As reported, the California Bicycle Coalition held its Bike Summit in San Diego last week. The biennial event featured a satisfying mix of talking, sharing ideas, nerding out on the details of design and policy, going on city walks and bike rides, and having a lot of conversations. San Diego's downtown skyline has grown since the last CalBike summit was held there nine years ago, and so has its bike network.
And although there is always more work to do, kudos to the city for what it has already built: protected bike lanes around downtown, a more connected bike network throughout the city, and progress on a two-way bikeway in Balboa Park that transforms the experience from a death-defying freeway ride to a bucolic sweep through the park. Participants even got to walk through the fenced-off, unfinished portion of that bikeway to see what it will be like in the near future.
There were far too many sessions to cover them all. Highlights included:
- Jeanie Ward-Waller discussing best practices for California advocates ("get to know your Caltrans District Director")
- Ward-Waller was also joined by CalBike Policy Director Jared Sanchez to talk about the Complete Streets bill currently making its way through the legislature
- Issues faced by active seniors who want to bike ride, and how to make it safer for those who are nervous about dangerous streets
- Community-based street safety strategies to replace traditional law enforcement in traffic stops
- Best practices for all kinds of advocacy work
- Lots of local examples of advocates and agencies working together, with bike rides to check out some of the facilities
- Collecting data, evaluating change, and measuring success
Pictures below, many by Evan Dudley for CalBike, give a sense of the enthusiasm and engagement at the summit.
