The next meeting of BikeWalkSolana, the Solana Beach Active Transportation Committee,  will be held on Monday December 6,  2021, 5pm on Zoom. For an invitation please email [email protected]

Agenda:

• Updates from the City
• FY21-22 Community Grant Planning
• iCommute/SANDAG’s Walk Ride, and Roll Program Program
  Kristine Schindler has been encouraging Solana Beach schools to raise their hands for the FREE offerings via iCommute/SANDAG’s Walk, Ride, and Roll program, only Earl Warren MS has benefited to date.  Please reach out to the schools too.  Registration is easy and they have a number of events/activities to choose from.  Suggest to Principal Katie at Solana Vista and/or Principal Kim at Skyline should choose to have a school community bike ride.  BikeWalkEncinitas did one at Ocean Knoll Elementary (grades K-6) in Encinitas and it was wonderful.
  https://www.icommutesd.com/school/walk-ride-and-roll-to-school
• Open Streets on S Cedros Ave Planning
  • Shawna McGarry has been reaching out to merchants for buy-in and is working on getting it on the City Council’s workplan for 2022.  Target date is 25 Sep 2022.
• New Business

Announcements

• Solana Beach Brewery and Tavern Walk – Circulate San Diego
  The Solana Beach Local Brewery and Tavern Walk is a 2.3 mile loop that offers visitors and residence pathways to stroll along the coastal rail trail through exciting dining and shopping venues along Cedros Avenue and Highway 101.
• 11 Dec 2021 – City Cycling for Ebikers
  The City of Encinitas, in partnership with the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition offers free classes this winter which will teach road rules, where to ride, general bike safety, emergency maneuvers, legal rights and responsibilities and will include a guided road ride to put your new skills into action!Classes are open to bike riders of all ages. E-bikes welcome! Class content applies to both regular and e-bikes. The 3-hour class is broken up into 3 parts: lecture, skills drills, road riding.
• 8 Jan 2022 – Free Bikes 4 Kidz collection event at all Trek Stores in San Diego
  Trek Bicycle Solana Beach
  124 N Rios Ave, Solana Beach, CA 92075

Meeting Notes by Jill Cooper

Those attending included Douglas Alden, Jill Cooper, Paul Dickstein, Howard LaGrange, Shawna McGarry, Karl Rudnick, Mo Sammak and Dan Goldberg from the City, and Jenny An and Katja Dillman from Chen Ryan Associates. 

Report about Safe Routes to Schools 

Jenny An, representing Chen Ryan Associates, the engineering firm working with the City,  reported on information gathering steps needed to design an effective Safe Routes to Schools program. 

• Onsite school mobility assessments will survey parents and students.
• A February public workshop is planned with results to be reported to the City Council. Mo requests BikeWalkSolana help in publicizing this event.
• Public outreach pop-up events to survey more people could be at Fiesta del Sol, La Colonia Park, local school events such as the Solana Vista-Skyline Halloween Carnival, Little League Opening Day, the Tour of Solana Beach Community Ride.

Input from our group included:

• (Douglas) Can we provide a historical perspective, tracing the increase in students biking and walking to school?
• (Karl) We need good data about bike ridership; numbers, and how many are riding standard and e-bikes.
• (Jenny) Earl Warren Middle School requires bike riders to attend a bike safety class in order to receive a permit to ride a bike to school. The number of students earning permits has increased over the past couple of years from about 25 to about 100.
• (Howard) A State agency will loan bike posts which count bicyclists and pedestrians.
• Shawna) Consider the “old” routes to school in the SRTS plan.
• (Douglas) Although he felt safe sending his well-trained kids to school on bikes, he understands that many parents don’t.  Crossing guards at freeway onramps and on streets near schools allow more parents to feel less anxious about their kids walking or biking to school. 
• (Mo) The Solana Beach School District has a contract with a professional company that provides the crossing guard service. The City of Solana Beach shares the cost with SBSD. 

Bicycle Friendly Community signs for Solana Beach

The signs have been paid for and ordered from the League of American Bicyclists, and as of the meeting had not yet arrived. We are happily anticipating their installation around the city. 

City of Solana Beach BikeWalkSolana Community Grant rides

We will need to ask local bike shops to support/sponsor both the 2022 community group ride and the scavenger hunt ride. Jill now has a Solana Beach Civic and Historical Society map containing QR codes to many historical landmarks, and we will be sure to include some of them in the scavenger hunt. 

Cedros Car Free Day

Preparations for the planned September 25, 2022 event are underway. Cedros Avenue would be closed to car traffic, welcoming pedestrians and cyclists to a day of music, good food, a kids’ parade, and visits to the many shops and restaurants, including the Sunday Farmers’ Market, in the Design District. Shawna McGarry and Daniel Powell are working to compile information and answer questions from the event stakeholders including Cedros business owners, nearby residents, and bicyclists and pedestrians likely to attend. It’s important to use data and personal observations from business owners in other cities who were pleased by increased sales during or after a cycling closed streets event to gain the Cedros business owners’ support. As Mo said, “We need to make sure that the business owners are on board.” The San Diego Bike Coalition could provide a bike parking service for cyclists who would like to ride to the event, lock their bikes, then walk to discover Cedros. Publicity could also include information about public transportation, such as the Coaster, Amtrak, and buses. If you have any suggestions for a name for this event (“Feet on the Street,” “Discover Cedros,” and “Cedros Stroll” have been taken!), please contact Shawna McGarry. 

Drum roll, please!

Congratulations to our own BWS member Kristine Schindler who was named the San Diego Bike Coalition Volunteer of the Year. Kristine has taken her BikeWalkSolana experience to Encinitas where she co-chairs the sister Encinitas BikeWalk Committee. As a certified League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor, she has been instrumental in furthering education in Encinitas, focusing on both youth and e-bikes for both youth and adults. She has been instrumental in organizing closed streets (Cyclovias) in Encinitas during the past couple years, with another one coming soon in 2022.