It's been said that raw statistics do not lie. But what happens when only one out of 10 bike thefts get reported? You would think crime statistics would be important for our sometimes fair city to get a handle on, but when a greater majority of its citizens would rather forget what just happened to them, it's time to change the communication lines of the most telling of all statistics: crime.  After several conversations with law enforcement about bike crime and about a recent bike theft from a few of our local bike shops, I’ve reached the conclusion that our police force is weary and stretched out. Bike theft is very painful as most of this readership will tell you. But most all bike t

First in an occasional series: STREET SENSE -- Driving new thinking on transportation and community. May someone who's bicycled more than 8,000 collision-free trips in Sacramento over the past 20 years offer a few observations on downtown’s new bike lanes? Bicycling is on the minds of political and civic leaders for a variety of reasons. As the Sacramento Bee’s Phillip Reese noted in a recent article, the Great Recession has seen a sharp increase in the number of Sacramento households without motor vehicles, and bicycling offers basic mobility to some of these people. Nationally, we see reduced interest among youth in acquiring driver’s licenses, as many young adults prefer electronic ga

This Friday evening starting at 8:30pm join Jim Brown from CBC for a moonlight ride with a pot luck desert finish at William Pond Park Although Mr Moonlight will be shinning bright lights for your bike ar in order.  The ride starts from Temple Coffee on 28th and S. https://www.facebook.com/events/475090439177047/   This will be a casual ride so leave your skinny tired bike behind so you can enjoy the wonderful natural surroundings of the American River Bike trail.

The Trans-American Electric Bike Tour stopped in Sacramento on Monday at the Electric Bike Shop at 3644 J Street. Two cyclists, Boris Mordkovich and Anna Mostovetsky, left New York City on April 7 and are riding 4,000 miles across the country. They plan to complete the final leg of their journey on Thursday in San Francisco. Sponsored by Mordkovich’s company, EVELO, Inc., the trek hopes to expose more people to electric bicycles and their benefits for commuting, recreation and transportation. Mordkovich and Mostovetsky ride an average of 80 miles per day. They each pull a Burley cargo trailer and their ride is self-sufficient; no support vehicles are involved. The electric-assist bikes p

The Sacramento Cyclefest Bicycle Show held its third annual event today at Soutside Park. Hundreds of cycle-related machines and accessories were on display, along with food vendors, custom bike builders, a bike swap and a special unveiling by the U.S. Postal Service. Photos from today's events by Ron Nabity.

The Capitol BikeFest drew several hundred cycling enthusiasts and commuters to the west steps of the State Capitol on Thursday. 40 vendors, representing bicycle shops, cycling clubs, advocacy groups, transportation providers and health awareness, kept up with the steady stream of BikeFest attendees. Bike Month T-shirts and snacks were given out to cyclists registered at the May is Bike Month website. Over 7,700 cyclists have registered and pledged to ride over 1.4 million miles in May. To date, nearly 500,000 miles have been logged. Free bicycle valet parking was provided by Park-a-Bike with over 140 bicycles securely parked in a corral at the center of the festivities. Raffle prizes i

Please join us at our Compost Awareness Celebration! - Wed. May 9th @ Fremont Park with the City of Sacramento and GRAS restaurants like The Waterboy, Tuli Bistro, Selland Family and Hot Italian. We would love to have your organization represented at this event, which will be a fundraiser for GRAS, and have a free festival for kids. This is Sacramento’s premiere Food Cycle Celebration! The event is to be 1) a limited $25 Tasting Flight provided by GRAS restaurants (to benefit GRAS); 2) FREE educational festival for kids and adults (with music and beer/wine sold separately in Beer Garden). Including: Ella Dining Room and Bar, The Waterboy, Tuli Bistro, Mulvaney’s B&L, Restaurant Thir13en, S

A warm day greeted hundreds of cyclists during the kickoff celebration of May is Bike Month at Fremont Park on Tuesday. May is Bike Month is sponsored by SACOG, the Sacramento Area Council on Governments. The kickoff ceremony included free bicycle check-ups, a raffle drawing, and presentations about bike safety, selecting a bike and locking it securely. Bike Month Co-Chair Joe Krovoza, the Mayor of Davis, encouraged the crowd to expand their use of bicycles for errands, commuting and recreation. Citing a top ten list of reasons to ride a bike, Krovoza peppered the audience with statistics, jokes and bicycle socks. Krovoza said, "Bicycling and walking make up 10% of the trips in Sacramento

Edible Pedal, a bike shop with a delivery service is having a bike swap today in the alley parking lot next to Cheap Thrills at 17th and L. It is free to the puplic and there  will be a $10 fee to vendors that goes to the Sacramento Bike Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides help educating its public on bike mechanics and self reliance via the bicycle. The swap has a slant toward the bicycle commuter and tourist with the purpose of increasing their numbers and to encourage  current commuters to bring a friends who are contemplating bike commuting and touring. TheBikeswap goes from 9am to 2 pm. The CBC (California Bike Coalition) will also have a booth explaining the new and improved 3 foot

 They come into the bike shop with eyes darting from corner to corner.  You can actually feel their fading hope that  at any moment the stolen bike that gave them so much pleasure or secured them a swift passage to their livelihood will miracuosly show up. Then without a hello or how are you, the tragic mental record of loss unfolds. With their face quivering they often confess of the ommision of forgetting to lock up their trusty steed.The carelessness and absent mindedness is afterall a part of modern day life.     If the loss makes them just plain mad the next reaction is to get another bike to make up for the loss but this time its going to be invisible to the common bike thief. the

The City of Sacramento Transportation Department is considering a redesign of traffic lanes along Freeport Blvd between Sutterville Road and 4th Avenue. This part of the roadway is scheduled for resurfacing in 2013 and last August the city approved a Bike Lanes Project to study options for redesigning Freeport Blvd into a "complete street" as part of the resurfacing effort. From the National Complete Streets Coalition website: "...a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities."

If you’re a medical marijuana patient and a bicycle enthusiast, Sacramento is the perfect place to combine your quests for medicine and exercise — kind of like those popular pedaling pub crawls, but without the drunkards. With more than three dozen dispensaries in the city and twice that number in the county, Sacramento bicyclists pedal past a plethora of places peddling pot to Prop. 215 patients. Cruising Midtown and downtown on your fat-tired cruiser? There are 12 dispensaries you can bike to, half of which are on designated bike routes that cross-hatch The Grid. Easy rides, all of them. Touring the American River Bike Trail on your Cannondale? From Old Sacramento to Folsom Lake, ther

(click on photo above to see larger image) Hundreds of cyclists came out to celebrate Bike to Work Day on the west steps of the Capitol on Thursday. The festivities included vendors, free t-shirts, ice cream and a raffle for bicycles and other cycling-related prizes. The Sacramento and Folsom Area Bicycle Advocates hosted a free bicycle valet parking service for those who rode to the event. Cyclists who have registered on the Bike Month website were eligible for a free t-shirt and raffle prizes. Riders are encouraged to log their miles on the website in order to accomplish a goal of two million miles cycled in the month of May. More photos of the Bike to Work Day event are available her

The second stage of the Amgen Tour of California ended with Ben Swift winning a wild sprinting contest to the finish line in front of the State Capitol building. Swift, from Team Sky Procycling, raised his arms in victory after crossing a rain-soaked finish line on L Street. Weather delays left Amgen racers longing for a contest after race officials cancelled the first stage in Lake Tahoe yesterday. Today's start was moved from Squaw Valley to Nevada City to avoid snowy conditions. Ironically, the event was moved from February to May last year to take advantage of better weather conditions. Thousands of race fans lined the downtown streets to get a close look at the racers. The cyclists

Sacramento Jane’s Walk 2011: Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8 Jane’s Walk USA is a series of free neighborhood walking tours that helps put people in touch with their environment and with each other, by bridging social and geographic gaps and creating a space for cities to discover themselves. Since its inception in 2007, Jane’s Walk has happened in cities across North America, and is growing internationally. Sacramento’s Jane’s Walk series incorporates elements of urban planning, neighborhood advocacy, urban history, and architectural history, to demonstrate how a neighborhood’s physical form promotes its walkability, sustainability and economic and social vitality. All tours are free o

The weather should be perfect this weekend as May is Bike Month kicks off in the Sacramento region. Get your bike tuned up and ready to ride this weekend and then ride to work on Monday, May 2, and come out for a lunchtime ride led by the Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates. The kick-off will start at 11:30 a.m. along the Sacramento Riverfront Promenade, located at 1800 Front Street in Sacramento, just south of O Street. The low-speed bike ride will start at noon, traveling through downtown and midtown and ending by 12:50 p.m. Bicycling has taken off in the Sacramento region as an easy way for people to get to work or school, run errands, or just ride for fun. Sacramento was recently ranke

May is just a few days from now, so tune up your bike, visit May is Bike Month.com, and get ready for a month of great events, promotions, and rides. Spend a few minutes today at Mayisbikemonth.com and register for 2011. Every week that you log miles in May, you'll be entered into a drawing for bike socks and gift certificates to local bicycle shops. Once you're on the website, click over to the calendar and see over 40 events scheduled. Check back whenever you visit the site, as we're adding new events every day. We'll have Bike Month gear to giveaway at many of the events, so come out and get yours. New this year, our Pedal Saver discount program will earn you freebies and discounts w

Where should we spend money on transportation as our region continues to grow? The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) is hosting workshops throughout October to gather input from residents on transportation and land use planning in the Sacramento region. SACOG is a regional planning agency for Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer, Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba counties. As part of the transportation planning process, SACOG updates the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) every four years. The MTP includes investments in transit, freeways, roadways, and bike and pedestrian improvements. In an effort to plan thoughtfully for all regional travel needs, SACOG will host nine public workshops

"Here is to camaraderie, lugged steel, and plus fours. Here is to the (truly) social ride. Here is to tippling from hip flasks, maintaining a leisurely pace, and flaunting with style." The quote from Sacramento Tweed's blog reflects the invitation the group extends for bicyclists to join a jovial "Seersucker Ride" June 27. Sacramento Tweed, founded by Rick and Erin Houston last November, is an inclusive group that organizes bike rides emphasizing the activity as a social and leisurely event. Ride organizers include Chris Tafoya; Lorena Beightler, creator of Sac Cycle Chic; Jim Brown, communications director for California Bicycle Coalition; Brad Gleed; and Alan Barnard, creator of EcoVe

For the third consecutive year, the Sacramento region has traveled one million miles by bicycle in a month. Since May 1, 7,108 (and counting) people young and old, students and commuters, families and friends have chosen to bike rather than drive. Commute, recreation, errands and work trips have all contributed to the million miles. What does a million miles mean for our region? One million miles of bicycling removed over 5,000 pounds of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen from our air. Air pollutants lead to many illnesses, including asthma, which is the most common reason for missed school days in Sacramento County. Just looking at commuting or doing errands by bike, individuals saved a