Winter 2012 Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition Quick Release

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WINTER / 2012

the quarterly newsletter of the...

SANTA BARBARA BICYCLE COALITION

OUR MISSION

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The Bicycle Coalition is a countywide advocacy and resource organization that promotes bicycling for safe transportation and recreation.

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Get Involved with your Bike Coalition: Contribute: Your time: www.bicicentro.org/volunteer In-kind: www.bicicentro.org/wishlist Financially: www.bicicentro.org/donate Join one of our committees: (Each meet monthly) bicicentro.org/committees • Bici Centro Shop: come help manage our open shop, bicycle recycling, and education center facility concerns • Education: help us implement our after-school and summer programs for youth, and mechanic and street skills classes for adults.

• Events: the planning home of CycleMAYnia, bike valet, and any public or member-only event of the Coalition • Communications and Membership: the venue for membership growth & concerns, communications to the community, such as our website, newsletter, & Facebook • Advocacy: steer our campaigns, currently to complete the bike network & bring on more bike parking.

• Spanish Language Outreach: oversee and implement our e�orts to engage the Spanish-speaking cyclist community.

Contact Us

Coalition Staff

Board of Directors

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 601 E. Montecito St., Executive Director: Santa Barbara, CA 93103 Ed France ed@sbbike.org Education Coordinator: SB Bike Coalition Christine Bourgeois PO Box 92047, Santa Barbara, CA 93190 edu@sbbike.org Winter Instructors: Mike Vergeer Mike Rodgers www.sbbike.org Eddie Gonzalez Shop Manager: Hanna Waldman 805.617.3255

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Erika Lindemann, President Howard Booth, Vice President David Bourgeois, Treasurer Erik Wright, Secretary (Scribe) Carmen Lozano, Spanish Outreach Chair Nancy Mulholland, Education Chair John Hygelund, Events Chair Hector Gonzalez, Shop Chair Jim Cadenhead, CAM Co-Chair Michael Chiacos, Membership Chair Tim Burgess, Advocacy Chair Courtney Dietz Matt Dobberteen, Advisor Kent Epperson, Advisor Sarah Grant, Liason

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Cover Photograph: Youth Pedal Power Class October 2011, by Christine Bourgeois

Measuring Up Bike & Ped Projects

by Ed France Somewhat shockingly SB County residents voted to tax themselves last year in order to adequately fund our transportation system.

Boosting funding for sustainable transportation, especially walking and biking, was an explicit component. Measure A, as the ballot initiative is called, adds about a half a penny per dollar to our sales tax. This funds efforts to keep our roadways useable for next 30 years. Approximately 800,000 a year are going to over 30 important Bike/Ped and Safe Routes to Schools projects, vetted through a project scoring committee on which your Bicycle Coalition holds a seat.

I was able to evaluate each and every project submitted for this competitive funding opportunity. Clearly, this new venue for funding is going to fire up better and broader local bike and ped projects, especially school sites, then we’ve seen in the past. The stakeholder input that has gone into this process helps us use your input to advocate for the most needed community projects.

Here are just some of the important projects recommended to be funded: Cleveland School Safe Routes improvements: needs a safe route for its (majority of ) students who walk to school. Crossing Salinas street is quite a hairy ordeal, and simply not appropriate for the little tikes making their way every day to the campus pedestrian entrance. This project will be a major pedestrian improvement for the deep Eastside neighborhood.

Hollister Class 1 bike path: What is the serenity of the Obern trail could exist for cyclists connecting from Elwood to Storke road? Well the City of Goleta has enough right of way (city owned roadway space), the willingness, and now, thanks to measure A, initial funding for project engineering.

Goleta area cyclists and Elwood families will be looking closely at this significant project.South Coast Bicycle Education: A collaboration between all of the South Coast Jurisdictions is setup to contract your very own Bicycle Coalition to expand adult and youth bicycle education throughout the region. This project will complement infrastructure improvement and make needed gains in roadway safety for project participants. We are tremendously proud to be involved in this project.

Safe Routes to School Education enhancement: For nearly the past decade, COAST has been steadily expanding the scale of bike rodeos, helmet fittings, walking Wednesdays, engineering and other projects in order to create more safe routes to school. On a shoestring budget they have made a significant impact. Now, with expanded funding thru Measure A, they can finally hire a full-time staff and grow the program to be universal amongst South Coast schools. Our major collaborator, the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) has proven that persistence pays off!

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Mapping a better bikeway system

by Ed France

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iding along on my trusty cargo bike, my blood is pumping, the air is fresh, and here I often do my best thinking. The daydreams, abruptly, are cut short as my protected bike lane (Class 2) Castillo crosses Haley, and I cajole myself into survival mode crossing under 101, with no lane, nor shoulder, and needing to cross a lane of high-speed traffic just to continue straight on Castillo to the beach. This is my daily reminder of the gaps in our bikeway network, something that we cyclists are all too painfully aware of.

So I wasn’t surprised when SB bikies entered 101 (yes, exactly 101) bike route 'fix-it' submissions over just four days. This information is exactly what we have neededto make effective suggestions to improve planning for bicycling, and we’re keeping it open. All of the responses right now are being entered into a map for ongoing reference.

The beauty of our motley collection of disconnects is that they fill a missing area of public knowledge of bike improvements.

While many of our civil servants (or bureaucrats, depending upon your persuasions) do ride bikes regularly, anecdotal complaints are no shortage for a depth of user data. Our county civil servants, those on the south coast especially, are awash in a new funding source that we all contribute to.

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Every time we make a purchase and pay salestax, about a penny per dollar goes to MeasureA. While this primarily funds more expensive road projects like 101 expansion and local roadway repair funds, approximately one million dollars a year will go to Safe Routes to School and Bike/Ped improvements. Thus, as many projects that sat on the shelves for years are finally getting underway, our local cities need more information in order to spend these funds wisely!

Our advocacy committee is stepping up to the responsibility to help close the gaps in ourbikeway network. This is not a drill— repeat, this is not a drill. Changes are under way, and we need smart folks like you to help make good use of public funds by engaging the public process. Email committee chair Tim Burgess at tnburgess@gmail.com or register for our next meeting online at http://www.bicicentro.org/committees.

Thanks for being a part of what drives us!

The Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition would like to thank all of our supporters in 2011.

Major Sponsors:

Business members:

We would like to thank all of the individual donors, volunteers, and supporters who have made this year a success.

WINTER / 2012

Lighting A Colombian at Iluminando La Noche … without Lights for her Bike

By MARIANGÉLICA DUQUE TRANSLATED BY HOLLY STARLEY

On arrival at the building, we found only a single bicycle parked next to a wooden, hand-painted sign that said "FREE LIGHTS." It was nearing 8 p.m., but only three of us were there—Robert (another volunteer), Holly (my friend), and I. I pulled out my camera and started taking photos like mad, as if I was there with a hundred thousand people.

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n November 9, a Wednesday night, I left my house with a good friend who had invited me to volunteer at Iluminando La Noche (Lighting the Night), an event organized by Bici Centro to give bike lights to people who didn’t have them. At this point, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting into. But I decided to go because, just over six months earlier, I had relocated to this city, and since I’ve arrived, I’ve found only good people who do good things; the city has done nothing but welcome me.

I myself did not have a front light for my

rescued from the rubble for me, so I had no choice but to grab a headlamp and secure it to my helmet. It seemed to me a terrible idea to arrive without lights at an event where I was to promote the use of lights. My friend smiled but said nothing, and we headed for Santa Barbara High School, where an adult the night.

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After a while, other bicycles began to them had lights, and all of the cyclists seemed to know exactly what to do as they gathered round Robert and the sign.

I assumed the role of reporter so as not to appear directionless, though I was sure that these people were not there because they needed bicycle lights.

Robert pulled out the lights he’d brought to give away and explained to us in Spanish how to use them—the white lights were to be attached to the front of

the Way Finally, the first two bicyclists arrived. The group gathered around the two riders as if they were the ones who had something to give us, and it was then that I understood that we were all there with an infinite desire to give. I understood the wonderful work of Bici Centro, this place where we can all go to repair our bicycles for just $3 an hour; to learn; and, best, to share with a community that gives us its hand and speaks to us in our language—a community that looks us in the face and always, always welcome us. the bikes and the red lights were for the rear—and what each of us who were there (the volunteers) were to do when people started to arrive. More than ten of us listened attentively.

I learned that the Southern California Gas Company and the city of Santa Barbara had donated the lights, that this was the third and final day of distribution, and that on each of the three nights, the volunteers gave out around 53 pairs of lights for a total of 172. I also learned that the majority of the volunteers spoke Spanish but were not native Spanish speakers. It gave me great joy to see that these people were there giving their time not only to this cause of ensuring that bikers had lights but also to communicate with the people who would receive the majority of lights that night—we Latinos.

The full moon appeared as if to be a witness to this event, and the night cooled dramatically. The group spread out, and I watched the volunteers scatter throughout the site, some with more posters in hand with the words “free lights.”

At the end of the night, during which we distributed the 53 lights first at the high school and later on along State Street (without a bit of chaos), I not only learned the rules of safe transit for bicycles but I met a group of wonderful people, like Christine, Erika, Javier, Kent, Eddie, Dave, and more. And best of all ... I got my own lights and stopped being a Colombian in Santa Barbara without lights on my bike!

Part of the Bike Coalition’s Spanish Outreach program, Iluminando la noche (Illuminating the Night) aims to improve the safety of local cyclists and help us all better share the roads.

In addition to distributing lights, Iluminando volunteers talked to cyclists about biking laws and safety measures and surveyed the many riders they met, gathering information that will help the coalition best serve the cycling community. On the evenings of November 7, 8, and 9, 2011, Bici Centro handed out lights and safety brochures to roughly 170 bikers.

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SB BIKE Tips: How you can improve safety for Santa Barbara cyclists: 1. Take a street skills class: Learn real on-road statistics and strategies beyond what even experienced cyclists know. Share these skills with friends and your riding clubs, even the occasional wrong way yokel. You can't tell someone why something is foolish without details as to why. Our class utilizes 30 years of research and input from over 2000 League of American Cyclist instructors. Take the class to be a leader in the bicycling community.

2. Learn to fix bikes and volunteer teaching: Teach a man to fish, they say, is helpful for a lifetime, but who are the teachers. Everyday volunteers at Bici Centro take that role, and we need to replenish the ranks. Since over 50% of crashes aren't with another vehicle, repair and a riders knowledge of his bikes state of repair are important in keeping everyone safe.

Want to touch peoples lives and fraternize with the Bici Crew? Join us.

3. Collective Action: The bicycle coalitions advocacy is composed of people who are in for the long haul. If we put the time in at meetings and communicating electronically to coordinate our actions, any one of us can have the voice of thousands. Otherwise, we are just a disorganized and weak special interest. Join our advocacy crew or attend some of our coming community forum events, help grow cycling, improve infrastructure, and put an end to unnecessary deaths and injuries.

4. Ride your Bike: Here's an inspirational tidbit, every-time you ride your bike (respectfully to other road users) motorists become more aware of slower, more vulnerable traďŹƒc.

Statistically speaking, more bicyclists and pedestrians on the road exponentially reduce risk for everyone. Safety in numbers!

W I N T E R / 2012 Wish List

Media Matters: We need graphic designers, writers, and organizationally minded volunteers for our new Communications Committee.

Bici Shop Volunteers: Can you commit once a week for 6 months to help community members fix their bikes. If so, we will train you.

Tabling/Outreach Volunteers: Do you believe in the mission of the bike coalition and can you interact with the public to promote our cause?

Office Help: Interested in a helping 3-6 hours a week with straightforward data entry type office tasks?

All Bike Parts: Please clear out your shoe boxes of bike parts, we sort them, price them and recirculate inexpensively and in a way that creates sustainable financial support for Bici Centro.

Bike Trainers: We use these for bike fitting and train youth the change gears.

If yours is collecting dust, donate it!

Office Furniture: We may be locating a new office location. Let us know what you have and we'll tell you if we can use it.

Construction Contractor: We will be relocating or renovating our existing location. In-kind donation of contractor work would be a blessing.

can you help with any of these things? Please email shop@bicicentro.org or call 617-3255 and let us know!

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Bowl Ride M

any locals know the treat of a summer evening taking in the acoustics at the Santa Barbara Bowl. During the 2011 concert series (for the second season in a row), SB Bike Coalition aimed to make the experience

valet parking for those who chose to ride to the shows. At each show, volunteers arrived in two shifts—one at the beginning of the show and the other at the end—to ensure that bikes are secure during the shows, allowing cyclists to relax and look forward to a ride to end the night.

One concertgoer was particularly pleased with the service she received from valet volunteer, Dave Bourgeois. “You and your team are amazing. Thanks for the great service you provide. I got home safely once again due to your help,” Mary Hanson wrote

in an e-mail after the Paul Simon show.

“This was our last concert for the year but I The coalition provides valet parking at a number of other community events. So if you’re planning to attend any of these next season and wish to ride in style, see the bike valets to park it in style.

If you’re interested in volunteering as a bike valet attendant at the bowl or any other event (you’ll get to meet fun, communityoriented people and, at the bowl, see part of the show), become a member of the Bike Coalition. Check out bicicentro.org to join and learn more about the number of

photo credit: Paul Wellman

WINTER / 2012

Bettering the Air we breathe breathe we breathe we

Southern California Gas Company Awards $10,000 Grant

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his December, the Southern California Gas Company once again teamed up with the Santa Barbara Bike Coalition to promote bicycling in the community. The Gas co. (natural gas, that is) is hosting a ‘Bettering the Air We Breathe’ initiative. The goal of the program is to engage underserved community while making a measurable reduction in air pollutants.

After receiving a grant proposal from the coalition’s Spanish Language Outreach Chair, Carmen Lozano in tandem with funding needs from the Bici Centro program, our local partner, Tim Mahoney, helped make the case for our programming.

Southern California Gas has previously supported the coalition’s Bike Month (CycleMaynia) as a gold sponsor.

We had a shared vision of bringing a higher profile to bike culture and the fun of riding in a bicycle friendly community like Santa Barbara.

The grant will support the community bike repair workshops and Spanish Language Outreach program, which will be bringing community bike repair workshops to neighborhoods throughout the south coast, supported by an ever more vibrant central repair facility.

Bite-Size Bike Build-Up Up Volunteers Fix Up Bikes for Christmas Giveaway

By Holly Starley On December 14, 2011, the Bici Centro

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shiny bicycle with dark rubber wheels begging for scuffs from the road and a bright red bow decorating the handlebar-this is, perhaps, the quintessential gift under the Christmas tree. Thanks to a group of volunteers, more than a dozen local kids will receive just that this holiday season.

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shop volunteers teamed up with a group of students from Santa Barbara High School and the Coalition for Sustainable Transportation (COAST) for a rewarding night of wrenching, barbecuing, and camaraderie.

Over the course of the evening, the team refurbished and polished sixteen children’s bikes. Truing wheels, replacing pedals, adjusting derailleurs, repairing flats and more, the team worked like Santa’s elves into the night, making ready a range of enticing bikes, including a purple princess jewels bike complete with princess décor and pink

training wheels, a bright orange bike, and a turquoise “sea” bike bejeweled with purple seashells.

Santa handed out thirteen of these newly polished rides on December 15 at the Franklin Community Center to low-income kids. One of the bikes is destined for a child who recently lost his mother. The final two will go to Pedal Power, a Bike Coalition program designed to teach junior high students safe riding skills.

Topping off the evening was the celebration after the work was done.

Having worked up an appetite, the elves at Bici enjoyed a barbecued meal cooked right at the shop. And the Santa Barbara High School students, Bici’s newest crew members, prepared it, much to everyone’s satisfaction. “The food was amazing. The high school students were great. They did it all,” Christine beams.

Christine adds her thanks to Hanna Waldman, who planned the event, and to everyone involved. “I feel blessed to have such a great team to work with,” she says.

The bikes came from Bici Shop’s stock, all of which were donations from community members. COAST donated helmets to go with the each new bike.

Bici Education Coordinator, Christine Bourgeois was immensely pleased with Bite-size Bikes Buildup. “Yesterday night was really cool,” she said, a smile in her voice. “The collaboration between so many people—Bici Centro, the Santa Barbara High School Students, the donation of food—it was just a really good event. This community gives so much.”

WINTER / 2011

Undercover

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ish you could join all those bikers cruising along without the burden of a car? Have a bike you’d love to fix up but can’t afford the necessary repairs or want a bike but a brand new one is out of the price range?

Biking—whether commuting, cruising around for fun, or cranking out some serious exercise and stress relief—is a convenience and joy too many of us consider a thing of our childhood. Bici Centro (http://bicicentro.org/shop), the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition’s do-it-yourself shop located on east Montecito Street next to Casa de la Raza, provides everything you need to reclaim your spot in the bike lane.

Bici is not a commercial bike shop and is only open during the following hours: Wednesday and Thursday from 4 to 7pm and Saturday from 2 to 5pm.

Come to the shop and meet the dedicated team of volunteers available and willing to help.

Who’s using the shop and why?

“I like learning new stuff about bikes.

I like to meet new Gabe Moran people.”

All you have to do is bring your bike, and Bici will help you learn how to fix it. Rent a stand for just $3 an “I was hour. The shop has both used and new parts and cycling accessories, greeted with as well as a wide variety of tuned-up, smiles; used bikes for sale at very affordable approached prices. In addition, the shop offers a range of classes, from learning for help how to ride on the road safely to quickly. An learning how to maintain and overall positive repair your own bike at home.

experience.”

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Krista Simundson

In a DIY Bikeshop “I found it very resourceful, and very open to the community. The staff [volunteers] are really friendly. They don’t just do it —they really teach you.”

Tomas Salto

“I’m learning a lot about bikes. It’s good to learn how to fix your own bike, from others.”

Lukas Ullerstam

“I enjoy working on bicycles.

And the social contact. And the smell of grease in the air.”

Keith Birtalan (new volunteer) WINTER / 2011

Got Wheels?

by MICHAEL VERGEER

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ost of us remember our first moments on two wheels. On the day the training wheels came off, was your dad running behind you, encouraging you, pretending to hold onto your saddle long after he had let go?

For me, this was a poignant moment, a rite of passage. I rode every day all over the farm. When I was maybe ten or eleven years old, I pressed my parents for permission to ride clear across town to the video arcade. If you are a parent, you’ll have no trouble imagining their reluctance to grant it. This would be another rite of passage. When my parents thought I was ready, my dad rode with me a few Saturday mornings in a row. He coached me along the way, often stopping before and after particularly tricky intersections to teach me how to safely share the streets with the QUICK RELEASE

two-ton, four-wheeled behemoths all around us. These unnamed training rides gave me the confidence to ride all over town. I felt safe. I felt empowered. What’s more, I was out of my parents’ hair— a true win-win scenario.

We at the Bicycle Coalition work to promote bicycling for safe transportation and recreation for all, and we feel strongly that efforts to educate our youth will pay off in lifelong good habits among cyclists in our community. We’d love to see parents coaching their kids toward a skilled and safe bicycling lifestyle, but many parents are too busy, inexperienced, scared, or otherwise unwilling to ride with their children.

That’s why we’ve introduced Pedal Power programs to junior high schools around the county. In eighteen hours of afterschool programming, we teach critical bike handling skills, traffic safety, a little

Know how to use them? bit of wrenching, and a whole lot of self-confidence as we ride all over town. Graduates who didn’t already have bikes will earn a bike, a helmet, lights, lock, and a water bottle.

This fall, we ran programs at three local junior high schools—La Colina, Goleta Valley, and Santa Barbara Junior High Schools. We had a blast, thanks in part to the local companies who supported our efforts by providing yummy treats along our rides. Thanks to Backyard Bowls in Goleta, Blenders in the Grass on Calle Real, Jungle George Grill, and Trader Joe’s on Calle Real. It has been so rewarding to now see many of these kids riding their bikes to school each day.

Things are looking up as we plan to expand our offerings. We are currently applying for more funding and speaking with administrators at schools all over the county in hopes of introducing Pedal Power programs at even more schools.

When you see us in your neighborhood, give us a hoot or a holler. We’re easy to spot—we’ll be the bike train of youngsters with the nonstop giant grins!

If you are interested in enrolling your student in a Pedal Power program, see the upcoming classes schedule here in The Quick Release or online at http://www.bicicentro.org/youth. If you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch with our education coordinator, Christine Bourgeois (edu@sbbike.org), to learn about Pedal Power’s new internship program and become an assistant instructor.

WINTER / 2011