Zach Sara Anna Discussion_mixdown.mp3

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Steve:
May is National Bike Month. In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Zach Bond and transportation planner for the City of Redding. He gives us an update on the exciting new projects coming that support active transportation around town. Bike lanes, protected intersections and wide sidewalks will be coming to several main roadways in Redding soon.

Katie:
We also connect with Sarah Sundquist and Anna Blasko of Healthy Shasta about the Shasta bike challenge and the other fun ways to celebrate biking in May. There are prizes, events and organized rides all month long. Prizes include two bike giveaways, $500, bike shop, gift certificates and more. So sign up for the challenge today.

Steve:
For those that feel Redding isn't a bike friendly city, there are many community and city resources working to change that perception. There's never been a better time to explore biking options in Reddit. I'm Zach Bohannon with the City of Redding Public Works Department. I'm a transportation planner, and I work on obtaining grants for active transportation planning and transportation type facilities throughout the town.

Katie:
And Zach, the city of Redding is putting a lot of emphasis right now on alternative modes of transportation and is putting a lot of resources into building facilities for bikers, walkers, people who are using alternative modes of transportation. Can you give us an overview on what those projects are and what the community can expect?

Zach:
Yeah, so let me start with a few that are eminent in design or in construction. And the first one that you should probably see this summer is Bucheli that starts at Cypress South all the way to South Bonnet View with the Costco development on the South End. And that whole corridor will get some improvements, including bike lanes and some wider sidewalks and a nice connection for that whole area. In fact, Loma Vista will be improved as well. So that that's the first one. You'll probably start to see construction here very soon. Some of the infrastructure has been done, but some of the other ones that are exciting are downtown where we'll see some extensions of the diesel horse to downtown trail. And the first part of that is California Street, where you'll see it come out at Division. Right now, it ends at Division in California. It'll head south on California Street to Yuba Street with some new facilities. When I say new facilities, let's talk about what that means. Some people call it a cycle track or a class four type facility. The source of downtown is is a precursor of what that will kind of look like, where it's a separated facility, but it's on the road.

Zach:
And we're we've moved to these types of facilities where they have a separation or a buffer on the roadway, sometimes just paint. But in these types of facilities, they're separated with the physical separation, a barrier of some sort. Minimally, it has bollards or some type of posts in the roadway, but it can go up to a planner bed or with some vegetation or some landscaping to separate the vehicles and the cyclists. And that one should be a very nice facility when it's completed. Another extension of the source of downtown will be the starting at Center Street, going west along Trinity to Continental and then around to Butte and back around to the Sundial. Bridge area will be an extension of that piece of horse to downtown trail that will help make that southern loop around the Sacramento River Trail. But this one will be on streets. It's a little different than the typical river trail. It'll be an on street connection through some of the neighborhoods. You'll be able to make that full loop and starting to connect up all the trails in the downtown area. Those are coming soon. Those are very close to being in the works.

Katie:
And Zach, what about the projects that are going, the construction projects that are happening around Victor Avenue? What is it going on with that project and how is active transportation going to kind of fill in there?

Zach:
So that active transportation grant was recently obtained and it's just started the process where we're starting design on that Victor project. It's a very exciting project coming to that part of town. It's going to connect to the existing project that Will came from Enterprise Park North to Hartnell and then from Hartnell North up to Cypress. That will get a full rebuild of that type facility with new bike facilities and new sidewalks. If you're familiar with that area between Hartnell and Cypress, it's kind of undeveloped on the west side of the road and that'll be fully improved at this point, which would be a nice improvement for that section of roadway. But some of the features I wanted to call out on the South End at Hartnell and Victor, there's going to be a new facility called a Protected Intersection where we've seen a lot of students use that area for enterprise high school walking and biking. And we wanted to make sure that that intersection has some extra safety features, which include some corner ball blowouts, some some protected islands and ways to cross the intersection in a way that feels more comfortable if you're walking or biking. It's been used before to enhance those types of crossings on those larger intersections. So that'll be the first one for the city of Redding and it should be a nice improvement to that intersection.

Zach:
But as you move north on the Victor corridor at the Cypress intersection, that will be improved with a roundabout at the corner of Victor and Cypress, and that will improve traffic, that location. And we'll also put some nice bike facilities around that facility and then heading westbound on Cypress will go all the way back to Alfreda, which is adjacent to Lowes and that'll have new bike and pad facilities on site. First Avenue between Victor and Alfreda and eventually heading north all the way up to missile school from the back side. And in that area, there's some new improvements with the center of hope that are coming and that all kind of work together with those new facilities that are being built behind Lowe's there. So all those interconnections work really well to connect residents to the commercial resources up there at the corner of Cypress and Chantry area.

Steve:
And Zach, it seems like the city is prioritizing bike and pedestrian access projects, maybe more so than in the past. What's the impetus for that change? Why is that now a focus? Well, as everybody I think can see out on the street, you're seeing a lot more types of vehicles.

Zach:
You're seeing e-bikes and scooters. And a lot of people are purchasing these things even personally to have as a as a third type of transportation or for a student or for anybody who might need a more affordable type of transportation. We've always wanted to see different modes of transportation. We're starting to see that happen very quickly right before our eyes. And so as these types of modes enter the roadways, we want to make sure there's enough facility types that interconnect on our largest roadways first or arterials and not I mean, if everybody ends up on the sidewalk, then it's not comfortable to walk on the sidewalks. And we want to make sure that people are able to have good pedestrian access as well. So we also have facilities in the roadways we've been designing for a while and those have kind of morphed over the years to now where when you have a bike facility, it's actually a buffered bike lane. That's much more of our typical standard where you have a couple feet of paint separating the bike facility from the cars, especially if it's the vehicles are moving a little bit faster. We're really starting to try to make that network of connections throughout all of town.

Katie:
And is there a city that Redding looks at that has a great active transportation system that Redding is looking to emulate?

Zach:
Well, we look at a lot of different jurisdictions. I've been to a few and we've rode in different communities and we take parts and pieces from a lot of different communities. When we're looking at new infrastructure and trying to develop these and making sure that it works well in these other types of communities and taking the data and applying it here. And so we utilize a lot of different things. We have a very unique situation with a lot of great trails that we're trying to interconnect across a lot of barriers, such as the Sacramento River railroad tracks and freeways. And so we have very limited access points, but that becomes critical connections for our network, which are unique to our community, but are very important for our active transportation network. And so, yeah, we look around, but we know what our network has to be for our community and we have a very robust trail system that we're trying to connect the roads, to connect all those great trail facilities that the city has. I mentioned a lot of these projects are grant funded. Have you seen an increase in the number of grants available either at the state or federal level? As more of this active transportation becomes a higher focus? We have there's been a bigger push from the state to develop these active transportation type projects.

Zach:
The guidelines for these types of projects lead us to look at the type of projects that we're going to construct and we look at our arterial roads. Victor is a great example of that. Or it may be missing curb gutter sidewalks and bike facilities and the smaller road on an on a large arterial right through the center of town. And those can develop such great connections between the retail and the residential networks, which is part of the guidelines. They're trying to build a transformative, connected network. And there are there's a lot of federal monies now that are shifting where they're also looking for that active transportation network to be beefed up, to be handle these different types of modes of transportation. So we look at both we look at everything we can obtain to help improve our network here.

Katie:
And some people I know don't think of riding as a particularly bike friendly community. Where do you see us in ten years?

Steve:
Well, as these new facilities are constructed and we've looked at these older roads that were constructed in years past with very small shoulders that don't have a lot of room for these types of bikes and other modes of transportation. We're really getting to a point now where a lot of arterials do have these types of facilities as as they develop these larger buffered bike lanes and these better network connections. And you can go from the road to the trail network and get to your destinations. The more this network is accessible, I foresee that we'll keep seeing an increase in these types of modes shift from vehicles to multiple other types of vehicles, whether it be an e-bike or a scooter or any type of other vehicle that we're not even aware of what might be there in ten years. And so I think we're have to plan for that eventuality where we're going to see these modes increase, where these different types of vehicles will come about. And that's great for road usage because they're usually a lot smaller and better management of the space to have these different modes and these different lanes. And we're trying to take advantage of the space that we have left to develop the best network we can.

Steve:
Thanks so much, Zach. It sounds like there is a lot of exciting things on the horizon surrounding. Active transportation. Now we will shift our focus to Bike Month and the Shasta Bike Challenge with Sara and Anna from Healthy Shasta.

Anna:
So I'm Anna Blasko. I'm a community education specialist in Shasta County Health and Human Services. And I work specifically with Healthy Shasta to promote active transportation, a physical, active lifestyle, and also promote eating more fruits and vegetables within the community.

Sara:
And I'm Sara Sundquist, also a community education specialist and the Healthy Shasta coordinator. And Healthy Shasta is a partnership of 24 different organizations that work to promote physical activity and healthy eating in our community.

Katie:
Great. Thank you for both being here today. And we are here to talk about Shasta Bike Month and the bike challenge that healthy Shasta kind of spearheads with the county every year. Can you please tell us what is the bike month? What is this challenge all about? Just give us the high level overview.

Sara:
Just a way to encourage more people to get out on their bikes and to celebrate biking during the month of May. It's a great way for people to get physical activity and also to get places. So using the bike for transportation and we're offering a large amount of activities and events throughout April and May to get people out and explore their community by bike. It's a free challenge and we just encourage friendly competition to get more people out riding with their coworkers, service clubs, friends and their families.

Steve:
So for the bike challenge itself, is this a workplace challenge or something that community members can participate individually or with friends? How does that piece of it work?

Anna:
Okay, so anyone ages 13 and older who live or work in Shasta County can participate. And you can ride in your neighborhood on trails using a road bike, a mountain bike, any bike, and you can be an experienced cyclist or someone brand new to cycling. So we we welcome everyone to sign up for the challenge and participate in the activities. We specifically want to urge New Riders to join us this April and May because new riders earn double the mileage points and day points in the challenge. So if you haven't tried biking for errands or biking to your friend's house or school or work or really anywhere that's within three miles of your destination, you should give it a try. That's what we're encouraging new riders to give it a try, just to kind of plug this fun experience I had. I tried biking to work for the first time last May, and so it usually takes me 15 minutes to get to work. And then by bike I clocked it and it took me 25, so just ten extra minutes to ride to work. And then at the end of that I had 25 minutes of physical activity and then riding back I was going to get 25 more. And so I just felt good about incorporating that movement into my commute and I just gave it a try. I don't do it all the time. I wish I could do it more. But it was it was fun to try and I do it as often as I can now.

Katie:
And where did the where did this challenge start? Give us a little bit of the history of this. Where did it come from? Why did the county and health Shasta decide to do this challenge?

Sara:
So Bike Month has been celebrated for a long time throughout our nation and in the early 2000s. We wanted to also celebrate in Shasta County. So we had a workgroup that was a variety of different community organizations like Caltrans and the Shasta Willman and Shasta Regional Transportation Agency, the County Public Works Department. We came together to throw a breakfast and give people free t shirts for riding to Library Park, which is now the park downtown in Redding. And it was just a fun way to celebrate Bike to Work Day. And then from that we moved on to celebrating with a challenge and we just did that for a week and it was offering different worksites to participate in this fun challenge. And it was all by pen and paper. And it, it really grew from there. So from a week it went to two weeks and now it's actually a month long challenge where we have a nice platform called Love to Ride, that we record people's mileage and distance or actually it's all automated. So they are able to just think their cell phone to the platform through Strava and other other ways that they record their distance and then they get to see on a leaderboard kind of their own stats as well as their team stats, how far they're riding, how many days they rode, that kind of thing.

Steve:
And Sara, what is the incentive for someone to participate? I mean, I'm sure some folks are avid cyclists and bikers and are regularly riding to work, as you mentioned, or just spending rides on their own. And others may not be comfortable on bikes or make a regular habit of it, I guess. What's the incentive for someone to participate in Bike Month and the Bike Challenge?

Sara:
Well, besides the great prizes that we have to offer and thanks to many of our community. Answers. Cbc's Roofs gave a nice donation so that we were able to give out $500 gift cards to some of our bike shops in town. So if you are logging your miles, you'll be able to through the platform, you'll be able to be entered into those drawings. We also have gift cards from many different restaurants and places around the community, but besides that, we also feel like people just win by being more active. It really improves people's health when they're more active, reduces stress. It's just a great way to get outside and enjoy nature and a good way to connect with people and have fun. And now that gas prices are really high, it's really a practical and affordable way for people to get around town. And as I mentioned, the three miles or less, you can really do a bike ride in about 20 minutes or less to maybe a place that you go every day, school, work, or maybe it's just a small errand and just asking people to replace a few car trips with bike trips.

Steve:
You mentioned that this challenge has been going on for quite some time and celebrating the bike month itself. What are some hurdles that you've seen or experienced here in Shasta County in getting folks to maybe either be aware of what's happening or to participate? And what are some things that you're doing this year that may be a little bit different to address some of those?

Sara:
I think some of the hurdles would be that it is hot in Redding and that's hard to kind of get around. But now with e-bikes, there's so many more people with e-bikes and it helps people get around faster. We do also have a lot of hills in our community, so that's kind of a barrier to people. And again, e-bikes help address that. But the other thing that I think is worth noting is when you're planning out your biking route to try to plan it out, not like you're going to be driving there. So take a look at the Google Maps where you have the bike icon to maybe give you some tips of how to get there. We also have a bike map with different routes on our Healthy Shasta Web page. And people can look at that map and see maybe the map with level of comfort. So it really is designed for the bicyclist and how comfortable you may feel on certain roads with bike lanes and trails being incorporated into it. And then I think just with our the events that we have, we have some different things to really try to encourage new people to get out and ride, offering them some ways to make sure that their bike is in good working order. We address how to get around town in we're calling it a get ready to ride event at the Chain Gang on April 21st at 6:00, 6 to 8, where we'll have bike mechanics. And people can ask questions they can just feel more comfortable with with getting ready to ride.

Anna:
Yeah. And we also have some community rides scheduled. We're calling the series Bike about Shasta so that you can see how to get to different places within the community by bike and as a group. So we're all together. It feels a little bit safer. And then by participating in these rides, you'll, one, get to see new bike routes that you might not have known about. And also you'll gain the confidence to do it more regularly, potentially on your own, with your friends and your family.

Katie:
And so is this maybe Ana can answer this question. Is this just a team event? If I'm if I'm an individual, can I participate in bike month, even if let's say I don't want to do the team element or maybe I don't have a team, what's the best way to get involved if I'm just an individual?

Anna:
Yeah. So through the Shasta Bike Change.org website, you will sign up for Love to Ride. And that's a separate platform where you track your miles and your rides and it's every person who signs up for Bike Month is always competing as an individual for prizes. So the more times that you ride, the more points that you get both through mile points and day points and encouraging other people. It explains it all on the website, but you're always in the challenge as an individual, but you can also join a team. So if you don't want to join a team, you're still in the challenge. You can see yourself on the leaderboard between individuals. And then if you do want to be part of a team, which we encourage because it just holds accountability and it adds to the fun aspect of it to be in it with a team, you can also win team prizes at the end, so the first team will win a bike rack to place in any organization within just a county that they would like to. So if it's a workplace, mostly a group of coworkers, then they can choose to put out their work site or a different place. And then teams two and three will also win a restaurant gift card to go and celebrate with their team. There's a bunch of prizes to win, both on the individual level and as a team. So your individual points contribute to your team, but you are always still an individual.

Steve:
And you mentioned some of those prizes. I know sometimes that incentive piece is maybe the driving force behind some folks participating. What are some of the prizes? Participants have the opportunity to win this year.

Anna:
So one of the biggest prizes is $500 gift certificates to bike shops. So it may contribute to a new bike. If you've been looking for a new bike or accessories to outfit your bike to make you feel safer, maybe some clothing, those are the three will have three $500 gift cards. But then we also have donated items from bike shops around town. So bike pumps, helmets, bells and mirrors, we have all that kind of stuff. And then we do have restaurant gift cards, brewery gift cards. We're still getting the prizes, but just a lot of local prizes so that you can people can enjoy that.

Katie:
And then along with the prizes, I know we've mentioned it a couple of times that there are a lot of community events in this month. Maybe you can just go run through those events really quickly and and tell folks what your what you're planning and what each event is about. Sure.

Anna:
So the first event that we have is April 18th, and it is a virtual bike challenge orientation. So this is where you can jump on a call with us and we can explain how the challenge works, the details of the challenge, and also explain the events again and how to motivate a team or how to encourage other riders. So that's kind of how to bike month orientation. And then April 21st, we have the Get Ready to ride event which will be at the chain gang from 6 to 8. And as Sara mentioned, that is a chance for people to come bring their bike, have a mechanic, look at it and see maybe what needs to be done to it so that you can get ready to ride for May. Then on April 28th we have the Bike Month Kick-Off party at the park, so the food truck park downtown and there we're just going to have more information about Bike Month. It's going to be kind of a party and a celebration. So if you haven't signed up yet, that's a chance. It's a chance to sign up there and we're going to have a bike giveaway at that place. So then on May 20th, is the Asphalt Cowboys Pancake Breakfast going to be hosted in downtown Redding? And we will have bike valet parking there. So all who ride their bike will have a secure way to park their bike, enjoy their breakfast, and if you ride your bike, we are going to treat you to a free ticket. So an incentive to ride is to get free breakfast from the asphalt cowboys pancake breakfast. And then May 21st is the annual bike swap at Sports. Lt'd We're just encouraging you if you are looking for a new bike or want to get rid of a bike that you're no longer using.

Anna:
Look at Sports Leagues website to see how to participate in the bike swap just to spread the love of biking and get more bikes in the hands of people who need them. May 22nd is the Shasta Rock Club celebration, their summer party? And we're collaborating with them this year to encourage people to bike there. We'll have different vendors and a celebration of outdoor activities basically, and there will be $1 climbing passes. So that day you could climb for a dollar. There's going to be food trucks, music, big yard games outside. And again, different vendors will be set up. So you can go tent to tent and learn about different outdoor events in our community and different clubs, organizations. And there's going to be a bike raffle at that event. Two of two bikes from Chain Gang thanks to Woodies, Woodies Brewing. And then June 3rd we have the Bike Month and Bigfoot Challenge Celebration, which will be at Caldwell Park. So we are partnering up with Bigfoot this year to just have a big ending celebration because their challenge runs from April and May and ours is in May. And so we end at the same time and we just want to get all of the biking community together to celebrate bikes, to celebrate the challenge. There will be a lot of fun things at that event too. One exciting thing is that we'll have a yoga class happening there and if you ride your bike you'll get a free pass to balance yoga to go to one of their classes. So just a fun ending celebration in Caldwell Park.

Steve:
It sounds like an action packed month. Must be great. And then there's also a series of rides that kind of coincide with some of those events that you mentioned throughout. But the rides themselves take place in May. I think there's five rides or so. Can you just briefly touch on what those rides are and how folks can participate?

Anna:
So in May, we're coordinating some rides throughout Shasta and it's a chance to get together as a community, go some routes, have community members, learn different routes and feel comfortable riding around. Shasta County, WI on May 4th is bike to school day so different schools can organize a bike to school day in which they celebrate biking with. Students to ride from one place to the school. Then May 5th is a bike about Shasta series where riding to old Shasta. May 6th is first Fridays and Chain Gang will host a ride from the Diesel Horse Bridge to the Sundial Bridge and come back through downtown. And then everyone can celebrate first Fridays, then May 14th. We are partnering with Shasta Historical Society to do an abbreviated version of their biking bike trail, their map that touches on a few historical sites in red ink. Then May 18th is the rite of silence with Shasta Wheelmen, and it's to honor cyclists who have been who have passed away or have been injured while cycling on public roads. So every year they do that and we take a ride through Redding. It's about ten miles. And it's just it's taken in silence to commemorate everyone who has been injured or who has passed away. And all this information can be found on the website at Shasta Bike Challenge dot org with all the details, times, locations and a brief overview of the activities that will be happening.

Katie:
Great. Thanks, Anna. Sara, I don't know, maybe you want to just recap us on what it is, how to get involved, where to find out more information.

Sara:
Bike Month is just a celebration of bikes to get outside and ride with friends and your coworkers. So we encourage you to sign up for either the bike challenge or and or some of the different rides and different events that are happening. Some of the rides and events do require sign ups before, so you'll definitely want to check out the Shasta Bike Challenge dot org website to see if it requires holding a spot for you to participate. And the challenge really has been a fun way to involve a lot of different worksites in the past. Last year Cal fire one the bike rack and they were really proud of their their big win. But in the past it's been city of Redding rivaling Caltrans. So we really hope that all of you will get out and score some some points and some miles for your or your team.

Steve:
Anything else that we didn't touch on.

Sara:
On, some of the benefits really for the community with with biking includes less pollution, less traffic noise. It's actually safer for all of our transportation users by having people moving about at a slower pace. It's less wear and tear on our roadways. And then for the past actually several years, we've had close to 1000 participants in about 50 teams participating. So it really is a big community effort and and you'll definitely see more people on bikes throughout the month of May.

Steve:
It seems like with the new dieselhorst to downtown trail and some of the road improvements with additional bike lanes, it seems like the city and partners have really put a new emphasis on that active transportation piece and maybe bike safety. I mean, from healthy Shasta's standpoint, do you feel optimistic about the future of biking in Redding? Is it a kind of cause for excitement in that regard?

Sara:
We're seeing a lot more bike trails and bikeways, the buffered bike lanes, separated bike paths. So I think it's it's really great that our city is moving in the right direction toward active transportation. We are definitely seeing a lot more bikes out on the road, especially with e-bikes, a lot more scooters. And I think we all need to do our part with following the rules of the road, especially bicyclists, sticking to the right, making sure we're stopping at intersections, communicating with drivers, and that goes for skateboards and scooters as well. Often they're moving pretty quickly, and it's really just good for all of us to watch out for each other and drive the speed limit and an appropriate rate of speed with all users in mind.

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