For Immediate Release

Re: Advocates Succeed to Redirect $24 Million in Active Transportation Funding to Disadvantaged Communities Across California

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Sacramento CA — Wednesday, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) approved $158 million in grant funds for walking and bicycling projects, including $24.3 million that was diverted from a single high-profile project in the Coachella Valley to five very high need communities across the state. The late revision to the $24 million allocation was a result of careful scrutiny and advocacy by the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

The original CTC staff recommendation for the 2017 Active Transportation Program (ATP) grant cycle would have allocated almost one fifth of the funds available statewide to CV Link, a fifty-mile multi-use path connecting cities in the Coachella Valley. The path, intended for bicycles and pedestrians as well as “low-speed electric vehicles” such as golf carts, was missing data in its application and was inaccurately awarded too many points for benefiting disadvantaged communities. CalBike’s Policy Director Jeanie Ward-Waller discovered the error, and led a coalition of advocates to request a reevaluation by the CTC. As a result, the CTC corrected the CV Link application score and revised its recommendation to reallocate funding to five other deserving projects.

Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability works directly with residents in low-income communities in the Eastern Coachella Valley and San Joaquin Valley. Mariela Magaña, policy advocate with Leadership Counsel, met with mothers in the Eastern Coachella Valley community of North Shore on her way to the CTC hearing, and shared photos of the utter absence of pedestrian infrastructure in North Shore neighborhoods with the Commission.

“One of the many beacons of the ATP is its commitment to invest in severely disadvantaged communities, and in that spirit we want to see investment in communities like those in the Eastern Coachella Valley,” said Ms. Magaña. “Now that the state-level allocation is behind us, we’ll be ensuring that the regional ATP process in Riverside County also prioritizes investments in those severely disadvantaged communities – like North Shore – where moderate investments will have truly transformational impacts.”

“If the Active Transportation Program is to fulfill its promise in providing affordable and healthy transportation options for the people who need them the most, it’s critical that the evaluation of the projects is fair and accurate,” said Jeanie Ward-Waller of CalBike. “We commend the CTC for maintaining the integrity of the program by making the difficult decision to redirect funding to other deserving projects.”

The five new projects funded include the Central Avenue Complete Street Project in Alameda; pedestrian improvements along First Street in Santa Ana; the McGowan Parkway Bicycle Lane and Pedestrian Route Improvements in Yuba County; a regional Safe Bicycling and Wayfinding project connecting the cities of Compton and Carson; and Long Beach’s Citywide 8-80 Connections project. A total of $158,096,000 was awarded to 44 Statewide projects and 10 Small Urban and Rural projects, and approved yesterday by the CTC.

Sacramento CA – This week the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) rolls out a campaign to demystify and promote a type of bike lane still relatively new to the United States but rapidly gaining favor across the country – the protected bike lane, officially called a “Separated Bikeway.” As reported in the Associated Press’s “The Big […]

The Groundbreaking California Transportation Equity Summit and Bill Package Work to Rectify Unjust Transportation Policies

Sacramento CA – This May 16-17 the California Bicycle Coalition and TransForm will host the “Transportation Equity Summit & Advocacy Day.” Seeing transportation as a basic civil right, the summit will focus on how California can make sure that the benefits of bicycling, walking and public transportation more broadly extend to everyone in California, by putting a much greater emphasis on the safety and mobility needs of our state’s underserved.

For Immediate Release – April 11, 2016

From: Melissa Balmer – Media Director California Bicycle Coalition Cell 562.221.9672 email:Melissa@calbike.org

Re:  Transportation Is a Civil Right – The Groundbreaking California Transportation Equity Summit and Bill Package Work to Rectify Unjust Transportation Policies

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Sacramento CA – This May 16-17 the California Bicycle Coalition and TransForm will host the “Transportation Equity Summit & Advocacy Day.” Seeing transportation as a basic civil right, the summit will focus on how California can make sure that the benefits of bicycling, walking and public transportation more broadly extend to everyone in California, by putting a much greater emphasis on the safety and mobility needs of our state’s underserved.

“California spends billions of dollars every year on highways that divide neighborhoods, worsen air pollution, promote climate change, and put vulnerable road users at risk, especially in disadvantaged communities. We need to change this if we want sustainable communities that are safe for people to walk and bicycle to where they need to go.” Jeanie Ward Waller, Policy Director, California Bicycle Coalition.

About the Transportation Equity Summit

Advocates and media who are also interested in more equitable, healthy transportation are invited to attend the May 16th Transportation Equity Summit from noon until 5:00 pm at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I Street in Sacramento. The summit will feature keynotes by Genoveva Islas, the newest CalBike Board member and Director of Cultiva La Salud from Fresno, as well as other groundbreaking thought leaders working for healthier, more equitable transportation for all Californians. Six breakout sessions covering topics such as:

• Bicycling and walking advocacy leading with equity

• Linking good jobs and affordable housing to transportation

• Funding for equitable transit, walking, and bicycling

• Shared mobility, such as bike share and shared car services such as Lyft.

Following the summit will be an evening reception from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the International Hostel, with plenty of time for networking. On the following day at 8:00 am there will be a briefing breakfast sponsored by Dolan Law on the Transportation Equity Bill Package (described below) before converging on the Capitol for meetings with our legislators until 4:00 pm. Registration prices increase on April 15th so register today:

https://www.calbike.org/transportation-equity-summit-and-advocacy-day-may-16-17/.

Sponsors for the summit also include Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Bay Area Bicycle Law, and Yuba Bicycles.

About the Transportation Equity Bill Package

The California Bicycle Coalition, Assemblymembers Chris Holden (Pasadena), Eduardo Garcia (Coachella), Richard Bloom (Santa Monica), and a coalition of transportation and equity allies all want to ensure that state transportation resources are directed to rectify unjust policies of the past. That includes making bicycling, walking, and riding transit more efficient, safe, and affordable through the legislative process:

California Transportation Commission: Environmental Justice Act – AB 1982 (Bloom)

This bill expands the membership of the California Transportation Commission to 15 members to allow the Senate Committee on Rules and the Speaker of the Assembly to each appoint an additional member who works directly with disadvantaged communities that are most burdened and vulnerable to high levels pollutions.

The Active Transportation Planning and Education Act – AB 2796 (Bloom and Low)

This bill would establish a permanent percentage of Active Transportation Program funding to support planning in disadvantaged communities. This bill ensures that disadvantaged communities can access funding to plan future projects, as well as to pay for non-infrastructure projects such as bicycle safety education, encouragement, and engagement programs.

The Discounted Student Transit Pass Act – AB 2222 (Holden)

This bill creates a $50M transit pass program with Cap-and-Trade funds to provide discounted transit passes to students and low-income residents. As public transit is getting more expensive, it’s becoming out of reach to the folks who need it the most encouraging greater transit ridership and reducing driving.

The Transportation Equity and Job Creation Act – AB 2332 (Garcia)

This bill codifies the Caltrans Strategic goals to triple bicycling and double walking and transit by 2020, requires that Caltrans vet SHOPP projects through public hearings in each district that are accessible to disadvantaged residents, and requires that SHOPP prioritize projects that provide benefits in DACs identified by DACs (and sets a minimum of 35{850a63fa8a72bae4d6bfa3f1eda9f619cddace10f9053ede128e2914f9ca5a15} of funding that must be spent on these projects) as well as projects that provide jobs to low-income individuals with barriers to employment.

You can add your support to these individual bills or the entire package here:http://www.fixcaliforniaroads.org/equitypackage.

The Transportation Equity Bill Package coalition includes California Walks, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, PolicyLink, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, TransForm, Move LA, California Bicycle Coalition, Breathe California, and Gamaliel of California.

About the California Bicycle Coalition

The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) is California’s state-level bicycling advocacy organization, working to enable more people to ride bicycles for healthier, safer, and more prosperous communities for all. CalBike partners with all 16 professionally-staffed local bicycle advocacy organizations across the state, and hosts a bi-annual summit.

We envision millions of people riding bikes every day in California with networks of safe streets and paths conveniently connect every destination. Our goal is to double the amount of bicycling in the Golden State 2017, and become the most bike-friendly state in the country by 2020. Learn more atcalbike.org.
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For more information please contact:
Jeanie Ward-Waller, California Bicycle Coalition, jeanie@calbike.org, (916) 399-3211

Kim Chen, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, kchen@cpehn.org, (916) 447-1299

Joshua Stark, TransForm, jstark@transform.org, (916) 706-2035 ext. 302

The California Bicycle Coalition is honored to include the San Joaquin Valley’s Genoveva Islas, MPH as its newest Board Member.  An avid bicyclist, with over 25 years of experience in both the public and private health sectors, Genoveva is currently the Program Director for Cultiva La Salud. Cultiva La Salud is dedicated to creating healthier communities in the San Joaquin Valley by changing policies, systems and environments to allow for greater access to healthy foods and beverages and increased opportunities for physical activity.

For Immediate Release – March 28, 2016

From: Melissa Balmer – Media Director California Bicycle Coalition Cell 562.221.9672 email:Melissa@calbike.org

Re:  The San Joaquin Valley’s Genoveva Islas, MPH Selected as Newest Board Member for the California Bicycle Coalition

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Sacramento CA – The California Bicycle Coalition is honored to include the San Joaquin Valley’s Genoveva Islas, MPH as its newest Board Member.  An avid bicyclist, with over 25 years of experience in both the public and private health sectors, Genoveva is currently the Program Director for Cultiva La Salud. Cultiva La Salud is dedicated to creating healthier communities in the San Joaquin Valley by changing policies, systems and environments to allow for greater access to healthy foods and beverages and increased opportunities for physical activity.

Ms. Islas is also a board member for the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, California Food Policy Advocates, California Institute for Rural Studies, and Community Water Center.  Islas was appointed by Governor Brown to serve on the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley board and most recently the Health Benefit Exchange Board for California (Covered CA).

“We’ve worked with Genoveva as an ally in state policy change; I’m excited we’ll now get to benefit from her expertise and San Joaquin Valley connections as she plays a more strategic role as a board member,” said Dave Snyder, CalBike’s Executive Director.

About the California Bicycle Coalition

The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) is California’s state-level bicycling advocacy organization, working to enable more people to ride bicycles for healthier, safer, and more prosperous communities for all. CalBike partners with all 16 professionally-staffed local bicycle advocacy organizations across the state, and hosts a bi-annual summit.
We envision millions of people riding bikes every day in California with networks of safe streets and paths conveniently connect every destination. Our goal is to double the amount of bicycling in the Golden State 2017, and become the most bike-friendly state in the country by 2020. Learn more at calbike.org.

Inspired by impressive sales growth across the U.S., and a key legislative win in California led by the California Bicycle Coalition (AB 1096 clarifying and legalizing E-Bikes effective January 1st 2016), the North American E-Bike industry is celebrating with the traveling  2016 E-Bike Expo beginning in January and touring to six different bike-friendly cities over the next five months.

From: Melissa Balmer – Media Director California Bicycle Coalition

Melissa@Calbike.org Cell 562.221.9672

Re: 2016 E-Bike Expo Celebrates Exciting Legislative Win in California and Growing Array of E-Bike Choices for U.S. Consumer

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Sacramento CA – Inspired by impressive sales growth across the U.S., and a key legislative win in California led by the California Bicycle Coalition (AB 1096 clarifying and legalizing E-Bikes effective January 1st 2016), the North American E-Bike industry is celebrating with the traveling  2016 E-Bike Expo beginning in January and touring to six different bike-friendly cities over the next five months:

January 15-17, 2016 – Tempe, AZ – Diablo Stadium

February 26-28, 2016 – San Diego, CA – Liberty Station, Point Loma

March 11-13, 2016 – Houston, TX – Rice University

April 22-24, 2016 – Palo Alto, California – The Stanford Mall

May 20-22, 2016 – Portland, Oregon (location to be determined)

June 2016 – Denver, Colorado (date and location to be determined)

Hosted by Extra Energy Services North America, Inc., this fun, free to the public, “hands on” series will give members of the public, the media, and bike shop retailers the opportunity to test ride over 80 different bikes from the top 17 North American e-Bike lines. This eye opening experiential opportunity is made possible with technology courtesy of global leader Bosch (which demonstrated its belief in the U.S. e-Bike market by opening a location in Newport Beach CA last year), and a special enclosed outdoor track courtesy of Trek. Find out more and register in advance for your special VIP attendance at: electricbike-expo.com.

“The best way for people to truly understand what an electric bike is all about is to provide them with the ride experience. That’s why we are taking electric bikes to the people.” Ray Verhelst, President of ExtraEnergy.

E-Bikes are one of the fastest growing segments of the $6.1 billion annual U.S. bike industry sales (total from 2014 reported by the National Bicycle Dealers Association), with industry experts predicting unit sales to reach 300,000 in 2016.

“We chose assisted bikes for all of the reasons suggested: hills, heavy loads, time savings, sweat reduction (with our loads, sweat prevention is a pipe dream), and to ride at speeds closer to those of solo bike commuters. We rode unassisted bikes for a while but as the kids got heavier, the steep San Francisco hill we lived on grew increasingly daunting, to the point that the choice eventually became either get assisted bikes or drive everywhere. Having these bikes has dramatically increased our biking range; there are places we ride now that we never would have attempted before.” Dorie Apollonio San Francisco.

Two key U.S. generations offer exponential growth opportunities for e-Bikes:  Millennials and Baby Boomers.  According to the October 2014 PIRG report, Millennials are driving less for a myriad of reasons, often because the bike is simply a better mobility fit for their preference of living in urban environments. Further, a November 2015 article by Laura Johannes in the Wall Street Journal  reported some 20{850a63fa8a72bae4d6bfa3f1eda9f619cddace10f9053ede128e2914f9ca5a15} of people age 50+ say they’ve ridden a bike in the past year, up from 16{850a63fa8a72bae4d6bfa3f1eda9f619cddace10f9053ede128e2914f9ca5a15} in 2011, according to AARP. As Baby Boomers retire they have more time to spend on their health and leisure activities and e-Bikes offer an attractive solution for both.

More About the 2016 E-Bike Expo

At each city the public is invited to enjoy a 25,000 square foot self contained venue which includes the specially designed outdoor test track. This track will allow thousands of locals, from avid daily commuters and recreational riders, to those who may not have ridden a bike in years, to test ride the very latest e-bikes from top North American brands including city bikes, commuting bikes, hybrid bikes, mountain bikes, fat tire bikes, compact bikes and yes even cargo bikes and more!

Because of the emerging growth of the market in North America, these events will also serve as market research test beds where through the use of advanced RFID technology, riders and the bikes they try will be tracked. Everything from the order of choice, to the number of laps will be recorded and paired with their original registration data. The participating manufacturers will get to follow along on a secured live dashboard, as well as see detailed reports and layered demographic mapping technology provided by Google. Matched with census data, these extensive results will tell participating companies what attracted the most interest and where the potential customer base is concentrated.

The Opportunity of E-Bikes for California and Beyond

In the US market, riding a bike is typically considered a pure recreational sport and only recently have a dozen or so major cities embraced them as an alternative inner city commuter option. In October of 2015 in California, the California Bicycle Coalition led the passing of AB 1096 to allow low-speed E-Bikes to ride on the same traditional bike lanes and paths. This gives E-Bike riders access to thousands of miles of routes to ride throughout the state and went into effect on January 1, 2016.

AB 1096 clarifies the definition of electric motor-assisted bicycles further for California by defining three specific classes of e-bikes: bikes with a top assisted speed of 20 mph that must be pedaled to operate; those with a top assisted speed of 20 mph that can be operated without pedaling; and bikes with a top assisted speed of 28 mph. By regulating these bikes differently than mopeds, AB 1096 enables a reexamination of the access restrictions imposed on users of these bikes in order to permit more access to bicycle paths, where appropriate and safe.

“E-bikes are an important part of our transportation solution. Like all bikes, they make our communities healthier, safer, and more prosperous. But outdated regulations treated them like mopeds. We’re proud to have convinced the Legislature that these devices deserve to be treated like regular bikes for most purposes, and grateful that the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association supported the classification of electric bikes so that government agencies can easily continue to update the regulations in the future. This is truly model legislation that other states should follow.” Dave Snyder, Executive Director California Bicycle Coalition.

Media interested in speaking with Extra Energy about the tour series should contact Pete Prebus/Chief Marketing Officer Pete.Prebus@ExtraEnergy.org Tel 702. 688. 5573 ext 700. Media interested in speaking to Dave Snyder and the California Bicycle Coalition about the passing of the new e-Bike law, or about the upcoming events in California should contact Melissa Balmer Melissa@CalBike.org or Cell 562.221.9672.

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E-Bike Lines Featured on the Tour A2B

A2B, Besv, Bulls, Easy Motion, Felt Electric, Focus, Gazelle, HaiBike, iZip, Kalkhoff, Polaris, Raleigh, Stromer, Tempo, Trek, Xtracycle and Yuba.

About Extra Energy

ExtraEnergy Services North America is comprised of a talented and experienced group of electric bike industry and event experts. The U.S. based organization is a subsidiary of ExtraEnergy of Tanna, Germany, which has been providing electric bike test and review services since 1992 and providing electric bike test ride experiences in Europe since 1997 with their mobile Test IT Tracks. Prior to the E-Bike Expo, ExtraEnergy hosted the “The Circuit presented by Shimano” at Interbike in 2015. Interbike is the largest bicycle tradeshow in the U.S. and is held at Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas Nevada. Find out more at electricbike-expo.com.