down with climate change, up with bikes

Today tens of thousands in Copenhagen protest the world's governments's inaction on environmental issues such as climate change. Hundreds were pre-emptively mass arrested. 2600 solidarity vigils are taking place in 130 countries, including the protest at Chevron in San Ramon a few day ago.c
a bit over a month ago the city of walnut creek hired a consultant to help develop a climate action plan. they were given $677,700 from the department of energy to do this. the city will use $85,088 of that to write up a couple papers:

(1) Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy (EECS), a short-term, project based proposal detailing how the City plans to spend the remaining allocation of $592,612. The EECS will outline project costs, energy savings, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and the numbers of jobs created or retained.
(2) Climate Action Plan (CAP), a long-term companion document to the General Plan identifies strategies and actions for the Walnut Creek community to achieve greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change.

climate change is going to have an effect on the bay area, so it is better than nothing.

That's how government works though. lots of bureaucracy, lots of planing, lots of reports and wasting money on things that a lot of times are obvious.
walnut creek also just finished their 90-page Bicycle Master Plan.
as the CC times reports

The City Council will have a study session on the plan at its meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, at 1666 N. Main Street in Walnut Creek.

The Bicycle Master Plan is intended to be a general strategy that establishes a vision for bicycling in Walnut Creek. The plan details existing conditions for local bicyclists, and points out that many roads are not bicycle friendly, bike parking is inadequate, and a there is lack of connections between existing local bike paths and lanes.

The plan offers many suggestions, including that traffic studies for major developments should address bicyclists' needs. The plan includes a map of proposed new bike trails and lanes. It calls for 37 miles of new bikeway facilities, more than double what Walnut Creek currently has.

Some of the major capital improvements include:

# Downtown and regional gap connector on California Boulevard from Mt. Diablo to Olympic Boulevard and Olympic to Newell Avenue.

# Pleasant Hill BART station connector from Bancroft Road to Las Juntas Way.

# Newell Avenue gap connector provides link to downtown, Iron Horse Trail, Kaiser Hospital and Las Lomas High School.

# Civic Drive bike lane from California Boulevard to Walden Road.

The cost for all the bike improvements hovers around $38 million. The plan points out that the city needs local, state and federal funding to make the wish list a reality — that's one of the major incentives for Walnut Creek to create a bike plan. To be eligible for state grants, a city must first have a plan, said Jeremy Lochirco, senior planner for the city, at a Park, Recreation and Open Space Commission meeting Dec. 7.

good for the city, but come on, 2 years and 90 pages to come up with this? really? me and some friends who ride bikes around town could have come up with something equally good in about a weeks time. instead of spending all that time reading the 90 page report (i bet they dont actually read it) the city government should just spend a few hours riding their bikes around walnut creek. they would get a much better picture of what needs improving.
it is neat to see where the bicycle accidents in walnut creek have happened though.

the truth is, instead of waiting for the government to give us bike lanes, we should follow new york's example, and just go paint our own.


on a final note, i hear there is going to be a critical mass bicycle ride this friday, the 18th, in walnut creek. meet up at 5:30 at walnut creek BART. they used to happen every month. then they stoped. we will see what happens this time.