A gathering to unite and strengthen bicycle advocacy in California

November 5-7, 2011 Los Angeles, California

The California Bike Summit brought together bike advocates from the nonprofit, public and private sectors to help  set the statewide bicycling agenda for 2012 and beyond. The summit program also strengthened our capacity as advocates through workshops devoted to sharing best practices, successes, failures and lessons learned.

See photos from the summit!

SATURDAY, NOV. 5

Bicycle tour of Los Angeles

Opening general session
Alexis Lantz, Board of Directors, California Bicycle Coalition; Planning & Policy Director, LACBC
Chris Morfas, President, Board of Directors, California Bicycle Coalition
Jeff Miller, President & CEO, Alliance for Biking & Walking

Regional meetings
Participants broke into groups representing the San Francisco Bay Area, Central Valley, Central Coast, Southern California and the rest of the state, to share and discuss issues, needs and challenges specific to their regions.

SUNDAY, NOV. 6

CBC’s current strategic priorities
Economic development through bicycling and bicycle tourism: Jim Sayer, Executive Director, Adventure Cycling Association
Putting bicycle safety curriculum in every school: Dave Snyder, Executive Director, California Bicycle Coalition
Complete Streets advocacy: Chris Morfas, President, California Bicycle Coalition
Reforming bikeway design standards: Ryan Snyder, Ryan Snyder Associates

Our allies on the state’s transportation reform priorities
Laura Cohen, Western Region Director, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Jessica Meaney, California Policy Manager, California Safe Routes Network
Paul Zykofsky, Local Government Commission
Wendy Alfsen, Executive Director, California WALKS
Graham Brownstein, State Policy Director, TransForm
Autumn Bernstein, Director, ClimatePlan

CBC’s advocacy and capacity
Ryan Wiggins, Southern California Field Organizer, Transportation for America
Stephan Vance, Legislative Committee, California Bicycle Coalition and Senior Planner, San Diego Association of Governments
Jim Brown, Communications Director, California Bicycle Coalition
Corinne Winter, Executive Director, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

Advocacy priorities
Having identified nine areas of priority for further discussion, participants took part in workshops to discuss and strategize each of those topics (pdf format):

Bikes in our schools
Complete Streets
Social justice
Statewide bike tourism
Why mayors?
Youth summit
Cyclists’ legal protections
Creating a fair CHP
Bikeway design
Funding

MONDAY, NOV. 7

Opening general session
Randy Neufeld, Advocacy Director, SRAM Cycling Fund

Workshops
Breakout sessions were held to discuss best practices in the following areas (pdf format):

Getting Your Message Out: the Press, Public and Politicians
Diana Rohini-LaVigne, Executive Director, Bay Area Bicycle Coalition
Andrew Casteel, Board of Directors, California Bicycle Coalition, and partner, Collectively (app and web software development)
Frank Peters, host of The Frank Peters Show

Bike Retailer Advocacy
Brian Cox, Vice President of Operations, Jax Bicycle Center
Eric Woods, Cynergy Cycles

Influencing Sustainable Communities Strategies in upcoming Regional Transportation Plans
Stephan Vance, CBC Board Member and Senior Planner, San Diego Association of Governments

Membership Development
Renee Rivera, Executive Director, East Bay Bicycle Coalition, former interim Executive Director, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Bike-Friendly Business Districts
April Economides, Program Manager, Bicycle-Friendly Business District (Long Beach), and principal, Green Octopus Consulting
Graham Baden, Manager, The Workshop Bicycles and Skateboards Store, and participant, Bicycle-Friendly Business District (Long Beach)
Andy Hanshaw, Executive Director, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

What makes a good Complete Streets policy?
Stephan Vance, CBC Board Member and Senior Planner, San Diego Association of Governments
Jessica Meaney, California Policy Manager, California Safe Routes Network

Working with grassroots organizations and movements
Don Ward, Co-founder Midnight Ridazz
Ben Guzman, Co-founder Bicycle Kitchen
Aurisha Smolarski, Former LACBC Campaigns Manager, Midnight Rida, and Bike Kitchen Cook
Colin Bogart, Program & Campaigns Manager, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

Bicycle Education
Bert Hill, LCI, Bicycle Safety Coordinator for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Wendi Kallins, Marin County Bicycle Coalition Safe Routes to School Program Director
Jim Baross, LCI, President of the California Association of Bicycling Organizations
Chris Quint, LCI, League of American Bicyclists Trainer/Coach for certifying LCIs

Fundraising
Ron Milam, Ron Milam Consulting

Bike-Sharing in California
April Economides, Green Octopus Consulting
Andrea Garland, Alta Planning + Design
Brett Hondorp, Principal, Alta Planning + Design
Heath Maddox, Livable Streets Subdivision of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Bicycle Access to Transit
Shirley Johnson, Bikes-on-Board project leader, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
Ken Fagut, Director of Sales & Marketing, Dahon Bicycles
George Mulling, Bikestation

SPONSORS