Bicycles built into the city’s fabric - Metropolitan Planning Council

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Bicycles built into the city’s fabric

Davis, CA has more registered bicycles than cars!

Only 15 miles west ofCalifornia’s capital city, the city of Davis is home to about 61,000 people and more than 60,000 registered bicycles.  Recognized as a Platinum Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists, Davis has transformed its people and urban landscape to accommodate this easy, cost-efficient, healthy mode of transportation. 

Davis did not institute citywide bicycle planning in response to today’s high gas prices.  In fact, the issue of Davis ’ insufficient transportation infrastructure was identified as early as the mid-1960s.  In fact, in 1966, when bikeways became a major issue in the City Council elections, several pro-bike candidates won; and the system has been steadily expanding ever since.  In the spirit of preventing, not responding to, a transportation crisis, the city of Davis has invested about $14 million on bike projects in the past 10 years.

One of the University of California’s 10 campuses is located in Davis , and of the approximately 30,000 students enrolled at UC Davis, it is estimated 48 percent of them ride a bike or walk to class. The city and university’s partnership has strengthened the bicycle program, creating more than 50 miles of on-street bike lanes and 52 miles of off-street bike paths – all within an area of less than 10 square miles.

 

Bicycle Lane in Davis - Photo Courtesy of Kate Michelle McCarthy

 

While bicycle use is an important part of the city’s transportation network, Davis also connects its bicyclists to Unitrans – a public transit system owned and operated by the students of UC Davis. More than 3 million trips per year – at the cost of $1 per trip – are taken in the city along 14 separate routes on picturesque, double-decker buses purchased from London . These buses easily connect with bicycle park n’ ride stations throughout the city, as well as other key locations where bicycles can be rented.

In this region, cities like Evanston, Elgin, Homewood and Naperville for their commitments to building bicycle capacity in their communities. A lack of capital dollars limits the extent of transit investments in many places throughout our region and bicycle investments are now being more widely accepted as a part of a well balanced integrated transportation network.

 

This article was featured in Talking Transit, MPC’s bi-weekly e-newsletter. To receive the newsletter, email talkingtransit@metroplanning.org with ‘Subscribe’ in the subject line.

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