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CalBike’s Best and Worst of 2022

December 23, 2022/by Laura McCamy

The past few years have been disappointing in so many ways (because, you know — pandemic, war, climate catastrophes). But 2022 had a lot of bright spots, and for active transportation in California, more highs than lows. And we think that momentum will carry us into even bigger and bolder achievements in 2023 (because we’re optimists!).

Here’s a brief and wholly non-comprehensive compendium of the best and worst developments for biking in California and beyond in 2022.

Best new California law that’s changing the conversation across the nation: AB 2147, the Freedom to Walk Act

The governor’s signature on Assemblymember Phil Ting’s Freedom to Walk Act was a huge step forward for equity on California streets. The victory was the result of a two-year campaign by CalBike and our allies with outstanding leadership from Asm. Ting.

California wasn’t the first to pass a law decriminalizing jaywalking: Virginia passed similar legislation a year earlier and a Kansas City law goes even further than California or Virginia in legalizing safe street crossings. But the passage of this landmark law in the most populous state in the U.S. has sparked a national conversation that may be poised to accelerate the end of outmoded jaywalking laws.

Best law adding bikes to the California Vehicle Code: AB 1909, the OmniBike Bill

Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s OmniBike Bill makes several critical changes to the California Vehicle Code that make people on bikes safer. The most vital is requiring people in cars to change lanes to pass someone on a bike, which will reduce stressful near misses and dangerous collisions. This critical legislation is a big step towards recognizing that riding a bike isn’t the same as driving a car, and we need road rules tailored to smart biking to help everyone share the road more safely.

Most consequential transportation design fail: The Mad Maxification of American trucks and SUVs

We don’t have the statistics for 2022 yet, but the last few years have shown a disturbing increase in bike and pedestrian road deaths. The reasons for the rise are complex, but if you wanted to design a motor vehicle to maximize injury to the human body, you’d build trucks and SUVs with huge front grills and blind spots in the front as well as the rear. Bad for aerodynamics and fuel efficiency, but excellent at increasing severe injuries and deaths in even low-speed collisions. What’s next, car manufacturers? Fenders with metal spikes? Front-mounted swords? Mario Kart-style shell launchers?

Most forward-thinking law that will change the way communities approach traffic planning: SB 932, the Plan for the Future Bill

Streets for All cited Senator Anthony Portantino as a bike champion on the rise in its 2021-2022 Mobility Report Card, and the Plan for the Future Bill is one big reason. This is a bold new law that requires cities and counties to not only update their circulation plans to improve safety for people biking and walking but to implement those changes. It will take several years to start seeing the effects of this measure, but we believe they will be profound, and CalBike is proud to have been a cosponsor on Senator Portantino’s legislation.

Best way to destroy the climate: California’s freeway addiction

According to a recent study, the transportation sector contributes 60% of greenhouse gases in California, yet Caltrans can’t kick its freeway-building habit. Even though study after study proves that adding lanes increases congestion and escalates greenhouse emissions, Caltrans continues to spend millions on freeway widening projects. Caltrans—it’s time to be part of the solution, not the problem.

Best fairytale ending for car-free streets: San Francisco’s JFK Promenade

During the pandemic, San Francisco expanded car-free days from just weekends to 24/7 on the main artery through Golden Gate Park, JFK Drive. The people loved it and organized to turn the road from a “drive” to a “promenade.” They won! The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to make the car-free state permanent. There was much rejoicing on the promenade!

But some didn’t like all the fun that people of all ages had biking, walking, running, and rollerskating and they said, Not so fast, happy people. The road was theirs! To drive their big, fancy cars, not for people to breathe fresh air and enjoy the park! So they put an initiative on the ballot to take the promenade away.

But the people didn’t give up. They put their own initiative on the ballot to keep JFK Promenade car-free all the time. And the persistent pedestrians prevailed! Voters defeated the ballot initiative that killed joy and passed the one that preserved the car-free street. There was much rejoicing on the promenade!

And, seriously, this was a massive win that showed the popularity of slow streets. Congratulations to all involved.

Most unusual bicycle road hazard: Bull attacks off-road bike racers

When the organizers of an off-road bike race in Bakersfield called their challenge “stupidly hard,” they didn’t realize what an understatement that would prove to be. In the middle of the race, a bull decided it didn’t like where this was going and charged riders. Fortunately, the three riders who connected with the bull’s horns weren’t seriously injured, but perhaps next year’s course will be less bullish on animal interactions.

Best way to spend $1.1 billion: California’s Active Transportation Program

California’s ATP provides a dedicated funding source for projects that improve bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. It’s a fabulous program that has benefited many California communities, and CalBike is proud to have advocated for its creation, but as demand for complete streets projects increases, the amount of funding hasn’t kept up.

In 2022, lawmakers increased funding for the ATP by more than 4X with a $1.1 billion infusion of cash. In the most recent funding round, fewer than one-quarter of the projects vying for money will get funded, still falling far short of what we need but much more than would have been possible without the extra cash.

Worst anticipated veto of a bill that should have passed: AB 1713, the Bicycle Safety Stop

In a year when Governor Newsom signed 15 excellent bike-friendly bills into law, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath pulled the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill ahead of a promised veto. Many states have enacted similar laws with no negative (and many positive) consequences, so the governor’s intractable opposition to legalizing commonsense biking is hard to explain.

Boerner Horvath continues to champion the safety stop for people riding bikes, and she has already introduced AB 73 to create a pilot program to test it in the next legislative session, and CalBike continues to work toward a California safety stop law.

Most unexpected support for the bicycle safety stop: NHTSA says evidence shows “bicyclist stop-as-yield laws to enhance safety and protect cyclists”

If you need proof of the mainstream acceptance of the bicycle safety stop, look no further than a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration bulletin released in March that endorses laws legalizing the practice: “Bicyclist stop-as-yield laws allow cyclists to mitigate risk to their advantage, increase their visibility to drivers and reduce exposure.” The fact sheet cites multiple studies showing the benefits of the safety stop and ends with, “Based upon the current research and data available, these laws showed added safety benefits for bicyclists in States where they were evaluated, and may positively affect the environment, traffic, and transportation.” Thank you, NHTSA!

What were your best and worst of 2022? Tweet at us, tell us on Facebook or Instagram, or go old school and send us an email.

California’s Big Bike Year: 2022 in Review

December 14, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

What can we say about 2022? We didn’t get everything we wanted, but thanks to advocacy from CalBike and our supporters and allies, it was a fantastic year for biking and walking in California. Here’s a short stroll down victory lane.

More money for biking and walking

California shows its values where it spends its money. Today, active transportation projects represent just a tiny fraction of the state’s transportation spending, but in 2022, that fraction got a little less tiny.

A diverse constituency advocated for $2 billion for bikes in the budget passed in 2022, and unfortunately, we came up short of that ambitious goal. However, we did secure the most funding ever for active transportation projects: $1.1 billion, a more than fourfold increase from prior years.

As communities across California scramble to fund projects to create Complete Streets and increase safety for people biking and walking, this extra money is crucial. It meant there was $1.6 billion available for the most recent funding round (Cycle 6) of the Active Transportation Program. As Streetsblog reported, this led to many more projects receiving funding and in a few years, we’ll see more protected bikeways and intersections as a result.

Of course, it’s still not enough. Every cycle, the ATP receives more excellent proposals than it can fund and has to turn away a higher number of worthy projects. Cities and towns understand that safe streets for all modes are essential for creating livable, sustainable communities. It’s time for the state to understand that too, and devote more money to bikeways and less to freeways.

Big wins for biking and walking

Our legislative recap provides in-depth coverage of all the bills that passed in 2022, so we won’t go into all the detail. Let’s just look at the effect of a few of those bills:

The OmniBike Bill changes the vehicle code to make people on bikes safer both from collisions with motor vehicles and from police harassment.
The Freedom to Walk Act prevents police from issuing jaywalking tickets unless the person was endangering themselves or others. That will eliminate unnecessary and often biased ticketing that impacts disadvantaged communities the most.
The Plan for the Future Bill gives cities and counties a deadline to update their general plans to make biking and walking safer — and provides funding to implement those plans rather than letting them gather dust.
Legislation on pedestrian crossings will bring Leading Pedestrian Intervals to Caltrans-controlled streets. LPIs give pedestrians (and people on bikes) a head start of 3 to 7 seconds before cars get a green light, reducing collisions and near misses.

The successes of 2022 give us excellent momentum heading into 2023, and we’re working on an even bigger and more ambitious agenda for next year.

Bike champions elected

Eight of the 11 candidates CalBike endorsed this year won election or reelection. Every bike champion elected to the state legislature means one more vote for bike-friendly legislation. Our big legislative wins in 2022 reflect the power of those votes. A big shoutout to all of you who biked the vote this year to help bring more progressive leaders to the California legislature.

Coming soon: Statewide e-bike rebates

We won funding for a statewide Electric Bicycle Incentives Program in 2021, and the program won’t launch until 2023, but CalBike has been hard at work on e-bike incentives this year. We’ve provided input to CARB on the details of the program, gathered and disseminated information to keep people up to date on the latest, and shared details about how to access other bicycle purchase programs. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in the new year.

To support CalBike’s vision for sustainable, healthy communities and to power our work in 2023, make a gift of any amount today.

Bike Champions 2022 Elections Recap

December 13, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

CalBike endorsed 11 candidates for the California State Senate and Assembly, and the results are finally in: Eight won their races, and three lost, including two very close matches. The four incumbents we endorsed, all bike champions, won. And we’re happy to see four new faces in Sacramento who will be great supporters of active transportation.

Most importantly, thank you for biking the vote in 2022!

Streets for All Mobility Report Card gives high marks to CalBike-endorsed candidates

Elections matter. The 2022 legislative session was outstanding for active transportation because of strong leadership from many members of the Assembly and Senate. Not only did we get 15 excellent bills signed into law, but we also secured an extra $1.1 billion in funding for active transportation. That meant that Cycle 6 of the ATP had $1.6 billion to allocate to projects that make biking and walking safer.

Read Streetsblog’s breakdown of Cycle 6 Active Transportation Program funding.

CalBike ally Streets for All recently published a Mobility Report Card that scored state legislators on their support for biking, walking, and transit. Here’s how CalBike’s endorsed candidates ranked (Note: All these legislators had very high scores for bike-friendly voting):

Laura Friedman (AD 43), Ranking: #1: Friedman, a longtime bicycle champion, authored several excellent bills in 2022, including the OmniBike Bill, which requires car drivers to change lanes to pass bike riders. Redistricting shifted her from AD 44 to AD 43; we’re thrilled that voters in her new district returned her to Sacramento.
Phil Ting (AD 19), Ranking: #2: Ting has been a consistent and savvy champion for active transportation. We are proud to have worked with him for the past two years to pass the Freedom to Walk Act, which decriminalizes safe midblock crossings for pedestrians.
Steve Bennett (AD 37), Ranking: #15: CalBike endorsed Bennett on his first run two years ago, and he has proven himself to be a strong ally for people biking and walking.
Tasha Boerner-Horvath (AD 76), Ranking: #35: Boerner-Horvath has championed the Bicycle Safety Stop for the past two legislative sessions, along with other bicycle safety bills. Although the safety stop didn’t pass in 2022, we’re sure she will continue to champion this crucial measure that lets people on bikes treat stop signs as yields.

Four new champions head for Sacramento

We have high hopes for our four endorsed candidates, who have already begun their first terms. Each of these new members of the Assembly or Senate brings a strong background of understanding and supporting the need to expand access to active transportation.

Catherine Blakespear (SD 38): As the mayor of Encinitas, Blakespear has shown leadership in creating protected, safe bicycle facilities in her city. We’re glad to have her leadership at the state level.
Liz Ortega (AD 20): Ortega has been a labor leader for some of California’s most marginalized groups, and she understands that lowering carbon emissions and reducing our footprint is also a social justice issue. She brings a critical perspective to Sacramento.
Gail Pellerin (AD 28): As a lifelong public servant, Pellerin understands the expansion of safe biking and walking to combat climate change, our housing crisis, and healthy and equitable communities.
Dawn Addis (AD 30): As a Morro Bay councilmember, Addis looked to expand biking along the central coast and beyond. We can’t wait to see what she can accomplish at the state level.

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.

How Critical Mass Helped Create a Mass Movement to Take Back Our Streets

October 25, 2022/by Laura McCamy

If you’ve ever been to a protest march, you’ve probably heard people chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” But those moments of collective action to take streets back from cars are, at least in the U.S., usually fleeting. The exception: Critical Mass. The monthly bike ride, which has taken place on the last Friday in San Francisco since September 1992, gives visibility to people on bikes.

A month ago, we spoke with Chris Carlsson, one of the founders of Critical Mass, as the last Friday commute ride was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The ride, on September 30, 2022, coincided with one of the best days for bicycling in California, with a host of pro-biking and walking bills passed in Sacramento, including CalBike’s legislation to decriminalize jaywalking and get bike infrastructure built more quickly.

The anniversary ride and this year’s legislative victories happened 90 miles and several worlds apart, but they are inextricably linked. Critical Mass brought visibility to the fact that bikes belong on our streets. The ride didn’t shy away from discomfiting drivers and sparked a vital conversation that we’re still having today.

chris carlsson Critical Mass — Chris Carlsson at Critical Mass 30th Anniversary

The first Critical Mass

As Carlsson tells it, the idea for the first ride, called the Commute Clot, was for bike commuters to ride home as a group for safety at a time when, he says, bike riders were “treated like shit on the streets.”

“All the bicyclists knew each other in town,” Carlsson recalls. “There was a lot of creativity going on around bikes and politics.”

In 1992, before the internet, the initial organizers publicized the ride by printing and distributing flyers and would have been happy if 50 people showed up. Within six months, word had spread, and the monthly ride attracted 200 people; by the first anniversary, there were 1,000 riders.

“The cops didn’t really even notice us till April of 1993,” Carlsson recalls. “The cops were at wit’s end by then.” The police would get in front of the ride; then, the ride would go in a different direction, playing cat and mouse.

Carlsson wasn’t concerned about interacting with the police or the press. “The point was this reinhabitation of the city that we invented in real time that really couldn’t have been done any other way than just stumbling on it and doing it,” he says.

Within that first year, Critical Mass spread to several other cities worldwide. Now it takes place in more than 400 cities globally.

Clearing the way for more liveable cities

Although he thinks we still need Critical Mass, especially with the surge of traffic violence and backsliding on Vision Zero commitments, Carlsson rarely goes to the San Francisco rides anymore. They have become more of a celebration, and Carlsson wanted politics, wanted to have philosophical debates while riding. He still finds that energy at Critical Mass events in other countries (he was recently in Santiago, Chile) but not in the ride’s hometown.

Here, Critical Mass is perhaps a victim of its success. It’s an event that seems to thrive on conflict: Its biggest visibility came when then-mayor Willie Brown picked a public fight with the event in 1997. Brown lost, and Critical Mass grew stronger. But, by its 20th anniversary in 2012, when thousands of riders took over the streets, the ride had already begun to change the urban landscape.

“The bike infrastructure we have today would not exist without Critical Mass — mass seizure of the streets,” Carlsson says. “It caught people’s imagination,” led to “an explosion of bicycling,” and created an activist culture that helped birth other movements, most notably Occupy.

[pull quote]“The flow of bicycles is safer by staying in a mass and keeping moving,” Carlsson says. “We aren’t blocking traffic — we are traffic.”

To co-opt a saying about well-behaved women, polite bicyclists rarely change the culture. But a mass of disruptive bike riders, joyous and angry, catalyzed a movement, and we continue to reap its fruits.

CARB Electric Bicycle Incentives Project Work Group Report Back: September 28, 2022

October 25, 2022/by Laura McCamy

On September 28, 2022, the California Air Resources Board held a follow-up meeting of the Electric Bicycle Incentives Project work group to continue the discussion from the August meeting on the pilot of the statewide e-bike voucher program, which will launch in 2023. Participants weighed in on what types of e-bikes should qualify, how to distribute the funds equitably, incentive amounts and more.

Like the previous meeting in August, the session was well-attended, with almost 200 participants signing on to ask questions, participate in polling, and provide feedback on aspects of the program. Thank you to everyone who came and gave input. You are helping to make this a better program!

A poll on the base amount for the incentive showed that most participants want a higher amount than the $750 proposed by CARB. However, for this session, most of the discussion focused on which e-bikes should qualify and how to ensure that the funds are distributed as equitably as possible.

Incentive amounts polling for September 2022 CARB e-bike work group meeting

Class 3 e-bikes are transportation

California breaks e-bikes into three classifications:

Class 1: speed limited to 20 mph, pedal assist only
Class 2: speed limited to 20 mph, pedal assist and throttle
Class 3: speed limited to 28 mph, pedal assist only

The same rules that apply to standard bikes apply to Class 1 and 2 e-bikes, but Class 3 e-bikes have additional restrictions: You have to be at least 16 to operate one, and riders of all ages must wear a helmet.

CARB had proposed allowing recipients to use incentives to buy only Class 1 and 2 e-bikes, but participants in the work group meeting made an excellent case for making Class 3 e-bikes eligible.

Reasons to support Class 3 e-bike purchases include:

The speed limitation is somewhat meaningless since people on non-electric bikes can and do ride faster than 20 mph.
The higher speed makes it safer for people to mix with car traffic in areas that have inadequate bike infrastructure.
The higher speed could be essential for people with longer commutes.

CARB program managers at the meeting indicated that they are open to expanding which bikes qualify and will likely include Class 3 e-bikes, based on the solid support at the work group.

Building equity into a state grant program

The work group included extensive comments and calls to distribute the $10 million in e-bike vouchers equitably. California’s experience with electric vehicle (EV) rebates, which went to buyers who were wealthier and Whiter than the average Californian in the program’s initial year, informed the discussion. EV programs for low-income buyers have failed to serve low-income Californians. Some work group participants voiced a desire to avoid those shortfalls with the e-bike incentives program, stating that equity was a paramount goal. In contrast, others noted that, if the goal is to reduce carbon emissions from car travel, recipients’ income level is less critical than how many car trips the e-bike will replace.

The program is structured with low-income recipients in mind, offering upfront vouchers rather than after-purchase rebates, which don’t help the people who need extra funds to be able to make a purchase. And CARB will limit eligibility to people earning 400% of the federal poverty level or less. However, the program is currently structured as first-come, first-served, which can give an edge to applicants with more connections and resources. Participants at the meeting expressed a strong desire to see CARB do better with the administration of this program, and there was discussion of switching to a needs-based application process.

If CARB moves to a needs-based approach, the program launch may be delayed because it will take longer to put systems into place to facilitate that process.

At CalBike, we feel that a crucial component of equity in incentive distribution is to leverage community-based organizations to help spread the word and assist their constituents in accessing and completing the application process, as well as choosing and maintaining their e-bikes. CARB currently has a CBO network through its electric vehicle incentives programs, but CalBike will work with the agency to encourage them to add bicycle-specific CBOs specifically to help with this e-bike program.

Eligible e-bike retailers

The work group discussed where incentive recipients should be able to buy e-bikes through the program. Concerns raised included ensuring that local bike shops can get parts from manufacturers to service the bikes bought through the program, even if people purchase them online.

Once the administrator is in place, it will set a process for retailers to apply to participate in the program based on criteria set by CARB. CalBike is following this discussion closely and plans to offer more resources for e-bike retailers soon.

A transparent process

At CalBike, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the e-bike incentives program, so we created FAQs to answer some of them. We’re also engaging with CARB outside the work group meetings to encourage them to bring more transparency to the launch of the e-bike program. For more information about California’s e-bike incentives program, sign up for our e-bike interest list and view a meeting recording below.

CalBike Endorsement: Vote for Catherine Blakespear for Senate District 38 by November 8th

October 13, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

Catherine Blakespear has been a steadfast champion of bicycle infrastructure and safe streets as Mayor of Encinitas. She’s an excellent choice for Senate District 38, which encompasses Northern San Diego County and Southern Orange County.

Blakespear has demonstrated her commitment to bold climate action by tackling some of her region’s largest sources of emissions: transportation, energy, and housing. She is now poised to bring this leadership to Sacramento to urge mode shift in our state’s policies to get more people into biking and walking options by investing in the infrastructure that would make biking a safe and reasonable choice.

In response to CalBike’s Bike the Vote questionnaire, Blakespear’s answers demonstrated her support for prioritizing e-bikes as part of our biking future with the goal that they should be accessible to everyone. We will be fortunate to have a leader from this district whose mission is to improve access to transportation for the people who need it most.”

CalBike is pleased to endorse Catherine Blakespear for Senate District 38. Please vote for Catherine Blakespear by November 8th, 2022.

Click here to see Catherine Blakespear’s full questionnaire responses.

View all of CalBike’s endorsements and Bike the Vote!