Thursday August 11th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm Cali Bike Tours will host Long Beach’s very first “Summer Wine Tasting & Bike Tour” in downtown Long Beach.  For this inaugural tour the focus will be on the wines of California and include tastings at the Wine Down Lounge in the historic Breakers Hotel building and the District Wine Bar in the scenic East Village.

The bike tour portion will include Long Beach’s brand new separated bike lanes and a portion of our beautiful beach path. The tour is $35.00 per person and bikes can be rented (for an additional fee) at the brand new state-of-the-art Bikestation. Space is limited to twenty and tickets must be purchased in advance by Tuesday August 9th at 5:00 pm.  For ticket reservations please go to: www.calibiketours.com or call (562) 334-BIKE. For complete event details please click here!

The new "Shop/Dine Bike LB" sticker in a store or restaurant's window indicates they grant bicyclists incentives on Saturdays. Photo by Allan Crawford.

Here’s something to contemplate as you decide what to do this weekend – did you know that 40% of car trips in the United States are under two miles? Did you know that two miles is a very easy trip to make by bicycle? To make your decision even easier of car vs. bike (or gee, maybe it’s time to just go out and buy a new bike) Long Beach has added an incentive called “Bike Saturdays.”

Yes, Long Beach has climbed another wrung up the ladder of success as a leading “bike friendly” city yesterday when it celebrated the launch of an innovative new program called “The Bicycle Friendly Business Districts” with a press conference here in Bixby Knolls. The four shopping districts chosen for this program are Bixby Knolls, 4th Street Retro Row, the East Village and Cambodia Town. It was such a thrill to see our Mayor Bob Foster, Eighth District Council Member Rae Gabelich, local Bixby Knolls restaurateur Natalie Gutenkauf of The Factory (and more) all riding their bikes into LB’s newest bike retailer/repair place The Workshop yesterday.

The first of their kind in the nation, these new “BFD’s” (as LB’s Mobility Coordinator Charlie Gandy has nicknamed them) encourage Long Beach citizens to jump on their bikes and shop locally rather than jump in their cars and take their shopping dollars elsewhere. Starting tomorrow (Saturday June 4th) each person who rides their bike to Bixby Knolls, 4th Street, the East Village or Cambodia Town on Saturdays and shops at a store displaying the distinctive yellow and green “Shop/Dine Bike LB” sticker with be granted some type of discount or incentive for showing their bike helmet as proof of bicycling in.

We at Bikeable Communities are very excited about this new program. We know “bike friendly = business friendly” and hope to spread the gospel to the rest of the world. If you don’t already follow Frank Peter’s excellent blog and podcast at CDM Cyclist please check out his recent blog “Don’t Tell Them” about how traffic calming and the addition of a bike lane in Naples has increased not only bicyclists shopping but those driving cars as well.

The new “Bicycle Friendly Business Districts” are also a terrific example of a public/private partnership. These bike-friendly districts are sponsored by a $72,000 grant from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health through Project RENEW (Renew Environments for Nutrition, Exercise and Wellness). The project aims to help LA county cities by providing funding for cities and schools to work with communities to improve nutrition, increase physical activity and reduce smoking. To learn more about Project RENEW please click here.

The program has been overseen by Bike Long Beach and April Economides and also includes an array of state of the art cargo bikes which the special “bike friendly” districts can use to deliver groceries and other goodies easily to local residents.

What would happen if you decided to switch to a bike for even 1/2 of your errands this weekend? You’d get out and enjoy the sunshine on your face and breeze in your hair, you’d get that exercise you’ve been promising yourself, you’d save money on gas, and the dollars you spend locally are a great boon to our local economy.

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The tour and the two day festival has something for everyone.  Friday evening included a showing of Michael Buach’s move Riding with the Dutch, a short tribute to our colleague Mark Bixby, booths for everyone to enjoy – and a collection of antique bikes brought by Cyclone Coast Coasters.

Saturday started with The Tour of Long Beach attracting nearly 2,000 riders.  The Tour is part of a fund raising event for Miller’s, which this year raised approximately $130,000 for the hospital, double what was raised last year.  The event had something for everyone.  Balloons, face painting and a climbing wall for the kids, bike safety checks and beer garden.

In Long Beach community groups have worked closely with the City Government to support bike boulevards and separated bike lanes.  They have supported developing bike friendly business districts. They supported putting adding a separated bike and pedestrian facility to a new billion dollar bridge connecting downtown Long Beach to the Port of Long Beach.

According to Long Beach Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal it is this community support that gives political leaders the “political will” to push for and move forward with developing a bike friendly city.

How can the community move this forward

In order to foster greater community involvement Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal and Bikeable Communities are co-sponsoring a series of quarterly meetings in Long Beach in order to foster input from the community.  The first of these meetings was held on the California State University Long Beach Campus.

Vice Mayor Lowenthal open the meeting, talking about the importance of community involvement and about how community members, such as Mark Bixby, whose life was recently lost in a tragic accident, can have a major impact on what happens in the city.  And she talked about how effective people….don’t just bring problems…they bring solutions.

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The meeting was intended to have people share their ideas on what could be done in the community…and to learn from what others were doing.

What can we learn

One of the key elements of the session was a League of American Bicyclists presentation of a Gold Award to Cal State Long Beach as a bike friendly university.  During this presentation Elissa Thomas, the university’s sustainable transportation coordinator, shared some of the things they have done…and some of the lessons they have learned.  The university partners with local bike shops to for bike maintenance and bike safety.  They have league certified instructors teach safety classes.  They put in bike friendly infrastructure.  They partner with the local transportation agency (Long Beach transit) to get more bike racks on local buses.   Most recently they redid their “landscape plan,” which includes not just water friendly plants but plans for bike paths and “bike groves” (designed for bike parking).  As part of this plan the University is consciously reducing the number of parking spaces available on campus and encouraging students and staff…to get out of their cars…and onto their bikes.

Charlie Gandy, Long Beach’s mobility coordinator…and bike advocate, showed examples of what Long Beach has done in terms of new infrastructure including sharrows, protected bike lanes, roundabouts and bike Boulevards.  During his remarks Charlie talked about the importance of community involvement to the overall success of the bike program.

“The city didn’t just go out and put this in….we got community involvement and community support.  We knew that community support for these early projects would be important to the long-term success of our overall effort. We knew that if the community liked the initial projects…support would grow…and it would easier to extend the project into other areas.  And it worked.”

What can the community do….

The key part of the meeting was 90 minutes of group conversation centered on the community can engage with the city…and with others in the community to help Long Beach move toward becoming more bike friendly.

The group identified 5 areas that they wanted to talk about.

1. Behavior/education of cyclists
2. Behavior/education of motorists
3. Expand the safe use of the new bike infrastructure (roundabouts, bike boulevards, sharrows, protected lanes)
4. Measuring our progress
5. Changing the culture

A world cafe format

The group broke into 5 subgroups to address these 5 areas.  Each group was assigned a table…and told to take 10 minutes to put their ideas down on a flip chart.  The groups were then told to go to the next table….look at what the first group had done…then build on it.  After doing this 3 more times each group had had a chance to look at and comment on all 5 topics.

There were several key themes that came out of the conversation.  These include:

1. The need for cyclists to model appropriate, safe, respectful behavior
2. The need to partner with businesses to encourage people to make more use of their bikes for shopping, dining and commuting.
3. The need for an education campaign about safe cycling and driving habits  in the schools as well as the media
4. The need to work with law enforcement to enforce laws for both cyclists and motorists

Below are the ideas the group came up with. A more detailed list of the ideas showing all of the ideas is attached as a PDF.

Behavior / eduction of cyclists

What can the community do about the issues related to cyclist behavior?

Many drivers feel that cyclists don’t “behave” very well.   Many run stop signs and stop lights,  they ride on side walks, they go the wrong way.

This flip chart outlines the top 3 items identified by the group that they viewed could positively impact cyclists behavior.

• Eduction
• Enforcement
• Incentives

Education about  behavior, lights and clothing

Motorist Behavior

What can the community do about issues related to motorist behavior

With the increase in traffic… and the increasing number of cyclists there is an increase in tension between motorists and cyclists.

The recommendations are remarkably similar to the recommendations for affecting cyclists behavior.

Infrastructure

Long Beach has put in roundabouts, sharrows, protected lanes and numerous new bike routes.  Many drivers and cyclists don’t know how to use this new infrastructure (how to navigate…or where it goes).  How do we introduce these new features to both cyclists and drivers?

Measurement

A key to success in any project is measuring results.  To get good measurement you need a baseline…or what was it like before something was done. Then you need to measure results after completion.

A great way to get data is to use video cameras.  Video can record hours of data that can be quickly scanned providing data that would otherwise never be gathered.

1. 1. Measure before and after projects
   2. Methods
   3. Partnering
   4. Education

Culture

One of the important elements of being a bike friendly city is having a culture that not only accepts bikes as a normal mode of transportation…but encourages people to bike …to work, to school, to shop, to dine and just for fun.

What can Long Beach do to influence this pro-bike culture?

What do you think the community can do to make Long Beach more bike friendly…and to keep Long Beach Moving forward?  We look forward to your comments.

Moving Long Beach 4-8-2011

….not 6:30 as previously advertised

Want to make a difference?

Want to have a voice in the future of cycling in Long Beach?

You are invited to attend a community conversation on “working  together toward the most bike friendly city in the US.”

This will be a conversation…not a bunch of talking heads.  After a brief introduction we will divide into small groups…to talk about what we as a community can do to make a difference.  How can we help shape our own future.

The meeting will be held on Thursday April 7 from 6:30 t0 8:30 at the Pyramid Annex Conference Room on the CSULB campus.

For more information on the event contact Allan Crawford (allancrawford@bikeablecommunities.org)

Parking…. it is recommended entering the campus on Merriam Way off of Atherton and parking in Lot 13 or in parking Structure 1. Here is a link to the campus maps:   http://www.csulb.edu/maps/ And of course…feel free to ride your bike…and lock it up…or bring it in with you.

Parking is $5 and can be purchased from any yellow permit dispenser located in the lots and structure.