:: May 2006 Volume 5/Number 3

Ecology Section:
Off the Mat, Onto the Road
Will Bike Trains make their way to School?
It could happen here.

By Julie Deife

Bikes haven’t become a mainstream form of transportation - yet, and there are several reasons why. Our obsession with road building, our love affair with the automobile, denial that fossil fuels have been depleted, lack of will and discipline to make changes on an individual level all contribute - and last but not least - the transportation options our children are learning do not begin to break the anti- bicycle cycle.

“Kids just don’t see their bikes as a mode of transportation. Growing up they need autonomy, they need adventure, they need to be empowered,” says Jeffery Rosenhall, Project Coordinator for Healthy Transportation Network/California Center for Physical Activity with the California Department of Health. The behavior patterns modeled by adults are those most likely to be adopted by children when they are adults, and that includes the choice between driving short distances and riding a bicycle. At the very least, it foreshadows how the next generation will interact with the environment in terms of mobility.

Will there be interaction with the environment at all, except for specially planned encounters - destination goals like the sea, a park, a mountain hike or ski trip? Humans require contact with their surroundings on a daily basis, the feel of air on skin, the benefits of natural sunlight, simply being in touch with the five elements of which we are made and without which we cannot survive. Children also need to begin making mental maps of their natural environments which will allow them to find their way in what’s left of the natural world.

Several California agencies are working together to increase the number of daily bike trips for both children and adults. While Caltrans holds the purse strings for bike lane development - and it currently stands at a paltry $ 5 million for the entire state with qualified project applications exceeding $ 50 million - progress is being made, largely due to the efforts of individuals and community groups to further the cause of cycling as a solution to our impending ecological disaster. Rosenhall cites two main challenges in getting people onto their bikes. 1: California is auto-centric; the state has been built up as a playground for cars and 2: a long-held belief that if we have more lanes, we will accommodate the increasing traffic.

One piece already in place is a project called Complete Streets. Complete Streets means that any new construction of roads is approved only if the plan submitted considers all modes of transportation, including bicycles. That, coupled with educational outreach in explosive growth communities like Riverside and San Bernardino present cracks in a status quo car-infested mentality. Cycling to work, to school and after work activities such as yoga class and trips to farmers’ markets become more plausible.
Don Harvey, director of the Orange County Bicycle Coalition is optimistic about the future for commuting to work by bike and sharing the road with vehicles because “we’re running out of oil and it will soon be priced out of reach for ordinary people.”
California Bicycle Coalition reports that 40% of trips in the U.S. are 2 miles are less - and on average we make 10-12 of these two-mile trips daily! Yet, according to Jeffery Rosenhall, “the percent of trips by bike - or on foot - in a fairly progressive area (like Davis or Santa Barbara) is usually around 4%.”

One opportunity for seva for groups of yogis or yoga studios to become involved with is a program called Safe Routes to School. The well-founded fears of parents about abduction and general safety if their children cycle to school can be countered when ‘bike trains’ are formed, suggests Rosenhall. Parents who regularly car pool kids to school can take that same turn on the bike instead of behind the wheel. According to Carbusters Magazine, 18% of the cars on the road are on their way to schools during peak morning driving hours (around 9 A.M.) in urban areas; California Bicycle Coalition says it’s 20-30%.

When the City of Los Angeles’ general plan for bike paths lists a grand total of only 133.9 miles of Class I bike paths, it’s no wonder that guerilla cycling tactics, such as the increasing well-known Critical Mass, which touts itself as an idea and an event not an organization, are coming to the streets en masse. With no leaders and no central organization licensing rides, cities around the globe including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Diego, Costa Mesa and around 25 other cities in California post monthly rides on http://critical-mass.info, generally the only way other than word-of-mouth to find out about the rides.

All of our transportation problems won’t be solved by getting on our bikes, but it looks like it could be time to find out.

 

Bike to Work Week is May 14-22.

To find out more about Safe Routes to School or Complete Streets contact Jeffrey Rosenhall at JRosenha@dhs.ca.gov or
(916) 552-9912.

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