Scratch's Last Ride by June Moxon
Kinetic Sculpture Race 1998
With two museum exhibits in the Bay Area devoted to the bicycle, the EBBC may have to add "As Art" to its motto Promoting the Bicycle for Everyday Recreation and Transportation.
Running from November 24 through January 17 is "Surreal Wheels" at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, 4 blocks from the BART station). This exhibit features bikes from the Kinetic Sculpture Race, held each year in the tiny town of Ferndale.
Each year, thousands of visitors pour into Ferndale to watch "Racing Sculptures" compete on a fairly difficult course. Included in the exhibit: a bicycle made of concrete (hard to brake when going downhill), a Yellow Submarine, a flying saucer, and a video that includes racing footage and interviews with the artists behind the event.
The bicycle shown above was built by an inmate at the Atascadero State Correctional Facility. It was constructed almost entirely out of materials found at the prison. The only original bicycle parts are the fenders and the rear wheel hub. The frame was built out of pipes, the saddle is made of wood, and the "tires" are rubber hose attached to the rims. There is even a front suspension fork! This bike served as the escape vehicle when the inmate broke out of prison. He fled by riding the bike to Faber's Cyclery of San Jose. It is speculated that the fugitive needed parts to continue his escape, or that he wanted to show off his handiwork. Authorities soon discovered his whereabouts and a gun battle ensued amongst a large pile of bikes in Faber's backyard. The fugitive was captured, but the bike was left abandoned. The bike can be seen at the Yerba Buena Gardens Bicycle Culture exhibit.
Meanwhile, the Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens is featuring "Bicycle Culture" that includes a whole range of significant memorabilia from the Bay Area bicycle scene: Critical Mass posters, Greg Lemond's Tour de France jersey, various bike sculptures by local artists, low-rider bicycles, and a bike that looks more like a 50's Cadillac. Upstairs in the movie theater, visitors are treated to various bicycle documentaries, many of which are familiar to those who have attended the BFBC Film Fest. A special feature of the exhibit are some designs from local bike manufacturers, such as Rivendale (seeing a Rivendale road bike hanging in an art gallery really brings to mind the saying "Engineering is more of an art than a science.") Mountain bikers might be excited to see early versions of the mountain bike that show its evolution. The early prototypes appeared to be little more than an old, heavy Schwinn frame with modified handlebars and deraileurs.
Unfortunately, the Bicycle Culture exhibit runs only until January 3rd, so by time you read this newsletter it may be too late. If not, the gallery is located at: 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. For more information, call 415-978-2700 (on the web: http://www.YerbaBuenaArts.org).
-Eric McCaughrin
Hundreds of Bay Area transportation and land-use advocates recently met under the auspices of Smart Growth (tel: 510-841-6681) to set a course for the Regional Transportation Plan. The group made an overwhelming call for coordinated planning similar to Portland's LUTRAQ (Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality) study that has successfully challenged auto-dependent transportation and development patterns. Unfortunately, the united resolve of the larger group was not as clear when the smaller focus groups met during the Smart Growth conference to develop "wish lists." Participants in the Bicycle & Pedestrian session voiced many good ideas. Too many! Lengthy lists of nebulous goals (e.g., increased safety) quickly lose their impact if neither advocates nor public officials can recall "what we want." We win when our message is clear and simple.
Fortunately, the myriad goals voiced by the Smart Growth group can be met by adopting three straightforward goals. The EBBC has been steadily advocating the following three goals in all 32 local communities, both counties, and with Caltrans at the regional level. I hope that each of you will help us push these bicycle/pedestrian goals at each level of government:
1. COORDINATOR. Each level of government with either a public works staff or transportation engineers responsible for roadway construction and maintenance shall employ a Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator. Where we have such positions (SF, Oakland, Berkeley, and CoCoCo) our goals are greatly abetted by having an inside staff person. The Alameda Co Supervisors know that this is currently our foremost goal. In fact, Gail Steele calls it the "bicyclists' mantra." We have occasionally had a Bicycle Coordinator in Caltrans Dist 4; now is the time to take advantage of changes in State leadership and urge that all districts emulate District 5 (Santa Barbara).
2. PLAN. Each level of government shall have a current Bicycle/Pedestrian Masterplan. No projects are ever constructed without first making it into a plan. Such plans MUST address relevant bicycle crash and pedestrian injury data in proposing safety countermeasures. Because only projects on existing plans are eligible for funds, it is imperative that we institutionalize real safety criteria in the identification of projects. This criterion will further reinforce the collection of these crucial data at all levels of government. We consistently encounter opposition in the form of "liability concerns" to gathering and publishing crash data. Nevertheless, we recently prevailed in pressuring the Alameda County CMA board to assess these crash data in the forthcoming Countywide Bike Plan. As well, I have personally written an analysis of these data for state freeways (Richmond-SRB Public Access Feasibility Study Safety Report, 1998) with Michael Jackson, CoCoCo Bicycle Coordinator, and together with the CoCoCo Health Department and Berkeley School of Public Health we have proposed a "Bicycle/Pedestrian Injury Crash Reporting System."
3. BPAC. Each level of government shall encourage the formation of a citizen-based Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC). Such committees are already mandated by CA State Codes to review Bicycle Masterplans and prioritize projects for TDA Article 3 funding. The MTC's most recent amendment to this code (Resolution 875, Jan. 14, 1998) is available for review on our web site. It is an excellent document for us to build on. We can readily argue that the scope of Resolution 875 be expanded to include all bicycle/pedestrian project funding.
Some of you surely recognize that this manifesto rests on the often-cited "power pyramid" of Advocacy, BACs and Bicycle Coordinators to accomplish our goals. Where one leg of the pyramid is missing, failures typically result. I now urge all of you to stand in front of a mirror and practice reciting the three things we want in 1999.
-Robert Raburn
Berkeley Bicycle Plan will be considered for adoption for the Berkeley City Council on January 12, 1999. The Council meeting begins at 7:00 p.m., with public comment for the first half hour. This is not a public hearing, and therefore the public comment time will be the only opportunity to speak to the Council. The meeting takes place at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. For more information, contact Rochelle Wheeler at 510-705-8131 or email row1@ci.berkeley.ca.us.
Bellwether, San Francisco's oldest bicycle apparel manufacturer, is holding their 1999 SFBC Benefit Factory Sale, Sat/Sun, Jan 16 & 17. The sale is at the Bellwether headquarters, 375 Florida St. in San Francisco. Florida is 2 blocks south of Harrison St with 16th St. as the main cross street. Hours are: Sat 10:00 am - 6:00 pm. Sunday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. A portion of the proceeds goes directly to the SFBC.
City of Alameda Bike Plan is rapidly moving from draft to completion. We have yet to secure a copy for review. We urge all bicycling residents who have concerns about past unmitigated disasters like the Bay Farm Island Bridge and the "sidewalk only" approach to Fruitvale Bridge to review and comment on the plan. Alameda's terrain could make it the Amsterdam of the Bay Area. Contact Mark Hembrecht, City of Alameda Planner (510-749-5860).
Celebrating Oakland! will feature 15 neighborhoods at the Kaiser Convention Center plus many other exhibits and videos in the adjacent Oakland Museum of California galleries and theater from 5 to 8:30pm on Monday, January 4th. All citizens are invited to attend - on bikes of course! The EBBC will offer free valet bicycle parking near the main entrance to the Oakland Museum (use the wheelchair ramp between the Museum and Convention Center off 10th St). See http://www.celebratingoakland.com for more details.
Fremont Southwycke Home Owners Association has continued to pursue their agenda to move the Bicycle access point along the Alameda Creek Trail out of their neighborhood. The only Bike/Ped Bridge over Alameda Creek is accessed through Southwycke Court. In spite of an easement to the trail, the neighborhood of Southwycke Court has posted signs at the entrance into their development from Thornton Ave and on the entrance to their development from the Alameda Creek Trail that state NO THRUWAY FOR BICYCLES. Members of the Fremont Freewheelers, EBBC, and adjacent neighbors led by Gene Guiraud (510-794-0955) last spoke against the blockage before the Fremont Planning Commission on April 9, 1998. The Fremont City Council will address the issue on February 23, 1999. The EBRPD has been curiously silent about curtailed trail access.
Linda Skates was released from a State hospital to Contra Costa authorities only five years after she mowed down eight cyclists on Danville Blvd in Alamo, killing Vladimir Quinn, on January 16, 1993. During her brief stay in the County Jail in Martinez she was evaluated by Dr. Art Paul for a conditional release program. It is noted that existing State laws on outpatient supervision forbid automobile use. In addition, the County Medical report recommends regular supervision, anti-psychotic medication and living restrictions. She was returned to Patton State Hospital to await a February 24 hearing before Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Michael Coleman. Deputy District Attorney John Cope plans to challenge medical reports that she is sane enough to return to society. The EBBC has asked all affiliated clubs to join us in blocking her return to the Bay Area.
Alameda County CMA adopted our recommended scope for the forthcoming Countywide Bike Plan on 12/7/98 (See also: Sept. rideOn). Our suggestion to address bicycle safety by using publicly available bicycle crash data to identify areas for countermeasures was previously dismissed "for liability concerns" at an August meeting with the County Public Works staff. Committee members Ayn Wieskamp (Livermore) and Nora Davis (Emeryville) are to be credited for recognizing that "to ignore such data is like burying one's head in the sand."
Alameda County STP/CMAQ & STIP Supplement Funding Recommendations that directly benefit bicyclists include the following projects: ACE bike racks/shelters at Tri-Valley stations, $58K; Albany Buchannan St Interchange & Bike lane, $2M; Oakland 3rd St extension (offers link under freeway between W Oakland BART and Bay Trail); Oakland Bancroft Ave rehab and bike lanes, $2M; Port Embarcadero rehab 5th-16th, $752K, Clay-Franklin $635K. Many other communities are slated to receive rehab funds, but their proposed projects do not consider bikeway improvements. Contact the EBBC for a list of possible projects in your backyard!
Dublin & Pleasanton were targeted as "the worst places to cycle in the Bay Area" by Lawrence Costello in a letter published by the SF Chronicle on 12/4/98. In spite of their "progressive" image and abundant tax base, cyclists are often expected to ride on the sidewalks (absurd and illegal). Costello characterizes many roadways in Dublin and Pleasanton as "huge on-ramps to the freeways that endanger life and limb."
Iron Horse Regional Trail use is growing for transportation purposes along the 23-mile Class I bikepath. A recently published survey by the EBRPD reported that 36 percent of summertime trail users are traveling to work, school or commercial areas. Copies of the study ($7) are available from EBRPD (email: kkeilch@ebparks.org).
Lafayette City Council adopted a resolution supporting the SR-24 Bikeway Corridor on 12/14/98. The proposal prepared by CoCoCo Bicycle Coordinator Michael Jackson includes both new and upgraded Class II lanes on Mt Diablo Blvd, Pleasant Hill Rd and Olympic Boulevard to link Walnut Creek with our new St Stephens trail in Orinda.
Oakland installed bicycle-sensitive signal detectors at the intersection of Grand Ave and Wildwood Ave (popular connection to upper Lakeshore) that are the first detectors in Oakland to be marked with the state approved bicycle icon.
Oakland On incredibly short notice, bicyclists mustered overwhelming support to hire "Commuter Bikeway Design Services" to consult with city engineers on several key bike routes in Oakland. Bicyclists thwarted a potential disaster thanks to eight activists who attended the City Council Meeting on December 1 and others who faxed supportive comments to the City Council and Mayor. As a compromise, EBBC agreed that Councilmember Nancy Nadel amend the contracts to ask that the design consultants address pedestrian safety and automobile parking requests along Grand Avenue. As a result, the resolutions passed and we can expect prepare for public meetings in early 1999 on the changes planned for Telegraph, Broadway, and Grand Avenue.
Although EBBC readily concurred that bikeway designs should augment pedestrian safety, the compromise to examine automobile parking on Grand Avenue is more troubling. The EBBC will monitor the situation to ensure that our need for a continuous bikeway remains THE foremost priority. One possible strategy will be to encourage the parking and traffic analysis to consider some beneficial changes to the El Embarcadero street couplet that presently severs Lake Merritt from the Lakeview Branch Library and Park. Perhaps some depaving is possible as was suggested in the Lake Merritt Park Master Plan Recommendations.
CalTrans is finalizing its plans to build a 5-mile bridge to more than double the potential capacity of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (from 4 lanes to ten lanes!). This would involve building a duplicate bridge four feet to the north of the existing bridge. Now is the perfect time to provide for bicycle and pedestrian access. Unfortunately, CalTrans has not proposed to include such access and in fact, has explicitly said it opposes such access.
CalTrans must apply for a permit from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), who's role is, in part, to ensure maximum feasible public access and maximum ultimate capacity.
CalTrans' own EIR/EIS states that even if the bridge is widened, it will be at capacity by the year 2000 and just as congested by 2010. There is essentially no bus service across the bridge. Clearly, the region needs more options in order to cross the bay, in order to provide alternatives to automobile congestion on what has come to be known as the "S&M Bridge" due to the torturous experience most users have on a regular basis. It would frequently be twice as fast to bike the bridge as to drive it!
The widening of the San Mateo-Hayward bridge is scheduled to come before BCDC (the Bay Conservation and Development Commission) on January 7th. A good showing there will help empower the commission to do the right thing and deny the permit until CalTrans accommodates bicyclists and pedestrians. An outpouring of letters and cards will also help the commissioners make the right choice. The cities of San Mateo and Foster City have already passed resolutions supporting this issue.
COME TO THE HEARING:
Thursday, January 7th, 1998 1PM in the
afternoon 425 Market Street, 2nd floor (at Fremont)
WRITE A LETTER:
Chair Tufts, Commissioners and Alternates
Bay Conservation and Development Commission
30 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 2011
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: 415-557-3686
FAX: 415-557-3767
VOLUNTEER:
There's lots to do - especially outreach. A few sharp environmental attorneys are really needed!
STAY INFORMED:
Bike the Bridge! Coalition
P.O. Box 15071 Berkeley, CA 94701-6071
Facsimile c/o (510) 486-1528
http://xinet.com/bike
Thanks to the 45 people and groups that wrote letters, the hundreds that signed petitions, and the nearly dozen bicyclists that attended the meeting on November 5th, the district voted to install bike racks on all buses by May 1999. GGT staff had recommended delaying the program until May 2000 because they narrowly missed a grant deadline.
-Debbie Hubsmith
Bart staff announcement:
BART recently placed over 200 day-use bike lockers as a demonstration program at the Ashby, MacArthur and North Berkeley BART Stations.
Unfortunately, in the last two weeks there have been a significant number of break-ins to these new on-demand bicycle lockers. Apparently, the U-Type lock - which the lockers were designed to accommodate for its unparalleled strength - is being used as a lever to pry and break the stainless steel handle and stationary ring on the new locker doors.
BART is working closely with the locker manufacturer, and its own engineering, and Police departments to improve the situation as quickly as possible.
Until we are more confident as to the security of these lockers, BART has wired and placed out of service tags on them to minimize access by bicyclists (and minimize the number of bicycles stolen.) In the meantime, we encourage cyclists to find other means to lock their bikes.
We hope to have this problem solved soon, and we thank you for your patience.(If anyone is interested in helping to test the "new" lockers at BART or if you have an old bike you wish to donate to the testing process, please call Jill Keimach at 510-464-6202.)
CHAIR was David Campbell. (Robert Raburn is expected to return from Central America at the end of nov 1998.)
"RIDE-ON" The Nov 1998 issue of our newsletter was delayed by our printer, and will be received by members in the near future.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS Dave Campbell is willing to become the chair if Raburn will not be willing to continue in that role. Other officers appear to be willing to continue. Kathy Tate will try to solicit volunteers for officers.
PARTIES The Bicycle Friendly Berkeley Coalition (BFBC) will have a "Grand Bike-O-topia Ball" at the Ashkenaz dance hall at 1317 San Pablo Ave from 2 to 11 PM on Sunday, Dec 13, 1998, and all are invited.
EBBC will have a party the following Sunday, Dec 20, 1998, at the home of Michelle DiRobertis. The time and location will be made known to us by mail.
BERKELEY BICYCLE PLAN will be discussed this Thurs, Nov 19 at the Berkeley Senior Center, and it needs our support.
MAP PROBLEM Our East-of-the-Hills map contains a possible error in that it shows a trail on a privately owned parcel of land within Mt.Diablo State Park; and the owner objects to cyclists riding on his property.
CO CO CO COMMITTEE FOR TRAIL CROSSINGS is being formed by Michael Jackson. The problem is that there are numerous stop signs where trails cross rarely used driveways, which are identical with stop signs where the trails cross busy streets. A differentiation should be made.
Funding for Michael's job is running out, but we cannot let his job be eliminated.
CALTRANS DISTRICT 4 BAC MEETING was reported upon by Doug Faunt. Topics included signal timing at Urban Interchanges and gap closure along I-580 from Tassajara Road to Airway Blvd in the Livermore-Pleasanton area.
OAKLAND BIKE PLAN will be discussed at a meeting this Thurs, Nov 19. Discussion will be center on Foothill Blvd.
GUESTS were three local bicycle equipment manufacturers: Steven Potts of Wilderness Trail Bikes, Robert Studdiford of Twofish Unlimited bike accessory fasteners, and Daniel Jaber of Launch bike clothing.
FUTURE MEETINGS: No meeting in Dec, but party instead on Sunday the 20th. Next regular meeting Tues, Jan 19, 1999.
Respectfully submitted by Yehuda Sherman, sec'y.