Minutes of the 8/21/07 General Meeting of the EBBC — DRAFT
Board members present: Rick, Leo, Steve, Craig, Bill, Tom, Dave C, Dave F, Mary, Eric
Approval of July 07 minutes
Approved with 2 corrections:
– EBBC is seeking to hire a Site Supervisor for valet bike parking, not a Volunteer Coordinator
– EBBC supports TALC platform to create a regional Safe Routes to School program (in addition to increasing funds for Safe Routes to Transit)
Treasurer’s report – Rick
Presents charts of new members per event in 2006 and to date in 2007
Membership report – Robert
August is slow – but events coming up in Sept should bring new members
Legislative update – Robert
Given California budget passage difficulties, we’ve had growing opposition to increased funding for AB534 (Smythe), Bicycle Transportation Account. Encourage bicyclists to visit ebbc.org, send letters of support – point to projects that have been put in or ones that would be great help locally.
Following I-35 bridge collapse, bicyclists were scapegoated for national transportation funding woes by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. LAB has support for letters at their website (see link at ebbc.org). Representative Ellen Tauscher is on House Transportation Committee, needs to hear how important these funds are.
Concord and Alameda base reuse plan updates
Robert: Alameda base reuse – dedication ceremony 8/22 (11 a.m.) for part of Bay Trail in Alameda. Leo is on Bay Trail board.
Steve: Has attended workshops on Concord base. Consultants seem to understand need for bicycle access, but pushing trails more than connectivity so far. Steve and Robert are both on technical advisory committee. Possible Cal State East Bay campus to come there; this would be further reason for safe route to transit (to BART).
Leo suggests this would be a good time to try to recruit more members in Concord, get more focus on these issues. Steve also has ideas on this. Paul points out that no Bicycle Advisory Committee there yet. General plan is still in draft form.
Robert suggests Paul, Steve, others work on model charter, with John Ruzak. Dave F. mentions John contacted him to send model charter to Pleasanton. Communities need a bicycle master plan in order to get state funding. (MTC Reso 875 says must follow this process to get bike money – have committee that includes bicyclists, input to plans and prioritizing projects.)
Stolen bike prevention and recovery – Robert
3 bikes have been recovered in recent months when info posted on our site and list. Perhaps we can institutionalize this in some way – provide info on how to keep from getting stolen, save serial number and so on to have info in case stolen, and make website easy for describing stolen bikes (with photo, like a wanted poster). Find a way to get shops to keep the info posted (perhaps via our bike shop ambassadors).. Robert has started a blog on bike theft. Someone suggests having a brochure to pass out at events, and perhaps start some registration process; Dave F suggests people need to keep their bike info, including photo, so can provide the info to police; most bikes recovered by police are not returned to owners because people don’t have the info. Dave suggests having a form in newsletter that indicates all the info that people need to record.
Dave F. mentions can still return round-key kryptonite locks until Sept. 30,
Committee to work on this: Tom, Leo. Eric will provide assistance for whatever is to go on website.
BART car retrofit – Dave F
Funded by bridge toll increase, money to retrofit 60-80 C cars (that have operator). Areas for bikespace – at each end, will remove 1 bench seat, replacing with fold-down seat; can have bike there without extending into doorway. 80% of cost is in fold-down seats. They will be doing 1-2 per week as it progresses; happening along with change to grey linoleum. Area will be labeled as bike priority. Problem that bikes not allowed in front car of a train, which means some of this bike space won’t be available, hence won’t have labeling on outside – except a sign saying Test Program or something like that.
There will be focus groups and surveys to determine how this is going. The folding seats are problematic – take space against wall so fewer bikes can get there, and people sitting in such a seat are unlikely to get up if a bike shows up despite sign saying Bike Priority, and folding seats are largest part of cost. Feedback from cyclists to BART may be helpful once some of these retrofit cars are in service.
BART is considering buying new cars in the future, different design. Feedback and comments now can help get bicycle needs considered early in the process.
Valet bike parking at events – Art & Soul, Solano Stroll, Out & About Rockridge – volunteers needed – Robert
Bacari, Manager of Bikestation in Berkeley, is willing to do Art & Soul (3 days, Sept 1-3) and the Rockridge event (Sept 30); Solano Stroll will be all volunteer. Next year we will need a paid coordinator for events, there are many requests for bike parking.- he has 15 requests that we can’t presently fulfill. Some of these would pay. Need to visit site, assess, prepare a proposal for each.
Propose to hire site supervisor at $16/hour for these 4 days in September. Motion to hire: APPROVED.
RSR bridge update – Robert
Last meeting was in February. Explains the options that were discussed.
Preferred by Robert was a 6′ bidirectional path on upper deck. But Caltrans has now eliminated 3 of the 5 options for having too much design exception in bike or motor vehicle lanes.
Most likely now is a bidirectional path on upper deck, 2 MV lanes up and 3 on lower; path on upper has movable barrier, to be closed for bikes in morning peak hours so 3 lanes available to MVs. This is least preferred from standpoint of 24-hour bike access, but has lowest cost and maintains full width MV and bike lanes. Robert has suggested that 3 MV lanes not needed now in rush hour, so could build this option but not close off bike lane in rush hour morning, at least for the next few years, thus saving the yearly operational costs. Cost estimates include security aspects (e.g. cameras, lighting).
Proposed Bicycle Event Ordinance in Alameda County – Robert
Guests were invited from Alameda County Sheriff’s Dept.. and the County Counsel; nobody has come to our meeting tonight.
Robert provided update on recent developments. It was put on consent calendar in July meeting of the Board of Supervisors, but was tabled, soonest it would come back is September. Current form is that if ride with over 50 people, you may be obligated to get a permit, in which case it becomes a bike event; that is defined as having a full road closure. There are 77 roads listed in the appendix as applicable.
He encourages all Alameda County residents to write to their supervisors to say there is no need for this ordinance for club rides and other rides, that this would regulate bicycling to the point that organized rides couldn’t take place.
Discussion about how to approach this issue.
Other:
Streets skills classes – Dave C – Classes in October in north Alameda Co, south county in spring. Notices will be out soon.
Stickers on order – Robert – For expediency, he selected several stickers that seem popular, had these ordered.
Eric: will offer a web training session, several people have requested this. Any Thursday evening would be good for him; have to find a location, and each person bring own laptop. He will post something to listserve about this.
Eric: Regional rail comment period. Issue for cyclists is that one option would be new transbay rail line, could be alternative for cyclists during blackout periods. Motion to endorse Altamont alignment (from central valley through Fremont and Newark across bay and up the peninsula to SF) – APPROVED.
MEETING ADJOURNED 9:30
Next meeting 9/18 – board 7, general 7:30 – Rockridge library
Minutes submitted by Tom Ayres