Bicycling: How Would Each Council Candidate Improve Safety & Viability in Davis?

Here's our full . Share your thoughts below. 

"Davis prides itself on being a bicycle-oriented city with miles of bike lanes throughout the community to facilitate bike use as an alternative form of transportation. Yet, the bicycle mode-share in Davis has dropped in recent years. If you are elected, what specifically would you propose to make the bicycle a more viable and safe transportation mode in Davis?" -Sierra Club Yolano Group

I have been a long time advocate of the 5th Street redesign. I believe that it will make that section of town more pedestrian and bike friendly and I believe (based upon the traffic consultant studies) East-West/West-East auto traffic flow will be improved.

I believe we should hire more police officers that will be involved in traffic control and citations. I believe we must enforce the speed limits in our community. When the average speed of cars on the streets keeps going up, understandably parents are more reluctant to let their children ride bikes and even adults feel less safe while riding. We must slow the traffic down to the posted speed limits, which will improve the overall car, bike and pedestrian safety of our town.

I also support additional signage that identifies bike corridors and “safe routes to school” that help people know which routes are most bike friendly.
I would also like to see improved bicycle parking made available in downtown (often the racks are full) in addition I would like to see some bike lockers in places in addition to the Amtrak station. Bike lockers allow people with very expensive bikes to ride them to work, etc. and feel like they will be safe from theft and the elements.

I share the Davis Downtown Business Association’s curiosity about the possibility of closing off a portion of the downtown to auto traffic. They have not come up with a design that is acceptable to them yet, but I know they are still investigating the idea.

I would like to see a bike rental kiosk at the Amtrak station, which could serve day-trippers to our town.

Provide opportunities for all residents to own bicycles.

Encourage bicycle commuting.

Encourage students, faculty and staff to bicycle to area schools.

Share information and resources with UC Davis regarding bicycle activities.

Ensure that bicycle facilities are an integral part of street design so that lanes and pathways form an integrated network.

Provide a complete and safe bicycle network.

Build on Davis’ cycling past by experimenting or piloting new technology or programs for bicycles.

Consider bicycles in all transportation projects and treat as an equal roadway user in planning, engineering, policy or funding.

Ensure that bicycling as a viable transportation mode is available to all sectors of the community, and that bicycling is integrated into the local and regional transit network

As someone who bicycles to and from the train station nearly everyday as part of my commute, not to mention recreationally on the weekends, I am well aware of challenges to bicycling in our community. Although we are a very strong bicycling community, we have strayed somewhat from our bicycling past. We need to recommit ourselves to bicycling.

I suggest five actions we need to take: (1) make the downtown – the cultural and economic hub of our community – more bicycling friendly; (2) add more bicycle parking; (3) continue to pursue the Fifth Street Road diet; (4) implement a policy of green waste containerization; and (5) ensure the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame has a stable and thriving downtown home and is widely promoted outside of Davis.

We need to stop thinking of the bicycle as a mode of “alternative transportation”, and start treating the bike as THE mode of transportation. It shouldn’t take a back seat to the car. Bicycle mode share is actually on the rise, according to the latest 2010 US Census data, as well as according to Davis Bicycles!, and the City’s new bike/ped coordinator, Dave “DK” Kemp. There are numerous things I would do to help make the bicycle the premier transportation mode in Davis.

I am committed to seeing changes along 5th street. I think we need to do a serious test run to show people how the road diet will work, and make it safer for bikes/pedestrians to use that thoroughfare, both north/south and east/west.
I would also start by ensuring that all city streetlights are repaired in a timely manner. It is already a dark town at night, and there are SO MANY streetlights out- all across the city, which make for dangerous biking and driving conditions. We need safe, convenient places to park bikes –I often search for bike parking downtown, and the bike parking next to the car parking downtown is a good start- we need to do more of that.

I think we’re on to something with the several bike fix it stations located around town, including at the Food Co-op and on campus, but we could use one at the train station, one at every shopping center, and at parks/greenbelts and schools. I also applaud the creation of Bike Forth/Davis Bike Collective, the Davis Pedicab Co. and the Pepper Peddler coffee roaster…all super cool innovative ideas/businesses based on the bicycle!!

We need to think regionally, including additional safe linkages to other communities, including Woodland. I’d love to see a Yolo Bike Loop, as an addition to our successful Davis Bike Loop. Sunset Magazine recently featured the Davis Bike Loop, and we can expect more tourism as a result, and that is a good thing for biking in Davis, and for the local economy.

Also, we should work on instituting “bikepools” (think carpool with bikes) for kids to ride to school. I would also work on instituting a permit system for the parking lot between the high school and the Vets Center. I didn’t drive to Davis High… I rode my bike, everyday, or got a ride when it was truly inclement weather.

We have a bicycle advisory commission and an active citizen bicycle community. I have followed their advice on most issues, and have made some very difficult votes which have favored the bicyclist (even though half of my friends, campaign committee and family are skeptical) such as the 5th Street road diet experiment which I hope that everyone will agree in hindsight was a good idea, as it is similar to the configuration on B Street that I traverse daily. I have suggested allotting some automobile spaces downtown for bicycle racks, and have supported all funding efforts to increase bicycle parking. I support expanding our bicycle facilities as we develop the multi-model capabilities of our AMTRAK station, including better facilities for long-term bicycle parking and repair. Our collaboration with the school district on Safe Routes to School is a critical component.

If we want to keep the town more bicycle friendly, we must renew our commitment to limit urban sprawl and to keep our growth in check in order to maintain our general plan prohibition against expanding our arterials to six auto lanes.

Being a committed pedestrian myself, I want to make sure that we make our town more walkable as well as well as more bikeable.

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