

The future of open streets?

There’s no doubt that the pandemic accelerated the movement to reclaim civic space for people, increasing safety, giving people places to connect, and improving the quality of life for residents. And the imperative to find new ways to get around that don’t contribute to climate change adds urgency to the changes we need to see in our communities.

But the seeds of this change were planted years ago with events like Bogotá’s Ciclovia and San Francisco’s Critical Mass.

It’s easy to fall into the mindset that businesses and residents need easy car access to have vibrant neighborhoods, but it’s also easy to change that mindset. For example, when San Francisco held its first Sunday Streets open streets event along the Embarcadero, the ride stopped short of Fisherman’s Wharf, a popular tourist destination. The merchants in the neighborhood were adamant that they didn’t want the street closure by their shops.

However, after they saw how many people came out for Sunday Streets, Fisherman’s Wharf merchants jumped at the chance to be included in the event the following year. The streets were so packed with people during that first Sunday Streets at the wharf that there was barely room to move.

By the same token, San Francisco’s Valencia Street was hopping on a recent Saturday night, with outdoor dining, live music, artist booths, and storefronts bustling with restaurants, bars, taquerias, and shops. A child rode her scooter down the middle of the street in the dark, and one local resident said she felt like she’d stepped onto a street in Europe.

The more people and merchants get to experience open streets, the more we appreciate the power of car-free space to build community and drive economic vitality. CalBike hopes to see more of these spaces created around our state in the months and years ahead.

Announcing the California Mobility Fund

November 14, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

CalBike is pleased to make it official: our tax-deductible arm, the California Bicycle Coalition Education Fund, has now become the California Mobility Fund. It took a while for the paperwork to be finalized, but we’re thrilled to dive into the new opportunities that will open for our rebranded, tax-deductible sister organization.

The new name will better reflect our work to create social change that will protect our planet and build healthy, just communities.

CalBike and the California Mobility Fund, explained

CalBike (aka the California Bicycle Coalition) is a nonprofit organization. However, we have two divisions: a 501(c)3 and a 501(c)4. CalBike is the 501(c)4, and the California Mobility Fund is our 501(c)3. Here are the big differences:

CalBike is allowed to participate in electoral politics, which is why we can endorse candidates and ballot measures.
Donations to CalBike support our hard-hitting advocacy and are not tax-deductible.
The California Mobility Fund cannot endorse candidates.
Donations to the California Mobility Fund are tax-deductible.

Why did we change the name to the California Mobility Fund?

Much of the work CalBike does is about making mobility equitable and sustainable. A bike is a great tool for this — but it also makes sense to look beyond the bike.

We need to cut car emissions drastically (by as much as 45% by 2030) if we want to avert climate disaster. We can’t do this by just switching to EVs — it won’t happen fast enough, and it will leave out disadvantaged communities. And while we will continue our work to make bicycling a safe and appealing transportation option, we know that bikes aren’t the answer for everyone.

Through the California Mobility Fund, we will collaborate with housing, transit, environmental, and justice organizations to fight for a sustainable and just future, fostering communities where residents don’t have to rely on cars. Our new name reflects our commitment to the intersectional work of environmental and social justice.

We look forward to working with you toward these goals!

Leading Pedestrian Interval Puts People Walking First

November 4, 2022/by Andrew Wright

A leading pedestrian interval (LPI) gives pedestrians a 3- to 7-second head start on a walk signal before the parallel car traffic is given a green light. This simple, low-cost adjustment has been demonstrated to lower pedestrian-on-vehicle crashes by 13%. In 2022, CalBike advocated for a measure that will expand the use of LPIs (the recently passed AB 2264).

Expensive, flashy infrastructure projects often attract the most attention, but equally, if not more important, are simple, low-cost solutions that deliver results to everyday road users. The fact that many residents don’t even notice the change to intersections actually speaks to the effectiveness of the measure. State law mandates LPIs at Caltrans-controlled intersections, but local planners should also implement this critical safety measure because it’s a simple step to help combat the rise in pedestrian fatalities.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has recently implemented LPI at a limited number of intersections throughout Los Angeles. To get a sense of how LPI informs pedestrian behavior, CalBike recently went to the corner of Normandie and Hollywood to observe crossings and ask people their thoughts on the initiative. We chose this bustling intersection located in East Hollywood with corner stores and businesses on every corner and e-bike share on the northwest corner. It serves a wide array of users during commuting hours on a Wednesday.

Nicole lives a few blocks away and said she recognized the change as soon as it happened: “They put in poles by the turn lanes at the same time.” Nicole indicated that the changes had changed driver behavior making left turns. “I feel safer walking to the coffee shop for sure!” she said.

“They should do that everywhere!” Juan, a retired military serviceman, said. He said he had not noticed the update, though he moved to the neighborhood from Koreatown for its increased walkability. Juan insisted that safety is important and pedestrians should be aware of their surroundings to maximize safety. “You don’t get this old by not being smart!” he said.

Micah lives nearby and was renting a Metro e-bike to take to work in Echo Park, “When you take into account parking, this is the fastest way to get there,” he said. The morning we stopped by was rainy and cold. Micah noticed the early walk signs but was not aware he could cross on his bike. “Good to know,” Micah said before starting his brisk commute down Hollywood Boulevard.

Hollywood and Normandie is situated between two LA Metro stations and serviced by popular bus routes along both cross streets. The flow of pedestrians rises and falls dramatically as buses service the area. Prioritizing pedestrian safety proactively with default LPIs (meaning the walk sign shows on red even without being requested) is a simple and effective measure that increases safety and comfort for people walking in the area.

The evolution of this intersection is emblematic of the changing dynamics of this part of Los Angeles. Several high-density apartment buildings have been built within a one-mile radius of Hollywood and Normandie since 2020, increasing the number of pedestrians at an already busy intersection.

For active transportation to be viable, safety is paramount. CalBike applauds LADOT’s embrace of LPI and looks forward to seeing more LA intersections added in the future. And, with the passage of the OmniBike Bill, AB 1909, bikes can proceed on walk signals, including LPIs, so people on bikes will also get the benefit of increased visibility.