Campus & community, Events at Berkeley, Work life

Cyclists celebrate ‘beautiful machine’ on Bike to Work Day 2016

City of Berkeley officials inaugurated a protected bike lane at the busy intersection of Bancroft and Fulton, as the Berkeley campus joined in celebrating Bike to Work Day 2016.

By Public Affairs

2 cyclists — Steven Black, right, says his daily bicycle commute gets him to his job at the campus library refreshed and energized. Meanwhile Kevin, a local resident, fuels up for his ride to work in Oakland.

May 12, 2016

bicycle land — A new bicycle lane on Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Uptown district

grad student Lee Reis — Lee Reis, a grad student in city planning and transportation engineering, staffs the Bike to Work Day energizer station at Bancroft and Telegraph.

bike lane under construction — On Fulton Street at Bancroft, workers install a southbound, protected bike lane at record speed.

four officials at bike lane inauguration — The new street feature is ready for a ribbon cutting the following morning, Bike to Work Day. On hand to officiate are members of Berkeley City Council and the city's Public Works Department.

riders on land — Riders test drive the new, safer lane.

two bike riders in neon — Back at the Sproul station, Public Affairs staffers Cathy Cockrell and Hulda Nelson show off their neon.

bike-powered blender — Sigma Ep fraternity brothers blend bike-powered smoothies as part of their Pedal for Life fundraiser.

AC transit planner — AC Transit planner Stephen Newhouse describes proposals for Southside biking improvements.

student holding sign about sustainability

cyclist and student with BicyCal — Development studies major Erin Hancock, right, a member of BicyCal, helps a faculty member repair his wheel.

woman in T shirt with bicycle image — A chemistry staffer proclaims her passion for the "beautiful machine." (Photos by Cathy Cockrell and Hulda Nelson)

Local retiree Brian Simmons started his Thursday, which was Bike to Work Day, riding his recumbent bicycle from upper Grand Avenue to Oakland City Hall with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff and Bike East Bay executive director Renee Rivera. Then he headed north to Berkeley to check out the launch of a protected bike lane at the busy intersection of Fulton Street and Bancroft Way, on the Berkeley campus’s southwest corner.

“It takes activism and doggedness to make those kind of changes,” Simmons said of the newly improved lane. “Complete streets,” he said, are streets that serve everyone — motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

While officials from the Berkeley City Council and the city’s Public Works Department held a ribbon cutting to celebrate the street improvement, more than 300 bicyclists visited the Sproul energizer station uphill at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue.

College of Chemistry staffer Victoria Jaschob was there handing out refreshments. Jaschob rides her spare, aqua-colored one-speed three miles uphill to work nearly every day, she said.

According to the 2015 campus transportation survey, more than 12 percent of campus commuters bike to the campus, while at least 75 percent ride a bike, walk or take transit.

To help grow the campus’s alternative transportation programs, Parking and Transportation plans to launch a newsletter and a commuter club. (To participate, email Natalie Nava at [email protected].)

The campus has also added more than 100 new bicycle parking spaces this year; new racks are located at Valley Life Sciences, Wellman Court, Davis and O’Brien Halls and Moffitt Library.

Campus planner Todd Henry says there’s still more bicycling infrastructure to come, as Bike Area Bike Share prepares to roll out 1,300 bikes in the East Bay. One of the new bike-share stations will be at the corner of Fulton and Bancroft, just opposite Berkeley’s newest protect bike lane.