With New York City recently scoring a medallion for "Bronze Achievement in Bicycling Direction" by the "LAB Academy" (you like us! you really like us!) we figured it was a good time to post our very brief StreetFilms visit to Davis, California back in August 2007. Even though Portland, Oregon is nipping at their heels, Davis is still the only city in America to attain the very prestigious Platinum status for overall bicycle friendliness in a city.
Credit for Davis's bike-friendliness goes back to the 1960's when forward-thinking University of California urban planners began thinking about ways to make it safe and convenient for college students and city residents to travel safely by bike. During an era when most California towns were focused on building freeways, strip malls and suburban arterials, Davis's planning wizards were developing off-street greenways, bike lanes and installing bike racks everywhere.
In the last decade, an influx of car-commuters moving to Davis from nearby Sacramento and San Francisco has decreased the bike commuting mode share from 25 percent to 18 percent. Still, Davis remains an amazing place to use a bike for transportation. Any place that has eliminated school buses and have children riding bikes to school is doing something right. And check this out -- Davis has its own Wiki page devoted to bicycling.
Now click your heels four times and repeat after me, "There's no place like Davis. There's no place like Davis. There's no place..."
<br>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[intro music]</font> <br>
</p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:07] As you can see behind me, welcome to Davis, California.
This is the only Platinum bicycle city in America as designated by the
League of American Bicyclist, and what that shows is a unprecedented
level of commitment to bicycling and making cyclists feel safe. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>David Tokemoto-Weerts:</i>
[00:31] Living in Davis, of course bicycling is such a great way to
get around town because Davis is sort of an urban island, a sea of agriculture.
The longest one way commute within the city of Davis is going to be
about five miles, and that’s only, you know, from one end of town
to the other, so that’s a very, you know, workable distance for most
people. The city is flat, there’s hills except for a couple
of overpasses. The weather is typically pretty mild. And
the city and the campus back in the 1960’s decided to build on those
advantages and started building, you know, putting bike lanes on streets,
building bike paths, putting in bike racks everywhere.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Ruth Asmundson:</i>
[01:11] For a long, long time there were actually more bicycles than
people in Davis. And the ridership used to be 25% of the people
ride their bicycle to and from work. And now it’s down to 17%,
but it’s still higher than the rest of the country because the average
ridership in the country is 1%. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Don Saylor:</i> [01:31]
We started a Bicycle Advisory Commission about a year ago so that we
can not just rest on the laurels of what we’ve done so far, but to
keep getting better and better.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kelly Foley Stachowicz:</i>
[01:40] As a recreational cyclist and a mother of two young children
we can go as a family pretty much anywhere in town, whether it’s going
to the kids’ schools or going to a park or visiting friends, we can
do that all together and we can do it safely and we can do it with great
enjoyment. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[02:15] So even out here in the outskirts of Davis the city has made
amenities so that if you do want to bicycle to get around, to go to
Downtown, you can. Point to point Davis, California most strips
aren’t more than five miles, so what the goal has been has to make
sure that anywhere you live, you can get on a bicycle if you don’t
want to get in your car to get to your destination. So even in
the most rural areas you’ll find greenways and bike lanes and bike
amenities that help you to get to wherever you might want to go. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Robert P. St. Cyr:</i>
[02:49] It’s a relaxed pace here and the bike lanes that run through
the whole city, there’s greenbelts everywhere so that it’s been
incorporated into the planning of the city for several decades.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[03:01] So in between UC Davis campus and the city, the town itself,
there are a number of these bollards that have been placed, they’re
like diagonal diverters. These streets have been designated bicycle
priority streets. They’re not bicycle boulevards but they have
the same feel of them.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Don Saylor:</i> [03:19]
About five years ago we opened up an under-crossing, a brand new under-crossing
underneath an interstate highway, interstate 80, that connects our community
one… from one southern end to the northern end so that people don’t
have to go out on the vehicle off ramps.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Shaman Van Gelder:</i>
[03:38] The idea there is to empower people to be able to maintain and
have their own bicycle. Myself, and I think a lot of other people,
who are invested here feel that bicycles are freedom. In a way
it’s a revolution. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[03:57] So here we are at another very cool bicycle amenity in Davis.
This is the Dave Pell Bicycle crossing, and this shows Davis’s commitment
to bike and pedestrian access. This bridge crosses over the Amtrak
tracks and I80. It was constructed as one of many bike facilities
in Davis that go over or under very complicated crossings for bikes
or pedestrians. So once again Davis showing their Platinum status
by going the extra mile. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Kelly Foley Stachowicz:</i>
[04:29] My kids have asked me before what those big yellow things are,
and normally we call them school buses. We don’t have them in
Davis. So kids have to bike to school or walk to school, use their
energy up in sort of proactive ways. This makes for a lifestyle
that’s pretty convenient. You don’t have to rely on your car
if you don’t want to, and certainly with the price of gas these days
it makes it a lot less expensive and healthy as well. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[05:04] We’re standing here at the corner of Wesleyan and Sycamore,
one of the tougher intersections for pedestrians or bikes to actually
get across here cos the school’s over here, a lot of people live over
here. So one of the great things they’ve done here in Davis
is over the years they did a lot of experimentation and one of the things
they’re credited with doing was to use the bicycle signal and there’s
actually debate this maybe the first bicycle signal in all of the US.
It’s easy to use. So all you do is you come over here, you press
the bike signal and then as you can see, you can drive your bike across.
You could also use the in-ground bike sensors also to activate the light,
and what that does is it stops cars in all directions. There’s
actually a warning sign to cars not to make a right hand turn into the
cyclist, and you cross. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>David Takemoto-Weerts:</i>
[05:46] The relationship between bicyclists and motorists for example
in this town is better than any place I’ve ever ridden and I’ve
taken my bike to lots of, you know, other bicycle friendly communities
around the country and really nothing matches Davis.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[05:59] $370.00, that’s how much it’ll cost you if you go through
a red light in Davis. And to back it all up, you don’t even
need cops or people standing here, they use photo enforcement.
One of the things that makes Davis such a wonderful community to live
in is it’s commitment to open space and public gathering areas.
But also it’s traffic calming not only for bicyclists but for pedestrians.
What the city of Davis has done in the Downtown area is at every major
intersection they’ve put in neck-downs, and what they’ve done is
they’ve created these gateways for pedestrians. You know where
you’re supposed to cross, they’re inviting, they’re green, they’re
an alert to drivers that you are entering an area that people are going
to be crossing, you better slow down. And they work wonderfully. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Ruth Asmundson:</i>
[06:42] We’ve been trying also to make our Downtown more bikeable,
more walkable. Bike parking is important for any development.
Bike parking, bike lanes, anything that has to do with bicycles. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[06:56] When was the last time you saw this much bike parking?
At a strip mall. At a Rite Aid. At a school. Outside
the bookstore. Taco Bell. The movie theatre. Of course
the bike shop. At a Fluffy Donuts.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[07:29] So as we say goodbye to the City of Davis, California, I just
wanted to point out bicycles are everywhere. The city is in love
with bicycles. I also want to thank the Mayor for giving me a
little symbol of appreciation. She bestowed me with a lapel pin
of Davis, California which, of course, has the bicycle on it.
What else would it be? Goodbye, take care. </font> <br>
</p>
http://transcriptdivas.ca/transcription-canada/
Pingback: Northern Letter » Blog Archive » Streetfilms video on Davis, California()
Pingback: Looking to find our "fit" in Sac - Sacramento - California (CA) - City-Data Forum()
Pingback: Google Maps ‘Bike There’ | U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame Grand Opening()
Pingback: Form over Function? How about Form and Function? / Cycling in Wellington()
Pingback: Are we over-thinking it with our bicycles? » Electric Bike Reviews()
Pingback: Friendly Bike’s City | Núcleo de Ensino + Economia Criativa()