How did we do in 2010?

We did a great job in 2010, commuting 18,153 miles by bike and saving 2,021 car trips. Our average commute is now just under 9 miles per trip, and our team stands at 52 members.

The 2010 totals compare favorably to 2009, when we commuted 8,093 miles and made 1,443 trips. Total members in December 2009 were 34, so it's expected our miles would be less. However, we averaged 231 miles per member in 2009 and 349 miles per member in 2010. This is largely because our newer members have longer bike commutes.

So who commuted the MOST miles in 2010?
Now, now. Being the change we want to see in the world isn't about individual victories, but about TEAM, so does it really matter who commuted the most miles? Yes, it does!  Congrats to Alma Schiefer! Since joining BCC in March 2010, Alma has commuted a whopping 2,744 miles by bicycle and saved 71 car trips! She is our highest contributing team member!  You'd think with all those miles we could get a photo of her commuting. But alas, no such photos exist, so we'll have to be content with images of Alma on a non-commute ride up Mt. Diablo.

Go Alma!

Special mention for contributing a combined 4,567 commute miles in 2010 goes to Mike Rushford, Ursula Goldstein, Rob Barnett and Dave Hipple. And special thanks to Carlos Hung for continuing to cycle during these coldest months and even in the rain and reporting in every Friday morning!  

Congratulations to team member Don Johnston!

Don has been appointed to serve on Pleasanton’s Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Working for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Don saves between 10-12 car miles per month by cycling.

Don sent in the following editorial, published in the New York Times on December 16. It's a good reminder to obey the traffic laws to encourage cooperation between motorists and cyclists (Thanks Don!): 

NEW YORK TIMES
There Oughta Be a Law. Well, There Is.

Let’s be clear. We like bicycles. They are good for our air, good for our health, and, perhaps even someday, good for our traffic problems. New York City has about 483 miles of bike paths, some going back to the 1800s, and is adding 50 miles of bike lanes a year. City officials have recently been handing out data showing that these lanes “calm” traffic and cut down on fatalities.

But a lot of people are not particularly calm about bicyclists, and we are deeply sympathetic. Too many cyclists must think that they don’t have to follow traffic rules. That red light? Zip on through. That one-way street? No problem. Cyclists like to call it “salmoning.” If the city is serious about encouraging biking (and, by the way, less than a percent of commuters in New York currently ride bikes), then the New York Police Department and bike riders have to crack down on these cyclists and make them obey traffic laws like everybody else.

That there are actually rules may come as news to some cyclists. The city’s Department of Transportation has a summary on its Web site. For example, only pre-teenage children are supposed to have bikes on the sidewalk. Cyclists “must have hand on steering device or handlebars.” Also, “Rider cannot wear more than one earphone attached to radio, tape player or other audio device while riding.” Cyclists often complain that the problem is not the bicycles but the cars. It is true that cars and trucks can too easily maim and kill cyclists. But cyclists can too easily injure pedestrians — and themselves.

The Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, listening to complaints from cyclists and other New Yorkers, did a quick snapshot of several locations and found what he called chaos. Over a 22-hour period, his staff members clocked: 741 instances of pedestrians blocking bike lanes; more than 275 vehicles blocking bike lanes, including a school bus and pedicabs; 331 cyclists going the wrong way; 237 cyclists running red lights; and 42 cyclists riding on sidewalks.

Janette Sadik-Khan, the city’s transportation commissioner, has promised a new education campaign to help riders and drivers and pedestrians get along. The police department also needs to give more tickets to cyclists who break the law. It’s not easy — imagine catching a cyclist going through a red light — but a few more $100-plus tickets, plus an order to read the rules, would certainly calm traffic in New York City.