In Davis’ Platinum City Even the Munchkins Ride Bikes
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..."
Cool. Thanks for this look into a neat bike-friendly city.
That sure was a lot of bike parking everywhere! And how cool that biking can be an understood and expected part of a community's identity.
I live in Davis, and it's a great place for cyclists, though we've slacked some in recent years- you have to keep pushing and pushing to stay ahead of the SUV invasion.
To everyone else, you can do it, too!
Dang it almost got tears in my eyes watching this video, I want this type of commitment for the communitys around here. keep the cars where they belong, in the garage.
I graduated from UC Davis nearly 30 years ago, and biking has been a part of me ever since. Too bad you didn't film during the school year to show how those traffic circles function and how heavy the bike traffic really is.
[...] To understand why so many people sing the praises of Davis as a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly community, see this Streetfilms video, “Davis, California, a Platinum Bike City.” [...]
I live in sacramento and I've been to davis
it seems like davis is not really a city as much as a college town. As a college town, it seems like biking is gonna be popular no matter what...davis has really nice sidewalk bike paths, which are nice for noobs, but kind of suck if you're a seasoned rider, esp. since you're at a huge risk when u reach a crossing or driveway
further evidence that biking in davis is really just due to the college: once UC Davis instituted Unitrans (great bus service, free for students), biking dropped significantly
i think we have comparable (if not better) bike facilities in sacramento, but we're an actual city so i think that makes it much more significant
I went to UC Davis and lived in the town for five years. I didn't think about urban cycling at the time - I just did it because it was easy, convenient and cheap.
Now that I've moved away, I'm addicted to urban cycling! I can't imagine life without cycling and I expect other cities to be as bike-friendly.
I imagine a lot of students leave the city with a change in lifestyle.
I am so grateful to the city and it's fantastic design.
[...] If you are going to school in Davis, why not just live in Davis? If you live in Davis, your student fees cover the cost of Unitrans (the bus system that serves both the city of Davis and Campus), plus Davis has the best bike network in the country. If you live in Davis you can easily get by with out a car or with one less car. When you factor that in, plus just the time savings to and from school, Davis is probably still cheaper than anywhere in Sacramento and a lot more convenient. There are plenty of restaurants, bookstores and things to do in Davis. Streetfilms | In Davis’ Platinum City Even the Munchkins Ride Bikes [...]
[...] had forgotten until I’d stepped off the train that Davis was a real bike-friendly town — Platinum. There were bikes parked everywhere — it seemed like a smaller version of [...]