1997 No More
A friend emailed me with a link to the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Communities website, and asked why Chico wasn't on the map as a "Bike Friendly Community." This surprised me, considering Chico's pride (now apparently dated) in being named "America's Greatest Bike Town" by Bicycle Magazine in 1997.
13 California cities are on the Bike Friendly Communities map, including Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose.
Provided that these organizations do indeed have their finger on the pulse of the biking community, what has happened to Chico since 1997?
I wasn't here 10 years ago, but I have some theories. My big one is that a late 1990's boom in development (both commercial and residential) emphasized the car, not the bike. And why not? After all, in February 1999 gas was 95 cents per gallon.
Meanwhile, the population of Chico increased dramatically during this time, bringing a larger proportion of drivers than bicyclists into town.
The end result--We have a town that is very good for biking, but could still be exponentially better.
For example:
--The crosswalk and island at the intersection of Cohasset and the bike path is great, but we could use similar ones along Oleander and Arbutus.
--The roundabouts on 8th avenue are just as convenient for bikes as for cars, provided the drivers remember that the person in the roundabout has right-of-way, even if that person is on a bike.
--We have a bike trail going out to the airport (and there is even a bike rack at the airport--how cool is that!), but navigating to any of the stores in SE Chico (20th Street and south) by bike is pretty hairy.
--There is ample bike parking at S & S, but the bike rack at Trader Joe's seems to always be hidden by some display (most recently Christmas wreaths) and thus can only handle two bikes.
--And the list goes on. . .
Perhaps some relief on the way? Today, (Tuesday Dec 18) from 3-4 there will be a special meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Committee which will review the newly updated City of Chico draft bicycle map in the Engineering Conference Room on the second floor of the Chico Municipal Building. The public is welcome to attend. I will be there.
Some City Council members and city staff are in the process of gaging the amount of community interest in having a regular Bicycle Committee, not just an ad hoc group. Showing up for this review of the proposed bike map is one way to indicate that you think that planning for bicycles is an important function of city government.