Introductions (n=31)
Climate action funding for SR2S and SR2T at risk – Robert Raburn
MTC pledged $1 billion for bike/ped projects, but now they intend to cut funding to a small fraction of that, at least for the next 5 years, with a focus on a freeway performance initiative instead. We urge people to let the MTC and others know about our support for bike/ped funding. People to contact: Scott Haggerty (MTC) and Tom Bates (Berkeley mayor) in Alameda County, and Federal Glover (MTC) and Amy Wirth (Orinda mayor) in Contra Costa County.
Motion to support the Climate action campaign as adopted in the 2035 Plan – APPROVED.
Whole Foods proposal on San Pablo in Albany places Buchanan Bikeway at risk – Robert Raburn
The EIR failed to note plans for extending the bikeway down from Marin via Buchanan to the Bay Trail. The intersection crossings at Pierce and Taylor need to be considered. Motion to support a letter of support: APPROVED.
CoCo County Bicycle Pedestrian Plan
Ole Ohlson – Progress has not been encouraging. Changes to the county bike map have been put off for 4 years, the next update of the plan.
Robert Raburn – We suggested signage consistent with the work Jason Patton has done in Oakland, and that crash data be made available; there is some promise for these. We also suggested that paths on the bike plan be available 24 hours a day was denied, as was support for SR2S and SR2T projects. There is some hope for having a county bicycle coordinator named, and about including some additional bike routes that we have suggested.
Other matters – Robert Raburn
Richmond formed a bicycle pedestrian advisory committee, and have succeeded in getting elements in the general plan for the bikeway. About half of the 33 cities in the East Bay have BPACs. Working on a master bicycle plan is a good start for such a committee that can stay active after a plan is created, in order to keep track of implementation progress.
The Miller-Sweeney Bridge, AKA Fruitvale Bridge, is slated to receive $40 million for seismic retrofit. We hope to see bike lanes on this important link, to connect with the bike lanes on Fruitvale Ave. in Oakland, and continuing in Alameda.
Upcoming events
The holiday party is being planned for early December, with details to come.
We will have a bicycle advisory committee workshop, to work towards having BPACs in every jurisdiction. Leo suggests we should try to get BPAC meeting dates on our website; Carrie offers to do this.
New brochures in English and Spanish are now available for our bike safety clases. Considerable effort is being made to publicize the classes. Classes will be offered through the fall at various locations in the EBBC area.
Carrie:Harvilla: We have had tabling and bike parking at the Solano Stroll and the Crucible open house. Susan is helping organize the Tour de Oakland, a fundraiser for BORP. We have a volunteer night about once a month, open to everyone, free dinner, mainly working on member recruitment and retention. The next will be Wednesday Sept. 23, 5-8 pm, at EBBC (Fruitvale BART). There is a volunteer email list for all who are interested in hearing about events at which volunteers are needed. We need people to help plan the holiday party.
Bike ambassador program – Derek Liecty
We have 15 bike ambassadors signed up. They will improve our relationships with local bike shops, talk to shop staff, make sure our brochures and maps are prominently displayed, get the shops involved in Bike to Work Day. We hope the stores will give an EBBC membership brochure to everyone who purchases a bike, and a flyer about our bike safety classes to everyone who comes to the stores. There are over 70 bike shops in our 2 counties; approximately 50 of these are EBBC supporters, providing discounts to our members.
The newly updated West of the Hills map will be going to the printer next week.
Guest presentation: Geospatial Revolution and Bicycling
Peter Rathmann demonstrated various applications of mapping and GPS data, including everytrail.com (which allows you to associate photos with the locations they are taken through time stamp data), mapmyride.com (which provides elevations, distances, cue sheets), and Google streetview (which can be used to check prospective routes for conditions such as shoulder widths or potholes).
Brian Fulfrost, of the consulting firm Design, Community & Environment, talked about ideas for making broader use of data such as the EBBC maps, perhaps making the data widely available while seeking more user input.