I don't count myself as a bike fanatic. I don't even own a single piece of fancy specialized bike apparel. I don't subscribe to Walking, Running, or Biking Magazines.   However, I am an avid pedal-pusher and devoted walker.  Call me strange, but I also enjoy enjoying the world a little slower pace sometimes.  And of course I appreciate smooth, marked bike lanes, safe cross walks, and not being run down by vehicles.  I also like bike racks outside of the stores, cafes, and offices I frequent. 

I also have this strange notion that a more bikeable and walkable city is a more pleasant city and a more sustainable city--in terms of health, environment, and community.  These are all things that have to advocated for.

One of my favorite Oakland organizations is the walking, biking, and livable city advocacy group Walk Oakland, Bike Oakland (WOBO).

Thursday night I went to a WOBO meeting shared a glimpse of their ambitious 2010 plans. One particularly exciting project is Oaklavia, modeled after SF's Sunday Streets.  Families come out, strolling around, ride bikes, roller-skate, eat food, and enjoy street performances.  It is a fun car-free experience that we don't often get a chance to enjoy.  It is modeled in part after Ciclovia, first pioneered in Bogota, Colombia.

So far I've been only been tangentially involved with WOBO efforts, following their campaigns, occasionally signing a petition, and sometimes showing up to WOBO events like the one hosting folks from the Transatlantic Cities Network to discuss how Oakland can become a world-class cycling city.

Indeed, Oakland has huge potential for being a model sustainable city and  promoting safe biking and walking is one vital part of the push in that direction.  And it requires us to be involved in whatever way we can to help create that model in the same way that the sustainable food,  sustainable energy, and sustainable economics folks are stepping up and creating new projects and partnerships while building community and advocating better policies.

So far my part, I'm going to gt more involved with WOBO's campaigns, which are after all,  our campaigns.

Read my post about WOBO's 2010 plans on Oakland Local.

About Ryan Van Lenning

Ryan Van Lenning is a writer and community organizer focusing on issues of social justice, food justice/urban agriculture, and sustainable transit. He is also passionate about anti-militarism, media reform, and building alternative economies in sustainable cities. Among other places, his work appears in Terrain Magazine: Northern California’s Environmental Magazine, Truthout, and Matador Change. Prior to becoming caught in the web of Bay Area ink-slinging and activism, he taught in the Humanities Department at a community college in Ohio, where he created courses in Environmental Ethics and World Religions: Peace and Violence. He is both a hyper-localist and a globalist, a home-body and travel-addict, and a city explorer and nature aficionado, just a few of the many paradoxes with which he is afflicted. Contact him at ryan@oaklandlocal.com, follow him on twitter @vanlenning, and find more at his blogs Pull the Root, Travelin' Bones, and Rumi and the Cholo.