SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, March 21 BFBC Spring Bike Social
SAVE THE DATE!
Spring Bicycle Social
Sunday, March 21, 2010
4 - 8 PM
BFBC office at 1336 Channing St., Berkeley, CA
The first weekend of spring...if you've been off your bike all winter, our Spring Bicycle Social will be the perfect time to get back out there. An evening of food and fun to celebrate the beginning of spring! The Social will take place at our office at the BCAT (Berkeley Center for Appropriate Transportation) - thanks to our volunteers Kurt and Carolyn who recently helped get this space painted and refurbished.
Berkeley Pedestrian Master Plan Nears Completion
City of Berkeley is finalizing environmental clearance of its comprehensive Pedestrian Master Plan. The Transportation Commission is recommending that a dedicated pedestrian fund (similar to the dedicated bike fund) be used to speed implementation. Many of the proposed projects would benefit cyclists too -- through traffic calming and intersection improvements. The City will accept comments on the CEQA Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) document until 5 p.m. on February 11, 2010. After that, it will go to Council.
The Plan has some interesting map data, including survey of pedestrian counts, and SWITRS accident data:
Berkeley City Council - Speed Table / Raised Crosswalks
Location: Council Chambers - 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Staff proposal for experimental vertical deflection devices (i.e. speed humps, speed tables, and raised crosswalks) will be on the City Council agenda. This is a very important issue for cyclists, pedestrians, and neighborhoods because if the experimental installations are successful, traffic engineers will get a very powerful tool for the city's Traffic Calming 'toolkit'.
Background:
Emeryville approves $680,000 bridge design contract
On November 17th the Emeryville City Council approved an additional $680,000 in local expenditures to design the "Interstate 80 Pedestrian Bicycle Bridge".
The bridge, if funded, is projected to cost from $11-$26 million, and connect from the end of 65th Street to the Bay Trail at the small peninsula known as Point Emery. An alternative plan to build a structure integrated with the current and future Ashby interchange was not pursued by City Council. That option was projected to cost around $3 million, and offered less separation from freeway offramp traffic, but much better bay views, and a more direct connection (less foldbacks, larger radius curves). The option required Caltrans approval (which was not pursued).
Berkeley Bike Station in 2020
High-tech bicycle parking has been available in Japan for over a decade. Recent comments about this video in Drunkcyclist questioned the need for bicycle parking in the US and exhibited distrust at leaving an expensive road bike in the hands of a robot. Our perspective in the East Bay may differ from Flagstaff, AZ.
Current City Berkeley Projects
Here is a list of current projects that BFBC is monitoring
BFBC's statement on the LPA
BFBC prepared a statement on the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA), prior to the public workshop planned for October 17. You can read it here
Hearst Avenue Bike Lanes
Proposal
Stripe the bike lanes on Hearst Avenue prior to Bike to Work Day, May 13, 2010. To complete the bike lanes up to Arch, the University may need to remove some curb-side parking. For these reasons, I have placed this item on the agenda for their next Campus Bicycle Subcommittee Meeting, coming up in early October.
The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition presented this request at the Bicycle Subcommittee of the Transportation Commission on September 24, 2009 and staff is considering it.
The Nickelsen Family's Big Bicycle Adventure
"Over Christmas when my four year old niece started talking about camping, her mother (my sister) didn’t seem so excited. In fact, the thought of sleeping without a pillow terrified her, not to mention all the other discomforts associated with the great outdoors. However, with a little encouragement, she agreed to fly her family out from Massachusetts to go camping with us at Point Reyes National Seashore. This left us with an interesting challenge. How were we to get supplies for 4 adults and 5 young kids out to a campsite?