Two of my recent bike-related experiences came together this weekend, when Naj K. Smith of Rich City Rides (who I met leading a ride last week) got arrested in Oakland for leading a ride on First Fridays with his sound system trailer. The bike and sound system were confiscated, and he was handcuffed and spent the night in jail. He made bail but the bike is still impounded.
Oakland is working on updating its Bicycle Master Plan. Since the last update in 2007, a lot has changed in Oakland, but I think the two most important changes affecting this plan aren’t related to cyclists or even cycling infrastructure. What’s really different is that Oakland has consolidated various different agencies into a new Department of Transportation, and also created a new Department of Race and Equity. The structural changes have led to a very different (and better) community engagement process for the new bike plan.
In 2016, Oakland created a new Department of Race and Equity, charged with creating “a city where our diversity is maintained, racial disparities have been eliminated and racial equity has been achieved.” In Oakland, that’s a big ask. But the creation of the office is, I think, an honest attempt to look for ways to improve the situation. The department has just released its first Equity Indicators Report, and as you might expect, Oakland fails on a number of important indicators related to equity.
Heading out for a fun ride yesterday, I ran into the Oakland Rideout at Oakland Technical High. Sponsored by Marshawn Lynch, this was a super-social ride from his Beast Mode store downtown, up to my neighborhood. The event included a beautiful demonstration of the transformation of public space, as a sideshow of BMX and motocross bikes, and Lime scooters took over Broadway.
One of the topics at the Oakland BPAC was an update on bike share progress. As part of the 2017 East Bay roll-out, Motivate created a “Bike Share 4 All” program which allows low-income individuals to obtain an annual bike share membership for $5 (instead of the regular cost of $150). But Motivate has refused to place bike share stations in Deep East, despite using the Scraper Bike Team’s style as marketing for their service. The exclusive rights we granted Motivate are a give-away of public space to private interest.
Bike to Work Day began in Oakland 25 years ago. I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about it, partly because I feel like bike advocacy in the U.S. tends to frame cycling as a distinct activity, and I think it would be more productive to frame it as a common activity that everyone should be able to do all the time. This year, my wife was volunteering at the pancake breakfast at Oakland City Hall, so I decided to join the pedal pool led by Mayor Libby Schaaf and Council member Abel Guillen.
The recent autonomous vehicle fatality in Arizona highlights some of the philosophical issues which our societies will need to grapple with as we transition to the post-driving world. Technical developments will allow autonomous vehicles to outperform human drivers, but the surrounding moral issues still remain to be addressed.
