Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition

Programs: Sonoma county bicycle coalition promotes bicycling as a central solution to environnmental, health, and social problems faced by sonoma county and our nation. We make sonoma county the best and safest place to ride a bike through education and advocacy, partnering with local agencies and statewide organizations to increase funding for bicycle infrastructure and programs at the local, state and federal levels, while advocating for better/safer local bicycle infrastructure and bike-friendly plans and policies. We also host encouragement programs and events designed to increase the number of people biking for everyday transportation, partnering with public agencies and local organizations to promote the health and financial benefits of riding a bike, while helping to remove individual and/or group barriers to bicycling. Part iii, line 4a program service accomplishmentsin 2016/2017, the sonoma county bicycle coalition partnered with the local transit agency on a series of print, radio, bus and digital ads designed to increase driver awareness and cyclists' safety. We also produced a video psa that was aired in local movie theatres, on public television and online, receiving over 200,000 views to-date. The sonoma county bicycle coalition holds a seat on the sonoma marin area rail transits (smart) pathway prioritiation and funding committee where we are developing a plan to identify and prioritize funding to facilitate completion of the smart multiuse pathway. We also created videos illustrating how to take bikes on smart and how to use the bike lockers at smart stations. Furthermore, we continue to advocate for the jennings avenue bicycle and pedestrian at-grade crossing of the smart track to increase the safety and conveniance of local bicyclists and pedestrians, including smart users. The sonoma county bicycle coalition regularly reviews local capital improvement projects, private development projects and pavement repaving schedules in each jurisdiction to ensure the safety and needs of cyclists are met. In 2017/2018, we successfully advocated for the inclusion of willowside road in the countys repaving program, defeated a dangerous driveway proposed on westside road, supported bike lane stripipng and improved signage on mark west and porter creek roads, and advocated for shoulder enhancements, signage and other safety improvements for students and non-motorized users of watertrough road. The sonoma county bicycle coalitions safe routes to school program engaged 10,000 students in bicycle and pedestrian safety classes and on-bike rodeos. We held four community rodeos in underserved neighborhoods, including offering free bike helmets and repairs. We also hosted free kidical mass and family bicycle rides, teaching children, adults and families how to bike safely on the roads. In addition to our safe routes to school program, the sonoma county bicycle coalition also offers classroom and on-bike safety instruction to adults, including a traffic citation deferral program for bike-related citations. On bike to work day, 1700 cyclists visited the sonoma county bicycle coalitions 22 energizer stations located throughout the county for encouragement, snacks and swag. 1500 individual riders from 24 teams and 20 companies competed in a challenge where they collectively pedalled almost 14,000 miles and served as inspiration to their coworkers. In advance of bike to work day, we held a free clinic offering complimentary bike tune-ups, helmet fittings, bike maps, practice drills, riding tips, route planning and gear assistance. The sonoma county bicycle coalition collaborated on several local bike drives for victimes of the october 2017 wildfires, helping to get over a thousand free bikes and helmets to those in need. The sonoma county bicycle coaltion maintains a lending library of bicycles, trailers and other accessories available to members to borrow at no cost. The sonoma county bicycle coalition successfully partnered with local trail advocacy organizations to maintain bicycling as an allowable use on fitch mountain and to support efforts to improve access to annadel trione state park.