Posted on February 16, 2010

Last week I had written about how pitiful San Diego’s bicycle population was at 0.9%.

Local business owner Jay Porter left a comment with suggestions he thought would increase the San Diego bicycle population to 20% in one year with no cost to the city, if they implemented the following policies:

1) Assess a “road services impact fee” of $5000 for each new automotive parking space built, public or private
2) Give a $500 credit against development fees (fund permitting) for each parking space removed from privately owned property
3) Assess a $250/year road services impact fee against all exisiting publicly accessible spaces
4) Assess a $50/year road services impact fee on all privately used spaces (garages, driveways, etc.)
5) Convert all free public spaces on City roadways to either 15 minute parking, enforceable 24/7, or paid/metered parking, enforceable 24/7, or turn them into bike and/or ped lanes with red zones.
6) All excess money from the assessments, apply to developing separated bikeways on major arterials (Genessee, Mission Gorge, etc).

Within one year, I’d expect bicycling would become 20% or more of transportation. Plus the local economy would boom as money was shifted from car expenses (which leave the city) to discretionary spending and bike expenses (which often stay in the city)

As if on cue, three bits of information have crossed my desk that will put some of these suggestions into effect.

Bike Corral. Photo from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy

1. Jessica Freeman, Program Specialist for the Uptown Partnership contacted us to ask our readers to opine about bicycle parking infrastructure. Specifically, they have allocated $20K in the 2009-2010 budget toward bike racks. The Uptown Partnership would also like our readers to email info@uptownpartnership.org with specific project ideas to improve bike access and parking. The caveat is that the projects have to be located within Uptown Partnership’s District boundaries which are the neighborhoods of “Bankers Hill-Park West, Hillcrest, and Mission Hills.”

Additionally, John Hargreaves, Project Manager at Uptown Partnership, is open to hearing your thoughts on bike racks that will be funded from the 2009-2010 budget. Contact: jhargreaves@uptownpartnership.org

2. On Wednesday (February 17) at 5:15 PM, bicyclists in San Diego are invited to attend the offices of the Centre City Development Corporation to speak up for bike specific infrastructure that is already on the agenda. The CCDC’s offices are located at 401 B St, Suite 400 in downtown San Diego. If you are unable to attend, please email Kathy Keehan (Executive Director at the Bicycle Coalition) at execdir@sdcbc.org a list of places where bike corrals would be most appreciated.

3. Omar Passons, President of the North Park Community Association, contacted us to let us know that the Association has allocated some money for bike racks within the boundaries of North Park.  We will post more details as we learn them.

Category: News | 1 Comment »

Posted on February 15, 2010

Jonathan sent us a link to his Picasa album containing pictures taken during last weekend’s Mid-City Bike Blast.

Click here to see the pictures of a ride celebrating the Chinese New Year.

Category: Reader Contributions | No Comments »

Posted on February 12, 2010

So yeah, I got hit by a car last night. It wasn’t serious, I wasn’t hurt, and I don’t think there was any serious damage to my bike (30 lbs. of British steel, they don’t build ‘em like they used to). I was crossing a quiet residential intersection two blocks from my house, on the way out to meet a friend.  I was fully lighted, the intersection was well lighted, and I had the right of way.

The driver who hit me had not even reached his stop line when I entered the intersection. I was ¾ of the way across the driver’s line of sight when I realized that he was not fully stopping. I yelled and pushed hard to get out from in front of him, but he clipped my rear wheel. The bike went down, but I was able to step off and stay on my feet.

As I stumbled to keep from falling, the driver crept through the intersection, looking back directly at me. Once he realized I was still standing (not broken or bleeding on the pavement), he accelerated and left the scene. Fully aware of the futility of doing so, I shouted at the disappearing car: “What the f*ck? That’s a hit and run!” as loud as I could. It all happened in about five seconds. I didn’t even get a plate number or a useable description of the car.

I shouldered my disabled bike and walked the two blocks back to my house. My heart was pounding; I felt shaky. This was the first time I’ve ever been hit by anything. I walked in the door and told my wife, “I just got hit by a car.” Maybe that was a little dramatic, but it was true.

Later, I tried to figure out what I might have done differently. I might have evaluated the intangibles of the drivers’ demeanor better as he approached the stop sign. I might have yielded the right of way. I might have tried harder to make sure of eye contact before I assumed the driver would see me. I might have done all of those things, but I was within my rights to cross when I did, and it was the driver’s inattention that caused him to hit the lighted, legal vehicle in front of him.

A lot of debate occurs within the bicycling community about safety, and most of it centers on what bicyclists can do to be safe. I’m a huge advocate of not taking chances on a bicycle, especially when riding in an urban environment. I’m about the most conservative, safety-conscious bicyclist I can imagine. And yet, it took just one inattentive driver to knock me down and then drive away as though nothing happened. Five seconds was all it took. Everything I could do to be safe disappeared in five seconds.

Until our society begins to yield some of the privileges it affords to automobile travel, those of us who travel by bicycle will continue to be among the most vulnerable road users. We can do everything right, and we can still get hit by a car. We need infrastructure that is designed for multiple road users traveling by different means. We need as much as we can get, and we need it as soon as possible. We need better public education and outreach. We need to create awareness that there are other vehicles on the road, other people to watch for, than simply those in cars.

I’m not just pumping through an adrenaline-fueled rant. I’m not angry and I’m not scared. I’m writing this well after getting hit, and I felt this way long before. I’m writing this because in the five seconds it took for that car to hit me and drive off, I also realized that I’m more determined than ever to change the way our auto-centric city and our auto-obsessed culture view the rights of other road users. I have no doubt that the driver who hit me thought, “oh, it was just a guy on a bike, and he’s still standing, so I’m off the hook.” I’d like to see a world in which more people will consider the human factor as they move through their world by whatever means they choose. It’s not about bicycles, automobiles, or pedestrians, it’s about quality of life, humanity, and creating the kind of society we want to be a part of.

Category: Editorial | 11 Comments »

Posted on February 11, 2010

It’s 1:00 am, cold and almost misty. The streets are erie, almost. I’m somewhere on 30th Street, heading west-ish, towards Market Street; actually, an offshoot. Without ear phones, a song plays — perhaps a radio, or a car — Dire Straits: “Your Latest Trick,” a classic rock tune from the 80s. Something about taxis only taking calls for cash. It’s that time of night, I find myself pushing off the cold by keeping up a good pace. It’s the post-Critical Mass ride home. This particular mass is a perfectly-balanced failure and perfectly-balanced flop and a pivot point of perfect. Love to hate it, or hate to love it, or whatever.

Earlier, I’m chasing a ghost blinky up Park Boulevard, coming from the foot of the Coronado bridge. Red lights seem to be just for me today, and I’m in no mood to try my luck at getting killed by running one. The blinky goes straight, while my tire veers left towards the back side of the Science Theater.  A young guy, perhaps Filipino, asks for help putting a rear wheel on a mountain bike with disc brakes. It’s a bit tricky. He queries me about the upcoming event: is it fun? How far do they ride? What is the speed like? Is it dangerous? What do I recommend?

That idea makes me wonder: what do I recommend with Critical Mass? You can ask a hundred people what they think about Critical Mass and get different definitions. This may sound clichéd; but actually, I did ask over a hundred. As a side project, in concert with some others, I took an informal survey at Critical Mass, asking people about why they were there, what was good, bad, how many they’ve ridden, etc.

To say the crowd is diverse, an understatement. Just looking at bikes (secretly, I lust after other bikes, just don’t tell my bike that), there’s nothing missing: welded-together Frankenbikes, 20 feet tall; a brand-new P1, flat black carbon, complete with integrated water bottle; classic steel road frames; smashed beyond belief BMX bikes; track bikes; fixie trick bikes; tandems; Walmart specials; old Raleighs; new Surlys; utility bikes; a unicycle with an impossibly big 33” wheel; beach cruisers; full-suspension mountain bikes; recumbents; mixties; trikes; bikes with trailers. Just before the start there are close to 1,200 bicycles.

Photo by Jason Fleischer from the BikeSD Flickr Pool

The people on the bicycles are just as diverse, if not more so.  At one side of the fountain are the Cretins, a group of young riders, who now show up just for the beginning of the ride. The story goes they used to help corral the mass, but after a while, it was just too much to wrangle, and they gave it a critical pass. They are friendly, open to anyone who talks to them. By the trees, the nervous, the stand-offish, those looking for friends. This group, typically white, mid- to late-20s, friendly, but wary, as if I’m selling vacuum cleaners and at any minute their Visa card will magically appear in my hands. Many have driven here, a few Burberry scarves hang loose around necks. Around the fountain, the cliques of friends; to talk to them is to interrupt a conversation, generally with a look of surprise. Mingled amongst the crowds, BMX kids fly off the fountain.

The answers I get to my questions are always slightly different; almost everyone is glad that there is hope to “regain the mass,” others are doubtful that it could ever happen. Some admit they are there for the feeling of anarchy, others are heavily guarded at someone they don’t know asking questions, and a few somewhat hostile. Most are overly happy, enthusiastic about riding free of worry from traffic, free to laugh and yell and ring bells.

I’m lost in the crowd, listening to someone explain to me the correlations between circling Mecca on Hajj and circling the fountain. For a few seconds I almost understand it, but the cheering starts, the mass is moving faster, more people are dumping into the group. I’m swimming against traffic to get to the bike and find friends who are already swept up. But too late, and it’s me in the mass.

Two miles later, we all meet up, and ride down University. The mass is hopelessly stretched out, long and thin.  We circle around and hit 30th. Giving up, a small portion of us peel off and stop for the night. We watch the rest of the mass go by for a few minutes; cheering with them. But clearly, sticking together just didn’t happen.

By accident, we meet other riders we know. Stories are told (the cheerleaders on a tandem were seen, but this time, not dressed as cheerleaders), topics drift to this or that. A few stragglers float by from time to time. We laugh, we’re a ragged crew of mismatched people, all for fun. I talk a little about the survey, and the outreach. It’s a curious thing, like putting your finger on a sound.

It gets late, then later, and we all call it time to ride home.  Friends head out, and I take a moment to pause on a street corner.   It’s eerily quiet. I’m thinking about the night’s activities. We’ve talked to strangers about important things.  We ride.  We meet later, and talk about the good, the bad, and the indifferent. For some reason, I can’t decide to put it in a win column, or a loss column. Can a thousand people on bikes be so simple as a party?  Or is it just another San Diego miss, a thousand people who can not link up and ride for a purpose.

A gentle shrug, and I’m up in the pedals, pushing it out home.  The trip isn’t a short one, but on nights like this, there’s no hurry.  The only thing to ride with is my thoughts, anyway.

Category: View from the Handlebars | No Comments »

Posted on February 10, 2010

The Alliance for Biking and Walking recently released a 2010 Benchmarking Report in order to measure the progress of efforts on bicycling and walking in the U.S. The overall conclusion of the report is that bicyclists and pedestrians receive a pitiful share (1.2%) of transportation dollars and yet, are at a much larger risk on our roadways where a disproportionate percentage of transportation dollars go toward auto-based infrastructure.

As the eight largest city in the country, the percentage of San Diegans who took full advantage of year round perfect weather to commute by bicycle was a pitiful 0.9%. The Complete Streets Act in California which was signed in 2008 and ensures that the design of all streets will enable safe access for all users was adopted by the city of San Diego. Yet to date, the city has done nothing to increase staffing to show the full support of that adoption. The sole bicycle coordinator at the City, Brad Jacobsen, was scheduled to retire in 2009 and the city has still not finalized plans on continuing that position.

Despite the gloomy report, San Diego has published very ambitious goals to increase bicycling [pdf link]  to a 10% mode share by 2020. Unlike Portland whose successful efforts to promote bicycling include trying out innovative bicycling facilities; leading bicycle promotion activities like Bike to Work Day and Ciclovía; San Diego’s plans to promote bicycling have been more modest. The plans include the creation and connection of bikeways, maintaining existing bicycle infrastructure, increasing the percentage of bicycle transit trips, and increasing public awareness of bicycling.

Photo from the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking

Facing a $179 million budget deficit and a crumbling infrastructure, the city of San Diego needs to step it up a notch if it really intends to meet the goals outlined in the Bicycle Master Plan. Maintaining existing bicycle infrastructure that is poorly connected is the very minimum that cyclists expect from the city. In order to really meet and exceed the goals outlined in the Bicycle Master Plan put forth by the city, San Diego needs to be a vanguard in promoting bicycling as a utilitarian form of transportation. I will be outlining some ideas in a forthcoming post.

In the meantime, you are encouraged to respond with your ideas or criticisms. What can San Diego do to ensure that 10% of all trips are made on a bicycle?

Category: News | 1 Comment »

Posted on February 8, 2010

Shortly after Bike San Diego was launched we did a profile of one of the co-founders of San Diego’s only bicycle delivery service. Since the profile was run when our site was still in its infancy, we thought we’d run an update on Manivela Food Delivery to introduce some of our newer readers to Manivela.

Trevor Fray. Photo by mattlingo.com

Trevor Fray is the other half of Manivela Food Delivery. A resident of San Diego for the past fifteen years he has grown to love this city by traversing it in the best possible way: a bicycle.

Fray belongs to one of those rare but growing breed of individuals who chose to live in San Diego without an automobile. He has learned how to get around San Diego solely by bicycle and has based all his employment around his bike.

In addition to overseeing the day to day operations of Manivela Food Delivery, Trevor also works as a bicycle courier in downtown San Diego and at Pedal Pushing Bike Shop

For the past seven years, Fray has been a bicycle commuter getting more familiar with his city in a manner a growing number of San Diegans are beginning to.

…continue reading the rest of the story

Category: Advocacy, Profiles | 7 Comments »

Posted on February 8, 2010

We’ve just received a tip that earlier this evening a cyclist was hit on Catalina Boulevard at the intersection of Orchard Avenue in Point Loma.

Below is the entire message that was sent to us. We have no word on who the cyclist was or any further details. We will keep you informed as we learn more:

Sometime after 5pm this evening (2/8) a cyclist was hit on Catalina Blvd. at the intersection of Orchard Ave. in Point Loma.  The unconfirmed report that I got was that the cyclist was killed.  The area was closed off to traffic for several hours while the police investigated the accident.  My source tells me that the amount of police on the scene and the amount of time taking measurements led him to believe that a fatality had occurred, but that it is still not confirmed.  I searched the local news and saw no report (hopefully that means there was no fatality), so I thought I would give you guys a heads up to keep your ears open.  Be safe.

Thank you H. for letting us know.

UPDATE from reader J:

I was on the scene and saw the accident. I would like to know… I tried to help him but he was in bad shape. I gave my report to the police. Last I was told he was alive with non life threatening injuries (Monday night approx 900pm). Any word? He’s been in my thoughts ever since.

Editor’s Note: No. We haven’t heard anything either. Please keep us updated as you learn more

UPDATE from reader Phil:

Hi…the guy hit is an Navy officemate of mine. Thank you for your concern. He got hammered but is recovering at UCSD medical center. Broken hip, broken right leg, lots of cuts and bruises. Gabe is such a great and friendly guy. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. As a fellow roadie – this sucks.

I would like to pass the thanks out to the bystander who saw it and grabbed Gabe’s phone and called 911 and his wife. That made all the difference. I spent 6hrs in the waiting room waiting for him to come out of surgery and that simple act of kindness resonated the whole night. Thank you.

Category: Legal, News | 9 Comments »

Posted on February 5, 2010

In recognition of the Lunar New Year, this month’s bike blast will celebrate the Lunar New Year. The ride will go along El Cajon Boulevard .

Remember this is a slow conversational ride of about 5 miles. We ask youth under 12 to be accompanied by a parent or a responsible older sibling.

Meet at 10 am, leave at 10:30 am on February 13, 2010 from the City Heights Farmer’s Market 43^rd and Wightman streets.

Category: Events | 1 Comment »

Posted on February 4, 2010

Thanks to San Diego Coalition Executive Director, Kathy Keehan, for alerting us to good article in SignOnSanDiego regarding making Balboa Park Plaza a car-free zone in time for the 2015 Centennial Celebration, celebrating the Panama California Exposition.

Tonight at 6 PM there is a Balboa Park Committee meeting in the Santa Fe Room of the Balboa Park Club. Please attend to voice your support for creating a car-free Balboa Park Plaza.

Category: News | 1 Comment »

Posted on February 2, 2010

The members at SDBikeCommuter will be enjoying their “Super Bowl Ride” this Sunday, February 7. Departure from Velo Cult Bike Shop, 2220 Fern St., South Park at 2:00PM.

This ride has nothing to do with the Super Bowl at all, just scheduled to coincide with the time when the game is on as the streets are largely empty at this time. Riding during the game is also a preemptive strike against the risk of getting stuck in front of a television set eating all day!

For more info, please visit SDBikeCommuter.

Category: Events | No Comments »