About BFBC

last updated 2007-03-27

Our vision

Imagine a Berkeley where everyone is safe using the roads and can conveniently get around by bike, foot, bus, and yes even by car. A city with a network of bicycle boulevards that provide for safe and convenient cross-town travel by bike, and a city with commercial districts that provide safe bike access and convenient bike parking. A city where kids bike to school, and parents are comfortable letting their kids ride their bikes to a friend's house.

We are making it happen

The Bicycle-Friendly Berkeley Coalition was founded in the summer of 1995 to bring together bicyclists plus parents, merchants, and environmentalists who share our vision. Since then, with the support of people like you, our efforts have helped achieve many things including:

• New I-80 bicycle/pedestrian bridge.
• The Bikestation at Downtown Berkeley BART, BART's first attended bike parking facility.
• The Berkeley Bicycle Plan, including the Bicycle Boulevard Network.
• The first bicycle boulevard, Hillegass-Bowditch, including signage, stencils, widening bike lanes, bicycle caution signs on cross streets, and new counter-flow bike lane on Dwight at People's Park. (Light at Ashby on the way).
• Signage and stenciling on the remaining six Bicycle Boulevards is now being installed.
• $170,000/year from the city's general fund for bicycle projects.
• $350,000/year from Measure B for bike/ped projects.
• Hundreds of new bike racks installed.
• Bike lanes on Adeline St. More on the way!
• Improved biking and walking awareness for schoolkids through the Safe Routes to School program.

We assist, educate, and entertain with:

• Our bi-monthly newsletter, the Bicycle-Friendly Times.
• A live telephone hotline/bulletin board/information response service: 510-549-7433 (549-RIDE).
• This website of local bike resources, current campaigns, and road hazard reporting.
• Our annual Bicycle Film Festival. Next one is February 2003!
• Valet bike parking at a variety of events, including Earth Day, Solano Avenue Stroll, How Berkeley Can You Be?, and even Cal football home games.
• Social gatherings such as our annual birthday party and summer picnic.
• Family and community oriented rides.

Bicycling benefits everyone

Making Berkeley more bicycle-friendly is in the best interests of everyone:

• Merchants benefit because bicyclists are regular loyal customers who shop locally. People don't bike to Costco. Bicycles require only one-tenth the parking space of cars, enabling more customers to access stores.
• Children benefit from the freedom and independence to travel safely to school, a friend's house, everywhere.
• Parents benefit knowing their children are on safe bike routes.
• Residents benefit from quieter, safer, friendlier streets.
• Bicyclists benefit from their healthy, low-impact, inexpensive mode of transportation.
• Disabled people benefit from streets that are friendlier to nonmotorized traffic.
• Motorists benefit from reduced traffic congestion and easier-to-find parking. Every bike on the road is one less car on the road to compete with.
• EVERYONE benefits from cleaner air, reduced solid waste, reduced noise pollution, and reduced toxic runoff into our creeks and bays.

Some 15,000 people use bicycles for transportation in Berkeley, making about 100,000 trips each week that might otherwise be made by car. Surveys indicate that more people would switch from cars to bicyles if secure bike parking and safer bike routes were provided.

We gain strength in numbers

Join us in creating a more bicycle-friendly Berkeley for everyone -- for now, and for generations to come. Please volunteer to help and/or become a member.

Serving Berkeley since 1995

See more information about BFBC as an organization.