Davis Bicycles! Council candidates' positions on bicycling

Escamilla-Greenwald

Greenwald

Roy

Saylor

Souza

Vergis

Q: The mode share of bicycles (the fraction of trips by bike in Davis) has dropped in recent years. What is your understanding of what has caused this? If you are elected, what specifically would you propose to do to make the bicycle a more viable transportation mode for everyone, and increase the bicycle mode share in Davis?

As councilmember the first thing I would do to promote bicycling in the City of Davis would be a concerted effort to maintain what we have—bike lanes, bike paths, and greenbelts. These are the pride of this community and a priority to maintain.
As previously mentioned, creating easy access to key locations in town and linking them up will encourage more people to bike rather than drive.
I have a concern about our green waste dumping into bicycle lanes. This creates havoc for cyclists who have to both dodge potential hazards from tree clippings and potential hazards from motor vehicles. Unfortunately the green containerization pilot program drew widespread complaints from citizens in affected areas. Most communities have already gone to a containerization program. I will work with the residents of these affected areas to find a good compromise. The double lined bike lane is a good start, but there is more that we can do and bicycle hazards are not the only reason for containerizing our waste. However, as councilmember, I will never impose things on residents and neighborhoods. People have put their hard earned savings into their homes and we need to respect that.
As councilmember I would also work toward features that would encourage more bicycling and less driving into our core. We would do that by facilitating bicycle riding and continuing to make our town walkable and bikeable.
As councilmember I would work with my colleagues to make the Davis Bike Loop more visible and permanent since chalk markings and old paint have made it easy to get off course.
As councilmember I would encourage the city to partner with the Davis School Board to implement Bicycle Education, Safety and Awareness for children of all ages.
As councilmember I would work to have additional bike loops added to encourage cycling by having various loops such as the Green Loop (5 miles)and the Red Loop (3 miles)and the Blue Loop (1 mile) added to the existing, approximate 12 mile Davis Bike Loop.

As we have grown in a suburban fashion, it is not surprising that we have more auto trips. The further people must travel, the more likely they are to use autos. Manys residents are commuting to work. I believe that we could do a lot more to make calm our traffic and to make street safer for bicycling. I would like to see a safe routes to schools program, and more driver and bicyclist education. We need more bicycle parking and continued investment in our bicycle infrastructure. At the Yolo County Transportation Board, I have been advocating for the Woodland/Davis bike lane for better bicycle connections between Davis and Sacramento. I need to finish the green waste line striping and to enforce it.

In our land use decisions, we should build more houses near our jobs and more jobs near our houses. Currently, I believe we have two good options for achieving this goal. One is to keep the Hunt-Wesson site zoned for high-tech, residential- compatible zoning, as it is in easy biking distance of so much of our housing. For example, Genentech just located a large new research facility in a Dixon business park half way between Davis and Dixon. This is not a location that will encourage bicycling. Second, we can build housing near jobs. The best current site is the PG&E site at 5th and L Street. This large 27 acre parcel could bring a lot of much needed high-density urban housing to downtown in biking distance to campus, without harming the character of the historic sections of downtown.

I would like to see synchronized traffic lights at all intersections on 5th street, with pedestrian crosswalks and pedestrian and perhaps bicycle traffic lights. I favored restriping 5th Street for a trial run. I carefully read the consultant’s report, and the consultants determined that the restriping would not slow down East-West traffic.

Lamar Heystek and I voted to restripe 5th Street, but Saylor, Asmundson and Souza voted it down. I believe that restriping 5th Street would make the road much safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and even motorists. Restriping is inexpensive, and if, in spite of the consultants prediction to the contrary, the experiment created a bottleneck, we would return the street to its current configuration.

The obvious answer to this question is that the Mace Ranch and Wildhorse subdivions are more likely to cater toward “bedroom community” individuals that work outside of Davis. It is a shear mathematics’ problem: if the population expands with a disproportionate amount of people that live in but do not work in Davis then the cited statistic in this question is going to keep decreasing. If this trend keeps going, at one point will we have to change the city’s logo?

Our bicycle culture is following the same trend as our environmentally innovative developments and rejection of nation change, we blazed the trail, rested on our laurels, and now other communities have usurped us. I do enjoy the new Covell pedestrian/bicycle underpass and I already see many Harper Junior Highers using it on days that I work on that campus. I still believe that bikes are treated as an afterthought as to how our roads are designed.

We may tout our bike lanes as being bike friendly but there has to be a reason why ridership is waning. In huge European cities like Amerstam and Copenhagen everyday bike-ridership is 30 to 50 percent of the population. What is our excuse here in the Little Tomato? I believe we need Traffic Calming measures to bike Safety. I believe in the 5th street redesign. It will not harm downtown. In fact, it will encourage more bicycling I think it more help downtown draw more people that do not an automobile parking space. I also think streets like Pole Line, L, and especially Anderson near Cesar Chavez elementary can stand to see some calming measures. The majority of the city should be 25 MPH and the streets should guild a driver to go the appropriate speed – not the typical 5-10 miles over the speed limit that so many drivers do. We must keep the streets safe for everyone. While I want people to get around Davis easily in their car it is the more vulnerable transistors, the pedestrians and bicyclists that should be given top priority.

I believe that this reduction in the percentage of work commute trips by bicycle is correlated with an increase in the number of work commute trips overall and an increase in the percentage of commute trips involving people driving from Davis to destinations in other cities and people driving from other cities to work in Davis.

I look forward to reviewing the updated Bicycle Master Plan to chart our future course of action. At this point, it is clear that we need actions in the following areas:

Establish funding for bicycle infrastructure improvements that enables us to be proactive.
Address trouble spots in the bike route network to improve safety and reduce autopmobile/bike interactions at key locations.
Work with the schools to encourage kids to walk, bike, or skate to school.
Continue to focus on the arterials and collector streets for ways oif handlign green waste. Montiro the dual striping plan to see how effective it is.

I think it is time for us to be creative and responsible about carbon emissions and our contribution to the global issue of greenhouse gases. Davis has done a lot to encourage biking. We are way ahead of almost everyone when it comes to promoting bikes and providing safe routes.

But, as we look into a future we need to plan for how we will adapt to $5 per gallon gasoline and global warming. People will still need to go to the grocery store, get to work and school, etc and we have to make it easier for them.

I think we need to make it possible for people who work in Davis to choose to live in Davis. Indeed, if the state is to meet the emission reduction targets set in AB 32, we will all have to reduce our "vehicle miles travelled." I think smart growth planning for infill and density and providing jobs closer to where people live are key elements.

The City of Davis, as an employer, has a program where we purchase bikes for use by employees to get to and from work, and to go about their business during the day. I don't see why we can't work with private businesses and the University to extend this program.

Finally, I strongly support the establishment of a Davis Bicycle Center and Museum to celebrate our community commitment to bicycling, showcase our unique collection of antique bicycles and provide a variety of services such as maps and bicycle information, repairs, and loaner bikes.

Since the early 1990’s, Davis has had more growth farther away from the core than any other time in our history. At the same time, the percentage of those who both live and work in town has decreased. Many argue that our bike culture, that we hold so dear, has not been successfully passed on to new residents. While that may be a contributing cause, we must also consider the overwhelming success of Unitrans.

According to Geoff Straw, General Manager of ASUCD Unitrans, yearly per capita (of enrolled UCD students) ridership has increased from 58.52 in ‘90/’91 to 141.55 in ‘06/’07. Although students may be riding their bikes less, that does not translate directly into more car trips. We now have a successful transit system in place that has replaced some bike ridership.

However, there is still work to be done to get our residents out of their cars and onto bicycles. We must do a better job of convincing Davisites that it is possible and safe to take care of household and family errands and tasks on a bicycle. Part of this cultural shift begins with the city. The bikeway system in our community is continually being improved (a new bike and pedestrian tunnel under Covell Blvd to Mace Ranch has its Grand Opening on Friday!) There is still much work to be done in the city including double striping a majority of bike lanes around town.

Dr. John Pucher, a world-renowned bike policy expert from Rutgers University, recently gave a presentation to our Climate Action Team that emphasized the need to convince residents of all ages and abilities that bicycling is quicker, safer, less costly, more healthy and better for our planet than driving a car. We would do well to enact many of the examples of infrastructure and street calming improvements that he collected from all over the world. One idea that I would like to immediately pursue is the institution of a program to train and license all 5th graders as proficient and safe bike riders. The Davis Police Department and DJUSD could team up to offer a standardized training course, led by a Davis Police Officer to certify our youngsters to be good bikers.

Another idea worth pursuing immediately is the encouragement of bike pools to and from schools. Like car pools, a group of parents could share the responsibility of leading a group of students to and from school. This would not only encourage more and safer bike trips but also reinforce our social fabric.

We must also work with other regional communities to improve the bicycle interconnections between Woodland, West Sacramento and Sacramento. Recently, we’ve begun investigating a direct route along existing train right of ways from Downtown Davis to Downtown Woodland. These projects require positive working relationships between many governing boards and agencies.

There is no shortage of good ideas that could drastically increase our bike ridership; it simply takes political will.

I was able to speak about many of these points recently, as a guest on Ted Bueler's KDVS radio show "Veloution," including the causes of the sustained decreases in bike ridership and modeship (percentage of trips taken by bike) which can be attributed to: perceived safety issues and the losses of subsidized helmet programs, elementary school education programs, incoming UCD student orientation programs, and high minimum standards for bicycle infrastructure. Bringing the Bike Back is one of my personal passions. My "Three Point Plan to Bring the Bike Back" is shown below and is on my website; sydneyvergis.com:

To re-establish biking in Davis, we could focus on these three areas: Educating, Encouraging, and Enabling bike usage by emphasizing and implementing the following:

SAFETY

Aggressively implement cost-efficient and effective bike safety infrastructure- through double striping and installing Bot Dots (white, ceramic, raised dots)- both of these create a significant visual barrier for cars, thus increasing perceived and real increases in safety between different modes of transportation.
Consideration of European-style roadway improvements. For example, many European countries actively design their transportation infrastructure to decrease the probability that cars making right hand turns at intersections will collide with bikes traveling straight- by moving the 'stop' line for cars back and allowing bikes to take up the first spots at stops.
Helmets: education and implementation of subsidized helmet programs
Education: increase outreach efforts including elementary school education programs and incoming university student orientation programs.
Partnership with Local Businesses, UCD, ASUCD, GSA, City of Davis, & Davis Bike Club to Promote October as "Safe Biking Month" to reduce accidents for the beginning of UCD Fall quarter. Focus on road rules, traffic circle etiquette, and helmet use.
Strict enforcement of traffic laws

ACCESS

Augment our General Plan transportation "Level of Service" definition to include quantifications not just of automotive wait times at intersections, but also other modeships such as bicycle and pedestrian wait times.
Establish Bike Parking Policies to ensure appropriate quantity and location of bike parking
Maintain and extend our extensive system of bike paths. Establish high minimum standards for new bike infrastructure
Removal of abandoned bicycles from racks
Increase bike parking in downtown area and neighborhood shopping centers
Explore other ways to ensure that Davis remains bike friendly

CELEBRATION

Encourage monthly "Family Bicycle to School Days" – the school bus was not meant to be replaced by the minivan!
Encourage safer biking to school through on-line bike-pool coordination via the City of Davis website.
Recruit more bicycle-related events to the City
"Bicycles around the world videos" –mere mortals can now create, edit and broadcast their own video – we could establish a 'Bicycles around the world' YouTube archive. We can't all travel to see how bicycles are supported in the Netherlands and elsewhere, but perhaps a bike enthusiast will strap a camera to his or her helmet and take us on a guided tour of the ins and outs of bicycles around the world in their hometown.

Answers from all six city council candidates on bicycling