State Bicycle Facilities -

These documents describe what we're proposing:

Executive Summary

State Bicycle Facilities – Statewide Policies

If you have comments on the documents or are interested in getting involved, please contact us.  We will need lots of support to make this happen.

In the 2007 California legislative session, Assemblymember Tony Mendoza of Norwalk introduced AB 163 (view most recent amended version).  Passage of this bill as originally written would have resulted in standards being set for bicycle facilities at state office buildings by enacting the Green and Healthy Workplace Bicycle Facilities Act of 2007.  Unfortunately, the bill was amended late in the session and its content as a bicycle facilities bill was removed.  See Bill status below.

Bill status

AB 163 passed out of the Assembly Business and Professions Committee on April 24, 2007 and out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on May 31.  It passed in the full Assembly on June 5 by a vote of 50-29.  The Senate Governmental Organization Committee passed the bill July 10.  The bill was scheduled to be heard by the Senate Approprations Committee July 23, but was not voted on.  On Sep 10, the AB 163 was "gutted and amended" and no longer deals with bicycle facilities.

Action needed

SABA is reviewing its options on proceeding with the important goal of having better bike facilities for state employees.

Fact sheets

SABA has put together fact sheets to describe some of the background and impacts of having (or not having) bicycle facilities at state buildings.  If there are important issues that we haven't raised in these fact sheets, please let us know.

Air quality and global warming

Parking costs

Physical activity and health impacts

Green buildings

Organizational support for AB 163

The following organizations supported AB 163 as originally written

 •American Diabetes Association

 •American Federation of State, County and Municipal
   Employees (AFSCME)

 •Breathe California Bay Area

 •Breath California Central Coast

 •Breath California Golden Gate Public Health Partnership

 •Breath California Los Angeles

 •Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails

 •California Association of Bicycle Organizations (CABO)

 •California Bicycle Coalition (CBC)

 •City of Sacramento

 •Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA)

 •Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD)

 •Sacramento Transportation Management Association (TMA)

 •Service Employees International Union Local 1000

 •Sierra Club California

 

Examples of bike facilities at state buildings

Some state building have great facilities today.  This is the CalEPA building.  There are good racks, the ability to hang bikes, plenty of room, video security and lockers.  Showers are right across the hall

 

At other buildings, things are different.  Here are a misued "bike" locker in a state leased building and a bike cage in a state building.  Aside from suffering a lack of cleanliness, the cage has no racks for supporting or locking individual bikes and the bars are wide enough for thieves to steal accessories.

 

Press coverage

Check out the Capitol Weekly news article, "Bicycle advocates seek inroads at state buildings"

The Sacramento News & Review also picked up on the issue in "Shower power".  The article incorrectly says there was a inappropriate use of lockers at the CalEPA HQ building--the locker problem (see photo above) was at 300 Capitol Mall.  The News & Review, which seems to be enamored with the cleanliness aspect, ran a second piece in July called "Hit the showers."

 

Here is a clipping from The Sacrmento Bee on what happens today.

 

By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Monday, April 16, 2007

With all that happening on the road -- plus gas prices -- you can understand why Andrea Rosen doesn't drive to work.

She decided to ride her bike to her 300 Capitol Mall office, but says she initially was told, before finally getting a bike locker, that the site's eight lockers all were filled.

Not all by bikes, it turns out.

One was unlocked. Rosen looked inside and found a stack of paint cans. Walt Seifert of the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates took a photograph and posted it on the Internet.

Oops, parking garage attendants told Rosen and Seifert.

"A bit of a lack of oversight on our part," the manager acknowledged. She knew the lockers were being used. "I just didn't think to ask if they were all bikes."

The company now will keep a list of who is using them.

As a result of work by Seifert and others, the Legislature this year will consider standards for state bike facilities.

Meanwhile, managers of state garages with bike lockers beware: Seifert has a camera, and he isn't pleased when cyclists get painted into corners.