North Park-Mid City Regional Bike Corridor

On Wednesday, January 30th, SANDAG kicked off their North Park-Mid City Regional Bike Corridor community advisory group and there was lots of excitement about making the area more bike-friendly. There more than two dozen community members in attendance. SDCBC is one of many community organizations represented on the committee, along with community planning groups, business improvement associations, and town councils. The purpose of the group is to advise SANDAG on the design of bikeways identified in the Regional Bike Plan including Meade Ave, Orange/Howard Ave, and Landis/ Wightman.

District 9 Councilmember Marti Emerald kicked of the meeting by urging out of the box thinking in terms of project design. She said that now was the time to reshape our streets to the serve all people, and pledge her support to make that happen. She encouraged the community to hold SANDAG to the three year schedule to get something built as many in the room have experience with plans that are gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

There were lots of great “out of the box” ideas, but the biggest request was to make sure that cyclists had access to the business districts along University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard. SDCBC has been working with these business districts to become more bike-friendly, and the community recognized the need for safe and convenient access as well as a place to park.

Long Beach provides a great example of bike facilities that have improve cyclist safety, maintained traffic flow and help businesses thrive as reported in a recent article. I was happy to hear the SANDAG planners reference the Long Beach case.

While SANDAG's planning efforts are focused on the corridors that were identified in the regional bike plan, 

they pledged to make sure the proposed improvements compliment projects in the City of San Diego Bicycle Master plan as well, including much needed improvements on Fairmount Ave and Texas Street.

SDCBC will continue to be engaged to make sure that this project is the best it can be and can be an example of innovative bike design for the entire region. 

-Kevin Wood, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition Board Chair

Member Spotlight: Tracey McNeel

"The days of my childhood bicycling carried over eventually to also my adulthood. There is a web page which lists, as for starters, the 60+ reasons why biking is good for a person. After the days of my childhood, I started again at the age of 17 into Mountain Biking. I was inspired by the late night TV showings I used to watch of Mountain bikers- I had to try it!. Though my years of  this type of personally chosen physical activity have also given me my share amount of bruises, scabs, and scars, Mountain biking (as also being only one small part of the cycling world) IMO, is the most exhilarating and challenging both mentally and physically for a physical activity. 

Eventually, I also, progressed into Road Cycling. It is known how Sagittarians not only love Nature, full of never ending innovations to other creativity, but also love to travel. Having to be on a tight and restrictive budget for the majority of my life, road cycling was another way for me to TRAVEL, stop and smell the roses, take some really awesome photographs, get out, get some really good air, exercise my limbs, lungs, and keep the blood flowing through my body for practically no cost at all.  At current age 46, I  have over the past two years, also added several other types of physical activities besides my cycling. I cannot even fathom why so many people hate to not only not exercise, but bike, as biking similar to swimming is one of the safer activities toward the wear and tear of one's body when exercising; the key to limiting injuries? The bike fit for your specific body dimensions as well as properly instructed guidance as a cyclist. Though I still can hear many car drivers, etc, even if I am too, obeying the rules of the roads; signs, signaling when turning, to all the rest of legalities that apply to a road cyclist; 

Those who believe cyclists do not belong on the road, I question these persons, then why are you as being in a  much bigger and in an enclosed metal box, are still having  such bad car crashes? I personally think the hatred statements that of "Cyclists have no rights being on the road" should more so be said and applied to all those who heavily rely on driving their fancy metal boxes which also has very big expenses, in a message that screams; Cars and lousy Car drivers don't belong or should have rights on the road. Do I need further explain Why do I bike? Biking has always been one of my passions which I am in no way willing to give up because of anyone else's jealousy or envy to even imply that cyclist have no rights on the road or anywhere else."

Tracey L.McNeel

Avid Creative and Innovative Cyclist and Mountain Biker

of San Diego County.

Advocacy in Action – Local Bicycle/Pedestrian Community Groups Making an Impact!

Two recent victories provided bold bike-friendly moves that will provide safer, more accessible bicycling infrastructure in the cities of Coronado and Encinitas. Over the last 12 months,  both of these cities joined the Cities of Oceanside, Chula Vista, Solana Beach, San Diego City Council District 2 and Bike SD in forming volunteer-based advocacy groups that work to make their respective communities better for all people who ride.  

The proof of the effectiveness of these groups was very evident at two recent City Council meetings. The City of Coronado, who is aiming to become a League of American Bicyclists designated "Bicycle Friendly City" recently approved the installation of 8 new, on-street bicycle parking corrals along their business district on Orange Avenue. Much of the heavy lifting that led to the Councils approval of the corrals came from the work of the Coronado Bicycle Advisory Committee. The group meets monthly to develop and implement programs and strategies that will improve bicycle safety and access in Coronado.

Similarly in Encinitas, the less formal (Coronado’s Committee is city appointed) but just as effective, Bike Walk Encinitas Committee has worked for several months to advocate for more bike-friendly infrastructure in the community of Leucadia. The resulting action from the Encinitas City Council was the approval of a lane reduction and addition of a new dedicated bike lane and Sharrows (bicycle road markings) along North Coast Highway 101 that will dramatically improve the safety for all who ride through Leucadia.

The SDCBC congratulates these groups and thanks them for their work on improving the conditions for bicyclists in their cities. The SDCBC, which recently reorganized its board and committee structure, will convene a new “Council of Community Committees” which will connect representatives from each of the groups to meet quarterly to network and share best practices.  The first meeting is expected to take place in early spring of 2013.

Rose Creek Fest

Join us at the Rose Creek Fest this Saturday! Ride your bike to the event and stop by the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition table to learn more about us and the Rose Creek Bikeway Bridge! 

Event details:

The Rose Creek Fest in San Diego's Mission Bay Park will take place on Saturday, February 9, 2013 from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM at Campland on the Bay (2211 Pacific Beach Drive). Brought to you by San Diego EarthWorks (the producers of the San Diego Earth Day Fair) with their partners Friends of Rose Creek and Campland on the Bay, this free environmental event will have music, entertainment, barbeque  art, activities and displays that are unique to Rose Creek and its surrounding communities. Bring the whole family to celebrate the natural beauty that Rose Creek and its watershed bring to the communities of Pacific Beach, University City and Clairemont.

The Rose Creek Fest will feature something for everyone. Special features include:

• The "Rose Creek Rubber Duck Derby" presented by Think Blue San Diego
• "Love Your Wetlands Day" service event at the neighboring Kendall Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve
• "CreekWalk" led by Friends of Rose Creek
• Activities for children and adults provided by Ocean Discovery Institute, local high school students studying the creek, and community partners
• Music from the Mission Bay High School Preservationists
• Engaging environmental magic with Dr. Wilderness
• A community mural-painting project

Mark your calendar today for this free event. Parking is limited so please consider biking. You can learn more about the event and volunteer opportunities at www.rosecreekfest.org.

Easy Biking to the Farmers Insurance Open

Planning on going to the Farmers Insurance Open at the end of the month? Try taking your bike to the tournament and save money, enjoy the outdoors, and get great parking at the event. The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition will be providing FREE bike valet parking for the golf tournament in Torrey Pines from January 23-27^th.

Valet bike parking is like a coat check for bicycles, ensuring that bicycles and their accessories will not be stolen while at the event. Farmers Insurance is also generously donating $10 to SDCBC for every bike we park to go towards our efforts to make bicycling better in San Diego County!

Check out our easy biking routes to the tournament below. If you are interested in being a bike valet volunteer at the Open, please email Andy Hanshaw at execdir@sdcbc.org or call 858-487-6063.

Click here to see where the bike parking is located. 

Best ways to get to and from the tournament:

From the North

Take in  some of the best of coastal San Diego as you take Coast Hwy 101 from points north through Solana Beach and Del Mar. Enjoy the fresh ocean breeze as you cross Penasquitos Lagoon and get your lungs working as you climb through Torrey Pines State Reserve to the golf course.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Chesterfield+Dr&daddr=N+Torrey+Pines+Rd&hl=en&ll=32.951496,-117.235107&spn=0.125464,0.264187&sll=32.910793,-117.250557&sspn=0.031381,0.066047&geocode=FbbU9wEdVWoC-Q%3BFekf9gEdowAD-Q&t=h&gl=us&dirflg=b&mra=ltm&z=13&lci=bike

From the East

Enjoy a mostly car-free trip down the Highway 56 bike path from points east. Take El Camino Real north before heading west on Carmel Valley Road. Enjoy a loop around Penasquitos Lagoon before making the climb up to Torrey Pines.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=SR+56+Bike+Trail&daddr=N+Torrey+Pines+Rd&hl=en&ll=32.938026,-117.215495&spn=0.031371,0.066047&sll=32.950883,-117.195282&sspn=0.007842,0.016512&geocode=FZfM9gEd_sED-Q%3BFekf9gEdowAD-Q&t=h&gl=us&dirflg=b&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=17&z=15&lci=bike

From the South

From Downtown, Old Town, Mission Bay Park

Take Pacific highway to West Mission Bay Drive, Enjoy the view of Mission Bay as you work your way all the way up past Grand and Garnet to Damon/Santa Fe Drive, or take the Rose Creek bike path to Damon. Follow Santa Fe until it turns it ends at the Rose Canyon Path. Continue on to Gilman Drive for a slow climb through the UCSD Campus. Continue through campus to North Torrey Pines Road and head towards the golf course.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=old+town+transit+center&daddr=N+Torrey+Pines+Rd&hl=en&sll=32.938026,-117.215495&sspn=0.031371,0.066047&geocode=FenL8wEd2qwD-SmL0qUc56regDF41UBvPdQffg%3BFekf9gEdowAD-Q&t=h&gl=us&dirflg=b&mra=ls&z=12&lci=bike

From La Jolla/Bird Rock

The La Jolla Bike path is a hidden gem for coastal San Diegans. Pick it up at the end of La Jolla Hermosa Ave and take it all the way to La Jolla High School. Take Fay towards the village and work your way down Torrey pines to La Jolla Shores. Stop along the climb to enjoy views of the ocean as your work towards UCSD's campus. Head north along Torrey Pines Rd until you find some world class golf.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=La+Jolla+Blvd&daddr=32.8326809,-117.2714735+to:N+Torrey+Pines+Rd&hl=en&ll=32.858879,-117.251104&spn=0.00785,0.016512&sll=32.82569,-117.25944&sspn=0.031411,0.066047&geocode=Fb6Z9AEdFL4C-Q%3BFaj89AEdT5QC-SmrR_fz3gPcgDG7WlazKKUItg%3BFekf9gEdowAD-Q&t=h&gl=us&dirflg=b&mra=dpe&mrsp=1&sz=15&via=1&z=17&lci=bike

With all the routes there will be friendly volunteers to help park your bike at the end!

No more deaths! lets fix freeway interchanges

On Thursday, Jan 3rd  a cyclist was struck and killed at the Clairemont Mesa Blvd/805 on-ramp  Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Our thoughts also turn to thinking about how these dangerous interchanges can be made safer for all road users.

The Coalition is aggressively following up with the City, CalTrans, and other stakeholders to demand changes to freeway interchanges. If there is a problem interchange on your regular route or you have had a harrowing experience crossing a particular freeway, please let us know so we can work to make them better.

Below, longtime bike advocate Jim Baross reflects on what this latest fatality says about cycling and what we can do to make it better.

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Another person bicycling is killed in San Diego at a freeway ramp; it’s hard for me to comprehend the impact this will have on the family of the person who died, and on the person who was driving. I cannot adequately imagine my own life ending but this news impacts me too – I regularly have to deal with roadway situations that are difficult for bicycling. News of yet another person killed or injured makes we wonder if I should be riding at all; even though I am as careful as I can be choosing safer routes, riding competently, making sure my bike is in good repair, lights and reflectors working, helmet on, etc. But, there’s more that can and should be done, right?

News of recent fatalities raise people’s consciousness temporally, but to effect the changes we want takes informed and continued efforts. If knowing the numbers of people killed by motor vehicles was enough, we should have solved the problems by now… more Americans have been killed in motor vehicle crashes than have died in ALL the wars America has ever fought! More by far than by guns – more than 30,000 every year! Let’s stop the killings!

Freeway on and off ramps designed to allow motor vehicles to quickly enter and exit surface streets are huge barriers for everyone else, bicycling or walking. I remember a student of Kerry Kunsman’s Street Skills class in Claremont riding over the 805 dealing with the fast on-off ramp traffic there asking, “Why are we doing this? It’s scary!” The answer is “because it’s there” and until we get rid of these hazardous intersections, we can’t get around much of San Diego by bike without dealing somehow with these freeway crossings – find another route? – get off and walk? – call a cab? – don’t ride at all? – better yet, change them!

            There is hope for being able to ride more safely on these scary interchanges. With enough political will we might  get completely separated crossings for bicycling and walking, but right now there are positive changes that could be done almost immediately, read on. More certainly needs to be done! By knowing what has already been done, and how more changes can be made, we can help move things along further.

The design and operation of freeway interchanges is set by the California Department of Transportation, everyone calls it Caltrans.The designs for new freeway interchanges and other roadways are embodied/dictated in large part by what’s in two documents, Caltrans’ California Manual of Traffic Control Devices and the California Highway Design Manual (bothavailable for free online). Traffic Engineers are supposed to use these acceptable designs for all State and most public roadways. After several years of effort, we are supposed to be able to get better freeway interchanges for accommodating bicycling. Appreciation for these changes should largely be directed to the work of CABO Board members Bob Shanteau and Dan Gutierrez, along with League Cycling Instructor John Ciccarelli. They have been working with Caltrans through the California Traffic Control Devices Committee and the Caltrans California Bicycle Advisory Committee to create the rational for and the diagram designs for better freeway ramp designs. These changes could be applied RIGHT NOW with enough public outcry and political will at many San Diego locations. Dan, Bob and John emphasize that “It is extremely important that the geometric design MUST make it visually clear who has the ROW (right of way) and who must yield!” The new design standards show how. Click here to see the latest CalTrans guidance of interchange design for cyclists

Progress is being made, and more certainly needs to be done to get to a goal of Zero Fatalities. Bicycling advocacy organizations such as the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, the California Association of Bicycling Organizations (CABO), and now the relatively new California Bicycle Coalition and locally BikeSD, are helping to move transportation agencies and governments toward better, safer travel experiences. Caltrans and local city traffic engineers have been and are continuing to be moved – yes, moved - toward providing roadways that are better for bicycling and walking. Dan, a League Cycling Instructor and President of CABO, has, under contract with Caltrans, been providing training to Caltrans and other transportation design staff on “Understanding Bicycle Transportation.” In the last five years alone California Complete Streets legislation was passed mandating that roads accommodate bicycling and walking. Legislative requirements for traffic-actuated/on-demand traffic signals to be set to recognize and change for bicyclists is already being implemented. A process for experimenting with new bikeway designs for the Highway Design Manual just passed the legislature in 2012. More should be done. Help make it so. Email chair Kevin Wood at chair-sdcbc@sdcbc.org if you’d like to get involved in fixing these interchanges.

Notes from the Board Chair

Thank you to everyone who came to our Holiday Joyride. The weather worked out perfectly for a dry and fun ride through some of San Diego's older neighborhood. Our brightly lit bicycles brought some joy to the streets, but I was especially joyous to report all the great things we have accomplished in 2012 back at Mission Brewery.

In 2012, we adopted a new strategic plan with a mission to advocate for and protect the rights of ALL people who ride bicycles. We helped launch a bike friendly business district campaign and locate three new bike corrals in San Diego.  We attended dozens of committee meetings, city council hearings, and other meetings to advocate for more bike safety measures and a more accessible regional network. We taught hundreds of adults and children safe cycling skills through our education efforts and we parked thousands of bikes through our bicycle valet program. We had the most successful Bike The Bay and Tour De Fat yet - raising funds to support for our work.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner and Council President Todd Gloria both expressed their support for bicycles as a way to enhance the livability of our neighborhoods and the sustainability of the region. The time is right to make sure the bicycles stay at the top of the local agenda. In 2013 we will continue to work with local bicycle advisory committees to push to bicycle  improvements and make sure that bicycles are included in planning projects. We will support the implementation of a bike share program and more bicycle friend business. We will continue to provide bike education and offer valet services at large events.

Your membership helps provide a voice for cyclists in the region. As we seek to better advocate for all people who ride bikes, we can use your support as volunteers for programs like bike education and making, as well as members on our education, advocacy and organizational development committees. Watch you email boxes for more opportunities to get involved.

Thank you for your support in 2012, and I look forward to a great year ahead.

- Kevin C. Wood