Team Bike Challenges and Successes

We at Traffic Solutions are now wrapping up our third annual Team Bike Challenge. Did you know that the San Fransisco Bay Area took a hint from Santa Barbara County and started their own Team Bike Challenge two years ago? I checked out their site, and they have thousands of teams registered throughout several counties. We are now part of something much bigger than Santa Barbara County!

Part of the challenge for participants this year was dealing with some problems on the website. This is not the kind of challenge we wanted to throw at you, and thanks to everyone for bearing with us! We at Traffic Solutions want to let you know that we are doing everything we can to improve our system, and we're already working on a stellar redesign for 2008. The new system will be integrated with the brand new Traffic Solutions Online, which will be your one-stop shop for all of our programs (check it out!). The site will be on a much bigger server hosted off-site, and we anticipate smooth sailing from here on out.

In other news, we'll be sending out a survey soon to get your feedback, but do you have any stories that you'd like to share with everyone? I remember my first Team Bike Challenge experience....it inspired me to get a new bike and to start riding for transportation a lot more than I had before. Are you having a similar experience? Are you still riding now that the challenge is over? We're curious-- please share your stories here!

And thanks to all participants, especially Don Lubach, our most excellent guest blogger.

Lisa Murawski
2007 Traffic Solutions Team Bike Challenge Coordinator

Guest Blog: The Ten Commandments

Dear Fellow Challenge Riders,

Anyone see this in the paper?

One of the largest of the world’s religions has handed down some rules of the road. Even though I consider myself a committed humanist, I’m listening to the Pope on this issue. And I hope, very much, that people from all religions read these commandments.

As a cyclist, I appreciate numbers 2, 5, 9, and 10. I especially like number 2. I sure wish that all of us enjoyed the roads and pathways as a venue for “communion between people.” Those who pine for wider roadways and less traffic calming see the roadway as a means of the fastest possible commute. I think the Vatican does a brilliant job reminding us that roads are a great place to greet your neighbors. And if you agree, you may also agree that it’s hard to hug or shake hands when you have an SUV wrapped around you – non-motorized communion is much better.
With gratitude to the top-down management crew in Rome, I present to you some new rules of the road:

The Vatican's 'Ten Commandments' for Driving

1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.

Source: Associated Press

Don Lubach
Captain, UCSB Team Ding Bell

Guest Blog: An Uneasy Coexistence?

Dear Fellow Team Riders,

I was distressed to read this letter to the Montecito paper published on June 14th. The writers express some valid concerns, I think, but also an amazing naiveté about who owns our roads. I have drafted my own letter of response and encourage others to chime in via a note to the Montecito Journal.
Attention: Letters to the Editor
tim@montecitojournal.net

Meanwhile, navigate well -- there are some confused people sharing the road with us.

Don Lubach
Captain of UCSB’s Team Ding Bell

>==========( begin letter )==========
>
>Coexisting with Cyclists
>
>I have a question: does anyone else in Montecito have a problem with
>cyclists? My wife and I have lived here two years now and have not
>heard anyone complain. I know we live in a beautiful area and
>community, that's why we moved here, but I don't feel like jeopardizing
>my family¹s life every time I drive on East Valley, Toro Canyon,
>Sheffield and Ortega Ridge Road because a cyclist thinks he owns the road.
>
>All of these roads have very limited visibility, with no bike lanes and
>the cyclists expect you to break the law by having to cross over a
>double line, which is illegal, when you can't even see if there is
>oncoming traffic. This is an extremely dangerous situation and it
>happens everyday. I am in constant fear of being responsible for
>hitting a biker just because I want to stay safe in my lane.
>
>Since there is no shoulder, a single cyclist is bad enough, as they
>refuse to stay on the white line and ride in the middle of the lane,
>but if there are multiple cyclists they insist on riding side by side
>and taking the whole lane. You have no choice but to break the law and
>endanger your life to get around them. They have no fear of cars and if
>you honk you get a hand gesture as if you are the problem, acting as if
>it is their road and I am inconveniencing them.
>
>I had thought before I moved here that cycling required a bike lane but
>I guess that is not true. Why do we have bike lanes if they can ride on
>roads with no bike lanes and even more with no shoulders and no room
>for a cyclist? They have spent millions on bike paths lately and some
>roads in our area do have them; why can't we restrict cyclists to roads
>with bike lanes, which do exist in the area?
>
>I spoke to a Sheriff¹s Deputy and he told me that cyclists have the
>same rights as a car, which I understand, but if I was in my car doing
>5 mph in a 35 mph zone I would get a ticket for going too slow. The
>deputy also told me they have problems all the time with cyclists and
>not long ago a group of them almost attacked an officer for approaching
>a group of cyclists that were causing trouble. I thought cyclists were
>mostly good people; they obviously care about their health so why would
>they think they don't need to worry about cars? I have heard stories of
>many people in the area hurt or even killed cycling by a car.
>
>I would like to not just complain, but to do something about this. Can
>anyone tell me what we need to do to fix this problem? What can we do
>to stop this?
>
>Mark & Adriana Shuman
>Montecito
>
>==========( end letter )==========

Guest Blog: One Man’s Dream-- Class One All the Way to Gaviota

Fellow Team Bicycle Riders,

The weekend is coming and it’s camping season. It’s the time of year for one of my favorite forms of recreation—the hyper-loaded bicycle tour. Santa Barbara County is not only among the best places in the world to ride to work, it is also a great location to ride to play. The modern cargo-bike and/or bicycle trailer bring us a whole world of touring possibility.

On Friday, I’ll be bicycling with friends to a local camp ground. We’ll gather round the fire, laugh, observe a grunion run, sleep under the stars, go for a morning snorkel in the kelp forest, and then ride home. One of my favorite things about this type of ride is to see just how much stuff I can carry.

I invite any of you to join me in a vision that could easily come true in less than five years:

Don’s VISION of a perfect weekend:
Get off work at 5pm. Ride home and greet the family. Ride north to Refugio or El Cap (or perhaps to a bicycle-only campground along the coast). Set up camp, cook, eat, play, read, rest, adventure about. After breakfast, break camp and ride all the way up to Gaviota on a beautiful trail just for bicycles and other non-motorized users. Stop often to enjoy the views. Camp at Gaviota. Wake up the next morning, have breakfast and pack up. Then ride all the way home to Santa Barbara on a safe, scenic, and well-designed path.

It’s not impossible you know. What Vie Obern did to create trails in the 1970s was far more difficult than this. If we could get a class-one all the way to Gaviota, tourists would come from all over the world to ride it and I, for one, would enjoy meeting them and hearing their stories as we gathered around the campfire.

If you share this vision, you’re already helping to make it happen by riding your bicycle to work during the Bicycle Challenge. The next step is to join one of the many groups working to preserve the Gaviota coast and the groups working to extend our amazing alternative transportation infrastructure.

If you belong to one of these groups, I hope you comment on my post and give us all a link so we can join.

Now…I gotta go decide if I can fit my free-diving weight belt onto my rig for tomorrow’s trip.