Another great sunny Sunday along the Emerald Necklace in the San Gabriel Valley.  Unlike the previous seven Sundays, today's Bike Train began with a nice and easy warm-up loop around scenic Legg Lake.  The group of riders was comprised of children as young as eight, married couples, local council members, friends and family.  We crossed paths with native ducks, joggers, walkers and stumbled upon a club of remote control mini-boat racers as we meandered are way around the lake and headed toward the Rio Hondo Bike Path.

From there, it was smooth riding to Pioneer Park in El Monte where we regrouped to catch our breath and much needed shade. After hydrating we headed out to Peck Rd. park for more air, shade and water. We cruised through a calm El Monte neighborhood in route to the San Gabriel River path where we headed South back to Legg Lake. 2 hours, 15 minutes and approximately 500 burned calories later we made it back to home base to enjoy some ice cream from the neighborhood paletero.  A great reward for a great ride.  

We also kicked off our walk/job/run club and the whopping group of 2 completed 1.25 miles around the lake with a whopping smile.  We hope to grow our group of 2 by 2 by next month.  Will it be you?

Thanks again to all our supporters, riders, newbies, and of course friends of BikeSGV. The next ride is Sunday, September 23rd.  We'll see you then!

Visit our Facebook for more photos. 

The Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition hosted their first fundraiser on Saturday, August 25, 2012, a "Ride-In" movie night.  Approximately 120 local cyclists rode in to Palomares Park for an Alley Cat Race coordinated by Mobbin' Monday and an outdoor screening of To Ride & Die in LA by TRAFIK Pictures. 

Participating racers gathered on the lawn to receive a secret address then instructed to place their bikes along a wall for a true alley cat start to the race. With an official countdown by Mayor Rothman, the racers hit the streets for good ol' fashioned pedal race.  The objective: find the quickest route to the secret address, pick up an object and be first to make it back. 

Shortly after the race, folks made their way around to partnering tables and booths gathering information, exchanging contacts and collecting swag. Once the sun set, it was movie time!

We thank our friends at PVBC for inviting us to participate.  It's awesome to see such a vibrant community of cyclist coming together in an effort improve bike-ability in their town. We look forward to supporting future events. Keep us posted. 

Every year the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) utilizes CHP collision data to rank incorporated communities of similar size on their relative rates of traffic safety, as measured by collisions resulting in injury or death.  Specifically, the OTS examines the following data:

• Victim and collision data for the rankings is taken from the latest available California Highway Patrol (CHP) Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) data.
• Victim and collision rankings are based on rates of victims killed and injured or fatal and injury collisions per “1,000 daily-vehicle-miles-of-travel" (Caltrans data) and per “1,000 average population" (Department of Finance data) figures. This more accurately ensures proper weighting and comparisons when populations and daily vehicle miles traveled vary.

Although the rankings do not account for local factors like bike-modal share, which may over- or under-state collision rates, the OTS collision data sets do provide a snapshot of what happened in communities  in the SGV and across the state in 2010.  

Of particular interest to anyone who walks or rides a bike are the absolute numbers and rankings for collisions involving pedestrians and cyclists, highlighted in the spreadsheet of all the incorporated jurisdictions in the San Gabriel Valley available for download below. The spreadsheet also contains data for SGV cities with fewer than 25,000 residents (e.g., Bradbury, Duarte, Irwindale, South El Monte, San Marino, Sierra Madre), which is not available on the OTS website, but was requested and received via the OTS Public Affairs office (OTS does not publish rankings for these communities online because their validity is questionable, as the difference of 1-2 injured/killed, or a population change of a few hundred, could send a ranking way up or down. However, the crash and victim totals for these communities should be accurate.)

For those that don't have the time/interest in checking out the full data set, we've thrown together the rankings and the absolute number of cyclists injured/killed in the SGV for cities of 25,000 or more, according to the most recent OTS data (2010), below. Please note that some of the OTS rankings appear off insofar as the bicycle crash rankings for certain communities do not mirror the absolute number of injured/killed cyclists. We believe this is based on their smaller populations, but are following up with OTS staff for clarification. Hopefully we'll have an update, soon!  

SGV is home to over 30 jurisdictions, many of which are small in size and lack bicycle planning or infrastructure of any sort. Local residents that wish to cycle tend to cross multiple jurisdictions when commuting to work, shopping, or conducting everyday tasks, increasing the importance of developing city-level bike plans that will form a cohesive, inter-connected network of bicycle infrastructure for the region.  

As a result, BikeSGV has made the development of a regional bicycle master plan a priority project since Fall 2011.  Over the past year and a half we have educated local decision-makers, key stakeholders, and members of the public about the merits of regional coordination in the San Gabriel Valley in the realm of bicycle planning, while simultaneously seeking funding opportunities to make this vision a possibility for communities without the resources to individually hire bike master plan consulting teams. 

Based on the growing support for the concept among decision makers and City staff in the San Gabriel Valley, BikeSGV is working closely on the submission of a proposal to fund a regional master plan via the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, PLACE (Policies for Livable, Active Communities and Environments) program, Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) grant. 

Thus far BikeSGV has already secured support from five jurisdictions:

- City of South El Monte
- City of Baldwin Park
- City of La Puente
- City of Monterey Park
- City of San Gabriel

And a host of local organizations and groups, including the following: 

- Healthy Azusa Committee 
- Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez
- Kaiser Permanente Community Benefits
- Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Transportation Committee
- Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
- Pasadena Athletic Association cycling club

Thanks to the growing support for the regional plan concept, BikeSGV is confident that the realization of such a plan is not a matter of if, but when!

After countless presentations, meetings, information sessions, letters, emails and other effective advocacy efforts from interested community members, the City of Alhambra responded to the wishes of constituents and successfully awarded Alta Planning and Design with an approximately $20,000 contract to create and develop the City's first Bicycle Master Plan.  

During Alhambra's Hot Spot (Edwards Cinema on Main/Garfield) on Saturday, August 18, 2012, local residents and community members were afforded the opportunity to participate in the bike plan development process.  Alta Planning and City of Alhambra staff were on hand to solicit public input and ideas about:

-Types of bikeways
-Locations of future bike lanes, routes, and paths
-Bicycle connections to neighboring cities
-Types of bicycle parking facilities
-Signage and pavement markings
-Bicycle safety and education programs
-Encouragement and enforcement strategies

If you were unable to attend and you live in, near or around Alhambra, we encourage you to provide your input by taking a quick and easy online survey.

We are absolutely ecstatic that the leadership in Alhambra has sided with a more sustainable approach to community development.  A bicycle master plan will only provide safer and healthier transportation options while qualifying the city for additional funding sources to help implement the plan in the future. Kudos to Alhambra!

If you have questions or would like to learn about more ways to participate please contact:

Chris Paulson, City of Alhambra
626-570-5067
cpaulson [at] cityofalhambra.org

Over the past several months Andrew Fung-Yip, founder of the Puente Hills Bicycle Coalition (PHBC), has established himself as the leader for bicycle advocacy in the geographic areas of Puente Hills, Hacienda Heights, Whittier, Rowland Heights, La Habra and Walnut.

In an effort to consolidate resources and effectively advocate for a more bike-friendly San Gabriel Valley, PHBC has requested to merge with BikeSGV. 

Based on Andrews level of professionalism, deep-rooted passion and overall commitment to the bicycle movement, the BikeSGV Board of Directors unanimously approved a motion to merge with Puente Hills Bicycle Coalition during a board meeting held on Saturday, August 18, 2012.  

Therefore, it is with great pleasure and honor to welcome Andrew Fung-Yip to the BikeSGV team: 

"I am very happy and grateful to be given such an opportunity to work for the cycling communities in San Gabriel Valley. The Puente Hills Region is historically, economically and geographically tied to the rest of San Gabriel Valley. BikeSGV has done great things in terms of safer streets and opportunities for cyclists everywhere. I'm glad I will be working with a group of experienced, dedicated and compassionate individuals that have made so much happen in the past year. I look forward to being a part of the BikeSGV Team in advocating for the safer biking infrastructure here in not only the Puente Hills Region, but throughout San Gabriel Valley."    -Andrew Fung-Yip.