Victory! Oakland City Council Approves 4 New Bike Lane Projects

By consent, the Oakland City Council approved 4 new bike lane projects that each remove a lane of travel or parking, or both. Unprecedented! This happened because you have reached out and contacted the City to let them know you support these bikeways, and because City staff have worked so hard, with EBBC and with neighborhood groups, to keep the discussion transparent and ensure buy-in.

Specifically, your support for better bikeways from Downtown Oakland to Fruitvale, up Broadway, and out MacArthur Blvd worked. These 4 bike lane projects are all part of Oakland's Bicycle Master Plan and to have these projects approved this week is a invigorating post Bike to Work Day treat. Here are the projects:

  • E.12th St: new bike lanes on E.12th St from 14th Ave to Fruitvale Ave, connecting with the new bikeway thru Fruitvale Village E.12th St Bikeway Project. 83% public support for this 1.4 mile bikeway project.
  • Mills College: new bike lanes on MacArthur Blvd from the entrance to Mills College to Seminary Ave, as part of the LAMMPS Project.
  • Broadway: new bike lanes from 38th St up to Broadway Terrace. Bike Lanes on Broadway 87% public support for this 0.9 mile bikeway project.
  • Ardley: new bike lanes from 30th Street to MacArthur Blvd. 64% public support for this 0.3 mile bikeway project that is part of a cross-town, 2.9 mile bikeway.

Alameda On Board: Berkeley is Final City to Vote May 29 for Fall Transportation Sales Tax Measure

November 2012 election requires 2/3rds support for final approval

May 16, 2012 Update:
On May 15, the city of Alameda became the thirteenth city to approve support for a reathorization of the Alameda County Transportation Sales Tax, joining the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, and the AC Transit and BART Boards. In addition, the entire East Bay Congressional Delegation is on-board in support. We won over 11% of this measure for bike/ped projects, up from 5% currently so the East Bay Bicycle Coalition will be launching a major Fall campaign to win the needed ⅔’s voter support for this measure to pass

Berkeley is the remaining City to vote and they do that on May 29. We need your help to persuade the Berkeley City Council to support the reauthorization. Many Councilmembers are supportive, but some are waiting to decide and they need to hear from you that you want to see bike/ped funding increase over 4-fold in Alameda County.

What you can do:

Team Bike Challenge Standings at the Half-Way Point

As of May 14, half-way thru the Team Bike Challenge competition, here are some of the key standings for 226 East Bay teams. Up to date standings can be found at TeamBikeChallenge.com. Plenty of time left for comebacks, although in the "Company" category for Contra Costa, Sunpower has a powerful lead. Can anyone catch them?

Alameda Teams
  1. Cyclepath Hayward: 146 pts
  2. Caltrans Bike Romance: 132 pts
  3. Wheels of Collective Liberation: 82 its
  4. LBNL Window Warriors: 81 pts
  5. Team Fremont: 81 pts
Contra Costa Teams
  1. Hydrolic Cyclers: 135 pts
  2. Tires Half Full: 129 pts
  3. Coalition of the Wheeling: 123 its
  4. Cyclorons: 90 pts
  5. Mike's Bikes Walnut Creek: 89 pts
Alameda Companies
  1. Calrans: 788 pts
  2. EBMUD: 576 pts
  3. Sun, Light & Power: 383 its
  4. Sungevity: 367 pts
  5. LocationLabs: 177 pts
Contra Costa Companies
  1. Sunpower: 964 pts
  2. BEW Engineering: 252 pts
  3. REI Brentwood: 53 pts
  4. Optic Edge Inc: 21 pts
  5. Kaiser Martinez: 20 pts

Particularly interesting throw down competitions:

  1. Actual Cafe 147 pts
  2. Trumer Pils Brewery 115 pts
  1. East Bay Bicycle Coalition 38 pts
  2. Alameda County Transportation Commission 38 pts

Family Cycling Workshop Comes to Castro Valley

Date: 
May 19, 2012 - 10:00am - 12:30pm

Family Cycling Workshop photoThe family that rides together thrives together! Safe road bicycling takes a lot more than balance, a helmet and a good attitude. Join the East Bay Bicycle Coalition's League Certified safety instructors for a day of fun games, safety drills, skills building, and a neighborhood ride.

This workshop is for kids who are able to ride a bike and ready to ride on the roadways with their parents. Parents and kids must attend together and should bring their own bikes. Each child receives a free red blinky light for participating!

Register for this Castro Valley class

East Bay Bike to Work Day Breaks All Records

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and
Councilmember Ignacio de la Fuente

For the first time ever, traffic counts at Telegraph & Bancroft count more bikes than cars
We felt the buzz and knew Bike to Work Day was going to be big. But who could have predicted the inundation of riders seen this morning on the streets of the East Bay.

Bike Counts up 16%
Bike counts at 143 energizer stations tallied 17,500 people riding, a 16% increase over last year. In the past 5 years, bicycling has increased 285% in the East Bay on our big day. For 2012, Dublin/Pleasanton and Fremont lead the way each with a 40% increase in morning bike counts, followed by Alameda with a 29% increase, and Emeryville with a 17% increase. Bike counts at East Bay BART Stations averaged 250 bikes per station-that's a bike station!

Media coverage of Bike to Work Day 2012
Great Photos of Bike to Work Day

Yuba Mundo Bike school competition for the Team Bike Challenge

Yuba Bicycles is giving away a Mundo family-style cargo bike to the parent-child team with the most points in the Team Bike Challenge this year in the East Bay. The Mundo cargo bike is great for families and can easily carry two kids, and some.

To be eligible to win the Yuba Mundo Bike,

  1. register a team in the Team Bike Challenge and compete during the month of May
  2. your team must have at least one parent and one child (same family) on the team*
  3. your team name needs to have your school name in it

Pedaling Professor and Mother of 3 Kids win 2012 Bike Commuter of the Year Awards

East Bay Bicycle Coalition Recognizes a Los Medanos College Professor and an Albany Mother of Three.

OAKLAND, CA, May 1, 2012 – Kara Vuicich, an Albany mother of three young children, and Curtis Corlew, an art and journalism professor at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, have won the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s 2012 Bike Commuter of the Year awards.

Every year during Bike Month the East Bay Bicycle Coalition recognizes two outstanding members of the cycling community - one from Contra Costa County and one from Alameda County - for their commitment to bicycling and for inspiring others to use a bicycle for regular transportation. Corlew, who began riding at the urging of his wife after many years off the bike, now commutes 8 miles each way from his home in Antioch to his office every work day. Vuicich, a transportation planner, commuted by bike through two pregnancies and countless rainstorms when she worked for the City of Berkeley.

"More schools and colleges are participating in Bike to Work Day this year and we are delighted that our award winners are helping us reach the next generation of riders," says Renee Rivera, Executive Director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition.

The inspiring pair will be recognized and receive their awards during the Bike Happy Hour Party (5:00 - 8:30pm) in Old Oakland on Bike to Work Day, Thursday, May 10, 2012.

Safe Riding in the Wake of Berkeley's Hit-and-Run Collision

Free Bicycle Safety ClassWe at the East Bay Bicycle Coalition are glad to see that swift action has been taken by the Berkeley and Oakland police departments to catch the suspect in Wedsnesday’s hit-and-run collision on Tunnel Road in Berkeley. We are also relieved that these two cyclists got away with only abrasions and damage to their bikes. This unusual collision could have been much worse.

The video of this collision has gone viral on YouTube. With tens of thousands of viewers of this scary video out there we want to remind everyone that bicycling is safe, particularly with some basic traffic skills. While the video is very scary, remember that this is an extremely rare type of collision. We strongly everyone to take one of our free bicycle safety classes offered throughout Alameda County and learn how to ride in a predictable, visible and comfortable manner while sharing the road. For a full list of classes go to www.ebbc.org/safety.

Bus Rapid Transit with bike lanes is coming to the East Bay

AC Transit Board approves Bus Rapid Transit Project with bike lanes from Downtown Oakland to San Leandro

Bus Rapid Transit with bike lanes is coming to the East Bay-finally! At its April 25 Board Meeting, AC Transit unanimously approved the Downtown Oakland to San Leandro (DOSL) alternative for bus rapid transit, and they did so in response to overwhelming support from Oakland residents ready for a better Oakland. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition is proud that our members were strong voices in support and that the broad community of support for this project appreciates how important good bike access is to better bus service. Thank you to everyone who helped us show how buses and bikes go together.

Is Your City Ready to Spend its Federal Transportation Dollars? April 30 Deadline Looms

On April 18, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4348, a 90-day extension of their version of the Federal Transportation Bill, and it includes some dramatic changes to the environmental review process as well as a mandate to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline. H.R. 4348 can serve as the companion bill to the Senate's MAP-21 Federal Bill and thus opens up the door to a conference committee. In conference, the final bill is limited to elements included in one of the House and Senate bills.

The Senate MAP-21 bill includes a "recission" clause that requires the return of funding to the Federal Government for projects that are not "obligated" by April 30, 2012 under the current Federal funding cycle. What does this mean? Many projects with good bike/ped elements in Alameda and Contra Costa County could lose funding if your city has not "obligated" their projects funded with Federal $$$. If your City's project is in this list, then they need to obligate their project by April 30, or risk losing the funding. East Bay cities such as Albany, Livermore, Oakland, Pleasanton, Concord, San Ramon, Pittsburg, Richmond, Alameda and El Cerrito could lose funding for good bike projects.