In Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan and Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente arrive to work by bike. Photos: Ruth Miller

Bike to Work Day in the East Bay broke records once again yesterday, with ten mayors, dozens of council members, and over 17,000 participants riding — an overall 22 percent increase across the East Bay. The record-breaking number of elected officials riding in included the mayors of Albany, Berkeley, Piedmont, Dublin, Fremont, Emeryville, Hayward, Richmond, and Union City.

Piedmont Mayor John Chaing and Vice Mayor Margaret Fujioka at the festivities in Oakland.

“It’s great to see so many of our local elected officials out riding on Bike to Work Day and setting an example,” said Renee Rivera, executive director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC). “They understand the benefits of bike commuting, and they’ve directed city resources to help make bicycling viable as an everyday means of transportation.”

The largest ridership increase was seen in Pleasanton at 40 percent more than last year, followed by Alameda at 29 percent and Emeryville at 17 percent. In Berkeley, more bicycles than cars passed by lower Sproul Plaza for the first time yesterday morning, according to the EBBC. “This a doubling of bike mode share at Cal,” the EBBC wrote on its website, noting that Berkeley has the country’s fourth-highest bike mode share at 8 percent, according to the American Commute Survey.

Oakland has the eighth-largest Bike to Work Day in the United States, according to the Alliance for Biking and Walking. The free pancake breakfast in front of Oakland City Hall yesterday drew over 600 people who were greeted with free valet bicycle parking and tote bags before mingling and enjoying breakfast in the sunshine.

Over 600 people dined at the City of Oakland's annual Bike to Work Day pancake breakfast.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan rode eight miles to downtown from deep in East Oakland. Her bike convoy joined up with District 5 Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente’s at the Fruitvale BART station before riding near a section of East 12th Street, where new bike lanes were approved on Tuesday by Oakland’s Public Works Committee along with three other projects:

• East 12th Street from 14th Avenue to Fruitvale Avenue (1.4 miles)
• Broadway from 38th Street to Broadway Terrace (0.9 miles)
• MacArthur Boulevard from Mills College to Seminary Avenue (0.6 miles)
• Ardley, from 30th Street to MacArthur Boulevard (0.3 miles)

The bike lanes were approved with no opposition at the hearing to removing traffic lanes and parking, according to the EBBC, which said neighborhood surveys found an approval rating of over 70 percent for the projects. Jason Patton, Oakland’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program manager, said the victory signifies “a culture change taking place in Oakland.”

Rebecca Kaplan (center) announced Oakland's first bike station at 19th Street BART.

“Oakland is making much better use of super-wide roadways in ways that better serve its unique neighborhoods for pedestrians and bicyclists alike,” said Dave Campbell, program director for the EBBC, which pushed for the projects along with Walk Oakland Bike Oakland in their Oakland Bikeways Campaign.

The projects are all expected to be completed in 2013, and three of them will be coordinated with scheduled re-pavings. Also approved by the committee, the EBBC noted, were $75,000 for more bike racks throughout Oakland and $75,000 for new bike-friendly storm grates that are easy to roll over.

By the time Bike to Work Day rolls around again in 2013, Oakland is expected to get its first bike station near the 19th Street BART station, like the one in Downtown Berkeley, Council Member Rebecca Kaplan announced to cheers yesterday. Mayor Quan also said she’s interested in bringing bike-share to Oakland, likely centered around BART stations.

“This is Oakland’s 160th birthday, and we will finish our 100th mile of bike lanes this year,” said Quan. “We have a need for some real celebration here.”

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland invites bike enthusiasts to dream big for next year: Bike to Space!

There's nothing like the smell of fresh thermoplast in the morning. Photos: Ruth Miller

As city contractors stenciled new bike lanes last Friday at Oakland’s 25th and Webster Streets, a group of advocates, city staff, and elected officials celebrated the final project in Oakland’s busiest bicycling year to date.

“This year we put in 18.1 miles of new bike lanes and 292 new bike parking spots,” Council Member Libby Schaaf told the group.

Oakland Council Member Libby Schaaf, an early member of WOBO.

Oakland was recently recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a Bronze Bicycle-Friendly City and “named one of the 20 most bike-friendly cities in the country,” noted Mayor Jean Quan, and “we’re working to get into the top ten.”

On top of a major expansion of bikeways this year, Uptown Oakland will get its own bike station as soon as 2013 near the 19th Street BART station, announced Jason Overman of Council Member Rebecca Kaplan’s office, which recently won a $500,000 grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Safe Routes to Transit program to create a space similar to the Downtown Berkeley bike station and host valet bike parking and repairs.

Over the next two weeks, crews will complete the bike lane along the one-way Webster Street south to 14th Street, and a complementary bike lane will be installed on the parallel Franklin Street in January. Combined, the pair will create a north-south corridor to Downtown Oakland.

Many of Oakland’s 2011 bike projects focused on completing the network of bike lanes and sharrows, including segments of major crosstown routes like Fruitvale, Lakeshore, Telegraph, and West Grand Avenues, as well as Foothill Boulevard and East 12th Street.

East Bay Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Renee Rivera addresses the crowd.

The Webster-Franklin route, an alternative to the high-speed Broadway, is a key victory for EBBC and WOBO’s joint Oakland Bikeways Campaign, which calls for the city to implement its entire Bicycle Master Plan by 2020 and prioritize key routes like Webster and Franklin.

Mayor Quan challenged the bicycle community to focus on advocating for underserved and disadvantaged communities, evoking the 100 Block Crime Plan from her mayoral campaign. East Bay Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Renee Rivera heartily agreed, commending city staff and leadership for putting bikeways where they’re needed, not just where they’re easy.

“It’s not just putting down more miles, but miles that connect, and create a safe, continuous network that really gets you where you need to go and doesn’t drop you along the way,” said Rivera. “We need to make Oakland a safe place to bike for everyone. We need to pay more attention to the eastern side of town, working with great partners like Cycles of Change and their earn-a-bike program, and bringing more infrastructure to the east side where it’s so badly needed.”

Mayor Jean Quan: "I've only missed one Bike to Work Day in the last nine years, and I'm looking forward to being with you again this year."

Gloria Bruce, Chair of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, struck a similar chord. “It’s a relatively small public investment that pays huge dividends for the thousands of Oaklanders who want to, or need to, walk and bike around the city,” she said. “They’re very hip and cool, but in addition to hip and cool folks, they also serve folks that want to be empowered, that want to access work and play in safe and green ways.”

While 2011 was a big year for bike improvements in Oakland, the 18 miles completed fall far below the city’s goal of 32 miles.

“We expected so much more to get done this year,” explained Jason Patton, manager of the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program. “We’ve got about 20 additional miles of striping alone. We’re just waiting for [the contractors] to stripe, we’ve got another 20 miles of sign projects, and we’re just waiting to do those. All of the major striping contractors have active work in Oakland right now.”

Mayor Quan preparing to cut the ribbon on the Webster Street bike lanes, with Public Works Director Vitaly Troyan, Councilmember Libby Schaaf, and Jason Overman of Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan's office.

“We’re probably still going to hit” 32 miles, he said, “but it will be fiscal year [ending June 2012] or even August 2012. It looks like 2012 will be the year where more happens than ever.”

In 2012, Oakland expects to implement bicycle improvements on:

From left to right: Deputy Director of Public Works Iris Starr, and Bike and Pedestrian Facilities staff Jennifer Stanley and manager Jason Patton.

• Fourteenth Street from Mandela to Brush, connecting the edge of downtown to the center of West Oakland
• Broadway from 22nd Street to I-580, or approximately 35th Street
• MacArthur Boulevard between Telegraph and Broadway, where six vehicle lanes will be reduced to four

The Webster-Shafter corridor, between Rockridge and Downtown Oakland, will be painted with sharrows, of which Patton remarked, “We’ve never seen such a positive response in public comment before.”

After that? “We’re running out of easy projects,” said Patton. “At some point it’s going to start slowing down.”

“You’ve got to realize that we didn’t start putting in bike lanes until 1976 and today it’s 110 miles, plus or minus,” said Public Works Director Vitaly Troyan. “We’ve got 800 miles of streets, we’ve got 100 miles of bike lanes, so what does that mean? We’ve got 700 more to go.”

Bike advocates in Alameda County will face a challenge next year when Measure B, the county’s transportation sales tax, comes up for renewal on the November ballot. Measure B funds, pointed out Quan, made the Webster bike lane project possible, and advocates will have the chance to increase the proportion devoted to bike infrastructure in next year’s vote.

“Oakland has always fought for larger share of that not just to be for cars,” she said, “but to be for buses and public transportation and bike lanes. Those hearings will be coming up and we need you to all to come out and speak for bikes.”

Quan dedicated the Webster Street project to the memory of Ron Bishop, a long-time cycling advocate who passed away earlier this week. Bishop, Rivera said, would have been proud of the Webster/Franklin bike lanes, but friends privately noted later that he would probably call it a good start.

Breaking in the new lanes.

A well-trained passenger arrives in Old Oakland.

Oakland’s official Bike to Work Day after-party kicked into high gear in Old Oakland last night. Over 600 people converged to dance, eat, drink, mingle, and just take in the atmosphere from the middle of the street.

“We saw people of all ages out enjoying bicycle carnival rides, great local food, and the company of our vibrant East Bay cycling community,” said Renee Rivera, executive director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), which spearheaded the event. “I look forward to the event growing into an Oakland institution as more and more people bike everyday here in the East Bay.”

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland executive director Kassie Rohrbach and EBBC executive director Renee Rivera draw raffle winners.

Raffle drawings and award presentations punctuated the ceremony.

The EBBC recognized this year’s Bike-Friendly Businesses, Clif Bar, Sun Light & Power, and Alta Planning & Design, for taking that extra step to motivate their employees to ride to work.

“I wish we could make 30 awards instead of three,” lamented Rivera. “So many businesses in the East Bay realize that cycling to work makes their employees healthier, happier, and more productive.”

Berkeley Assemblymember Nancy Skinner presented Alameda County’s Bike Commuter of the Year award to sixth grader Jason Hollick, already a successful cycling advocate among his friends and family.

A member of the Derailleurs strikes a pose.

The rest of the party was more like a bicycle circus.

The Muddy Roses and the Derailleurs, a San Francisco-based bicycle dance troop, staked out the main stage.

Cyclecide, operating a triptych of bike-powered carnival rides, brought life to a downtown parking lot.

Oaklandish supplied a bike decorating station. The Crucible demonstrated some of its more creative bike modifications.

Bike-themed mobile vendors, El Taco Bike and PopCycle, brought refreshments (in addition to the more traditionally propelled La Borinqueña).

Making full use of the street closure, the portable parklet built for Actual Cafe made its world premiere. Though it was the first San Francisco-style parklet in the East Bay, people quickly coalesced around the installation. Even after guests brought over chairs from other parts of the party, eager sitters sprang from nearby tables as the parklet’s benches became available.

“I’m so grateful for the help of all the volunteers that made Bike to Work Day and the Bike Away From Work Party happen,” exclaimed Rebecca Stievater of the EBBC.

“From last minute sidewalk chalk and rubber stamp acquisition to beer pouring, raffle ticket selling, bike parking guards, and clean up, I know we couldn’t have done it without our volunteers. It’s so gratifying to see people excited about biking and all the advocacy work that’s happening in the East Bay – this just gets better every year.”

The portable parklet took a field trip from Actual Cafe.

Less permanent parklets lined one side of Washington Street.

Bike-powered snacks, including PopCycle and El Taco Bike, sated the masses.

An unusual view of a typically car-clogged street.

Cyclecide: self-propelled fun for all ages.

How else to wind down after Oakland

Gloria Bruce, WOBO board president, at the Rally for Bikeways

Bike to Work Day is underway in Alameda County, and this year’s riders already broke last year’s record by 12.3 percent.

The Cities of Emeryville and Berkeley saw the largest increases, with 15 and 14 percent increases respectively. At one point, a quarter of street traffic at Sproul Plaza in the heart of Downtown Berkeley was bicycles.

Even Oakland, with a mere eight percent increase, set a new city record for its Bike to Work Day turnout.

The East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC) organized 79 energizer stations throughout Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The stations dotted major corridors and destinations, offering a place for cyclists to stock up on coffee, snacks, tote bags of coupons and maps, and information about local bicycle organizations. Several stations adopted themes to give their patrons an extra boost of energy and excitement on their commute.

The Pirate Station dropped anchor at Lakeside Drive and 14th Street.

Four energizer stations counted over 500 people biking by during the morning rush hour. This is the first time East Bay stations outside Downtown Berkeley and Oakland saw this many people riding to work.

Dave Campbell, program director of the EBBC, was not surprised to see where some of the biggest increases appeared.

“The next two busiest stations were Broadway at 27th and San Pablo at Alcatraz. These two locations are very busy streets for cars, but lots of cyclists ride, despite there being a complete lack of accommodations for cyclists.”

Campbell continued: “The busiest energizer station in Emeryville was on 40th Street. The busiest energizer station in Oakland, outside of downtown, was on 40th Street. That’s just a case to put bike lanes on 40th Street.”

The District 2 pedal pool. Council member Pat Kernighan is second from left.

Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) organized pools in each Oakland council district, meeting as early as 7 am for the ride to Downtown Oakland. Four city council members rode with their district’s pools.

“In the past we’ve had brand new riders, one of whom is a council aide for Rebecca Kaplan,” said pool leader Midori Tabata. “She was so thrilled by the experience that she’s now become a regular bicycle commuter.”

By 9 am, a thousand people arrived at the annual Bike Fair at Frank Ogawa Plaza. The fair is best known for its free pancakes, poured and flipped by Whole Foods and Piedmont Grocery.

“Those pancakes were off the hook,” exclaimed Nsomeka Gomes.

The fair also featured several bike shops, artists and clubs. AC Transit brought an entire bus to help people learn how to put their bikes on the bus racks. The rider with the fastest time (nine seconds) won a set of bike lights.

The Bike Fair in Downtown Oakland

“I’m really glad that I finally found a group,” said Rita Watson, who lives near Lake Merritt. “I’m going to join the Yellow Jackets, because I’ll feel more comfortable with a group. I haven’t been out riding in years, this is only my second time on my new bike, so now, since I came here today, I have the Yellow Jackets and there’s probably other things too, I’m so glad I came.”

EBBC valeted almost 300 bikes during the fair. Though many people took their bikes to work after the fair, more than half of the bicycles remained during the work day.

“This is more than you see in the Downtown Berkeley Bike Station,” said Kassie Rohrbach, the executive director of WOBO. “It’s clear there’s demand for a bike station in Downtown Oakland on a regular basis. I’m thrilled that council member Rebecca Kaplan is working with WOBO to make this a reality this year.”

From left to right: Kassie Rohrbach, Executive Director of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland; Renee Rivera, Executive Director of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition; Julian Mocine McQueen, Campaigns and Partnerships Manager of Green for All; Libby Schaaf, District 4 council member; Pat Kernighan, District 2 council member; Ignacio De La Fuente, District 5 council member; and Nancy Nadel, District 3 council member at the far right.

The fair concluded with a Rally for Bikeways in front of City Hall. Riders gathered with their pancakes and coffee to listen to four Oakland City Council members share their reasons for wanting to see the bike network completed.

“I’m a fair weather cyclist, which means I don’t do it very often,” admitted council member Kernighan. “But one of the things that would get people like me to bicycle more often would be to get more bike lanes. I am really excited that in the next year quite a few miles of bike lanes are going to be installed, including quite a few in District 2 and near… when that’s done, I think even I might bike to work.”

Rohrbach summarized the goals of the campaign:

“We’re calling on the city to complete the Master Bicycle Plan by 2020, starting with 30 miles of new bikeways in 2011, and five major transportation corridors by 2015.”

Bike to Work Day isn’t finished in the East Bay. While this morning’s bike commuters are at work, the EBBC and WOBO are busy setting up the second most important part of Bike to Work Day – the after party.

The Bike Away From Work Party rolls to 9th and Washington streets at 5:30 pm. With live music, food, beverages, the Big Tadoo Puppet Crew, and Cyclecide until 8:30, Bike to Work Day is anything but over.

]]> http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/05/12/record-breaking-10000-people-biked-to-work-in-alameda-county-today/feed/ 6 http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/05/10/oakland-hopes-to-approve-citys-first-parklet-by-september/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/05/10/oakland-hopes-to-approve-citys-first-parklet-by-september/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 19:30:21 +0000 Ruth Miller http://sf.streetsblog.org/?p=267271

Photo: Actual Cafe's temporary parklet on PARK(ing) Day 2010 could be a real parklet by PARK(ing) Day 2011.

Just over one year after San Francisco’s first parklet was installed outside Mojo Cafe, East Bay streets are conspicuously lacking these popular islands of livable public space. That’s about to change.

This week, Oakland is expected to take the first step toward bringing parklets to the sunny side of the Bay, convening a special cross-department city task force on Thursday. Its mission is to draft a new ordinance that would allow Oakland to permit parklets as a unique type of encroachment.

“We had a lot of staff members who all thought it was a great idea, and they got together to figure out how to do it,” explained Eric Angstadt, deputy director of Oakland’s Planning and Zoning Division.

Representatives of several departments were invited, including Building Services, Planning, Parks and Recreation, and Police, but the heavy lifting, according to Angstadt, will likely come from the Community and Economic Development (CEDA) and Public Works agencies.

The group’s leadership intends to present a draft ordinance to the City Council before the council’s summer recess at the end of July. The Oakland City Council requires at least two months to “agendize” items, a deadline that is less than three weeks away. Angstadt is optimistic that the staff’s personal interest in seeing parklets come to Oakland will motivate the process to keep a brisk pace.

“If all went well, there’s the possibility people could have them in for the late season, in late August and September, when we have that second wave of nice weather,” Angstadt continues. “If that doesn’t work out, there’s plenty of time to have it in place for next year.”

The primary obstacle to getting parklets approved in Oakland thus far has been determining the city department responsible for permitting parklets. Are parklets a design issue, falling under the purview of the Planning Department? Or is it a Public Works Agency matter, because parklets pertain to street space?

The choice of department jurisdiction will affect the participants in the final permitting process. If the ordinance falls under the Planning Department, it would be inserted into the zoning code. If the ordinance is put under Public Works, it would be part of the Streets and Sidewalk Use Regulations. Zoning requires the landlords to get involved, whereas an encroachment can deal exclusively with the tenant business.

Oakland’s task force is looking closely at San Francisco’s parklet approval process. In San Francisco, the Pavement to Parks program, run jointly by the Department of Public Works and the Planning Department, intermittently issues a request for proposals for new parklets. Business owners, with proof of neighborhood support, propose their designs and the P2P program issues permits to the most feasible projects. Business owners are responsible for constructing the parklets and meeting safety requirements.

The first question among many Oakland city staffers is how it should permit parklets in metered parking spaces. After all, it’s the busy neighborhoods with competing uses that have the most to gain from parklets.

San Francisco managed to avoid this issue in some installations by putting parklets in unmetered parking spaces or creating new, metered parking to mitigate the revenue loss. The Municipal Transportation Agency accepts the loss of parking revenue for parklets, acknowledging that the impact of eight parklets in San Francisco’s 389,000 parking spaces is minuscule.

Some businesses and neighbors who were initially skeptical and concerned about the loss of parking at the Mojo Cafe parklet changed their minds when the owner reported large increases in business and foot traffic, and neighbors began to clamor for similar improvements.  As Oakland decides how to balance the demand for these economic catalysts and streetscape improvements, the city will have the benefit of San Francisco’s positive experiences.

The parklet permit will hopefully be a departure from Oakland’s existing cache of permits, which only provide for the extension of private businesses into the public space. Andres Power, project manager of the San Francisco Pavement to Parks Program, advises that any new program consider these private improvements to the public space, but that the spaces remain firmly public.

“The policy driver is to provide public space, not cafe space,” explains Power. “If the parklet were to be private, that would be an uncompensated public degradation for the benefit of a private entity.”

Still smarting from an arduous 18-month minor encroachment process to put up sidewalk tables and chairs, Sal Bednarz of Actual Café is anxious to install a parklet and wants the task force to follow the San Francisco model. For Bednarz, September is not soon enough.

Bednarz, right, with volunteers constructing the portable parklet.

Inspired by PARK(ing) Day, Bednarz envisions filling an unattractive and an out of service AC Transit bus stop that abuts his cafe on Alcatraz Avenue with an amenity for the neighborhood and his customers to enjoy. Bednarz set out to build a portable parklet for special events to raise support for a more permanent structure.

After working with Bednarz on PARK(ing) Day, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) made the parklet permit one of its top goals for 2011, atrracting a small pool of talent hoping to contribute their skills to the cause.

Urban designers Amit Price Patel, Amanda Loper, and Ian Dunn sketched a site plan. Bednarz contacted the Place for Sustainable Living, a hub for eco-art and community resiliencys, which provided tools and workspace. Volunteers from WOBO, the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, and the neighborhood contributed sweat equity to reclaimed lumber purchased from the Reuse People Store in East Oakland, while Actual Café served coffee and sandwiches.

“We know our neighborhood and city will benefit from parklet construction,” writes Bednarz. “We hope that Mayor Quan or the councilmembers will see what we’re doing and pave the way for us and other businesses like ours – it seems like a no-brainer.”

Oakland’s first semi-official parklet will debut at the Bike Away From Work Party in Old Oakland on Thursday evening, before a visit to its hopeful home on Alcatraz during a “Parklet Love In” at Actual Café Sunday afternoon. Once the city starts issuing permits, the portable parklet could earn the right to sit in the bus stop more permanently.

Other business owners are waiting to see how and when a permit process develops. Without an official process from the City of Oakland, some business owners conducted some frustrating research on their own.

Svea Lin Soll, owner of the Swarm Gallery near Jack London Square, read about parklets online, but grew discouraged as she calculated it would cost over $20,000 to hire art and design activist collective Rebar Group to build one outside her gallery.

Power rejected the notion that undertaking a parklet must be so costly, supporting the approach taken by Actual Café. He said some merchants are reaching out to neighbors for design and construction help.

“I’ve heard anecdotally that some people are leveraging their connections with the architect on the block, or the friend of a friend that’s a metallurgist. That definitely helps defray the cost.”

Newly inspired by the city’s new task force, Soll mused how Oakland’s inevitable parklets will differ from San Francisco’s, like the city itself: “The Oakland aesthetic is very much found objects and gathering stuff from industrial areas. It’s a peer and equal to San Francisco, but just different. Oakland is more grassroots.”

Indeed, it might have taken over a year of San Francisco’s example, but thanks to a proof of concept across the Bay, Oakland residents may be able to enjoy their streets a little bit more before the end of this year.

The purple lines are the new trails that will be built. Image: East Bay Regional Park District. Click to enlarge.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced $600 million dollars in TIGER II grants today and the only project in Northern California to make the cut was the East Bay Regional Park District’s proposal to fill in seven key gaps on the 200-mile bicycle and pedestrian trail system that runs across Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

“We’re really happy,” said Jim Townsend, the trails development program manager for the park district. “We think that this is going to go a long way toward advancing bicycling and walking as legitimate transportation modes, not only in the region but nationwide.”

The district’s Green Transportation Initiative will get $10.2 million from U.S. DOT for gap closures along the Bay Trail in Hercules, Berkeley, Albany, Union City and Martinez. It will help to build out the East Bay Greenway in Oakland, extend the Iron Horse Trail in Pleasanton and Dublin through the Hacienda Business Park and a planned transit-oriented development, and reconnect Brentwood and Antioch along the Mokelumne Trail in eastern Contra Costa County, a path that was severed by the new Highway 4 bypass.  All the trails will feature Class I separated bike paths.

In its application [pdf], the district pointed out that Alamada and Contra Costa counties are home to some of the most congested roads and highways in the country. With the East Bay’s population expected to double over the next three decades, filling in the missing links along these trails will make it easier for people to bike or walk to work or school in areas where the infrastructure has kept them stuck in their cars.

“We think this will promote significant mode shift from single occupancy vehicles to transit,” said Townsend. “The plan is to help complete those ‘last mile’ connections to transit nodes, which will allow people to both walk and bike to transit and employment centers and schools, to leave their cars in the garage, which is where they belong.”

The East Bay Greenway, a pedestrian and bicycle path that will run under the BART tracks, will be built near some of the poorest neighborhoods in the Bay Area. The district says the project “will result in a well-lighted, landscaped bicycle and pedestrian path connecting to the BART station, AC Transit bus service and local schools.”

“The East Bay Greenway will build out a safe and continuous east-to-west corridor through the city of Oakland for both bicyclists and pedestrians,” said Kassie Rohrbach, executive director of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland. “This funding will build a critical pathway that connects Oakland’s neighborhoods and cities across the East Bay.”

East Bay Parks had originally requested $24.5 million for the East Bay Pedestrian and Bicycle Network, so it leaves the district about $14 million short of the total $43 million cost. The funds are being tapped from a variety of sources, including the voter-approved Measure AA and WW. Townsend said the district would work with its many funding partners, including the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, to secure the rest.

The project is also expected to create up to 500 jobs, including positions for engineering, trades, design and environmental review and compliance.

“Almost all of these projects have two things in common,” said James Corless, the director of Transportation For America. “They all will create desperately-needed jobs while building critical transportation infrastructure, and they have a hard time getting funded under the outdated structure of the current federal transportation program.”

All of the projects that received TIGER II grants are expected to be completed by 2014.

Photo: geekstinkbreath

WalkOaklandBikeOakland (WOBO), the organizer, called the event a success, and said businesses and elected leaders were thrilled, and the community response was overwhelmingly positive.

"My favorite quote was a woman who said 'This is a better Oakland,'" said Kassie Rohrbach, WOBO's Executive Director. "WOBO is making Oakland a better place to walk and bike and that quote really captured exactly what we hoped folks would feel from the day."

One of the most popular spots on the route was Washington Street between 8th and 9th in Old Oakland. A parklet, hosted by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), featured astroturf, outdoor seating for nearby restaurants and shady benches. A fooz ball table got continuous play despite the fact that it wasn't level. Musicians, gardeners, and bicycle tailors gravitated to the block, creating a lively street scene.

Restaurants that chose to open did a brisk business. Café 817 on Washington Street in Old Oakland is normally closed on Sunday. "We didn't expect anything," Lillian, one of the owners, said as she prepared salads behind the counter. "It's been great." She would be happy to see the event repeated and "we will be more ready for it next time."

And then there were the kids, so many kids. Little ones came in trailers, bike seats, bakfiets and on trail-a-bikes. Others scooted down the street on skuuts, tricycles, and scooters. Small people spun big hula hoops. The parking lot of Kinetic Arts was packed with bicycles as parents and kids poured in for circus arts performances and classes.

WOBO took the opportunity to stencil a temporary bike lane on Broadway. The organization's Bike Broadway Campaign seeks "a continuous and safe north-south bicycle boulevard on Broadway." The success of Oaklavia in demonstrating the vitality of safe streets for cyclists should help move that goal forward.

Cycles of Change and EBBC hosted a Kids Bike Rodeo. Bicycles of all sizes were provided, including small ones with pedals removed to help new riders practice balance. Little girls in ladybug wings and flowery dresses (they were on their way to a birthday party) navigated a course drawn in colorful chalk that looked like a kid-sized board game.

"My favorite thing was seeing the smiles on the kids faces," said Sophia, who worked with the organizers to coordinate the activities. "Just seeing them out with a safe place to play in the streets."

Jennifer West, Emeryville City Council member, came with her two daughters, ages 4 and 9. "The hula hooping and the kid's bike rodeo were fantastic" for her children. "The kids got to see the street in a new way. We're constantly yelling at them 'Don't go in the street!' Today, the street was the place to be."

Rohrbach hopes to organize two Oaklavia events next year, including one in the Fruitvale District, and is coordinating with the EBBC and Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition to plan one that connects Berkeley and Oakland on Telegraph. In addition, Rohrbach may work with San Francisco's Sunday Streets coordinator, Susan King, to hold an event on Treasure Island.

"There's a lot of conversations about not only doing more in Oakland, but collaborating across cities in the Bay Area and bringing folks together from around the Bay," said Rohrbach.

Photo: geekstinkbreath

Photo: geekstinkbreath

Photo: richardmasoner.

Data from the 2008 US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that 2.7 percent of San Francisco's population commutes to work by bike. The survey reports that 3.7 percent of men ride to work, while only 1.6 percent of women do. A 2009 study in Scientific American found that men's cycling trips surpass women's by at least 2:1. In the competitive arena, 87 percent of competitive cyclists are male, according to 2009's active member demographic conducted by USA Cycling. 

These bicycle commute numbers also skew pretty far from commute rates by other modes. As noted in a Transportation Research Board survey by Susan Handy, a professor of environmental science at the University of California, Davis, "82 percent of the bicycle commuters were men and 21 percent were students, compared to 54 percent and 11 percent of all commuters, respectively." 

So what do these numbers mean about bicycling in the Bay Area?

Many researchers, including Handy, believe the presence of women on bicycles is an important indicator of how bike-friendly a city is. Research shows the better a city's bike infrastructure, the more commuters there are, including more women, seniors, riders with special needs and children. 

Ironically, many of the people working hardest to create more bike infrastructure in the Bay Area are women, including the directors of five bicycle coalitions: The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC), Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC), Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition (SCBC), and Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC), and Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO).

Many of these women leaders don't see gender, theirs or among cyclists in general, as having much to do with the coalition's goals and projects. 

Christine Culver, the Executive Director of the SCBC, says that while SCBC is working hard to make streets more attractive to all riders, they aren't doing anything specifically catered to women. 

"I guess I just don't see the divide between men and women as that significant or worth mentioning," says Culver. "I think by making the divide a bigger deal than it is just perpetuates the stereotype that bikes are for men." 

Culver notes, however, that there are a number of teams and bike classes in Sonoma County that are geared toward women, including Team Speed Queen, Nimble Training, and Early Bird Women's Developmental Cycling Team. 

Furthermore, the Census statistics don't necessarily match up with coalition membership.

"Based on a survey we did of our members and fans in February 2010, 55 percent are women," said WOBO's Executive Director Cassie Rohrbach. "For the most part at WOBO, we do not target our events, programs or campaigns specifically at women. Our goal is that as we grow, we represent the diversity of Oakland, including the geographic, racial, cultural, socio-economic, age and gender diversity of this city."   

WOBO does have Women's Rides every second Sunday of the month. They also offer "Kidical Mass" (I bet you say that out loud after reading this) which gets families out and about.

For the SFBC, the focus on women cyclists is part of the larger effort to increase safety in the streets.  

"The SFBC has done a few things to focus specifically on women cyclists -- we have done a women-only urban cycling workshop, and have also organized cultural history tours with topics of interest to women," said Renee Rivera, SFBC's Acting Executive Director.

"The top priority for the SFBC is to work with the city on improving our streets, and increasing bike ridership overall, to make the streets safer for everybody, and through doing that I believe that women will feel safer and more confident to bike."

Personally, as a woman and a regular cyclist, I think the indicators don't adequately match the conditions on the streets. Everywhere I go, I see women riding and it makes the numbers hard to believe. What's more, Census commute statistics can't adequately measure the participation of women in Bay Area bicycle culture.

Bikes and the City, a regular online source for bicycle news and fun, recently started a series in conjunction with Bike NOPA called "Women Who Bike," which chronicles the experience of an array of woman and their pedal-powered locomotion. Velo Vogue, another local blog, documents the growing trend of Cyclic Chic here and in cities worldwide. And how could you not be inspired to ride (no matter your gender) after watching The Derailleurs perform a scintillating routine?

I live in the Mission and I've commuted to work in SOMA for two years by bike. Now, at eight months pregnant, I work from home but still ride my bike to run errands. My fiance and I are investigating bike seats for kids. We're having a girl.

So if the statisticians out there are concerned, that will be one more female riding a bicycle.

Just how dangerous is San Francisco for pedestrians?

A new report on pedestrian safety in the 52 largest U.S. metro areas ranked San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont 13th safest for walkers, based on an index that takes into account annual pedestrian deaths and the percentage of workers who commute by foot. San Francisco looks pretty good at first glance, but Walk SF president Manish Champsee said a closer look at the city's record reveals a less favorable state of affairs: 47.7 percent of all traffic fatalities in San Francisco are pedestrians, more than four times the national average of 11.8 percent. The rate of pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents is 2.60 in San Francisco, 70 percent higher than the national average of 1.53.

That's partly because far more people walk in San Francisco than in the country as a whole. The rate of pedestrian fatalities per walking trip is still much lower in the city proper than in most metro regions. But a fairer comparison, said Champsee, is between San Francisco and other very walkable cities. "We do rank favorably when you control for the number of people who walk to work. Having said that, I think a truer measure of that would be to compare San Francisco to its peers cities, places like New York City, Chicago, Seattle, and Washington DC."

The report, co-authored by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and Transportation for America, only includes regional data, and doesn't break out statistics by city, which would give a more precise picture of how dangerous San Francisco is compared to peers. Regionally, however, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont is more dangerous than other metros with very walkable cores, like Chicago, Portland, New York, Seattle, and Boston.

"We hope to see a report coming out that will compare San Francisco to other similarly land-used cities," said Champsee.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont is safer for pedestrians than most U.S. metro regions, but is more dangerous than most of its walkable peers. (Chart: Dangerous by Design report)

By another measure, San Francisco is definitely trailing in improving pedestrian safety: while the report found an average of 1.5 percent of federal transportation spending is focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety, Champsee said San Francisco is spending only 0.5 percent of its federal transportation dollars on that purpose (MTA spokesperson Judson True said he couldn't immediately confirm that number.)

"MTA keeps saying, 'Yes, this is the amount we spent directly on it, but in all the other stuff we do, like road repair, there's a bunch of pedestrian stuff we roll into it,'" said Pi Ra of the Senior Action Network. "We keep saying, show us."

Champsee and Ra both point to pedestrian safety projects the MTA is currently working on, including the 19th Avenue and Van Ness Avenue double-fine zones, pedestrian countdown signals, and DPW's pedestrian improvements on Divisadero Street, Valencia Street, and Leland Avenue.

Still, Ra would like to see the total pedestrian safety spending figures itemized. "The bottom line is we aren't spending enough money on pedestrian improvements," he said.

For now, many of the cities' most dangerous streets for pedestrians remain untamed.

"If you look at places where there are a lot of lanes, a lot of traffic, and a lot of people walking, I think those are the priority areas," said Champsee. "Places like Market Street, Van Ness, Geary, Mission, 19th Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, Cesar Chavez Street, Guerrero, just places where you have a lot of fast-moving traffic and a lot of people."

True said the MTA has moved vigorously to improve pedestrian safety in recent years. "So much of what we do is about pedestrian safety," he said. "Road diets, ... improving traffic signals, the school crossing guard program, Safe Routes to Schools, Safe Routes to Transit, the accessible/audible pedestrian signals which were installed on Market Street, increasing ladder crosswalks around schools, the speed humps that have been put in as part of traffic calming projects and others. Improving pedestrian safety permeates everything we do every single day."

True said the MTA is advocating for greater pedestrian safety funding in the upcoming federal transportation spending bill.

"The key is that we all know we could use more dedicated resources for pedestrian improvements in the next federal transportation spending bill," said True. "That's really our focus."

Carli Paine, president of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, said the economic downturn has made it even more difficult to find funding for pedestrian safety. "Oakland has come a long way in pedestrian safety over the past decade, but the city's fiscal crisis has put the squeeze on our public works budget," said Paine. "Federal support for Complete Streets policies and increased funding for pedestrian safety projects are critical to meeting our goals for walkable neighborhoods and safe access to transit."

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region, which was measured separately, fared worse than its northern neighbor region, with 1.3 deaths per 100,000 residents, in spite of only 1.8 percent of residents walking to work, according to 2000 U.S. Census data. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont had 1.6 deaths per 100,000 residents, but had a much higher walk-to-work ratio of 3.9 percent.

"The data that we have in San Jose shows that the areas in which we have pedestrian fatalities are really more in the suburban areas of the city, where we've got high-speed, four-lane, six-lane arterial streets that are difficult for people to cross," said San Jose's acting transportation director, Hans Larsen. "We are looking to try to transform some of these streets to be more pedestrian friendly."

"It just illustrates how important it is that we have safe facilities for bicycling and walking," said the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition's Colin Heyne. "San Jose and Silicon Valley are definitely making large strides towards those ends, but definitely we'd love to see more done and we'd love to have it done quicker."

"In order to encourage that kind of transportation, you have to have the infrastructure in place that makes it safe and easy and, as a result, enjoyable."

Photos: WOBO

Cyclists in Oakland's Lakeshore district are celebrating a hard-fought new bike lane that runs along Harrison and Oakland Avenues south of I-580. Jen Jackson, Vice Chair and co-founder of Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO), helped spearhead the initiative, and was thrilled:

WOBO is very excited about this important new addition to Oakland's bike lane network. We've worked long and hard with neighborhood activists in the Westlake Community Coalition, Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel's office, Oakland City staff and the bicycling community to put paint on the pavement to improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety. We look forward to further improvements in the Harrison-Oakland corridor with the future addition of bike lanes on Harrison Avenue and Oakland Ave north of 580!

See a map of the new lane and proposals for additional bike and pedestrian infrastructure after the jump.

Image: WOBO

So we took the “Sunday Streets” issue to the streets -- literally -- at last Thursday’s Uptown Unveiled! event at 19th and Telegraph, which itself provided a dramatic illustration of how sweet it is to block off the streets for community entertainment. Hundreds of Oaklanders filled the streets to enjoy performances, people-watching, and other free activities. WOBO’s table drew a stream of walkers and cyclists, and we tapped their creativity to gather suggestions for a name. Together with the ideas generated at Tuesday’s Volunteers Meeting, we’ve got quite a list.

Ideas include "Open Roads," "Streets for People," "Walkland" and "East Bay Easy" -- leave a comment to put in your vote!

Elsewhere, PA Walks and Bikes brought up an opportunity to participate in updating the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Pedestrian Guide; Upper Manhattan residents gave the MTA their suggestions for better routes for the Bx20 bus; and a member in St. Louis Park, MN is looking for advice about a local bridge.