www.sbbike.org
Looking back and pedaling ahead
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 962-1479 email info@sbbike.org web www.sbbike.org
The year 2006 is gone and, looking back, it marks a year filled with Bicycle Coalition challenges, outstanding successes, and some situations that were not resolved to our satisfaction. During 2006, we worked hard to achieve these benefits for people who bicycle within our county:
Offered six Bicycling Skills classes throughout the year, taught by Licensed Cycling Instructors.
Celebrated the passage of the Amgen Tour of California through our county with a booth at the stage start/finish line. Our web site had a large surge of visitors who were presumably seeking bicycling opportunities here.
January 2nd meeting Join us on the first Tuesday of the month for our general meeting: Tuesday, January 2nd Rusty’s Pizza 15 East Cabrillo Boulevard Santa Barbara No-host dinner 6:00 PM Meeting 7:00 PM
Worked with UCSB’s student BIKES committee to realize the filling of a missing link “Broida Expressway” on the campus bikepath network.
Handed out free LED headlights and taillights to low-income workers who depend on bicycling for transportation. Spanish language bike safety brochures were distributed.
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@lists.riseup.net
Leave the subject line and body of the message blank. That’s all!
Join our 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 your application options.
Our CycleSmart program The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition’s CycleSmart bicyclist education program offers bicycling skills classes for school children and adults. Look for details of upcoming classes inside Quick Release, or contact our Co-coordinators Dru van Hengel and Erika Lindemann by email CycleSmart@sbbike.org .
January 2007
Collaborated with a large group of nonprofits to obtain a very favorable Measure D tax renewal package that 46% voters disappointingly chose to reject in November, in spite of intense efforts. Produced a flyer Hospitality for Bicyclists that was distributed to South Coast hotel sales directors. The idea is to encourage greater accommodation of visitors who want to bicycle here. Spoke out for a new 7-block section of bikelanes on Chapala Street, and addressed committees to insist on the return of bikelanes on Anapamu Street that had been removed during work on the Granada Garage, both in Santa Barbara.
Participated in Santa Barbara’s Earth Day festival for our 15th year, with bike parking, free checkups, raffle prizes, and an information booth. Also staffed a table at Santa Barbara City College’s Alternative Transportation Week festival.
Held Bike Week events that encompassed Bike to School Day, Bike to Work Day, a Bike Week Celebration dinner with Willie Weir’s entertainment, bike flags on State Street, and lots more.
Held another Member Appreciation BBQ at the beach, getting better acquainted with members.
Raised questions over bicycling conditions in the proposed Isla Vista and Summerland Plans.
Led bike facility rides at the statewide Sustainability conference at UCSB. Worked with the Habitat for Humanity to offer bike rides for those cycling to sites on their green home tour.
Organized a commorative bike ride following the death of Jake Boysel who was hit biking to school.
Encouraged Pedro Nava to modify the DMV driver test to address green issues.
Participated in Santa Barbara’s Earth Day festival for our 15th year, with bike parking, free checkups, raffle prizes, and an information booth. Also staffed a table at Santa Barbara City College’s Alternative Transportation Week festival.
Our thanks to our Board of Directors, our Advisors, and all our members who helped make 2006 a year of regional progress for people who bicycle. In 2007, we will work to increase our efforts with Bicycling Skills classes, Bike Week, Earth Day, and more. We plan expand efforts to reach youth, lowincome workers, bike commuters, and officials.
Web increases in importance & usage Use of the Internet continues to increase throughout our world. We have had a web site presence for nearly 11 years, although data on usage only goes back seven of them. Since 2000, however, there has been a steady increase in visitors to our site’s home page as shown in the graph. The web has proven to be successful due to its open structure. Jaron Lanier writes, “We are spectacularly lucky that the people whose early experiments turned into the Internet conceived of an optimistic open design that happened to get locked in.” The month of least activity is understandably December. From there, visits steadily increase to May, where they top out for Bike Week, then slowly decrease over the subsequent seven months.