February
2010

Santa Maria Council approves bike plan

• Late last year, the Santa Maria City Council approved an update, the first since 1992, to the city's Bikeway Master Plan. The Plan intends to fill gaps in the existing 66-mile network of bikepaths, lanes and routes with 139 additional miles. Plus promotion of biking to school and to work.
• Although some think of Santa Maria as a poor stepchild to more bike-progressive San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, data from the US Census Bureau show that the percentage of bicycle commuters to jobs in Santa Maria has doubled from 0.9% in 2000 to 1.8% in 2008. It's four times the US average, and twice the California average.
• Although the plan was unanimously approved by the city's Planning Commission, it only passed the City Council by a 3-to-2 vote. Councilmembers Alice Patino and Mike Codero thought that it needed more consideration. Patino thought that bicycling is incompatible with local agricultural interests. By approving the Plan before the end of 2009, the city qualified for upcoming bike facility funding from state and federal sources.
• The Plan, created by consultants Alta Planning+Design, can be read here.

---

New management for Elings Park BMX Raceway



Racers enjoy practice runs on December 5th at Santa Barbara's renamed Elings Park BMX Raceway. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• What used to be the Santa Barbara BMX at Elings Park in Santa Barbara, has changed management and become Elings Park BMX Raceway. The Elings Park administrators said that Santa Barbara BMX was behind in rent, so they turned to the management team of Freedom Park BMX Raceway in Camarillo to run their track too.
• New managers Richard Huvard, Andrea Huvard and Frank Marino held a grand opening on December 5th. They wrote, "We'd like to assure all of you, our fellow BMXers, that our primary mission is to make your and your family's experience the best that it can be in BMX." The Elings Park track is now American Bicycle Association (ABA) sanctioned. Current National Bicycle League (NBL) riders can have their memberships transferred to ABA for free at the Elings Park track.
• For info, phone the track hotline 824-7854, or go to www.elingsparkbmx.com.

---

Wet Willy Sez
by Wilson Hubbell

• Dear Wet Willy: Could you say something about "Botts Dots"? It's bad enough when they're the round, slightly raised ones. They're killers when they have the beveled sides, like the blue ones which are markers for fire hydrants. — Bob
• Dear Bob: For those who may not know the term, "Botts Dots" are the most common type of raised pavement markers (RPMs) on the road. They're those ceramic dots on the white lines of the freeway that make your car vibrate a little when you run over them. RPMs are intended to alert motorists who may drift from a traffic lane, and the Dots can be more visible at night than just a white line—particularly if the road is wet.
• Some cyclists consider RPMs to be a curse while others see them as a potential blessing. In a nutshell, the arguments go like this: (1) If RPMs help alert lane-drifting motorists, why not place them between traffic lanes and bike lanes? (2) If RPMs can cause a cyclist to crash, why place them anywhere that a cyclist might normally ride?
• Some types of RPMs really can cause a cyclist to fall (this famously happened in the 2008 Tour of California), and the Caltrans Highway Design Manual says that RPMs should not be used to delineate bikelanes. However, over the past 20 years, many serious cycling injuries and most Santa Barbara County cycling fatalities involved cyclists being hit from behind in broad daylight. Some of this carnage was caused by distracted motorists who unintentionally drifted onto a paved shoulder or bikelane without encountering an RPM.
• Wet Willy understands the need for RPMs and how cyclists can and will encounter them, but he has also seen well placed and well designed RPMs that provide the desired benefits to motorists without unnecessarily endangering bicyclists. This looks like a task for the professionals to take on. Maybe you and I should write them a letter, Bob.

---

Santa Barbara County Bike Map is being updated



Chris Orr and Sarah Grant mark up the current Bike Map with suggested changes. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Traffic Solutions' free Santa Barbara County Bike Map has seen several versions and printings since the early 1990s. What was originally only a South Coast map became countywide in 1997 when the North County was added.
• The current version, printed in 2006, is being updated. On January 14th, Traffic Solutions held an open house at the Santa Barbara Bikestation to solicit comments from local bicyclists. Earlier, Traffic Solutions director Kent Epperson and others visited bicyclists in Santa Maria and Lompoc to gather their suggestions for updates and improvement.
• The popular Bike Map is being used by thousands of bicycle commuters, residents and visitors each year. Whenever we table at an event, the map is not only the most popular item, but it's also useful when people have questions about good ways to travel.

---

Starr performance

• Santa Barbara resident Patricia Starr has achieved fame for many things. At the age of 67 she bicycled 3600 miles across the US; then at 69, she biked another 1400 miles to New Jersey before competing in the Ms. Senior America contest (she came in fourth). Patricia walks two miles a day, plays trombone, organ, piano, and tennis. Her book Angel on my Handlebar will be released this spring. Read more about our remarkable neighbor at www.PatriciaStarr.net.

---

Solvang intersection changes considered



About 50 people attended the workshop, commenting on the various possible designs. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• Changes are coming to Solvang's intersection at Highway 246 and Alamo Pintado Road. There are 50% more crashes there than on comparable California intersections. On January 19th, the public was introduced to alternatives, all with added lanes, and with or without roundabouts. Our president Ralph Fertig attended, noting possible problems for cyclists.
• This is just the beginning of a 2-year process of design, with several opportunities for public suggestions coming up.

---

Reduced funding will delay road projects

• When the 30-year Measure A, a half-cent transportation tax, was passed by voters in 2008, revenue estimates for projects assumed a healthy economy. As we know, revenue is falling behind expectations, so our Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) is being forced to delay named projects accordingly. These delays won't effect safe routes to school, pedestrian, and bicyclist slices of the revenue pie, nor the local government portions that may include bicycle improvement projects.
• Here is a list of major roadway projects that will improve bicyclist safety, with their revised construction starting dates:
• 101 bridge over Santa Maria River (2011)
• Linden/Casitas Carpinteria improvements (2015)
• Highway 166 safety improvements (2015)
• Goleta overpass improvements (2027)
• 246 bridge over Santa Ynez River (2035)
• Depending on the economic recovery, those dates could change. For those decades from now, they're for future generations, not us.

---

Bike articles in traditional media leveling out

• Since 1992, Bicycle Coalition president Ralph Fertig has been clipping local newspaper articles, photos and cartoons that mention or feature bicycling. Each January, he tallies the prominent ones to assess our regional published exposure to bicycling. For the first nine years, numbers increased dramatically, and during the recent nine, the increase has continued, but slowed.
• For 2009, there were 385 articles, photos and cartoons; plus 50 separate letters to the editor or reader opinion pieces. That's more than one a day on average. And 2009 still had the fourth highest overall count out of the past 18 years.
• The numbers may be slowing because people are increasingly reading less printed material while seeking news and information online, and posting comments there. However, there's no easy way to continuously measure how local residents are using the Internet to learn about bicycling. Fertig uses Google Alerts to search for the name "Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition" on the web. It reports new mentions of us about twice a week, so we have a real and lively online presence.
• Year 2009 was disappointing because there were only 50 op/eds and letters to the editor. This is one area where we can effect what is published by expressing what we think. We are pleased that last year several Bicycle Coalition members' submissions were published. Our thanks to members Ralph Fertig for six published bicycle-related submissions, and one each from Eva Inbar, Michael Kwan, and David Madajian.

---

CEQA changes will benefit bicyclists

• Senate Bill 97, passed in 2007, mandated an update to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to include consideration of greenhouse gases. Those changes will take effect this year, shifting the emphasis of environmental studies of projects from cars toward alternative transportation.
• Most important to us, a project's parking capacity, and the project's effect on "level of service" (LOS) of traffic will no longer be the environmental concerns that they were.
• "This is a fantastic development with tremendous impact for transportation analysis in California," said San Francisco Transportation Authority director Jose Moscovich. LOS considerations have led to widening intersections and roadways to improve the flow of automobile traffic at the expense of other modes. San Francisco and other cities plan to replace LOS with a new metric for measuring environmental impacts of a project by the total number of new auto trips it will generate (ATG), thereby prioritizing transit, bicycle, and pedestrian measures, none of which would add automobile trips.

---

Montecito roundabout—do you like it?
by Ralph Fertig



Approaching on Old Coast Highway, the bikelane ends over 300 feet before the roundabout. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• On Christmas day, I was bicycling with a friend from the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. As we passed through the nearly-finished Montecito roundabout, he questioned why the bikelanes ended several hundred feet before entering the roundabout, forcing cyclists to merge into the vehicle travel lane so early. At the time, I had no answer, so decided to look up the standards.
• There are two standards for designing traffic roundabouts. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has a thorough 277-page document Roundabouts: An Informational Guide. And Caltrans has a 12-page one named Design Information Bulletin—Roundabouts.
• The FHWA says to end bikelanes 30 meters (about 98 feet) before entering the roundabout's inscribed circle. Caltrans says to end them a minimum of 30 meters, but they have no maximum distance.
• I returned and measured the entry roads, and found that the three finished legs have bikelanes that end before the roundabout at these approximate distances:
• Coast Village Road, 380 feet
• Old Coast Highway, 310 feet
• Hot Springs Road, 130 feet.
• Because we're in California, Caltrans' guidelines have precedence, so any distance over 30 meters technically complies with their guidelines. However, it seems to me that it's confusing to both cyclists and motorists to merge into one lane so far before the roundabout, if for no other reason than it prematurely slows and might anger motorists.
• The whole issue is complicated by recommendations to offer less-intrepid cyclists the opportunity to circumnavigate the roundabout on a shared-use path if they wish. In Montecito, that is available for some entering cyclists, and apparently the up-ramp onto that path was used as the location to end bikelane striping on Coast Village Road and Old Coast Highway. There is no ramp for cyclists on Hot Springs Road, and it's currently unclear what will happen on Cabrillo Boulevard.
• As for those cyclists returning to roads after riding on the shared-use paths, both FHWA and Caltrans show the reentry down-ramp feeding directly into a new roadway bikelane. The only one in Montecito is at a 45º angle on Coast Village Road, located just before a bus pullout.
• That's what I've discovered so far. As bicyclists, what are your thoughts on the situation?

---

UCSB improves bicyclist accommodation



The crossing of El Colegio at Stadium Road now has separate sidewalk and bikepath ways of travel. Before, bicyclists were required to walk their bikes. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• The University of California Santa Barbara has what may be the highest percentage of students, staff and faculty biking to and within the campus. An estimated 42% of all trips are by bicycle.
• The campus administration, working with the AS BIKES committee and Transportation Alternatives Board, continues to provide for what most believe is an increasing demand for bike paths, parking, lockers, and management at intersections.
• AS BIKES' Michell Cao reports that, with student funding, they recently completed a large bikepath resurfacing project near the MTD bus loop. During spring break, it will continue to Storke circle. Over summer, they will expand Kerr Hall bike parking.

---

We thank our active members

• Please thank and support these Bicycle Coalition business members:
• Bicycle Bob's, Santa Barbara
• Nett & Champion Insurance Services, Santa Barbara
• Pedal Power Bicycles, Santa Maria
• Dr J's Bicycle Shop, Solvang
• Hazard's Cyclesport, Santa Barbara
• Big Bang PR, www.bigbangpr.net, Santa Barbara
• Chris King Precision Components, Portland, Oregon
• Santa Barbara Pedicabs, Santa Barbara
• Santa Barbara Bike Repair, Santa Barbara
• WheelHouse, Santa Barbara
• Santa Barbara Bikes To-Go, Santa Barbara
• Tailwinds Bicycle Club, Santa Maria
• We thank those who renewed their memberships: Mark Hansen, Bob Cooper, Judy Keim, Dick Kling, Don Lubach, Diane Krohn, Wayne Beckman, Dave Beamer, Alexandra Kummer, Chuck Cryor, Heidi Wieland, Alan Bergquist, Stephanie Stark and John Berberet.

---

Youth biking program



Last November, this youth group biked on Paradise Road to do volunteer work. Photo by Paul Herning.

• Bicycle Coalition member Dorothy Littlejohn has been working with Dinorah Molina on her ECO team project with the Forest Service, hoping to establish a youth city outings program with the Sierra Club.
• In the meantime, they have taken high school kids to the National Forest since July to do community service work like habitat restoration or talking about conservation, by both foot and bicycle.
• If you wish to help the Sierra Club and Littlejohn, email her at dlittlejohn1@cox.net.

---

Education Committee meetings

• If you're interested in bicyclist education within the county's South Coast, consider attending our Education Committee meetings that will meet the first Thursday of each month. The next one is:
• Thursday, February 4th, 1:00 PM
  Bici Centro conference room
  601 East Montecito Street, Santa Barbara
• Meetings will consider ongoing street skills classes, youth and adult mechanics programs, and school education efforts. Any interested person is welcome. Our Education Coordinator Christine Bourgeois is organizing the meetings. You can reach her by email at cbarreb@gmail.com.

---

Welcome Javier Rivera to our Board of Directors

• In December, our Board of Directors voted to offer a vacant Board position to Javier Rivera, and were pleased that he accepted. Born in Mexico, Javier moved three times to the US, returning in between to Mexico to study and work. Currently, he works as astronomy manager at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, tutors Santa Barbara City College students, and hosts science workshops for the local Latino community.
• Javier lives in Goleta and commutes by bike to the Museum and City College. He chooses to bicycle because he enjoys it and it helps the environment; he doesn't like driving or waiting for buses to get anywhere.
• Javier's first bike was a bittersweet experience. He was nine when his Dad bought him a bike, but it was stolen only a couple of days later. He recalls, "Since my parents didn't have money for another bike, I worked several months selling newspapers to buy my own bike."
• Bicycling around here is fine, says Javier, first because of our weather and views, and second because there are many more bike ways than any other city he has lived in. As for getting more people on bicycles, he says, "I think people would bike more if they were convinced that there is a good, safe and efficient infrastructure for biking: wider bike trails everywhere, parking, lockers (even inside offices) and above all biking education for drivers."
• Javier would like to help develop outreach programs to Latinos. He recommends "Whatever program is developed, any contact must be face to face, so a significant number of fluent Spanish-speaking people are needed. It is essential that we understand as much as possible about the Latino culture to be able to convince them to safely use a bike."
• We're definitely looking forward to working with Javier in reaching out to an underserved segment of our community.

---

Car-free visit to Santa Barbara

• There's a charming story about a visit by an Arizona traveler who took the train here in 2007 and brought his folding bike. Steven Phillips wrote about Santa Barbara: "An inviting, and bike-friendly, downtown. A beautiful bike-accessible coastline with plenty of places to pull over and take in the sights."
• You can read the story about his trip to our area and to Santa Cruz island at: http://stevenjphillips.com/santabarbara.html.

---

New UCSB Bike Shop to open Feb 19th



The Bike Shop was in place by mid January, still undergoing finishing work before opening. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

• The new Associated Students' campus Bike Shop is in place, with interior construction continuing in anticipation of a grand opening on February 19th.
• There will be free giveaways, free food, a bike auction, and more. Come by between 12:00 noon to 3:00 PM. Students will be able to bid on 20 of the best bikes previously abandoned on campus. All proceeds will go back to help support UCSB's bicycle system.
• University people can come by to inflate tires, borrow tools, and get help from the staff. The new shop is located where the old one was, just off the bikepath, west of the old swimming pool.

---

January Coalition meeting topics

• Our January 5th monthly Bicycle Coalition meeting was held at Cody's Cafe, with 14 participants talking about these topics:
• Sarah Grant said that some had already signed up for the upcoming January Street Skills class.
• Ralph Fertig described his bicyclist safety concerns about the new Montecito roundabout.
• Lori la Riva said that Traffic Solutions is going to reprint the Santa Barbara County Bike Map, and a South Coast workshop to gather suggested changes will take place on January 14th.
• Christine Bourgeois described the many bicyclist education programs that she will be coordinating. She described a new League of American Bicyclists' program named "Bicycling 123." It's in conjunction with bike shops that belong to the National Bicycle Dealers Association.
• Ed France reported on opportunities to create events for Cycle MAYnia. Lori La Riva reminded us that Traffic Solutions is offering mini-grants to help organize them.

---

Momentum magazine promotes bicycling lifestyle

• Momentum magazine bills itself as "The magazine for self-propelled people." Published in Vancouver BC, the publication promotes bicycling as an everyday activity for all. A recent issue (above) features Mia Birk who consulted on Santa Barbara's Pedestrian Master Plan for Alta Planning+Design. You can save yourself $5 and bring us another $5 by subscribing here.