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MacArthur BART Bike StationAugust 2010 Update: Big Bucks for Bikes & Peds–$24.5 Million
The Regional Bicycle Program and Transportation for Livable Communities awards $24.5 million to East Bay cities to construct bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects over the next two years. The East Bay Bicycle Coalition worked with many organizations over the past 10 years to create and fund these two important sources for bike projects, and cyclists continue to enjoy the fruits of this labor. Included herein is a brief project description and contact info for each project. Because the funding is over two years, there is time to improve these projects–for example, add bike lanes where sharrows are called for in the projects. Please help us by followingup with your local planners with any questions and ideas for improvements.

The core of our work is advocacy, and the core of our advocacy lies in bringing facility improvements to the streets of Alameda and Contra Costa county. Since our inception, we have intimately engaged relevant stakeholders and politicians such that the planning, design and implementation of streets, bridges, public transit, and parking consider fully the needs of cyclists. From getting Bikes on BART to pursuing funding at the state level for the most flagrant missing link in our regional bike plan–the bay bridge west span–the East Bay Bicycle Coalition continues to set forth innovative and aggressive advocacy, making the East Bay one of the best places to ride in the country.

Bike Lanes and Onstreet Facilities Campaigns

From Bike Paths and Lanes to Sharrows, the Bicycle Coalition works tirelessly to make sure that onstreet facilities are best practice implementations that serve to connect and strengthen the local and regional bicycle network. Whether you are a diehard bicycle commuter, or a weekend cyclist, we work to make the roads you travel on as safe as possible for bicyclists. We continue to secure significant funding for such improvements, through landmark funding opportunities like Measure B, and continue to provide safe, secure, and seperated facilities that help cyclists of all creeds feel safe and confident as they pursue their environmentally-friendly and city-improving transportation and recreation lifestyle.

Transit Accommodation

Public transportation is but one component of a healthy human transportation network. Bicycles serve a crucial role in meeting the final mile of the commute–that critical last step between your bus stop or BART station and your place of work. EBBC works to get best practice policy on our transit systems–whether it is bike access on BART, being able to take your bike on the redeye AC transit service, or expansion from two to three bike racks on the front of the bus; the Bicycle Coalition delivers.

Transbay bicycle options during Bay Bridge closure

Bridge Access

Bay Bridge West Span Bikeway
Bay Area bridges are world-class examples of engineering and design, but all too often neglect the most simple needs of Bay Area citizens. Politicians don’t hesitate to spend billions on creating linkage for cars, but flounder when confronted with the simple point that these bridges were historically for all users and that they should continue as such in order to meet stated reductions in emissions and a future for planet-friendly alternative transportation (and by association, ourselves). The Bicycle Coalition has achieved access on nearly all Bay Bridges, and is actively seeking to close the remaining gaps.

Bike Parking

All transportation systems require three components: the vehicle, a right of way, and a terminal. The bicycle is a clear winner in terms of efficiency and space in all these areas. Unfortunately, it is all to common to afford ample room for car parking, which requires at least 8 times the space needed to park a bicycle, while sacrificing or ignoring the real needs of cyclists and pedestrians in our streets. Currently, we are working to realize new and transformative alternatives to car-centric terminal design through streetscape and parklet advocacy–all in addition to making sure the most basic bicycle need, a place to lock your bike, is met throughout our jurisdiction.

Most East Bay cities have a budget to install bike racks on city property nearby businesses who request to have a bike rack. These are free of charge to the businesses. If you want your City to install a bike rack in front on your business, contact your local bicycle planner. A list of these planners can be found on our bicycle transportation maps. These maps are sold at over 60 bike shops in the East Bay. For businesses who want to install bike racks on their own property, here is a list of bike rack vendors who are approved to install bike racks:

  • Palmer Group
    Geoff Palmer
    1072 Folsom Street #328
    San Francisco, CA 94103
    Tel: 415-333-6428
    www.bikeparking.com
    (racks manufactured locally in Oakland)

  • Dero Bike Racks
    Peter Lemieux
    120 Cole Street
    San Francisco, CA 94117
    Tel: 415.668.6230
    Email: peter@dero.com
    www.dero.com

  • Hannan Specialties, Inc.
    John Hannan
    Mike Bradford
    4019 Leof Lane, Unit #3
    Carmichael, CA 95608
    Tel:(916) 488-7026
    Fax: (916) 488-7256

  • AJW Construction
    966 81st Ave
    Oakland, CA 94621
    Tel: 510-568-2300
    Fax: 510-639-1578

We hope to see our cities move toward new arrangements in which car users pay a fair market rate for the parking they use (and bicyclist tax payers no longer are forced to subsidize such irresponsible behavior). The money generated would go toward directly toward improving local business districts where it was collected (an excellent treatise on this topic is “The High Cost of Free Parking,” by Professor Donald Shoup, of UCLA).