Anonymous
Photo: Fiesta Cruiser Run in Santa Barbara
Source: The City of Santa Barbara
Last week, Santa Barbara received excellent news: Places For Bikes, a data-driven national nonprofit bike advocacy organization, ranked Santa Barbara the best place for bicycling in California!
Places For Bikes ranked Santa Barbara based on five key areas of bicycling infrastructure or culture:
- Ridership – how many people ride bikes
- Safety – how safe it is and feels to ride bikes
- Network – how easy it is for people to get where they need to go
- Acceleration – how rapidly the bike network is expanding
- Reach – how well the network serves all neighborhoods in the community
Places for Bikes uses scores derived from hundreds of data points, with sources including updated maps showing different types of bike lanes, Census Bureau data on how people commute to work, transportation-related injury and death statistics, and a community survey filled out by at least 50 residents of the city.
Santa Barbara’s score increased from last year’s ranking of 104th in the nation in large part due to the current and planned improvements to our bicycle infrastructure. Santa Barbara has been leading California in winning Active Transportation Planning grant money that will be used for many upcoming bike projects. These projects include the Las Positas/Modoc Multiuse Path (fall 2020), the Eastside Bike Lanes and Sidewalk Upgrades Project (summer 2021), and the Westside Bike Boulevard Gap Closure Project (summer 2021), as well as the implementation of a Bike Share Pilot Program. These projects, once implemented, will increase the bikeability of our city and support a thriving bicycle culture here in Santa Barbara.
Click City’s Bicycle Master Plan to find out more about Santa Barbara’s biking future.
Despite our high ranking, the survey revealed several areas where the City of Santa Barbara could improve. Bicycle ridership, while high compared to the other cities, has remained relatively unchanged over the past decade. The Safety indicator includes data on all types of transportation injuries, and we’re hoping to see a steady score increase as a result of the City’s Vision Zero efforts, which are just beginning. Finally, the bicycle network score will improve once the above projects are constructed, creating a network of “low-stress” facilities where Santa Barbarans using bikes are separated from higher-speed motor vehicles.
I second that!
Your argument was going well until you threw in their fashion sense…so, if you want them to follow the laws of the road, you can not go bagging on their biking outfits too! You are just pissing them off and no change at all happens.
I stop at all lights. Many don’t. It’s been this way for decades all over the USA. It happens in many other countries too including the one I live in in SouthEastAsia – but in most countries, people don’t get upset because they aren’t Americans who look for reasons to be upset all day long. Sorry, but it’s the truth. -AB
South-Central Los Angeles has been voted;
“Safest community after dark”.
So strange! I feel like our city is awful for bicyclists, especially anywhere downtown, because bike lanes are few and far between, roads are narrow and they are forced to be out in the roads with cars because of street parking. I’ve done a lot if traveling and there are cities, like Fort Collins and Denver, CO where the bike roads get as much attention as real roads and they are so separated and safe. We are nothing like that here, with the exception of the bike path that goea out to IV. I’m glad to see SB stepping it up and know it’s hard when the city wasn’t planned to be bike friendly to begin with. Towns that had horse routes separated from roads have a leg up in us for sure because they can just modify those routes to be bike friendly.
As a core rider, this is fantastic. And yes, SB is by far on of the places not just in California but the world, to spin pedals in circles. To all those here who can find nothing good in this article, go for a ride, you’ll feel way better about the world. Bicycles = Happiness. – AB in SB
edit “one of the best places…”
AndyB, how do we get “core riders” not to blow through Stop signs? Ride 3/4 across on narrow and winding roads? Blocking traffic? Wearing those clothes?
I am a cyclist as well as a driver. SB has done some great things to accommodate riders. However, it’s become a parking nightmare around Cota/Haley area since 60 parking spots were eliminated on Cota to put in a bike lane.
And add riding on sidewalks! There are two side paths along Cabrillo Blvd. One is a sidewalk; the other is a multi-path, ex bike-path. The sidewalk is often used by bicyclists. Signs have been put on Shoreline Park, noting that bikes and skateboards, etc., are not to be used on the sidewalks. That seems quite effective. How about something for the Cabrillo sidewalk? …It’s potentially dangerous for those not limber or for dog-walkers — we are in the latter category and a startled dog on a leash with an approaching (from the rear) bicyclist is an accident-waiting-to-happen.
The bright clothes they wear make them more visible to drivers and less likely to get hit by vehicles. Also makes them more obvious to pedestrians preparing to jay-walk and drivers preparing to open car doors into the bike lane which is protective to everyone. They may be a fashion statement (or lack thereof) but apparently they’re very flexible w/o being bulky. No idea about temperature control.
Pure PR and propaganda. Motivated by companies that rent bikes & companies that want to attract employees who bike so the employer doesn’t have to supply parking. I have been shocked over the years per capita how many bike accidents there have been. I used to ride 6 miles to school in some of the heaviest traffic in what was once LA County. As children bicycling, we aggressively looked out for cars. Now the bikers expect car drivers to see them coming out from every corner at any speed, and the bikers usually are not following traffic laws.
“I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths.” — George Carlin