The East Bay Bicycle Coalition and Walk Oakland Bike Oakland recently gathered to celebrate 2011’s bicycling victories, including 18 miles of new or improved bikeways, 292 new bicycle parking racks and a Safe Routes to School grant that will fund a valet bicycle parking station near 19th Street BART.



The link between Oakland’s blossoming bicycle culture and its economic development was a theme touched on by several speakers.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan told the crowd, "We are seeing cutting edge companies like Sungevity choose to locate in Oakland because their employees value being able to bike to work.”

During the celebration Dec. 16 event, Webster Street was being striped with Oakland’s newest bike lanes.

Steve Snider, district manager for the Lake Merritt/Uptown Association, spoke to the immediate benefits of this improvement.

“These new bike lanes on Franklin and Webster help connect downtown to Uptown and Jack London Square, and that will bring customers to downtown stores and restaurants and give businesses more ways for their employees to get to work,” Snider said.

Coalition - EBBC - Executive Director Renee Rivera pointed out the connection between local jobs and bicycle infrastructure.

“Bike projects are shown to provide more jobs per dollar than highway construction,” she told the crowd. 

Because bicycle improvements tend to involve more labor (to paint new bike lanes, for example) than materials (all you need is paint), most of the funding goes to wages. Those wages, in turn, fuel the local economy, since the workers are likely to be part of the local community. Contrast that with highway projects where a substantial portion of the budget pays for materials and the workers are less likely to be local residents.

The celebration of 2011’s achievements is a marker on a journey, not an end point. 

“We’re not stopping here,” said Gloria Bruce, president of WOBO’s Board.

Quan said that, in order to meet Oakland’s aggressive climate goals, “Every one of us has to eliminate at least one of our car trips per week,” replacing it with cycling or transit. The mayor also recognized the work of WOBO and EBBC in “making bikes cool” in some neighborhoods where they weren’t cool in the past, including the 100 blocks of Oakland where she is focusing her efforts to reduce violent crime.

Jason Patton , Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager for the city of Oakland, plays a big role in the ongoing improvement the city’s bikeways. He listed connecting Oakland’s 110 miles of bike facilities as a top priority because “the value of the network goes up exponentially as you make the connections.” The plan for 2012 includes 41 miles of work, including new bike routes and improvements to existing ones, all of which will further the goal of creating connected routes for cyclists.  

In September 2010, Oakland was recognized by the League of American Bicyclists as a Bicycle Friendly Community with a Bronze level  award.

“The award is good until 2014 when we will need to re-apply,” Patton said. “This burst of bikeway installation is a key part of our strategy for seeking Silver in 2014.” 

Oakland City Councilwoman Libby Schaaf told the assembled bicycling supporters, “We’ve got to make sure our bike infrastructure is in place because people are using it.” As if the illustrate her point, the crowd was forced to part at that moment to allow an elderly cyclist to pass through on the sidewalk.  It is the hope of many involved that with better bike lanes, he will feel comfortable to ride on the road.

Further proof that Oakland’s bicycle culture is unstoppable came at the end of the event. Participants were invited to be the first to ride on the just completed bike lanes on Webster Street. Before the first cyclist made it into the street, a young man on a road bike whipped around the corner from Broadway and scooped her, unaware that he was benefiting from Oakland’s newest bicycle improvement.

Public Works Director Vitaly Troyan summed up the sentiments of many in the crowd.

“We’ve got 800 miles of streets and 100 miles of bike lanes," Troyan said. "What does that mean? 700 miles to go!”