Bicycle commuting community-building through conversation (Pedaling Periodical)

On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, a dozen bicyclists gathered in the People Power office in downtown Santa Cruz to discuss bicycle commuting tips, tricks, and laws. Hosted by People Power of Santa Cruz County and the UC Santa Cruz Bicycle Transit Team, this was the first of five community workshops happening every third Monday of the month from March until July.

The workshops are designed to educate new bicycle commuters, as well as remind and refine seasoned commuters' understanding of bicycle laws, best practices for all weather, and safe strategies for getting to work, school, errands, and back home safely on a bicycle. An article in the Good Times provides an overview of the workshops here.

Upon arrival, participants were asked to fill out a one-page survey about their current bicycling habits. The team coordinating the workshops will be compiling this data and comparing it to two post-workshop surveys one month and three months after the workshop. The purpose of comparing data is to identify the effectiveness of the workshops in encouraging more bicycling, as well as to be able to calculate carbon emissions reductions from miles biked instead of driven. The workshops are made possible by the UC Santa Cruz Carbon Fund, which funds projects on-campus and in the community that will reduce carbon emissions. 

The first twenty people to attend the workshops will receive a free bike light. Only about eight people attended the first workshop, so if you're looking for a new bike light, you might consider attending the next workshop on April 21. Front, white bike lights are required by law for night riding, and back red lights are required by common sense (the law does require rear reflectors for night riding, but a light's way more effective). 

In addition to bike lights and the survey, participants could take a free bike commuting tips half-sheet and if they do not already own one, a Regional Transportation Commission bike map. The map can also be downloaded online here.

The People Power office is located at 703 Pacific Avenue, and it has a big bike commuting workshop flyer on the window in addition to other information about bicycling. Right around the corner is the Bike Church, a tool cooperative where you can learn to fix your bike and also purchase parts.

Amelia Conlen, Director of People Power, led this first workshop, providing an outline and overview to bicycling law, best practices, and safety tips. Throughout the presentation, participants were encouraged to ask questions, share stories, and talk to one another about concerns and suggestions they have. Sitting at a table together helps to facilitate the dialogue, and it was clearly helpful to have community members talking among each other to identify solutions to challenges they face. 

At the beginning of the workshop, everyone shared their name and current bicycling habits. One woman had never bike commuted before, but she was interested in giving it a try. Another woman is an employee at UC Santa Cruz who has only biked to campus once. She is interested in making it her regular commute. Because everyone in the room knew a little about others in the room, people were able to share specific tips that they knew that might help others. When you get a slice of the community talking about bike commuting, you realize that we have the solutions to our problems within the collective knowledge of everyone in the room. It's pretty empowering to realize that!

Amelia had a whiteboard set up with a drawing of an intersection to demonstrate different ways to make left turns. Everyone had suggestions for methods they use to feel more comfortable among traffic, and it often depended upon location and comfort level as to the method people chose to use when turning left.

Aly Tyree, one of the student interns on the Bicycle Transit Planning Team, expressed her enthusiasm about the workshop: "By having people with a range of confidence in cycling, we really got to see the reasons why people bike compared to the reasons why people do not. I think by having some bicycle advocates at the workshop they became positive enforcers for the people who want to increase bicycling in their lives. It was overall a fantastic event and I had such wonderful conversations with everyone that showed up!"

The first workshop was certainly a success, and all people who bike commute or are considering it are encouraged to attend a future workshop. These free community workshops take place every third Monday of the month until July, from 6-7 PM at 703 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz.

If you are an employee or owner of a business in Santa Cruz County and you'd like to have a free bike commuting workshop take place at your business during the lunch hour, please contact People Power at 831-425-0665 or email Amelia.

We hope to see you April 21st! 

Being the bicycling change we wish to see (IDEASS BTPT 2013-14)

This is the first of many blog posts about the Bicycle Transit Planning Team's IDEASS project for 2013-14. 

"When our principles inform our method, our project goals can be attained more effectively, with insight along the way." This thought came to me last Tuesday while bicycling along the westside of Santa Cruz, counting cars in parking lots for my bicycle transit internship with the Impact Designs: Engineering & Sustainability through Student Service program at UC Santa Cruz. The sky had let up on the rain, the air was warm, and sun peeked out from behind clouds. Needless to say, the bike ride was a treat.

But why count cars? My team project partner Alyssa Tyree and I are working on a number of different bicycle transit-related mini-projects, housed under the umbrella of our IDEASS project, which is a year-long commitment. We are working with two awesome women in the community, Tiffany Wise-West from the City's Climate Action Program and Amelia Conlen, the Director of People Power of Santa Cruz County. They are both supporting us in different ways for our project, which you will hear more about in future posts. The counting cars aspect is a small slice of our overall project scope, and it's a way for us to support the rail trail project (part of the Monterey Bay Scenic Sanctuary Trail master plan) by collecting data on how many spaces are filled in parking lots along the rail trail on different days and times each week. The goal is to identify if there are empty lots at certain times of the day or week that the City could incentivize lot owners to allow rail trail users to park in for access to the multi-use trail that will eventually be built along the rail line. Counting cars sounds boring, I know, but the bike ride to do so was a delightful way to end my afternoon, and it led to this philosophical reflection about principles, methods, and goals... But how did I get from counting cars to philosophy? Let me explain.

The thought I began the post with came to me right after I biked around the circular road of Errett Circle, which introduced me to the Circle Market and the Circle Church, adorable and unique attributes of the neighborhood that I hadn't ever come across before. I had just biked to this area of town from the Safeway area near Mission Street, and as I passed by Garfield Park, I was struck by how different the neighborhood felt and looked in that area. It felt closer, more quaint. I hadn't ever really explored near there before, and it was fun to be in a new part of town. When I drove through this area last time I conducted the car counting survey (it was pouring rain that day, and I rented a Zipcar), I did not notice the neighborhood around me or associate any feeling with it whatsoever. Cars are like that--you're in them to get from point A to point B, not to enjoy the scenery through glass and metal. The rain may have played a part in this, too, but certainly cars require more focused attention on operating heavy machinery, not gazing around.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about community places and how to live presently in our communities rather than just travel from home to school to work. I think this is why I was so interested in and excited to see the Circle Market and Circle Church. The circular nature of the community space has lent its name to these establishments, which seem to support community in their own ways. The market has a colorful storefront that is inviting, and the church looks welcoming and it's at the center of the neighborhood. It reminds me of the commons area in old European establishments, central and a place for gathering. There is a different feeling in that part of town, as I said, and it's even more tangible the closer to the circle you get. Especially on a bike. On a map it looks like a destination, a place all roads lead to. When you're there, it can feel like something special is happening or about to happen.

As I rode away from the circle and down California Street, I couldn't help smiling at a man walking by and being simply drawn into the present moment and aware of community in a profound way. And then I had this philosophical realization about principles. By "principle" I mean the values and expectations of conduct that we hold ourselves to as we work on a project. In this IDEASS project, we value clear communication, clear deadlines balanced with self-sustainability and awareness of the incredible amount of work on each of our plates. We also value bikes and sustainable transportation, community and relationship-building. These are all the ways we approach the different tasks and goals of our project--these are our guiding principles. So when I say "principles inform our method," I mean in this particular case that our principle of seeing and believing in the bike as a form of sustainable and viable transportation directly translates into our method of conducting our counts by bicycle. In turn, this brings us into the realm of our goal for our project overall--increased bicycle ridership, safer bicycle ridership, and engaged community ridership. Riding my bike last Tuesday for the count put me into the position of evaluating the effectiveness of the bike in these ways. I chose to bike instead of rent a Zipcar again. I put into place the safety tips that I and Aly and Amelia will be sharing at our upcoming bicycle commuting workshops (more on this here, and in future posts). Most profoundly for my experience last week, I was aware of the way the bike can engage you with your community--in this case, a silent and contemplative engagement with a community space that I hadn't come across before.

"When our principles inform our method, our project goals can be attained more effectively, with insight along the way." When we know our audience and can experience what our goal might be like for other people--in this case, biking in any situation--and when we can reflect on how our work can be real in the world or how we can approach our work differently based on experiencing it, we are closer to our goals than if we sit removed from them. Bicycle advocacy is fun, not only because you get to bike while you're doing it a lot of the time, but because the bicycle is so much more than just a mode of transportation in the way a car often feels. It is a tool for accessing reflective thoughts and engaging by being in the spaces we travel in (rather than simply through). By being the change we wish to see in the world and living our principles each day in our work, we can see the possibility and vision of our goals, and that in itself is incredibly inspiring.