If Silicon Valley Bike Summit 2022 marked the Bay Area bike movement’s emergence from the pandemic – it also underscored something larger - Equity. Safety. Social justice. Awareness is building of the access to prosperity, education, health, services and community that transportation can provide – or deny.

Scores of individual riders, bike advocates, city staff, and elected, civic and industry leaders mingled for the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s 12th Annual conference, in person at the newly reopened Millbrae Recreation Center, for the first time since the pandemic. As they did, it was clear that awareness is rising, in this traffic-choked region, of bike-driven transportation’s role in changing lives for the better.

Caltrans Looks Beyond Freeways

Word of change came from the keynote speaker, the head of Caltrans’ Bay Area District. “We’re no longer looking at widening freeways as our first resort to address congestion. This is unprecedented,” said Dina El-Tawansy. New Caltrans projects are required now to factor in alternate transportation modes and the needs of underserved communities, as well as climate impact, she said. “We are looking at how we can provide more multi-transit, safe, sustainable methods for all users.”

The Director called out a 50 percent rise in pedestrian and bicycle traffic fatalities and serious injuries over the past decade. Minority and low-income communities are hit especially hard, with Blacks, Hispanics and Native peoples significantly more likely to be killed on foot, and a 50 percent greater likelihood for people in households with income levels of less than $50,000 to be killed in a crash.

Bike Movement Expands Base

Make it stand out

Word of change came from the heads of the region’s bike advocacy organizations, too.
Jui and Ballard jointly led a conversation on the future of the bike movement. San Francisco Bike Coalition Executive Director Janelle Wong was also to take part but had to forgo due to COVID.

Where events such as Bike to Work/Wherever Day once brought riders and corporate support, the pandemic and rise of remote work sharply cut the number of white-collar bike commuters and accelerated re-thinking of community needs and priorities, said Ginger Jui, Executive Director of Bike East Bay, and Shiloh Ballard, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.

Focus has now also shifted to building a bike movement that better reflects the communities – from a movement dominated in early years by the outlook of white males, to one that reflects a more complete range of people and interests, including race, income and gender or gender-queer identity.

“We’d been missing out on all the other trips people are making, could be making – and what are the barriers to those trips,” said Bike East Bay’s Jui. The question has now become, “who is not represented in our advocacy, what kinds of trips, and how can we bring those people to the table?”

“There are a lot more trips – it’s not just about the commute,” said Ballard, of the Silicon Valley coalition. “If we’re going to encourage people to get to where they are going by some way other than by car we have to build our environment in some way that encourages that.”

Change at Many Levels

The breadth of change could also be seen in the scores of panelists and participants in Summit breakout sessions. These sessions spanned best practices for organizations in transportation demand management; successful “gold star” programs that are catalyzing cycling at the community level; latest innovations in the bike-share world; best practices in designing community engagement; and the importance of moving beyond bike lanes to connected communities that bring together land use, housing density, parking policies and more.

One of the many sessions was “Goldstar Programs.” Read on to learn more about what this entailed.

Special ‘Gold Stars’ for Community Impact

Entities at all levels – agencies, non-profits, even community members – are running some successful programs that help get more butts on bikes. This session at the Bike Summit brought examples of such programs run at different levels, which are influencing hundreds of lives annually.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Youth and Family programs breaks down barriers to biking, particularly in low-income and non-English-speaking communities, including adult and youth bike safety education, rebuilding and distribution of used bikes, Safe Routes to School, and multilingual outreach.
San Mateo County Office of Education’s Safe Routes to School encourages and enables children to walk and bicycle to school, with the goals of improving health, well-being, and safety of children, and reducing traffic congestion and emissions.
Turning Wheels for Kids provides children with new bikes to encourage life-long exercise, outdoor activity and independence, and includes free repair clinics through schools and community groups; corporate team-building events; and an annual Big Build day-long bike-building event.
Bike Bus, a San Francisco-based part of a spreading movement to provide a safe way to shepherd kids by bike to school, and encourage outdoor activity, through escorted group riding and designated “safe streets” that limit traffic to support pedestrians, cyclists and slow-moving transportation.
South San Francisco’s Every Kid Deserves a Bike provides children in need with bicycles, training and support, working through local schools and community groups. It was voted Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s “Program of the Year” for 2022.

And the winds of change do not stop with the Summit! Get a sneak peak into the future of biking in the city of San Jose at our 2nd Annual Fundraising Ride on September 18, 2022. This year we’ve teamed up with some amazing partners to bring you a truly unique experience highlighting bicycle infrastructure of the future. Our friends at Imvizar have taken the San José Department of Transportation’s design drafts and transformed them into an augmented reality experience that we can all enjoy together!

Register for Bike to the Future!

This guest blog is written by SVBC Volunteer Scott Brown. Scott is a writer, editor, content strategist and former journalist based in the Bay Area.