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www.sbbike.org Serving Santa Barbara County We’re a countywide advocacy and resource organization that promotes bicycling for safe transportation and recreation.

How to reach us Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition PO Box 92047 Santa Barbara CA 93190-2047 phone 568-3046 email info@sbbike.org web www.sbbike.org

February 3rd meeting Join us on Tuesday, February 3rd for our monthly meeting. Let’s improve bicycling in 2004: Tuesday, 12:00 noon County Public Works Conference Room, 1st Floor 123 East Anapamu Street Santa Barbara, California

Online email list We sponsor an online email forum where you can post and read messages that pertain to regional bicycling issues. It’s easy and free. To subscribe to our general forum, just send an email message to: sbbike-subscribe@topica.com

Leave the subject line and body of the message blank. That’s all!

Join the Coalition You can help improve bicycling safety and conditions in Santa Barbara County by joining others in our own regional Bicycle Coalition advocacy group. Together we will continue to make a real difference. See page 6 for details.

For sale: video & flag We’re pleased to offer our own video “Decide to Ride.” It’s about a young woman who learns to bike commute to work. It’s only $18 (tax and US shipping included) from us, address above. Plus, we’re selling Bike Week flags, 4’x6’ heavy nylon, terra cotta and white. They’re $33 plus tax. Look at this PDF file: www.sbbike.org/art-home/ flag.pdf

February 2004

County names “The Obern Trail” At a well-attended Board of Supervisors meeting on January 20, Vie and George Obern were honored by having a popular trail officially named “The Obern Trail.” The new trail name, informally called the Atascadero Creek trail by South Coast people, was first proposed by the Bicycle Coalition’s president Wilson Hubbell last fall. The County agreed, and Supervisor Susan Rose presented the Oberns with a resolution and sample of eight signs that will identify the trail. The Obern Trail runs for seven miles along the Atascadero Creek that empties into the Pacific Ocean at Goleta Beach County Park. The Trail was first proposed by Vie Obern in 1967 as she looked at maps of proposed subdivisions in the Goleta Valley. She worked assiduously for years on the idea and eventually obtained state funding for the project. In addition to resounding applause from the audience for the Oberns,

COUNTY PROCLAMATION. Supervisor Susan Rose, center, congratulates George and Vie Obern on their work on regional trails.

Bicycle Coalition member Eva Inbar presented them with a scroll of more than 50 names that she had just collected from people using the Obern Trail. We’re very fortunate to have Vie and George help us all enjoy nature throughout our County.

Bicycling mentions in articles increase, letters decline Each year over the past dozen years, Bicycle Coalition VP Ralph Fertig has clipped regional newspaper articles, cartoons, photographs, opinion/ editorial pieces, and letters to the editor that mention or depict bicycling in any way. Then he tabulates those annually where bicycling is a significant, not a trivial, part of the item. The results—shown below—clearly demonstrate the rise of awareness of bicycling within our County. For 2003, the clippings fill two large 3ring binders and set a record for significant articles, photos and cartoons: 374 of them! That’s an all-time record, more than one a day, and 13 more than in the year 2002. Regrettably, in the one area where we can

really make a personal difference—submitted letters and opinion/editorial “op/ed” pieces—we dropped to the lowest level since 1996. This is embarrassing. However it gives us an opportunity and a challenge: to make sure that 2004 rises with our contributions and maybe surpasses the 96 letters and op/eds of 2002. We can do it. As for the 40 letters and op/ed pieces published in 2003, 13 were written by Bicycle Coalition members. Our thanks to Ralph Fertig who had five published, Mike Hecker for three, Robert Bernstein for two, and one each from Bob Cooper, Alex Pujo, and Kent Epperson. That’s only for members who wrote about bicycling; we have diverse interests and some wrote about other topics.


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