Ride the City launches in San Diego
Ride the City(RTC) has officially launched in San Diego. Unlike Google maps' "walking" option in figuring out a bike route that avoids the freeways, RTC uses elevation data to provide routing suggestions so that bicyclists in San Diego can decide on a less hilly route to ride on. From the press release:
This is our largest geographic area yet, including all of San Diego County. You can use Ride the City, for example, to get bicycling directions for a point just south of San Clemente to the Mexican border, about 80 miles.During early testing, lots of users told us we needed to do something to incorporate elevation data because of San Diego's hills and canyons. Well now we do it. In addition to finding safe bike routes, Ride the City now attempts to steer you away from grueling climbs (at least when there is a less steep alternate route that doesn't add too much distance).
Try out Ride the City and use the routing ideas. To improve upon the suggestions, be sure to use the "rate the route" link.
Our thanks go out to Vaidila Kungys and Jordan Anderson for providing such a valuable resource to San Diego County bicyclists.
California Bills in the Pipeline
Below are some bills that will affect bicyclists in California.
Seatless Bicycles (SB 527): This bill would allow bicycles designed to operate without a seat to be legally ridden on streets. The bill is currently awaiting Governor Schwarzenegger's signature. The full text and status of the bill is available at Senator Kehoe's website.
Complete Streets in California - From the California Bicycle Coalition, efforts made since the signing of the Complete Streets Act in 2008:
As of 2011, the law will require cities and counties, when updating local transportation plans, to ensure that those plans account for the needs of all roadway users.
At the same time, the California Department of Transportation unveiled a revised version of Deputy Directive 64, an internal policy document that now explicitly embraces Complete Streets as the policy covering all phases of state highway projects, from planning to construction to maintenance and repair.
As the result, California became the second—and by far the largest—state to implement Complete Streets policies covering every public street, road and highway.
This Week in the San Diego Bike Blogosphere
San Diego has quite a number of bicyclists who write blogs. As far as we know, we have a pretty comprehensive list at right, but we know that not everyone has time to read all of those blogs, so every week we're going to try to put together a roundup of what we consider the most interesting posts from the different blogs. Our criteria for interesting is fairly arbitrary, and the point is mainly to get more people reading, riding, and participating in this big conversation about bicycling in San Diego. So here's what happened this week:
- Vélo-flâneur rediscovered the joys(?) of a morning commute by car.
- Changuito gave us a report from last weekend's Tour de Fat.
- Bike by the Sea considered the value of art in bicycle advocacy.
- Bike 21 became unwittingly involved in a competition.
- And Life with Bicycle did a bunch of boring errands.
Do you have a blog about bicycling in San Diego? Do we know about it yet? If you do, and we don't, then it's time to shamelessly promote yourself. Send us a link, tell us why you write about riding here, and we'll add you to our reading list.
Updates from Councilmember Donna Frye in District 6
Councilmember Donna Frye's latest update to her constituents included an update on Clairemont Drive. From her newsletter, "just east up the hill from Denver Street, Clairemont Drive recently received two long-awaited speed-monitoring signs in the east- and westbound lanes. The digital signs, which display each driver’s speed, were installed as the first of several traffic-calming measures for that area. Other improvements to come will include restriping to widen bike lanes, a raised median and pavement resurfacing."
Mission Valley residents, you soon will have the opportunity to speak up concerning the future of Mission Valley. “What we’re trying to do right now is attract people to the process, a variety of people,” said Senior Planner Brian Schoenfisch, who is coordinating the Mission Valley update for the City Planning and Community Investment Department. “We want to attract people who don’t normally get involved,” he added. “There are people out there who are experts in the community, simply by interacting in the community all the time.”
Mid City Bike Blast
The next Mid City Bike Blast Ride is this Saturday (October 10th). The theme this month is: Zombies. The ride is open to all noise makers and Zombie fans.
The ride begins at the City Heights Farmers' Market which is open from 9am to 1pm at the City Heights Farmers' Market, located on Wightman Street, between Fairmount and 43rd.
The Mid-city ride is a comfortable ride through Mid-City. To make some noise, put cards in your spokes, bring a whistle, bring a bell or bring a tuba!