Welcome to the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition

What a year it's been!

I joined the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition as Executive Director this spring. For the past six years I had worked as a planner for Sonoma County Permit and Resource Management Department developing the County's transportation policies. During this time I'd always been impressed by how much Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition accomplished under the leadership of my predecessor, Christine Culver. I was honored to be selected to lead SCBC.

From the inside, I am absolutely astounded by how much Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition has achieved with so little money to support what I view as the most important part of our mission: advocacy.

Most of our very successful programs have dedicated sustainable funding sources. Safe Routes to School operates on grants. Street Skills for Bike Riders courses are funded by tuition. Bike to Work Day receives County and Regional funding, and corporate sponsorship covers the balance.

Advocacy is another matter.

Grants and sponsorships can only be used for specific purposes, leaving Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition without a dedicated funding stream to support our advocacy work. Advocacy is the core of our mission: it's how we work on your behalf to convince leaders to fund bicycle lanes and pathways, to pass laws that protect you as a cyclist, and to improve dangerous streets to protect your safety.

For the past half century, Sonoma County's policies, plans and funding decisions were based on accommodating automobiles and ignored the needs of bicyclists. But I believe (and hope you do as well) that a fundamental shift has begun to take place.

You can see signs of change everywhere. People want to improve their health by adopting active lifestyles. Public policies emphasize reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. People recognize bicycling as a simple and elegant way to achieve these objectives.

This culture shift has shifted Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition into high gear, making our advocacy efforts more effective than ever.

We have already had many victories, but there's still so much at stake. For example, in 2011:

Our advocacy efforts prevented Metropolitan Transportation Commission from cutting bicycle funding from the Regional Transportation Plan. The Regional Transportation Plan now includes $13 million for Safe Routes to School in Sonoma County, $95 million to expand our local bicycle and pedestrian network, and $49.8 million to construct the SMART pathway between Santa Rosa and San Rafael.

We worked with national leaders to twice convince Congress to retain funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects in the Federal transportation bill. Congress has not reauthorized the transportation bill, and we'll continue to fight for you at the 2012 National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.

We catalyzed the founding of the SMART Riders Coalition, a group working in support of the SMART Train & Pathway project; we also gained the assurances of the SMART Board that the pathway will always be integral to the project.

We worked with Sonoma County to make sure that Caltrans improved Stage Gulch Road (Highway 116) for bicyclists. This $30 million project provides full 8-foot shoulders in both directions, finally giving bicyclists in the south County a safe route between Petaluma and Sonoma. We will continue to push for full Class II bike lanes on this important connector.

Our Highway 101 Community Connector Bridge project gained widespread public support and the attention of other community groups. We worked with these groups and Santa Rosa City staff and Council to move the project forward. In November, Council voted unanimously to take the Connector to the next level.

When a great plan to install bike lanes on Camino Colegio in Rohnert Park became controversial, we worked with City Staff, City Council, and the community to find a solution that would work for everyone. The project was finished in October, providing bicyclists in Rohnert Park with a much needed north-south connection across the City.

Until this year, Sebastopol was the only Sonoma County city without planned bike lanes. After years of working with us, the City of Sebastopol adopted a new plan for bicycle routes along major streets. While this is a major step forward, we still need to convince Caltrans to approve the plan in order to install many of the proposed bicycle lanes.

We have been working with Cotati to redesign a portion of Old Redwood Highway with the goal of slowing traffic speeds, and creating a Complete Street that works for everyone. If approved, the project will reduce Old Redwood Highway to two lanes north of the Hub, add bike lanes and improve sidewalks.

We stepped up our work with Sonoma County Regional Parks to develop two dedicated regional bicycle paths. One will run near Highway 12 and connect Santa Rosa to Sonoma. The other will run along an old railroad right-of-way connecting Sebastopol to Petaluma. We are dedicated to convincing Regional Parks to make these their highest priority trail projects.

We continued to operate a unique harassment and road hazard reporting system that gives bicyclists a single point of contact to report problems anywhere in the County. This Fall, the Press Democrat and North Bay Bohemian ran stories featuring our harassment program.

We drafted a model ordinance for Sonoma County that will prohibit harassment of bicyclists, and establish a minimum 3-foot safe passing distance between motor vehicles and bicycles. We will be working with City and County governments to pass this ordinance next year.

I know how much you care about making Sonoma County an increasingly fabulous place to ride, and how much you want to make everywhere in the County accessible for riders of all ages and abilities. Impressive as Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition's achievements have been in 2011, there's still so much at stake!

Now, please, put your money where your bike is and make a tax-deductible donation to the organization that's working on your behalf to make it happen: Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

While your membership dues provide some support for these efforts, they are not nearly enough for us to make sure that you have a voice whenever decisions are made that will affect the future of bicycling in Sonoma County.

You might think, "Oh, with all those members, someone else will donate. I don't have to."

Fewer than 10% of Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition members have ever contributed to SCBC financially beyond their annual membership dues.

To that 10%: thank you so much for your ongoing support. We need it more than ever this year, so please consider increasing your gift.

It's simple:

Envision the most bicycle-friendly Sonoma County you can imagine.
Think about how wonderful it would feel to be a part of creating that legacy.
Consider the most generous donation you can make to Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.
Click the "DONATE" button on our website.

Thank You for your support and generosity,

Gary Helfrich
Executive Director

P.S: We're off to a good start because a few generous folks have pooled their resources to provide a $10,000 match! That's money offered on the condition that you will reach into your bank account, or into that sock under your mattress, or the pocket in the back of your jersey, and pull out the most generous donation for Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition you can manage by the end of this year.

In other words, we only get that $10K if our matching donors see they're in good company.

That means, when you donate now, your donation is actually worth twice as much!

ACTION ALERTS! Get involved HERE

Public meetings and campaigns

The acclaimed Sonoma County Bicycle Map is updated and in stock! Wine Country Bikes says:
"The best cycling map of the area is now without a doubt the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition Map."

SCBC Calendar

Here's your chance to protect bicycle advocacy!