Hot off the presses – the Governor has signed the Complete Streets Bill!  AB 1358 is now law. Congratulations to the California Bicycle Coalition and all the supporters for creating this historic legislation! For more info, go to www.calbike.org

Cyclists asked to help create regional bike plan

As part of the initial steps toward creating a comprehensive bicycle plan for the region, SANDAG will hold a series of public workshops to solicit ideas from residents concerning the region’s existing network of bike routes and potential improvements.

When complete, the San Diego Regional Bicycle Plan will encourage the development of a unified bicycle system throughout the region. It will serve the needs of bicycle riders by identifying the best ways to provide connections to local and regional activity centers, transit facilities, and regional trail systems.

Currently, the San Diego region has more than 1,000 miles of bikeways – mostly in-street bike paths, but also some separate rights of way. At the upcoming workshops, attendees will have the opportunity to learn about and offer their input regarding a variety of related subjects, including:

• the San Diego region’s existing bicycle network
• options for new bicycle routes
• gaps in the regional bicycle network
• bicycle travel patterns
• goals of the San Diego Regional Bicycle Plan
• balancing education, engineering, enforcement, and encouragement
• the status of local government bicycle planning

The first two public workshops will be held on:

Good News Regarding the Upcoming Construction Project on SR52

The following information regarding this important project has been provided by CALTRANS for the purpose of informing the San Diego Cycling community of the project details.  This is truly a BIG WIN!  At one point in the planning of this project, bicycles were to be denied access through this corrido for months.

CALTRANS ADVOSORY SAYS:

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Please be advised:

Beginning in March, 2008, and continuing for about a year, construction on a segment of SR-52 will begin.  (This segment of SR-52 is between Santo Road in the Tierrasanta area to Mast Blvd. in the Santee area;  currently, bikes are permitted to ride on the shoulders of this segment.)

There will be 4 stages of construction and bikes will have continued access>through this corridor during all 4 stages of construction.

Specifically, Stage 1A and 1B will add lanes on SR 52 between I-15 and Santo Rd, where bikes will not be affected.

Stage 2 will add lanes in the median. Bikes will continue to be able to use outside shoulders.

Stage 3A and 3 B will reconstruct the Santo Rd/ WB off ramp intersection, and will include drainage work on the WB, outside shoulder. The EB outside shoulder (the south shoulder) will be converted into a two way bikepath during this stage.

Stage 4 will complete the construction of drainage facilities on the EB, outside shoulder. By now, bikes will be using a two-way Class I Bike Path on the WB outside shoulder, separated by K-rail. There may be some minor impacts to bikes while K rails are installed, but these impacts should be very minimal. We expect K-rails will be placed at nights.

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“What You Can Do to Fix America’s Traffic Laws – And Why You Should”

Bicycling Magazine’s January/February issue has a special report – “What You Can Do to Fix America’s Traffic Laws – And Why You Should”. Bicycle Magazine makes suggestions for taking action. Here’s what you can do locally to make things better.

• The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition is already working hard to get the word out about bicyclists’ rights – we welcome your input and membership! You can join the 1100 members of the Coalition to make our voice even stronger on active.com.
• Call or write to your State Assemblyperson or State Senator and ask them to make the penalties for injuring or killing bicyclists stronger. Need to know who to contact? Give us a call or send and email and we can help you figure out who you should write to.
• Want to do more? Join our growing effort to create a ‘bicycling bill of rights’ to strengthen laws in California to protect bicyclists and provide appropriate penalties for drivers who injure or kill bicyclists. We’re scheduling a group meeting to start the campaign soon. Call (858) 487-6063 or email execdir@sdcbc.org to volunteer.
• Participate in one of the upcoming events to raise bicyclists’ visibility – see our calendar for details of upcoming events, including the Ride of Silence, EarthFair, Bike to Work Day, and others.
• Volunteer some time working for bicycling. The Coalition has office hours that fit many people’s schedule, along with volunteer night the second Wednesday of every month. Or you can volunteer at the City Heights Bike Kitchen http://bang.calit2.net/freeskool/node/2) or the San Diego Velodrome (www.sdvelodrome.org)
• Want to do something today? Go for a ride. If you see a road hazard, use your cell phone camera to take a picture and send it to us, along with the info on when and where the picture was taken (be SPECIFIC!). Call it in to the appropriate jurisdiction to get it fixed (see our page … to find out the number.) Don’t know who to call? Call or email us!
• Maybe you have a great idea for another way to get involved. Let us know. Call or email to get more involved.

Check out the latest issue of our newsletter ChainGuard

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Stay updated and communicate to members

SDCBC maintains an Email List Server to facilitate communication regarding cycling issues of general interest.

There are two lists on this server: 

The first list is for general use and discussion of cycling related issues. Once you subscribe to the list, you will receive all postings via email. You will also be able to post messages that go to all subscribers.

Subscribe to the list on the web by visiting http://www.bikesandiego.org/mailman/listinfo/sdcbc

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Subscribe to the list on the web by visiting http://www.bikesandiego.org/mailman/listinfo/sdcbc-announce

As of 14 November 2007, when this second list was created, all subscribers to the sdcbc list were automatically subscribed to sdcbc-announce.