How the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition helps us all

What is the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition?

A brief history

photo of our Earth Day booth

Hundreds of people stop by our Earth Day booth each year in Santa Barbara, here at Santa Barbara City College. Visitors pick up maps, literature, and lots of free advice. A free bike checkup keeps volunteer mechanics busy all day. Photo by Ralph Fertig.

The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, founded in 1991, is a countywide bicycling advocacy organization. It consists of dedicated volunteers who maintain contact with City, County and regional transportation professionals, elected officials, educators, bike clubs, employee transportation coordinators, bike shops, bike manufacturers, and other advocacy groups. Here are some completed and upcoming projects that we have helped implement:

Sponsoring the Bicycle Federation of America's Pro Bike/Pro Walk conference in Santa Barbara in 1998. Over 500 participants came from all over North America.
Repaving Canon Perdido Street between Milpas and Garden Streets, striping wide bikelanes and narrow car lanes.
Widening North Jameson Lane in Montecito between Olive Mill and Ortega Hill, striping bikelanes.
Increasing safety for cyclists with a separate bikepath between Summerland and Montecito.
Narrow the traffic lanes and stripe in bikelanes on outer State Street, from Highway 154 to De la Vina Street.
Crafted a bike safety video "Decide to Ride."
Bike racks on all large MTD buses for all routes.
San Jose Creek bikepath from Cathedral Oaks to Hollister; extension phase II to Goleta Beach.
Maria Ygnacia bikeway access links to Hollister Avenue.
Bike storage lockers, 20 for Santa Maria and 40 for Lompoc.
Widen Alamo Pintado Road between Ballard and Los Olivos, and stripe in bikelanes.
Shoreline Drive parking removed and bikelanes striped in for daylight use.
Bikeway signs along 80 miles of streets and paths throughout the South Coast.
Widen shoulders on Highway 246 between Buellton and Solvang.
Santa Maria River Levee bikepath.
Via Real widening and bikelanes striped between Carpinteria and Summerland.

Santa Barbara County has much going for it. Benign climate, flat roads, mountain trails, a bikeway network, spectacular views, and environmentally-aware officials. Most valuable, however, is the population of educated, active individuals who live here not for money, but because they love the area and choose to commit energy to preserve it and enhance our quality of life. With your help, we can move united toward a better future for all bicyclists here.

Free copy of Quick Release

Every month since November 1991, we have published a newsletter called Quick Release. If you would like a free, sample issue of Quick Release mailed to you, fill out the form on this page.

Our online email List

The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition has its own email subscription list. Anybody can join and then send and receive posted messages about efforts to improve bicycling in Santa Barbara County. Just keep messages concise and relevant. It's easy to join the list, simply send an email message to:

sbbike-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Don't put anything in the subject or message areas of your email.

That's all there is to it, it's handled automatically! We are currently averaging two messages a day, although it tends to surge for important and timely topics. We look forward to meeting you on the Internet. If you wish to review past postings to our list, go to lists.riseup.net/www/arc/sbbike.

How you can help

The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition needs your help to move forward with projects that will increase bicycling awareness, promote education, reduce accidents, and in general make it easier and more fun for us all to bicycle.

Since we started in 1991, we have had a lean, but effective operation that has come from the generosity of the Coalition's Board of Directors, Goleta Valley Cycling Club, Traffic Solutions and our individual members. We are very grateful for all their help, but with more support, we'll be able to increase our effectiveness with projects such as:

Help Bike Week events reach more people
Promote safer biking to all local schools
Write and talk to officials about better bicycling conditions
Maintain this website on the Internet
Protect bicyclists legal rights to roads
Create an online bike photo library
Provide bike-friendly ideas for local restaurants and hotels
Promote Santa Barbara County as a bicycling destination
Promote bicycling as part of the "Santa Barbara Car Free" program
Offer pro-bike presentations to local groups
Provide architects with bike-friendly ideas
Participate in Earth Day and other regional events
Send Quick Release newsletter to public officials and employers.

How Members benefit

If you join the Bicycle Coalition, you'll get us to speak out to planners and officials on your behalf. We'll make certain that you have our newsletter Quick Release mailed to you each month for a year. You will receive personal invitations to our Bike Week Celebration dinner in May. And, just because you're a member of the Coalition, you'll receive discounts at the following bike shops:

Bicycle Bob's, 250 Storke Road #A, Goleta & 15 Hitchcock Way, Santa Barbara. 10% off regular price on parts and accessories. 5% off on bikes.
Bicycle Connection, 223 W. Ocean Avenue, Lompoc. Tune-up special $29.95 (regular $39.95). Sales tax discount on all accessories.
Main Street Cycles, 311 East Main Street, Santa Maria. 10% off everything but bicycles.
Hazard's Cyclesport, 735 Chapala St, Santa Barbara. 10% off all accessories, parts and clothing.
Mad Mike's Bikes, 1108 East Clark Avenue #G, Santa Maria. 20% off parts and accessories.
Open Air Bicycles, 224 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara. 15% off non-sale accessories.
Pedal Power Bicycles, 1740 Broadway, Santa Maria. 10% off accessories.
VeloPro Cyclery, 633 State Street, Santa Barbara and 5887 Hollister Avenue, Goleta. 10% off regular price on parts and accessories.

To get your discount, take your copy of Quick Release with your name and the word "MEMBER" on the address label. To join us, just print out, complete and mail the application below. Remember, you'll be helping assure us all a place for bicycling in our community for years to come.

Join our Bicycle Coalition HERE