Ojai Valley Green Coalition

By Suza Francina
If you travel on Grand Avenue, you’ve probably noticed the new shared-lane bicycle arrows, or “sharrows” (a word coined from “share” and “arrows”). These internationally recognized pavement markings, along with soon-to-come “Share the Road” signs and other visual cues, are intended to remind drivers of their legal obligation to share the road.

For information on participating in the first Matilija Junior High bike safey training on Monday, August 23, 2010, please e-mail kelly@project-ride.com, or Sfrancina@aol.com. Junior high or high school age students attending other schools on or beyond the planned route are welcome to attend.

Right now, summer ozone season is in full swing here in Ventura County. Smog season, usually May through October, is when weather conditions are most conducive to ozone production. At ground level, ozone pollution can be harmful to everyone, especially the young and the elderly.

Read on for a few tips to reduce ground-level ozone by decreasing your energy and fuel usage. And, by the way, these tips will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions!

Ojai Valley Green Coalition recently wrote to Vons Corporation asking them to promote alternative transportation by installing bike racks at their Ojai location.Given the recent efforts by the City of Ojai to install bike racks around the city, plus the many citizen complaints regarding the lack of bike racks and scarcity of parking spaces for cars in the shopping center where Vons is located, we felt it important to initiate a campaign to correct the situation.

Download our letter HERE, and please send your own letter in support:

Tom Keller
Vons Corporation
618 Michillinda Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007

Every Day is Bike-to-Work-Day in Europe!

The following video offers a look into the beautiful country of Holland, a place where transit is clean, efficient, and safe.
Translation: Everyone rides bikes and uses public transportation.

http://www.good.is/post/what-rush-hour-could-look-like-the-glorious-bike-traffic-of-utrecht-holland

Thanks to Ojai Trees for sending this video!

May is National Bike Month, and the League of American Bicyclists is partnering with hundreds of cities across the country to promote Bike-to-Work Week from May 17-21 and Bike to-Work Day on Friday, May 21.

If you grew up in Ojai fifty years ago, as I did, you’ll remember a time when you could safely walk and bicycle everywhere, even during peak hour traffic times. Ojai was naturally bicycle-and-pedestrian-friendly. Times have changed. According to the most recent (2008) Ojai Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan, 6,000 cars a day now travel on Grand Avenue.

VISIT BICYCLE CITY: http://www.bicyclecity.com/

Ojai Valley Green Coalition Transportation Committee Meeting
Wednesday, May 5, 4:00 -5:00 pm,
at Papa Lennon’s Pizzeria, 515 West El Roblar in Meiners Oaks
across the street from the Project Ride community bike shop.

May is National Bike Month! http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/

About the Ojai Valley Green Coalition Transportation Committee

Good news for Ojai! The US Department of Transportation has declared that the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists. In what amounts to a true paradigm shift, the automobile will no longer be the prime consideration in federal transportation planning.

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan will be on the Ojai City Council Agenda, Tuesday, April 13, 2010. (See article below or click here) http://www.ojaipost.com/2010/04/bicycle_pedestrian_master_plan.shtml

John van Houten, M.D., sent the following cover Letter concerning the City's Bike/Ped Plan to Ojai City staff and Council in September, 2009.

To the Ojai City Council members and the City Manager,

Attached please find a copy of a letter that I submitted to the Ojai Valley News that was published last week (September 18, 2009).

My motivation for writing this letter lay in the fact that my children are unable to safely ride their bikes to school despite living within a mile from both schools. Riding down any main street in Ojai is an exercise in weaving around parked cars, avoiding being “mirrored” by passing cars on the left and “doored” by the parked cars on the right.

Alternative Transportation is on the Ojai City Council Agenda, Tuesday April 13, 2010. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm. It's hard to predict when the council will discuss the items below, as it depends in part on how many people speak at the beginning of the meeting on "Unscheduled Items." My guess is around 8:15 pm.
Item 4 - Grand Avenue Bicycle Lanes
Item 5 - Bicycle/Pedestrian Master Plan
Item 6 - Transit System Service Reduction Options
Click here to read the full agenda and staff reports: http://www.ci.ojai.ca.us/

The Grand Avenue Bicycle Lanes were on the Ojai City Council agenda way back in 1997. Teachers, parents and students wrote numerous letters and testified at City Council meetings on why Safe Routes to School are needed.

Bike Month 2010

The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week 2010 from May 17-21 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 21. With the help of the League's step by step guide the Ojai Valley Green Coalition Transportation Committee is looking forward to promoting Ojai Valley events. Help us count cyclists in the Ojai Valley this May, and every month!

Click here to see the fabulous official website for National Bike Month:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/
Check the events section often to see what bike month and bike to work week events are going on in Ojai and the rest of Ventura and Santa Barbara County. Suza will submit Ojai event information to be posted on the Natonal site. She is posting this here as a reminder to email Ojai event news to communication@bikeleague.org. Write, "Bike Month Event" in the subject line of the email.

Thanks to Ojai bicycle/pedestrian advocate and OVGC Transportation Comittee member John van Houten, M.D., for calling my attention to this article.

This is the best news for making Ojai a model bicycle/pedestrian friendly city that I've seen in years. It will help us move forward in implementing the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan that the City of Ojai adopted over ten years ago.

Here are some excerpts-- a link to the entire article appears at the end.

Feds Deem Pedestrians, Cyclists and Motorists Equals

At long last, the feds have said the needs of pedestrians and cyclists must be placed alongside, not behind, those of motorists.

Thanks to Kelly Pasco of Project Ride for reminding me of this link.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/bp-broch.htm

Bicycle and Pedestrian Provisions of the Federal-aid Program
Section 217 of Title 23 of the U.S. Code calls for the integration of bicycling and walking into the transportation mainstream. More importantly, it enhances the ability of communities to invest in projects that can improve the safety and practicality of bicycling and walking for everyday travel.

Check out the VC Star reader comments on busses and bike lanes in Ventura County!

Two transit agencies plan studies on how to improve county's bus service
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/feb/13/two-transit-agencies-plan-studies-on-how-to-bus/

To Comment to the Ventura County Transportation Committee:
http://www.goventura.org/?q=about-vctc/public-review-and-comment/unmet-transit-needs

By Suza Francina, Chair, OVGC Transportation Committee

"The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind." -- William Saroyan

Seven years ago* I gradually changed my trip to work from a two-hour car commute to a refreshing ten-minute bicycle ride.

After a decade of driving the freeway, my soul had grown weary of watching the sun rise and set from behind the steering wheel. Working closer to home meant a cut in my income, giving up my new Mazda mini van and downsizing to an older Toyota.

Bicycle advocacy groups are expanding, and a "Complete Streets" movement has blossomed in recent years, bringing together a broad coalition of citizen and environmental groups demanding more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly roads. Six states and more than 50 cities, counties, and metro regions have now enacted some form of Complete Streets legislation.

Pedaling Toward Cleaner Cities
By Alison Raphael, OneWorld US, May 13, 2008

What single silver bullet can simultaneously reduce air pollution and oil dependency, roll back urban congestion, and fight obesity?

It's not a pill, nor a complicated formula concocted by the World Bank. People around the world are turning to bicycles by the millions, as governments rush to create incentives for the low-tech transport alternative to gas-guggling, smog-making, traffic jam-producing automobiles.

I applaud John van Houten’s comments about the lack of support for cycling in the Ojai Valley. I am a long time resident and I have always been engaged by our community’s desire to preserve our quality of life and sustainability. As a cyclist I have been disappointed in our community’s lack of support.

Guest Editorial by John van Houten, M.D.

The city of Ojai has made a concerted effort to become a “green” city in the past few years. However, it has ignored one very effective way to be more environmentally responsible, and that is by promoting cycling as an alternative form of transportation.

Ojai is a haven for recreational cyclists and even pro level cycling teams due in large part to our beautiful terrain and agreeable year round weather. However, there is no support for cycling as a form of daily transportation.

Listing the benefits of bicycling makes it sound like one of those old patent medicines: "guaranteed to cure all your ills." But the simple truth is that bicycling is good for the air, the water, the earth, the quality of life in our community, helps to conserve energy, increases property value, increases business, and makes our streets and highways more efficient and, at the same time is good for our health, makes us more fit, and its fun!

Here is a quick look at the ten top reasons why bicycles are good!

Between now and March 25, residents of the Ojai Valley will be reading a new book: Coming Clean: Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal. The author, Michael Brune, the Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Network, will come to Ojai on March 25 to discuss the ideas in his book. The event flyer is Here and the event bookmark is available Here for downloading.

For this year’s annual Ojai Day on October 18, the Ojai Valley Green Coalition will offer attendees a free bike valet service. To reduce the number of cars descending on the downtown area as people arrive for the festivities, the OVGC Transportation Committee will set up the bike check service in the library parking lot. The coalition hopes to encourage attendees to benefit the environment by pedaling to the event, rather than driving.

With regular unleaded fuel in Ojai over $4.25 per gallon and a barrel of oil at $135, a record high, peak oil is on many people's mind. Our friends at the Santa Barbara based Community Environmental Council sponsored a half day Tri-County Energy Summit for Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties today in Santa Barbara. The 150 attendees were community activists, non-profit representatives, business leaders, city planners, elected city/county officials, and other governmental employees. I went as a representative of the Ojai Valley Green Coalition. Read the full article with links Here

Check in for regular updates from all of our Action and Organizational committees.