#CalBikeSummit Archives

Mayors Make Crucial Connections for Bike Riders at California Bicycle Summit

April 11, 2024/by Kendra Ramsey

Attendees at the California Bicycle Summit, April 18-19, 2024, in San Diego, fall into many categories and job descriptions. One notable type of participant is mayors. Three current or former California mayors will speak on panels, and more will be attending the conference.

Mayors play a crucial role in the fight for safe streets. Residents often reflexively object to changes that affect travel lanes and parking on local streets. When elected officials cave to the loudest voices in the room, advocates must work even harder to achieve liveable, human-scale community streets. However, a mayor willing to weather initial opposition and support a new bikeway, transit-only lane, or protected intersection can help push these changes through. And forward-looking politicians may reap the benefits of solid support for Complete Streets as people grow to love them once they are in place.

Here are some of the mayoral insights we’ll have at the Summit next week.

Rey León, Mayor of Huron

Huron Mayor Rey León (also executive director of The LEAP Institute) was instrumental in his small Central Valley community winning a Clean Mobility Options grant from the California Air Resources Board to create a municipal bike-share program. He’ll join a panel on Thursday at 11:45 a.m. to discuss a significant financial hurdle to implementing community-led bike-share: insurance costs. “Rey León is the most effective mayor I’ve ever met personally and a strong bike champion,” said CalBike executive director Kendra Ramsey. You’ll want to hear what he has to say.

Meghan Sahli-Wells, former mayor of Culver City

Meghan Sahli-Wells earned the title of Biking Mayor by steering her community’s first bicycle and pedestrian master plan, creating a local Safe Routes to School program, and bringing CicLAvia to Culver City. She will speak on the panel “Seniors Challenging Climate Change through Active and Public Transportation” on Thursday at 11:45 a.m. The panel will discuss the role of active transportation in combating climate change and how to meet the needs of the growing number of seniors who want to get around by bike.

Alex Fisch, former Mayor of Culver City

Alex Fisch, another former Culver City council member and mayor and now a Special Assistant Attorney General, will speak Friday at 9:00 a.m. on a groundbreaking quick-build project completed during his tenure as mayor. The panel will highlight the impact of elections on our built environment: Culver City removed the much-hailed project and added a car lane after Fisch left office.

Registration closes at midnight on April 12. We hope you’ll join us for these and many other fantastic sessions at this year’s Summit.

California Bicycle Summit: Local Impacts of State Legislation

April 2, 2024/by Kendra Ramsey

CalBike and our allies in and out of the legislature have passed landmark state legislation to make our streets safer. However, the ultimate effects of state policies can depend on local awareness and implementation. At the California Bicycle Summit, to be held April 18-19, 2024, in San Diego, several sessions will examine the impacts of past and pending state legislation on local programs and infrastructure.

Deploying new tech to solve an old problem

As long as California has Class II bike lanes delineated only by paint, vehicle drivers will illegally park in them. However, thanks to a bill by Assemblymember Christopher Ward, signed into law in 2023, municipalities have a new tool to keep bike lanes clear: photo enforcement. A breakout panel at 10:30 am on Friday will show how new tools, combined with authorizing legislation, give communities the power to issue parking citations using cameras mounted on city vehicles. Assemblymember Ward will be on hand to talk about the new law; he’ll be joined by representatives from the City of Santa Monica and Hayden AI, which manufactures devices that can be used in enforcement.

Barriers to bicycling

CalBike opposed a 2021 bill that places a high insurance burden on shared micromobility operators. We succeeded in limiting the amount and excluding bike share from the requirements. However, insurance remains an obstacle, particularly for nonprofit programs funded through CARB’s Clean Mobility Options grants. A panel at 11:45 am on Thursday will explore how California’s fraught insurance market negatively affects bike and scooter sharing, and what we can do about it.

Complete Streets: back and better than ever

CalBike’s policy director, Jared Sanchez, and consultant Jeanie Ward-Waller will lead a discussion on a crucial piece of active transportation legislation on Friday morning at 9:00 am. Senator Scott Wiener, with sponsorship and support from CalBike and allies, has presented Complete Streets bills in the past, most recently in 2019. The current bill relates only to streets maintained by Caltrans, but state routes bisect many communities, serving as rural main streets and critical urban thoroughfares. Requiring Caltrans to build infrastructure that serves people biking, walking, and taking public transit, as well as people driving cars, will make local communities safer.

This is just a sampling of the sessions on state action and local results. Register today to join the discussion. Advance registration closes Friday, April 12 at 11:59 pm, and a limited number of walk-up tickets will be available.

California Bicycle Summit Includes Global Perspectives

March 29, 2024/by Kendra Ramsey

CalBike’s work centers on changing policies in Sacramento. The upcoming California Bicycle Summit will bring together diverse perspectives from across our state, and we’ll also engage with advocates from around the world. The Summit, which will be held in San Diego on April 18-19, 2024, includes speakers from the Netherlands, Finland, Mexico, and Colombia, including a bilingual session in Spanish and English.

Cross-border bicycle diplomacy

San Diego is closer to Mexico than most parts of California, and the city is inextricably linked with Tijuana, just across the border. The 4:00 pm session on Thursday, April 18 — Bi-National Active Transportation Coordination in the San Diego and Tijuana Region — will be led by SANDAG regional planner Madai Parra, in collaboration with the City of Tijuana Mobility Commission (led by Tomas Perez Vargas) and Alianza por la Mobilidad Activa A.C. (led by Elizabeth Hensley and Daniel Gomez Patino). The panel will highlight active transportation efforts in each jurisdiction and the years of collaboration to plan a potential bi-national bicycle border crossing program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

On Friday, April 19, at 10:30 am, a bilingual Spanish-English panel will address the power of storytelling to shape our transportation future. CalBike alum and current executive director of Transform Jenn Guitart will be joined by Charis Pérez of Latino Health Access and Lorena Romero Fontecha from BiciActivo Radio. Fontecha is also an independent bike advocate from Bogotá, Colombia. This session will examine how cultural stories about biking, walking, and other forms of transportation affect our ideas about how we get around.

The view from Europe

The Netherlands has a well-deserved reputation as a leader in adopting bicycling for everyday transportation. In a 10:30 am session on Thursday, April 18, we’ll hear from a representative from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the agency responsible for transportation and infrastructure in the Netherlands. The session will discuss active transportation as an integral part of transportation policy and feature representatives from industry to talk about what employers can do to incentivize bike commuting.

On Friday, April 19, at 9:30 a.m., the Summit will host a session on edge lane roads, a shared road treatment popular in the UK that is making inroads in the U.S. At 2:30 p.m., you can attend a session on Helsinki’s bicycle infrastructure, including bicycle superhighways, and the return on investment that the city has realized.

Representatives from the Dutch Cycling Embassy and the Finnish Cycling Embassy will be on their respective panels. How cool is that?

Have you reserved your spot at the California Bicycle Summit? The 2022 event sold out, and a limited number of walk-up tickets will be available. Buy your ticket now to be at the center of discussions of the hottest topics in active transportation.

California Bicycle Summit Opening Plenary: In Discussion with Jeanie Ward-Waller

February 5, 2024/by Kevin Claxton

The opening plenary session at the 2024 California Bicycle Summit on April 18, 2024, will include a discussion with Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless Advocacy, and Kendra Ramsey, CalBike Executive Director.

Ward-Waller’s career has encompassed advocacy, including a stint as CalBike’s policy director and agency work, where she rose to Deputy Director for Planning and Modal Programs. Caltrans fired her in 2023 after she made a whistleblower complaint about the illegal use of road repair funds to widen a highway, raising a firestorm of outrage among the active transportation community. She’ll discuss the problems at Caltrans and what advocates can do to bring about change at the agency.

The plenary will also cover the California Transportation Commission (CTC), the governor-appointed body responsible for overseeing Caltrans. The CTC’s oversight is often little more than a rubber stamp, and the plenary will provide ideas on how to improve it and ways for citizens to get more involved.

30+ reasons to attend the California Bicycle Summit

The opening plenary is just one of many can’t-miss sessions. The 2024 California Bicycle Summit will include 30 workshops, two plenary sessions, rides and tours, and networking opportunities over two days on April 18 and 19.

The theme of the Summit is Crossroads, symbolizing the intersectional nature of bicycle advocacy that encompasses transportation justice and equitable streets for all. It also highlights the crossroads at which we find ourselves as a society and as a planet as the need for action to avert climate catastrophe becomes more apparent. The Summit will include sessions on infrastructure funding, advocacy strategies, mobility justice, local and state legislative action, and much more.

This year’s Summit will be held at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside, close to Old Town San Diego, the San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and many other attractions. The conference sold out in 2022. Reserve your spot today.

Tag Archive for: #CalBikeSummit

Mayors Make Crucial Connections for Bike Riders at California Bicycle Summit

Rey León, Mayor of Huron

Meghan Sahli-Wells, former mayor of Culver City

Alex Fisch, former Mayor of Culver City

California Bicycle Summit: Local Impacts of State Legislation

Deploying new tech to solve an old problem

Barriers to bicycling

Complete Streets: back and better than ever

California Bicycle Summit Includes Global Perspectives

Cross-border bicycle diplomacy

The view from Europe

California Bicycle Summit Opening Plenary: In Discussion with Jeanie Ward-Waller

30+ reasons to attend the California Bicycle Summit

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