Local bicycle news round-up

Here's a collection of local bicycle news from the past few weeks:

• "Santa Cruz native raises money by cycling across nation": Warren Claiborne raises money for nonprofit, by Calvin Men (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• "Open Streets expands to Capitola village": Village event attracts a large crowd to first-time event, by Jessica A. York (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• "Bike Dojo sells spin gym business to Toadal Fitness": Dojo owners to expand mountain biking summer camp to Los Gatos, by Jondi Gumz (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• "Street Smarts, Ramona Turner: Vehicle blocks bike lane on Broadway, cyclist says" by Ramona Turner (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• "Outside Roundup: Aptos mountain bikers win at NorCal Championships": Aptos' Jacobson records best local time at Big Sur Marathon (Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Have you heard other bike news in Santa Cruz? Post it in the comments!

Trail blazing: Santa Cruz mountain biking news (Pedaling Periodical)

Wondering what's going on in the exciting mountain biking world of Santa Cruz? From trail building to discussions about the new CEMEX property to some major festivals coming up, we've put together some news for you!

"Karen Kefauver, Spin City: Mountain bike team launches as part of Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team"
"What happened to him could happen to any cyclist or hiker: He had taken a wrong turn, backtracked, crossed a creek, got disoriented and ended up spending one of the coldest nights of the year in the woods. 'He thought he was going to die,' said Morse." Read the full article on the Santa Cruz Sentinel here.

"Hundreds turn out for meeting on Cemex planning"
Santa Cruz Sentinel reports: "Hundreds of county residents filed into the Hotel Paradox Wednesday night to offer their views on the opening of the Cemex Redwoods, a massive expanse of wilderness that cascades from the peaks of the Santa Cruz Mountains nearly to the sea." Read the full article here.

Flow Trail at Soquel Demonstration Forest 3/30 & 4/8 Dig Days
Want to help build the flow trail at Demo? Join Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz for two upcoming dig days!

Volunteers digging at the new Flow Trail in the Soquel Demonstration Forest.
Photo credit: Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz

Vote for the Flow Trail at Demo: April 7-20
Bell Helmets and IMBA are hosting a contest for $100,000 for three trail building projects through the Bell Built contest! The currently-being-built Flow Trail at the Soquel Demonstration Forest has made the finalists list for the west coast. You can vote for it online here April 7-20! Learn more about the Flow Trail on the Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz website here.

Trail work opportunities at four different trails in the area
Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz has trail work opportunities quite often. Visit their website for a calendar listing of trail work days at places like the Flow Trail, Emma McCrary, and Wilder Ranch. Find out more here.

Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival: April 5-6
"The Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival was created by Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz to celebrate the world class mountain bike facilities, riders, and cycling industry of Santa Cruz county, and to raise funds to support local bike projects. This family-friendly eco-conscious event continues to grow year after year with the generous support of our sponsors, volunteers, and community—and our success testifies to the depth of the mountain bike culture in Santa Cruz county." It takes place in Aptos Village. Learn more on the website here.

Sea Otter Classic: April 10-13
"Mountain bikers, cyclocrossers, road racers and air junkies all converge on Laguna Seca and Fort Ord in Monterey for the biggest bike festival in central California. Four days of races, demos, slalom contests, fun events like the first-ever Night Ride sponsored by Magicshine and a ton of kids' activities make for serious fun. This is a qualifying event for the National Mountain Biking Championships, so big players will be here, and national gear companies will be strutting their best stuff." Learn more on the Hilltromper website.

Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz is a more comprehensive resource than this blog post, so we encourage you to visit their website and like them on Facebook for the latest scoop.

Streets of S.F. a road hazard as pedestrian deaths spike (SF Chronicle)

I came across this article in the SF Chronicle yesterday while eating at the 9/10 Dining Hall, and I thought it was particularly relevant to our class. The issue of bureaucratic sluggishness on moving projects ahead and the desire (and inability) to get everyone to agree on transportation projects is a huge problem for places like San Francisco. It becomes not only annoying but actually dangerous when the places that are supposed to be seeing these improvements are the site of numerous fatalities for people walking and biking.

Source here.

Perhaps this article could prompt some questions for us to explore on Feb 28 when we have a speaker panel of folks who have directly dealt with processing and implementing transportation changes like the ones discussed in this article… We can also discuss the pedestrian issues addressed in this article tomorrow, since this week's topic is walking.

Here's a snippet of the article, but you should check out the full story on the SF Chronicle website here.

"San Francisco has put together a lot of plans and budgeted a lot of money to reduce pedestrian and bike accidents and generally make its streets safer. 

"But people keep getting maimed and killed by cars - and some city officials and residents think part of the reason is that the city has been slow to follow through with its proposals to improve street designs and crack down on drivers who break traffic laws. 

"A spate of pedestrian fatalities at the end of 2013 and the beginning of this year - including the death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu on New Year's Eve and a man who was killed by a car in the Parkside neighborhood Tuesday - shows that the city's streets remain dangerous. Yet just 6 percent of San Francisco streets account for 60 percent of incidents in which pedestrians are severely injured or killed. On those streets, high-injury corridors representing 5.2 percent of the city's street miles are the site of more than half of all pedestrian deaths and injuries. 

"While the number of hazardous blocks isn't numerous, bringing down the number of deadly collisions hasn't been easy. The city has earmarked tens of millions of dollars for re-engineering dangerous corridors in recent years, but some seemingly simple projects can take years. In the meantime, bicycle and pedestrian fatalities spiked in 2013: 21 people were killed while walking, the most since 2007, and four bicyclists lost their lives, the highest number since 2001."

Last Chance to Apply for "People Power: Engaging Sustainable Transportation Solutions"

It's nearly week 1 of winter quarter 2014, which means you have only a few more days to apply for UCSC's newest sustainable transportation course, being co-taught by two undergraduate sustainable transportation advocates, Melissa Ott and Alex Hoffman. Students will engage in discussion, an internship project of their choice with a local transportation organization, writing, reading, bike rides, and more in this course being offered through Kresge's Common Ground Center.

The course application can be found here. Applications will be accepted until all spots are filled.

Image Source

More information about the course can be found on our syllabus here (subject to change). The course has also been written about in a number of local publications, including the Sustainability Office's newsletter, the Civinomics blog "Tipping Point," and City on a Hill Press (December 5, 2013 issue, page 9).

The course begins Friday, January 10, at 8 AM in Kresge--you do not want to miss this opportunity to take a 2-unit, hands-on, interdisciplinary course focusing on transportation in its many forms (not just bikes!) and its relationship to environmental, community, personal, economic sustainability and justice.

Students, community members, staff, faculty, and all are invited to visit and participate in the course, even if they are not receiving credit. For more information and to join our email list for the course, please email Melissa at mott [at] ucsc [dot] edu.

We wheely look forward to this quarter! It's about to get rolling!