The California Bicycle Coalition is almost ready to announce the agenda for its biannual statewide bike summit. There are a few remaining details to be confirmed, but the agenda, here, is mostly confirmed.
The summit will fill your bike-loving mind and soul. The event will have two full days of learning and sharing sessions, parties, a movie screening, talks by leading bike-planning experts and thought leaders, plus another day of mobile tours in Sacramento and Davis to experience and learn about bike networks and innovations on the ground in those cities.
Registration is open, and can be accessed at this link.
In addition, the summit features an Advocacy Open Space Conference, offering a chance to share ideas and best practices on whatever topic is important to you. It will be structured as an “unconference” wherein participants first meet as a group to set an agenda and propose topics. Some topics have already been proposed, including Best Practices for Community Bike Shops, Pop-Up and DIY Infrastructure Ideas, Civic Science, Running for Office, Bike Party!, Different Approaches to Bike Education, and Helping the Homeless with Bike-Share.
On top of all that—did we mention there is a lot going on?—the summit will hold a Better Bikeway Design Symposium and Throwdown. This will be a chance to hear from people who have worked on bikeway design talk about their work, share new ideas for designing road space, and discuss challenges that need to be considered. Conference attendees will discuss and vote on designs presented in these sessions, giving awards in various categories. CalBike will use the information gleaned from participants and presenters to inform its advocacy of a new statewide bikeway design manual.
On the first evening of the summit, there will be a special screening of the 2016 documentary, Ovarian Psycos. The film traces the origins of this group of fierce feminist women of color who came together to form the “Ovarian Psycos Cycle Brigade” in the working class, immigrant neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles with a rich history in the Chicano/a Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Other sessions include a panel on equity in transportation featuring Jeff Tumlin, a Principal at Nelson/Nygaard and the former Interim Director of Oakland's new Department of Transportation, René Rivera, Executive Director of Bike East Bay, Monique Lopez of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, and--pending confirmation-- Seleta Reynolds, General Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.
Dr. Adonia E. Lugo will discuss “Human Infrastructure” and building a more inclusive bike movement to strengthen the transformation to sustainable transportation.
CalBike's Jeannie Ward-Waller will introduce the inaugural members of the Walk and Bike Youth Leaders Program, sponsored by CalBike, California Walks, and the California Center for Civic Participation. The participants are youth between 16 and 23 years old, representing diverse communities in California, and the program is aimed at engaging them in advocating to make their neighborhoods safer and healthier.
Another session will address what is happening at the state level to move California towards a sustainable, healthy lifestyle for all. That panel will feature CalBike's Esteban del Río and Dave Snyder, Tony Dang, Executive Director of California Walks, and—pending confirmation--Kate White, Deputy Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency.
Lots and lots of other sessions on a wide range of topics, including: S.B.1, the recently passed transportation funding bill; what it takes to make developments bike-friendly; autonomous vehicles; race and equity in transportation investments; enforcement issues and solutions; building complete networks, not just piecemeal bike lanes; supporting community bike shops; the state Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (at CalBikes' last summit in San Diego, this plan was announced, and now it has been completed); and a lot more.
And then there are the parties, and the chance to hang out with and network with your old bikey friends and make new ones. One of these will be a dance party at the Sacramento State Railroad Museum, which is a site worth visiting even if you hate dancing and parties and hanging out with friends and people who like bikes.
