2 Bike Opportunities: Share Ridership Data & Tell Your Bike Love Story

I just want to briefly share two bike-related opportunities that you all can partake in. I'll mention these in class tomorrow, too:

Share Cycling Data with CycleTracks App to Improve Routes

Excerpted from the original post on the Sustainability Office blog:
The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments is working to develop a planning tool that will help make the Monterey Bay Area, including Santa Cruz, an even better place to bike. This tool will assist local governments in identifying the best places to plan for new bicycle routes throughout the tri-county region.

The Association will be collecting data from the region’s bicyclists using the CycleTracks mapping applications. To help contribute, you can either log your bike trips on the CycleTracks Monterey website or download the smartphone application and map your routes while you ride. You can also help by getting your friends, family, and colleagues to log their trips. The information collected will be sent to our secure server to be used in helping us better understand what factors influence the routes that area cyclists bike along. No personal information will be released.

For more information visit cycletracksmonterey.org or find them on Facebook.


Share your "Bike Love" story on PedalLove.org
I recently wrote a blog post for Pedal Love, an initiative of the California Bicycle Coalition, and you are all invited to write and submit one, too! Read more about how I got involved here, or you can just read the post I wrote here. To submit your own story, contact Editor and Director Melissa Balmer at melissa [at] pedallove.org

Recap of the Last Couple Weeks

We're overdue for a recap of class! Between reading for class and preparing the lesson plans and learning about the awesome projects everyone's doing, Alex and I haven't had a chance to write about what we've been doing in class--which is important so that people who aren't there can learn about the cool stuff we're doing.

Two weeks ago, Amelia Conlen, Director of People Power of Santa Cruz County, and Tawn Kennedy, Director of Green Ways to School, visited our class to talk about the work that they do in the community and how students in the class can get involved. It was awesome to learn about the projects they're currently working on. Both of them spoke about transportation issues in general, as well, which framed their work within the larger issues of transportation that we're facing. Tawn spoke about climate change and the importance of encouraging young people to bike. Thank you both for attending and sharing with us!

Tawn speaking about his work with Green Ways to School. 

After hearing from Tawn and Amelia, Alex presented about bikes, which is evidently our class's favorite topics since we talk about it every week even when we aren't focusing on bikes. The presentation that Alex showed is here if you want to review it.

Last week, we focused on public transportation. We started class by going around and sharing the funniest, best, or most interesting experiences we've had on public transportation. The stories ranged from drunk, boisterous men on buses in the Central Valley to silent connections made by eye contact on buses to realizations about socioeconomic inequalities and why we feel how we feel when we take public transportation. (If anyone from class wants to share what their story was, please do so in the comments!)

We transitioned into talking about the readings and reviewing a presentation that I put together the night before. You can review it here. We ended that portion of class with a TED Talk by Enrique Peñalosa titled "Why buses represent democracy in action."

After this, we welcomed a guest presentation by Erich Friedrich, Senior Transportation Planner with Santa Cruz METRO. He spoke about the history of METRO, current struggles the transit district faces, and exciting opportunities happening in the future. Students had many questions, and it led to an interesting conversation about Santa Cruz transportation issues and possible solutions. We may have more details on this coming soon in a blog post from Alex!

As always, you can look over our syllabus to see what readings we're doing each week and what the topic and plans are for future weeks. Tomorrow, we're discussing walking, and we have two guest speakers, Jessica Pearson from Transportation & Parking Services and Dr. Paul Lee, founder of the Chadwick Garden and Homeless Garden Project and advocate for trails like Pogonip. You're welcome to join us any Friday from 8 - 10:40 AM in the Kresge Seminar Room 159.

Enjoy this rain!

Project Update

My project in creating a promo video for People Power is moving somewhat slowly but should pick up in the next couple of weeks. I'll be meeting with Tawn at the People Power office  tomorrow to get his existing video footage and photos to put into the video. I've also been collecting my own bicycle-related footage to use in the video as well. I'm planning on attending the Santa Cruz Bike Party next Friday and collecting footage from that as well which should be a lot of fun. I think the energy of the bike party will contribute a lot to the momentum of the video. It'll also be my first bike party so I look forward to it!
I've also had a recent development in a new project that I'd like to look into because of an accident that I had this week. I was riding my bike down High Street and crossed into the separated bike lane that goes opposite of traffic after Highland. About two blocks away from the next stop sign I was going pretty fast, probably at least 20 mph down the hill. Suddenly a car that had been coming up High pulled right in front of me into a driveway perpendicular to the bike lane and I t-boned right into her hood and actually smashed her windshield with my face. Amazingly, I was completely fine despite some bruising on my leg and face. I've been in contact with Emily, the girl who was driving, and luckily her insurance company will be paying for the repairs on my bike (bent fork, possibly more) and any medical visits I need to make. Apparently a lot of the residents in that section of High street have either had similar accidents or have had very close calls. I've known people to get hit on their bikes there and Emily's neighbor, who saw the aftermath of the accident said that he'd done a very similar thing when backing out before. She and I are interested in working together in making that section of High safer, even if it just means getting some mirrors in peoples' driveways or something. So, I'm pretty excited about figuring out how to get that started. I'll bring it up in class tomorrow and hope to get some input from Tawn as well.
Photos to follow.

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."

Hiking: A Social Cure for a Disconnected World (A re-post from Green Gal)

This was originally posted on Melissa's Green Gal blog here on March 27, 2013. It relates to walking and the power of walking with others, so it ties into this week's theme. It's also a love story!

In addition to being great exercise and a way to get to really awesome places in the world, hiking is also one of my favorite social activities. Since the time I was old enough to hike around Pinecrest Lake, I was making the trek with my family, trying to keep up with uncles and cousins in my little hiking boots and sunhat. I've always been a hiker, and I continue to be one, especially since I live in a hilly forest off the coast of the Pacific Ocean. How can you not be a hiker when you live two minutes from hiking trails and views of the ocean?

Given this interest in hiking and the opportunities for social engagement and community building that it offers, this past fall, a fellow student sustainability leader at UC Santa Cruz and I organized a hike into the Upper Campus trails that meander through forest and meadow above our university home. The goal was to bring together students, staff, faculty, community members interested in sustainability at UC Santa Cruz for a day hike to explore the natural space where we live, learn, and work.

My fellow sustainability hike leader and I had met at the Harvest Festival at the campus farm at the beginning of the quarter, where he served me countless bike-pedal-generated smoothies that he had made himself as I sat tabling for the Sustainability Office in the sweltering September heat.

A few days later, we spoke during dinner at the Student Environmental Center's General Gathering, and we realized we both had an interest in getting students from sustainability orgs on campus to spend more time together outside of org events. We swapped numbers, met in the library a couple times to draft an email, and then sent it out to everyone involved with sustainability work on campus, using the list-servs and email addresses that I have access to as the Education & Outreach Coordinator for the Sustainability Office (not an abuse of power, given that these hikes serve to further the aims of my job, even if I don't count those hours toward work). We even made a Facebook event for the hike. We were stoked.

The day came to meet up in the North Remote Parking Lot. I showed up first with my hiking shorts and hiking boots and reusable water bottle. No sign of anyone.

A few minutes later, I got a text message from my co-leader, who is the Transportation Coordinator for the organzation who hosted the General Gathering. He was on his way, and walked up from his redwood-surrounded apartment a few minutes later.

We waited. And waited.

"Well, it's time to go. Should we just start hiking?" No one else had shown up, and I'd received at least one text message from a friend who wasn't coming after all.

"Yeah, let's go."

We hiked up into the forest, just the two of us, on what would become not only the first of many sustainability inter-organizational hikes, but our first hike together, our first date, and our first chance to get to know each other through awesome conversation on the trail.

Hiking is a great social activity with both people you don't know well and people you do know well. You're moving around, exercising and getting high on endorphins, immersed in wild places that feed your soul, and there aren't really awkward silences. You're hiking outdoors, and silence is never awkward in the outdoors--there is so much to hear and experience and learn from when you are silent in a natural space.

We ended up hiking through Wilder Ranch State Park and all the way to the Highway 1, crossing the asphalt to reach our destination: the coast of the Pacific Ocean. We settled into some cliffs by a little cove, where the water rushed in at every wave and then receded. The sounds were soothing, the sun was warm, and we ate our lunch, enjoying the day, kind of glad that no one else showed up on the hike because of the opportunity it gave us to spend time together.

"I heard that some study found that chocolate is detected in the brain to cause more pleasure than kisses," he said to me. "But I don't really think so. What do you think?" I thought people only said those kinds of things in romantic movies, but I guess I was wrong. We had to test the theory, of course, so he shared an M&M with me, and then we shared a kiss. Like I said, hikes really are the best way to get to know someone.

Since then, he and I have organized a few other hikes, bringing together our friends, coworkers, and people who heard about the hike from Facebook or campus newsletters. I've had interesting conversations on the trail with people I never would have met otherwise, and I've realized how simple and worthwhile organizing hikes can be. People in the sustainability world of UC Santa Cruz now know about the hikes, and many who haven't come before have expressed interest in coming in the future. I cannot wait for spring quarter and the sunlight and flowers, which will hopefully draw even more people out to our hikes.

A photo of the fantastic group who came on our second inter-organizational sustainability community hike. I got to know some people on this hike who have brightened my life, and they continue to remain in my life either in person or through the perspectives I gained from talking with them.

As for hiking dates with my transportation coordinator friend, who has since become my boyfriend, we definitely continue to hike together, getting to know each other better every time. We just went on a gorgeous hike yesterday at a county park near San Jose, and we had a really good time enjoying the view from the top of a hill.

I believe that in addition to the conditions for conversation that hiking creates, the energies and connections that happen in nature between self and wilderness transform human social interactions into deeper connections when you spend time outdoors with someone one-on-one. Observing natural space, viewing the soil and vegetation and ecosystems, getting to know the environment, talking about where we would choose to live if we had been people living there thousands of years ago, and having moments of connection with nature together--all of this connects us to nature and ourselves.

Ultimately, hiking is a connecting activity, and in this digital age of social and human disconnection through overconnection with technology, hiking is a cure that I cannot get enough of. I encourage you to consider organizing a hike with your friends, significant other, or family. It's easy, fun, really inexpensive, and the opportunities for engagement with yourself, nature, and others are so rewarding!

Thanks for reading!
Green Gal

Cars of the Future Might be Required to have Car-to-Car Communication Systems

Note: This information was originally reported by The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/3/5374124/department-of-transportation-announces-plans-for-connected-car)

The US Department of Transportation recently addressed plans to require and regulate car-to-car communication systems in all cars manufactured in the future in order to reduce the number of accidents. This proposal developed from a pilot program by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The results of the study will be released in the next few weeks.

Car-to-car communication systems have the potential to prevent crashes and minimize congestion. Rather than using brake lights as an indication for a decelerating car, car-to-car systems can recognize changes in surrounding car's miles-per-hour and adjust speeds relative to surrounding conditions.

In order for all automakers to implement car-to-car communication systems, there is a need for industry standards, which is something the government can regulate. It's hopeful to see that in at least some areas, our government is recognizing how technology is increasing integrating into our lives and identifying where regulatory measures are necessary. Now, if only they would adjust copyright laws to enable more innovation.

CHIMA's Project

What I understand my project to be about is how biking relates to social justice, and possibly helping teach and empower the youth with Tawn Kennedy. I remember when Tawn Kennedy, the director of Greenways to School, the local youth advocacy group for bicycling, visited our class to talk on Friday the 24th. He talked about what he does in the local community in regards to People Power, bicycling, and youth empowerment. . I can relate this to last spring when I took Environmental Justice which had to do with focusing on marginalized communities such as poor communities, people of color, and recent immigrant populations. Environmental justice and the importance of bicycling for a marginalized group of people tie in with each other and are very similar, due to the similar circumstances in which the people are dealing with. I feel that I could do more research about the topic of bicycling, especially with how urban places can become more bicycle friendly, and follow cities such as Richmond and Long Beach, California, especially. I would like to look into the reasons that keep urbanites from biking in urban cities. I already know that issues such as violence and dilapidated infrastructure, such as roads, keep urbanites from pursuing transportation via bicycles. I may also go back to talk to Tawn Kennedy about how I can collaborate/teach the youths the importance of bicycling, and the reduction of the carbon footprint. Also, with the obesity epidemic going on in our country, bicycling is a very effective form of exercise. I understand that teaching and empowering the youths is very important, because they are the next generation, and are our future teachers, politicians, lawmakers, parents, lawyers, etc. The initial first steps for me to take is for me to be able to set aside some time in order for me to be able to do the necessary research. I must do that because, my schedule for this quarter is very crowded. 

Santa Cruz Bike Share Feasibility Plan

Wow! It's so exciting to see everyone injecting some individuality into this class via project ideas. I can't wait to look over the blog at the end of the quarter, let alone by the end of next week, and see how everyones projects and visions evolve and progress! 

Speaking of project ideas, I was looking into a few myself and one that really caught my eye was this feasibility study for a bike sharing program in santa cruz! The article posted is a rather lengthy read but is a fantastic example at the potential of some of the project ideas put forth so far by the class. The work is well researched and cited and clearly lays out a number of plans for an effective bicycle share network all over the greater santa cruz area. Although the site has gone dormant and getting into contact with the creator has so far been a fruitless endeavor I thought everyone could at least get excited about not only the possibility of a bike share program because there's no doubt it would be an awesome step in the right direction but also of the power well crafted and compiled information regarding the topics we've been discussing in class and online. This project, which may I mention started out as a blog posting, stands out to me as the perfect example of a research based initiative in line with the goals of this class. If we as a group of stakeholders in the local transportation conversation can create a quality of discourse similar to that of this study I think the possibilities are many and great! 

Cruzer Bikes: Santa Cruz Bike Share 

Corin's Projects

   I'm thinking about helping Tawn with a community project he mentioned like taking some kids out for a mountain bike ride in upper campus. It can show them that it is a fun way to get some exercise and that a lot of people do it on a regular basis. Another thing he mentioned is workshops possibly for kids in high school in the area to teach them some basic bike maintenance. I could definitely help teach some people how to use tools and give them those tips that make could fixing their bike less intimidating and a little easier.
   These kinds of projects help to address snags that keep people from getting into things that they might like or be good at. Sometimes, people that would be really interested in a sport don't quite know how to get started. Maybe they're curious about bike maintenance, but don't want to risk breaking their bike or taking something apart that they don't know how to put back together. I need to get some more information on these things and contact Tawn to get some details hammered out. But I will be volunteering to work on bikes as usual as well.
  

People Power Promotional Plan

 

Every year in Santa Cruz there are approximately 200 bike accidents, 1-2 of which are fatal. This is a result of a lack of safety awareness and sufficient bicycling infrastructure. Santa Cruz has 46 miles of bike lanes, yet only 4 of those 46 miles are designated bike routes. People Power empowers the Santa Cruz Community to bicycle safely in order to promote a sustainable lifestyle and community.

Project Goals:

- Increase bike ridership in Santa Cruz
- Consolidate bike resources by connecting existing bike communities
- Raise safety awareness and hand out bike lights and helmets

- Promote the development of the Rail Trail, which will connect scattered bike paths to create one direct route

Preliminary research will include case studies of other cities that have invested in cycling, research into Bicycle Friendly Business Districts, an inventory of media coverage of biking in Santa Cruz, and statistics on the bicycle industry.

Recently, I designed and laser cut about 40 People Power key chains as a part of a project for my prototyping class at UCSC. I have been giving them out to fellow bike enthusiasts and promoting People Power's vision. I look forward to working on even more creative ways to implement this marketing campaign.

Why I Love Public Transportation (A re-post from Green Gal)

This was originally posted on Melissa's Green Gal blog here on September 14, 2012. 

Sure, sometimes you end up next to the smelly guy on the train or you wind up getting the bus with the loud cell phone people or the crazies. But the more you take public transportation, the more skilled you become at selecting seats, using body language (like angry faces and glaring to avoid conversations!), and just learning to deal with it because there are plenty of reasons--I'm about to name five--why public transportation is awesome. Here's why I love public transportation, and why I encourage you to utilize it as often as you can in your daily life.

1. Public transportation reduces the number of polluting, traffic-causing cars on the road.
Every time you take public transportation when you might otherwise have taken a car takes one car off the road. Think about people who take PT every day to work, school, or wherever they going when they could have driven. Certainly a bus requires more fuel than a compact car, but if you fill a bus with people and take the cars the passengers would have been driving off the road, you're saving a ton of gas and reducing pollution and traffic congestion.

2. Staring out the window when you're a passenger and letting your mind wander is really good for your brain, particularly when the scenery is nice.
When I take the bus and train home from college, I almost instantly find myself glancing up to the window and letting my thoughts wander for awhile before returning to my book or computer. Most of my commute is through forest and then through open space, so my mind has nothing in particular to grab ahold of and capture my attention--I'm free to explore whatever aspect of the universe of thought that my brain has the capacity to access. Often, I recognize how much I need that unfocused thinking to the passing world in order to let my mind wander, and I put my book or computer away. Pretty soon, the notebook comes out and ideas for things I should do at work, school, or on my blog come pouring out. I outlined the plan for this blog post while sitting on the Highway 17 Express yesterday, for example. I write best when I'm inspired after some unfocused gazing off into space, like on the bus, and I often do my best thinking when I'm the passenger of a moving vehicle without distraction. It's this unfocused attention that allows our brains to recharge, and the same kind of thing happens for me when I'm surrounded by nature and am able to simply think. Turns out, it's not just me. Richard Louv discusses this and something called "directed-attention fatigue" (28) in his book The Nature Principle:

Over time, the Kaplans [who conducted a study with a group similar to Outward Bound in the 1970s] developed their theory of directed-attention fatigue. As described in a paper by Stephen Kaplan and Raymond DeYoung: "Under continual demand our ability to direct our inhibitory processes tires. . . . This condition reduces mental effectiveness and makes consideration of abstract long-term goals difficult. A number of symptoms are commonly attributed to this fatigue: irritability and impulsivity that results in regrettable choices, impatience that has us making ill-formed decisions, and distractibility that allows the immediate environment to have a magnified effect on our behavioral choices." The Kaplans hypothesize that the best antidote to such fatigue, which is brought on by too much directed attention, is involuntary attention, what they call "fascination," which occurs when we are in an environment that fulfills certain criteria: the setting must transport the person away from their day-to-day routine, provide a sense of fascination, a feeling of extent (enough available space to allow exploration), and some compatibility with a person's expectations for the environment being explored. Furthermore, they have found that the natural world is a particularly effective place for the human brain to overcome mental fatigue, to be restored. (Louv 28)

Along these same lines, it has always bothered me when parents have their kids watch DVDs in the back of the car on long drives. I was never that child, and I'm so incredibly thankful to my parents for forcing me to sit there and gaze out the window. Occasionally, I read a book or colored or sang songs with family, but after awhile, I would get bored of doing anything and start to watch the orchards go by (you know what I'm talking about if you've ever gazed out a car window in an agricultural setting--the rows are so fun to watch, it's addicting), or start day dreaming. Those poor kids who have their eyes glued to a television in the backseat aren't developing the habit of day dreaming and thinking without being focused on something. How are you supposed to think about your life as a whole if you're always sectioning it off into "projects" or "subjects" or "to-dos"? Sometimes you need to literally just sit and stare in order to put things together in your life, and while we all know this and have had experience with it, being aware of how important this is and acting on this every single day will make us all more clear-headed. Having these experiences as a child in a car or on a bus or train set the foundation for us to be able to be creative with our thinking and learn to entertain ourselves. Being able to simply be, think, and enjoy the ride without being entertained is so important, and this is why I will never let my children (if I ever have any) watch DVDs in the back of my car--oh wait, that's because I won't have a car! :-)

3. How often do you get to be the passenger? You can get work done as you travel when you aren't driving.
While I recommend gazing out the window for a good portion of your trip, you can also get work done when you aren't the one driving. Some buses and trains have free wifi, or you can read or use a computer without the internet. You can also nap, which I call getting a lot of good work done.

4. Public transportation costs significantly less money than owning and maintaining your own car, and you don't have to worry about parking or the stress of driving.
Even if you do own a car, using public transportation whenever you can reduces the amount of mileage you're accumulating on your car and means you don't have to pay for gas at the pump as often. You don't have to pay parking fees or even find parking in the first place. You can enjoy a drink without worrying about driving yourself anywhere (a college student's best designated driver is often the bus driver).

5. You gain some perspective on life by observing those who have no other option but to take public transportation.
While I do not own my own car, I have parents who do own cars who've driven me back to campus before. I have friends with cars who could drive me places if I really needed a ride. Eventually, I will probably own a car--though I'll fight getting one as long as I can. I use public transportation largely because I'm a college student and everyone takes the buses, but I also do it because I know it is less polluting in the long run than using a car to get everywhere. But the fact is, most people who use public transportation have no other option because they have no car. Spending time on public transportation and realizing this fact can give you some perspective on your life and make you thankful and grateful for the privilege you have in being able to even make public transportation a choice rather than a necessity.

It can open your heart a little and make those uncomfortable moments on public transportation that I mentioned at the beginning of this article a little less of an issue. We're all just people doing the best we can, moving from one place to another. Maybe the smelly guy is homeless for reasons beyond his control; maybe the loud person on their cell phone is going through a rough time in their life and they need to have that conversation with whomever to make it through the day; and maybe the "crazy" people aren't really crazy after all. They just see life a little differently than you.

Hopefully this article makes you more inclined to take public transportation the next time you have an opportunity to do so. If not, I'm curious what your hesitation is, and I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Thank you for reading!
Have a great weekend!

Camille's Project(s)

I spoke with Tawn on Wednesday about my upcoming project with Green Ways to School. We considered a lot of different options for my involvement in publicizing People Power through video. We did come to the agreement that I'll be putting together a general video promoting People Power that will be put on their website. We also discussed possibilities of going out during one of the Green Ways to School rides and capturing video, putting together a 30-minute show with Tawn's middle schoolers for the local public access television channel, or making a promotional video for one of the upcoming rides. Tawn will be talking with Amelia over the next few days about their main priorities for my involvement and he and I will be meeting next Tuesday to solidify these plans and so that he can give me footage from People Power's previous endeavors that I can use in the promotional video for their website. Beyond working with Green Ways, one of my goals for this quarter is to create a PSA promoting the use of bike lights, which I'd like to air on SCTV, the UCSC television channel, Santa Cruz's public access channel, and across the World Wide Web. It's going to be a really visually pleasing, sort of experimental video that will become a fresh and exciting PSA. I'm going to start the filming for that this weekend and I'll be contacting SCTV early next week and hope to get in contact with Santa Cruz's public access channel next week as well. The wheels are turning folks! And I just pumped up my back tire!

"Bespoken" a Piece Composed Using Just a Bicycle and its Parts

"Through music I want change the way that people perceive their surroundings, and I hope this will inspire others to look at everyday objects with more curiosity and wonder" -Johnnyrandom

Its hard to believe that this music involves no conventional instruments, synthesizers, samplers or drum machines. Check it out!

ReCYCLED Bike Parts!

I stumbled upon some wonderfully creative uses for bicycle parts. How cool would it be to design a bicycle themed community garden? A unique space where sustainable transportation meets sustainable food systems using charming recycled materials. It could be a symbol of collaboration between local organizations with different specialties but a similar vision.    

Stained glass cogs

Wheel inspired planters and genius pest management tactics

My personal favorite - a trellis adapted from wheels and zip ties. It looks like a special gathering space for small groups, families, picnics, etc.. I would use it to grow pole beans. 

 

A bicycle gate to tone set upon entry. 

These are pretty cool, as they can be utilitarian or strictly decorative. Perhaps one could hang trowels, shovels, rakes, or even bicycles on one of these bad boys.

Sneak Routes Bike Ride in Santa Cruz

People Power recently led a 10 mile bike ride around Santa Cruz through the lesser-known routes. It was fun biking around town in a big group. Many pedestrians were curious why there were so many bicyclists of all ages and different types of bikes, including one covered in fur (see below).

Bicycle safety overview 

The road less traveled 

 The Coastal Rail Trail will start here

http://www.peoplepowersc.org/news/2013/10/27/santa_cruz_approves_funding_application_for_coastal_rail_trail

 Handing out bike maps of Santa Cruz County

It was a beautiful day for a group bike ride!

~ Thank you Tawn Kennedy for taking these photos ~
&
~ Thank you People Power for organizing this sneaky bike ride ~

Hasti's Relationship with Her Bicycle

I remember at a young age when I first learned the trick to getting on my bike using the street curb. I grew up at the end of a cul-de-sac with no drive through traffic. So all the kids in my neighborhood would play in the street in front of our houses. I would bike as fast as I could then stand on the seat and coast around like an acrobat. As a child, almost everything was fun and games. In my mind, my bike was a toy. It wasn't until I began biking with a purpose, getting from point A to point B, that I realized the value of my bike.

When I travel, my favorite way to explore a new area is by bicycle... 

Paris was the first place I experienced a bike sharing program. There are numerous stations around the city where you can pick up or drop off rental bikes (14,000 bicycles and 1,230 stations). I'm excited San Francisco and Palo Alto recently added similar bike sharing stations!

Barcelona also has a bike sharing system; however, it was locals only since you needed to have a residential address to rent out the bikes on the street. We rented cruisers through a bike shop and coasted by the beach!

Biking around the Grand Canyon with my cousins is one of my most memorable bike rides. The weather in Arizona is so unpredictable. Towards the end of the bike ride, the clouds rolled in and it began pouring for a brief moment. It was exhilarating to cool off in the rain after biking in the heat!

As a freshman at UCSC, I was intimidated by the terrain  and didn't think it would be practical to bring my bike. I brought my bike to Santa Cruz Winter quarter of my Freshman year, and began to discover new routes and new areas of campus. Getting around campus and town became much more exciting and enjoyable.

My first 3 years at Santa Cruz, I never wore a helmet. I loved the wind flowing through my hair and didn't think twice about protecting my head. Biking home from campus, I take Bay Street. I rarely need to pedal, since the hill is so steep. After I found out Bay Street has several intersections with the highest number of bicycle-car collisions in Santa Cruz, I felt differently biking around with a helmet. All of a sudden, when I became aware of how often "accidents" happen on my route home, wearing a helmet made me feel comfortable biking.

Currently, I take the bike shuttle to campus, which drops off at one of the highest point on campus at Science Hill. This makes is easy to cruise downhill to wherever I need to go. My favorite and most frequent route in Santa Cruz is West Cliff. I love biking along the coast and anytime I need some fresh air, I'll head to my favorite scenic route.

Ballroom Luminoso: Ugly freeway underpass beautified with recycled bike chandeliers

Read the article by Kimberley Mok on TreeHugger.com here.

Thanks for sharing, Hasti!

Chima's Relationship to Cycling

My relationship with cycling is a very general question to ask me. Cycling to me takes on so many connotations. I could fondly remember as a younger individual Lance Armstrong and his many Tour-de-France victories, lifting the United States to worldwide fame in the arena of cycling. I have spent a great deal of my transporation history utilizing bikes as a means of transportation. I could remember as a young boy going to ride my bicycle in the BART parking lot in Oakland, California during the late 1990’s. Then again, later in my life, I remember riding my bike to my high school from 10-12th grade on most school days. I did this for many reasons. I remember that I did this because it was faster than walking and cheaper than taking public transportation. Additionally, I had to ride my bicycle to school because I could not get a ride from my parents, because they had to go to work. It was a great experience. From the late 1990’s until 2003, I did not ride my bicycle. This has to do with the fact that I was going through rough times, and I was riding my scooter. In March 2003, I moved from Oakland to Antioch, a suburb in the East Bay. I remember that I had to relearn how to ride my bike. From that period until Fall 2006 when I started 10th grade, I only rode my bike for aesthetic purposes, not for anything important. After riding my bicycle from 2006-2009 to go to school, I started to understand the importance of cycling. I admit that I did not really worry about, or really knew about the carbon footprint that I avoided by choosing to ride bikes over drive a vehicle or take public transportation. Also, I realized how healthy it was to ride bikes, because the human being became the engine, making the human being excercise by pedaling. I had to move to Tracy, California on June 26, 2009, after completing high school, this also affected my relationship with cycling. I remember that when I was riding my bike, I ran over sharp objects, my tire became flat, and I had to get my tube replaced over and over again. It got to a point that in the late summer of 2010, I had to stop riding my bike, partly because I officially received my driver’s licence on July 27, 2010. Because of this, I had to focus more on driving, because I had to travel farther I distances in order to get to school. I have not ridden a bicycle since at least 2010. I still have a positive relationship with cycling despite all of those setbacks. I am expecting to ride a bike sometime in the new future because I am in a class titled Sustainable Transportation. I now understand that when one chooses to ride a bike over drive a motorized vehicle, they reduce the carbon footprint.

Corin's Relationship with the bicycle

   Cycling is a pretty big part of who I am for multiple reasons. I like the mechanical aspect of them with working on them and building them, but I also obviously enjoy riding. I ride a bicycle for transportation, but I also ride for recreation in multiple forms. Recreational cycling is a way to get exercise, enjoy nature and spend time with friends with similar interests. Being able to build and maintain your own bike is a great feeling because it puts you really in tune with it while riding and makes the experience that much more enjoyable for me.

   I work on them as a (small) source of income, as well as work my volunteer position at the Bike Co-op. This is another part of my relationship with cycling. I ride for recreation, but also for transportation and I try and convince others to do so. I show my support for the movement of riding by helping make it easier for people on campus. Some people may not be interested in the mechanical aspect of bikes, or might just not have experience with it, but that doesn't mean that they should be at a disadvantage when it comes to finding a way to ride on a daily basis. That is what the Bike Co-op is all about and I was super stoked when I learned about it.

   I have only been riding to get around for a few years, but the bicycle is pretty much my only way of getting around independently. I do not have a car back home, so I ride my bike. Now that I have done so for a while, I hope that some day when I get a car, I won't use it unnecessarily. I plan on riding whenever it is feasible. So, as a portion of my transportation history, it is both a small part and a very large part.

Maryam and Her Bicycle: A Love Story

Though I have only had a relationship with cycling for two years or so, it has been transformative and multifaceted. Most obviously, I would say that I am dependent on cycling. I have a heavy reliance on my bicycle for transportation within the city of Santa Cruz, whether it be school, work, a friend's house, or an errand. I find there to be a lot of unpredictability and impulse in my schedule. For this, buses and I are incompatible. I depend on my bicycle so much because our schedules are always coordinated - except during times of mechanical failure, in which case, my reliance is made all the more apparent. 

I also rely on cycling for my health. Student life demands a lot of idle time, so it really helps if I can squeeze small windows of exercise into my schedule on my way to school and in between classes. As a society, I think we are out of touch with the lower halves of our bodies. I really appreciate being more in tune with muscles I otherwise would have neglected. Even better, cycling works harmoniously with yoga and running and contributes to an overall sense of health and well-being. 

This brings me to the mind. During times when my bicycle is inoperable, my state of mind is quickly affected. The repetitive motions of cycling compiled with the humming of the chain, deep breathing, and fresh air make it very easy to meditate. Having periodic bouts of meditation worked naturally into my daily schedule helps keep me calm, focused, energized, and capable of going about my work load. Being on my bicycle also keeps me social and engaged with my surroundings, be it people, dogs, sounds, smells, etc.. I have found that this makes me a much happier person in general. 

While I really cherish cycling for these reasons, I regret that it makes me so vulnerable. Even if I have a helmet, lights, reflectors, and bright clothing, I know I can still be mangled by a distracted driver. Though I have never been seriously injured on my bicycle thus far, I have had a host of near death experiences. The majority of my friends who use their bicycle as their primary mode of transportation have been hit by a car, some multiple times. While every mode of transportation presents serious dangers, I feel particularly exposed to the elements on my bicycle. A constant awareness of this makes my relationship with cycling bittersweet. Regardless, I stand by my decision to bike.

More than anything, my relationship with cycling is generative and inspiring. It has challenged me to reach goals I never would have considered before two years ago. Though the community of experienced cyclists and mechanics in Santa Cruz can be at times intimidating, a genuine love of it all has encouraged me to go for the longer bike excursions and ask questions regardless of silly and inexperienced I may sound. I have put a few of my friends on their bicycles, and I hope to recruit more. I am excited to see myself bike further, acquire more knowledge, work better, and sway more drivers to make the switch as my relationship with cycling continues to evolve. 

Maryam Mirahmadi