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Bike Kitchen? Car Kitchen!

Ready for the Car Kitchen?

Our donors are amazing! Bike SLO County thrives because of the generosity of so many dedicated members of the bike community.

And the car community.

At this point you may be you scratching your head saying “Wait…car drivers support bikes?”

Almost everyone we know who rides a bike also drives an automobile. Some drive a car every day, some drive multiple times a day, others not so often. While Bike SLO County doesn’t own a car, we sometimes need one and when we do we use a local car-share service.

Historically our Bike Kitchen has been a maintenance/education space to teach people how to fix their bicycles. We have all the parts, tools and knowledge anyone might need to fix a bicycle. The Bike Kitchen has provided guided instruction to over 6,000 people since opening our doors in 2010.

But what about cars? As far as we know, there isn’t currently a maintenance/education space to teach people how to fix their cars anywhere in SLO County. While there are lots of commercial mechanics, up until now not a single non-profit organization has worked to provide the parts, tools and knowledge you would need to fix your own car. That’s why we’re so very happy to announce that today is April Fools Day! Yes! We’re sorry! But we had you going for a minute!

While we like the idea of a Bike Kitchen for cars, we aren’t going to be the ones to get that started. Our focus will remain on Advocacy and Education, endlessly working for safer streets for everyone, whether you are a person driving a bicycle, a person driving a car, a person walking or, depending on the day, all of the above. Bike SLO County will continue to educate people of all ages, in schools around the county, in our Street Skills classes and yes, in the Bike Kitchen.

We’ll say it again. Our donors are amazing! Bike SLO County thrives because of the generosity of so many dedicated members of the bike community, the pedestrian community and yes, the car community. Safe streets are no joke. Donate today and help grow the movement for safer streets for everyone. It’s easy to donate – just click the donate link below:

       → → → https://bikeslocounty.org/donate ← ← ←

Thank you!

(P.S. For every donation we receive, we promise not play any more April Fools Day pranks until sometime next year.)

How to Design Cities for People: An Update

Meredith Glaser revisits questions from “How to Design Cities for People”  

A few weeks back we heard from SLO-raised but Amsterdam-based urban strategy and sustainable mobility consultant Meredith Glaser on How to Design Cities for People.

Meredith Glaser & Bike SLO County Executive Director Dan Rivoire at Bello Mundo Cafe

Meredith Glaser & Bike SLO County Executive Director Dan Rivoire at Bello Mundo Cafe

She works on a freelance basis with Dutch municipalities, on international projects with Copenhagenize Design Co, and as a guest researcher/lecturer at the University of Amsterdam. She curates and leads study tours for city leaders around the world. And with any spare time she blogs for Amsterdam Cycle Chic.

Her talk focused on three key ideas for more people-centered urban planning. First, we need to observe how people are currently using our streets and public spaces. Observing human behavior can provide valuable data for leveraging change. Second, providing choices for people makes them happy. Transportation and land use decisions that result in easily accessible services that are walkable and bikeable can change the way people move in and use their city. Finally, we need to hone and nourish our very human skill of imagining better streets that caterer more to people and places rather than cars and traffic.

Kinkerstraat Amsterdam

Kinkerstraat, Amsterdam. From top: 1981 via www.studiokoning.com; 2016 via @fietsprofessor; near future via City of Amsterdam

We had a packed house at Bella Mundo and after her talk many people asked some great (and tough) questions. Meredith took some time to write up more detailed responses to some of those tough questions.

What zoning changes would you prioritize if you were a SLO planner or policy maker?

I’m not a California zoning code expert, but in true cycling cities, like those in the Netherlands and Denmark, daily needs services are within close distances from where people live and work, and the zoning code is flexible enough to allow for uses to change and adapt with the changing needs of a neighborhood. Mixed use developments with grocery stores, pharmacies, child care and schools, doctors, and other specialty retail strategically placed on the ground level and concentrated on corner sites should be prioritized. Downtown SLO neighborhoods would greatly benefit from a full-service grocery store (or a couple) to support the daily needs of its immediately local residents. (The lot across from Bank of America would be an ideal location for a mixed use development with underground parking, ground floor services, and apartments above. Reminds me of several relatively new developments in Berkeley on University Avenue.) Downtown has ample space for infill and small scale, mixed use developments. Outside of downtown is a whole other issue. New housing developments (out off Broad for example) lack accessibility to services within walking or biking distance, which only perpetuates auto dominated lifestyles. New developments should be clustered near existing services; if they aren’t, then the developers need to provide logical and safe bicycle and walking connections to existing services, schools and other daily amenities. You can read a lot more about these kinds of examples in my new book The City at Eye Level, download it for free here.

Would you agree with the statement that we need to make driving more difficult? 

Right now our streets are set up in a way to benefit only one type of user – those driving cars.

Photo from Amsterdam Cycle Chic

photo from Amsterdam Cycle Chic

We’ve become very accustomed to the conveniences of an unbalanced transportation system that doesn’t reflect the actual costs on society – subsidized gasoline, wide streets, free or very cheap parking, and a ‘door-to-door’ righteous mentality. Modernizing our city streets means allocating some of that space to other users of the road. Best practice bicycle infrastructure that is safe and comfortable and gets people where they need to go has proved an effective way to calm traffic and ease congestion. (Imagine if those bicyclists were in cars!) Surveys from drivers in cities that have created more balanced streets showed that they appreciated the bicycle infrastructure: the infrastructure made the street easier to navigate because each user better understood their place, their role and how they should behave. So it’s not about making it more difficult to drive – it’s not a zero sum game – it’s about balancing out a very unbalanced system.

If we can’t have bike infrastructure, what’s the next best thing?

Amsterdam_Intersection

Photofrom Amsterdam Cycle Chic

Best practice bicycle infrastructure has been around for decades; it’s not new and we know how to do it. And compared to car infrastructure, it is low cost, low maintenance and benefits outweigh the risks. The next best thing to permanent bicycle infrastructure is temporary bicycle infrastructure – a trend that is already sweeping the nation. Pilot, pop-up, and demonstration projects are a great way to try out low-stress bicycle infrastructure. Plastic posts or planter boxes can create temporary protected bike lanes or sidewalk extensions. There no reason San Luis Obispo cannot try out some of the ideas that are already out there – no need to reinvent the wheel, especially with that budget surplus we heard about!

I’m not a planner or engineer; what’s my take away from this? What can I do?

Re-establishing the bicycle as a mainstream mode of transport means getting people just like you more involved. If you’re already using the bicycle as a daily transport mode, you are already doing a lot. Keep riding and keep smiling. Tell your friends to join you. Tell your colleagues to join. Have your company buy bikes to leave at the office so they bike to meetings instead of drive. You can advocate for better infrastructure and bicycle facilities by writing to the city council and showing up for city council meetings. Write letters to the Tribune. Join Bike SLO County.

How would you Copenhagenize our downtown streets?

Downtown streets were planned for cars and traffic; it’s time to give more space to people and places. There is ample space to play with and plenty of ideas already out there – just pick a couple and see what works. It’s not rocket science.

If you want more of an answer than that… The design of the streets downtown, for the most part, does not match the uses. Let’s take Higuera: three wide lanes of traffic plus parking on both sides.

Photo by Amsterdam Cycle Chic

Photo from Amsterdam Cycle Chic

This layout is not congruent with the ‘Main Street’ atmosphere, the high amount of pedestrians, and lends to a poor shopping experience. The sidewalks are so narrow people are forced to shuffle around each other. The trees provide a cozy ambiance but the parked cars benefit more from their shade than people. And the traffic is as noisy and distracting as those hideous blinking crosswalk signs. Plenty of bicyclists use the street but it’s unclear where they should ride or park their bicycles. This street (and many others) would majorly benefit from sidewalk widening on both sides, giving people more space to walk and linger – plus restaurants could place more seating outside where people can people watch and enjoy the full sun of that street. Parklets can provide a temporary solution for bike parking or restaurant tables or just more space for people to sit. Raised bike ways (or at least 6′ bike lanes with buffers for car doors) on both sides could allow for increased accessibility to shops as well as through movement while remaining low-stress, comfortable, and intuitive for all users. Again, there are great bones here and lots of space to play with!

How do you convince engineers? Or rather, why are engineers in the Netherlands already “doing it right”?

For 7,000 years streets were designed for people and by people. 100 years ago that all changed and our streets were engineered for the first time in human history. It appears as though engineers aren’t going away any time soon, so it might be time to inject some real life and real design into the engineering curriculum. In the Netherlands where cycling is an every day, mainstream form of transportation, engineers are also bicycling so they experience their work on a daily basis. That’s not the case in other cities and towns, especially in the U.S. It might be very difficult for an American engineer to imagine (and design, no less) bicycle infrastructure if he or she has never experienced best practice infrastructure first hand. I think that’s why study tours are so important. Feeling and experiencing comfortable, safe bicycle infrastructure that’s been around for a century – plus talking to the experts themselves – is better than any PowerPoint presentation.

If you’re interested in study tours check out the Copenhagenize Master Class or contact Meredith for a custom study tour in the Netherlands.

Do you think Cal Poly should play a role?

Absolutely. University decision makers need to make bicycles and mass transit clear priorities, but again linking these networks and nodes seamlessly with housing, daily needs and services, and connections to the downtown core. Bicycle parking should be ample, obvious, and intuitively placed. Policies also must limit students from bringing cars into SLO – but that has to be combined with land use decisions that provide for the daily needs of students.

Cal Poly is not the only stakeholder though. In addition to transitional city officials, key decision makers from local hospitals, SLO school district, developers, Old Mission Church and schools, major employers, and the Chamber of Commerce need to get on board. As I said last Wednesday, this isn’t about getting more bicycles on the streets of San Luis Obispo, it’s about giving people more choices for how they get around. It’s about balancing out our streets and giving more space to people. And it’s about building a better, happier, more livable town for the children growing up here.

Meredith Glaser is an urban strategy and mobility consultant. She is originally from San Luis Obispo, holds Masters degrees in urban planning and public health from UC Berkeley, and has been based in the Netherlands since 2010. Meredith holds a guest appointment at the University of Amsterdam, where she co-leads a summer program on urban cycling and conducts research on cross-national policy transfer and knowledge exchange related to mobility. She hosts other university-level student groups and international professional delegations for cycling and mobility study tours. Meredith also directs the Amsterdam office for Copenhagenize Design Co., which advises cities and towns around the world regarding bicycle urbanism, reestablishing the bicycle as transport in cities, policy, planning, communications and general urban design. In her spare time she blogs for Amsterdam Cycle Chic. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband, daughter, 4 bikes and no car.

Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard Plan Kick Off

In late March of 2016, the City of San Luis Obispo will hold an initial community meeting to begin the process of developing the Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard Plan, which improves bike options along Broad Street from Ramona Street south to Monterey Street.

The meeting takes place on March 24, 2016 from 6-8 PM at the SLO County Public Library, 995 Palm St, SLO, CA 93403 (map)

According to the City of SLO’s Press Release:

SLO emblem_rgb_for dk bkgd_sm“The City of San Luis Obispo invites you to a neighborhood meeting on Thursday, March 24, 2016, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM at the City/County Library, 995 Palm Street, to kick of the process for developing the Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard Plan. The project is intended to provide a through route for bicyclists and pedestrians serving the downtown core and neighborhoods to the north. The Plan will look at Broad Street from Ramona Street toMonterey Street, including a future bicycle/pedestrian overcrossing of Highway 101. Your participation at this meeting is valuable and appreciated. To subscribe to project updates and/or provide feedback on the project, visit the City’s online forum at https://www.peakdemocracy.com/3444.

Project Managers Jennifer Rice and Luke Schwartz are also available and can be reached at JRice@slocity.org and LSchwartz@slocity.org, or via phone at (805) 781-7190.

2016 Survey and Bike Light Giveaway

Fill out my online form.

Survey says…

#TwoWheeledWednesday Update

Show us your #TwoWheeledWednesday

At the beginning of 2016 we launched Two-Wheeled Wednesday, a weekly celebration of riding a bike simply for the sake of riding, and urged folks to take photos or video of their ride and share them with the #TwoWheeledWednesday hashtag on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

Why? Besides the joy of riding, the health benefits and the time spent outdoors with friends and loved ones, sharing your tagged photos can win you some awesome prizes in our monthly drawing. You can win Bike Lights, bike-related books and more. 

When is Two-Wheeled Wednesday? Every Wednesday is Two-Wheeled Wednesday!

When are the drawings? Once a month!

Our first drawing was at the end of January, and lucky rider Jana Schwartz won bragging rights and a sweet set of Bike SLO County bike lights. Our next winner will be announced on Friday, February 26th. Ride those bikes, tag those photos with #TwoWheeledWednesday and stay tuned!
Bicycle in Bike Lane on Santa Rosa St

SLO PD to focus on Bike Safety

Bike and Drive Smart on Thursday, February 4th (and every other day of the year…)

The San Luis Obispo Police Department will step up their bike safety enforcement operations on Thursday, February 4th, with focused enforcement on collision-causing factors bike safety stop signinvolving motorists and bicycle riders. Special patrols will be deployed to crack down on drivers and bicyclists who violate traffic laws meant to protect all roadway users.

The Police Department has mapped out locations from over the past three years where bicycle-involved collisions have occurred and noted the violations that led to those crashes. Officers will be looking for violations made by car drivers and bike riders alike that can lead to life changing injuries.

The following safety tips can save lives and should be practiced every day, not just on days of increased police enforcement, and not just in the City of San Luis Obispo:

Car Drivers:

  • Yield to cyclists at intersections and as directed by signs and signals. Failure to yield is the #1 reason for accidents when cars are at fault
  • ‘Share the road’ with bicyclists
  • Be courteous; California law now mandates at least three feet of clearance when passing bike riders
  • Look for cyclists before opening a car door or pulling out from a driveway or parking space
  • Be especially watchful for riders when making turns, either left or right
  • Be predictable, use turn signals
  • Obey traffic signals, speed limits and stop signs

Bicycle Drivers:

  • When cycling in the street, cyclists must drive in the same direction as traffic. Wrong way cycling is the #1 reason for accidents when bicycles are at fault
  • Don’t ride on sidewalks. People and cars aren’t looking for you there (and it’s illegal in the City of SLO)
  • Be predictable, signal turns and stops with your hands
  • When possible, make eye contact with drivers
  • Bicycle Drivers are considered vehicle operators; you are required to obey the same rules of the road as other vehicle operators, including obeying traffic signs, stop signs, signals, and lane markings
  • Bicyclists can increase their visibility to drivers by wearing fluorescent or brightly colored clothing during the day, and at dawn and dusk
  • To be noticed when riding at night, the law requires a front light and a red reflector to the rear
  • For additional safety, use a flashing rear light, and use retro-reflective tape or markings on equipment or clothing

Bike safety, and road safety in general, is something to strive for 24/7, 365. Let’s make the roads safer for everyone.

Like bikes? Join us! It’s free!

Here comes Two-Wheeled Wednesday

Be Active, Be Social, Win!

This week we introduce Two-Wheeled Wednesday. Our goal? To get more folks riding bikes, at least one day a week. Already ride more than that? Awesome! Want to ride more but don’t think you have the time? Two-Wheeled Wednesday! Have friends who are interested in riding but haven’t made the leap? Two-Wheeled Wednesday! TwoWheeledWednesdayChimpWant an excuse to ride your bike even more? Two-Wheeled Wednesday!

Here’s how it works: On Two-Wheeled Wednesday,  ride your bicycle.  With friends. With colleagues. With strangers. Even alone, on Wednesdays we all ride together. Ride to coffee, to work, to school, to anywhere our bikes will take us. Ride with anyone and everyone who wants to ride. Ride a mile, or two, or around the block. But ride, and invite others. In Paso. In Pismo. In Cambria, Santa Margarita, SLO, Oceano, anywhere and everywhere in SLO County and beyond. The idea behind Two-Wheeled Wednesday is simply riding bikes and encouraging others to ride as well, no matter the distance.

Participate and Win

To encourage as many people as possible to ride on Two-Wheeled Wednesdays, we’ll have monthly giveaways. To be entered, take a photo or video of your ride and share it with us on our Facebook, InstagramTwitter or Tumblr pages using the hashtag #twowheeledwednesday. At the end of each month, we’ll do a drawing for Bike Lights, Bike Kitchen Passes and other great stuff. To clarify: Two-Wheeled Wednesday takes place every Wednesday, drawings take place at the end of each month in 2016.

Share your photo or video entries with us on:

Facebook: BikeSLOCounty  Instagram: bikeslocounty  Twitter: bikeslo Tumblr: bikeslocounty

Make sure to include the #twowheeledwednesday hastag! Invite your friends! Invite your neighbors! We can’t wait to see all the SLO County bike riders!