 It's a holistic experience if you want to put it that way it's just the kind of thought of really it makes you feel alive out there when you're you know it sounds kind of corny but and I think people who ride understand that that it's it's a total package your experience that there are many little things that come together in that experience that you really enjoy it's the physical activity the getting in the the mental zone of doing it meeting people along the way I've met so many neat people over the years by riding to work and I've developed friendships from that just this morning when I was riding in I was noticing the bush loop and blooming on the causeway you know and then during the wintertime you've got the waterfowl and the refuge adjacent to the causeway so their days when I'm seeing flocks of geese and ducks and and things like that and you know every day is different and I really you know just makes you feel it's great to be alive the symbol of the city of Davis California is the bicycle Davis was the first city to use bicycle lanes in the country and in 2005 Davis received the first platinum award by the League of American Bicyclists Davis has a population of 65,000 people many residents work at the University of California Davis a substantial number of Davis residents work in and around the nearby state capital of Sacramento Davis is located approximately 15 miles from downtown Sacramento but the vast majority of commuters drive to work and back to their platinum bike city alone in their cars many of them may be willing to bike to work but abandon the idea when they start to consider all the details they would have to work out in order to successfully commute by bike in April 2008 an action research team from the education for sustainable living program at the University of California Davis conducted a survey of Davis residents who drive to work in Sacramento when asked why they didn't commute to work by bicycle 47% of the respondents cited time issues such as taking too much time in their day getting up too early or juggling a variable work schedule 27% cited logistical issues such as too much stuff to carry or the need for shower facilities and 26% stated that the distance from home to work was too far this program is designed to address those issues and explain how easy it is to commute from Davis to Sacramento to get to Sacramento from Davis you will need to get to the Yolo causeway from the north you can take covelle to where mace boulevard intersects with county road 32a then take county road 32a to the on-ramp to the Yolo causeway bike path from downtown Davis you can take second street east to mace boulevard where second street turns into county road 32a from the west you can get to the old root 40 bike path from olive drive off of Richards boulevard and that will take you straight to county road 32a at the railroad crossing at county road 105 from the south you can take the Dave Pells over crossing to Faraday Avenue across to second street to join up with the county road 32a at mace boulevard or you could bike up and over the mace boulevard overpass but use caution here because this is a high traffic area with several busy intersections during commute hours also from the south you could take east child's road but beware that it has no bike lanes and the poor condition of this road surface makes for a very rough ride and will wear out your tires once you get past the Yolo causeway you will exit down a ramp on a bike path that takes you behind the gas stations to a crosswalk across west capital boulevard when it's safe you cross to the other side of west capital boulevard and head east west capital boulevard has nice wide bike lanes in both directions and the traffic is usually quite light there are four stoplights on west capital boulevard harbour boulevard poplar west acre road and jefferson boulevard all of these lights have pedestrian push buttons that will accelerate the light to change west capital turns right into garden street where you will make a left turn that will take you right over the tower bridge onto capital mall there you are in downtown sacramento sacramento has lots of one-way streets with ample bike lanes but be careful you will encounter more cars in downtown sacramento than anywhere else on your entire commute so stay alert in their own words davis bicycle commuters explain how they have handled time logistics and distance in order to commute by bike to sacramento in the end it works out extremely extremely well because I'm done with my workout for the day and so I don't have to go out in the evening and try and make time to do get to the gym or to go swimming or run or whatever you might do I'm done with my workout I've gotten to work I've gotten home and it's all packaged up very neatly if I take the bus to work I would have to walk from my out my house to the bus wait for the bus and walk from the bus stop to my office that takes me about an hour if I ride from my house to the to work it takes me about an hour if I drive my car it takes less than an hour unless I buy if I buy parking but if I don't buy parking it takes an hour to find the parking spot you know and driving around looking for the parking spot and then walking back from the parking spot to the office so no matter which way I commute the commute commitment is about an hour for me at this point I found that I'm penny wise and pound foolish with my time if I cut out exercise to save time for work or to save time for other things it's a very short-term gain but after a while you're not as productive you're not as energetic and and you don't have the opportunities to work out whatever tensions or difficulties there are with your work so I find that the time is comes back to me in improved productivity and energy and focus at the office and greater relaxation I sleep better and and life is better so I think you have to make the time in fact I've actually written to work and and I do this a lot I think about some of the projects I'm working on or briefs I'm writing or something and I and I get in this sort of state of mind where I can really focus on the issues that I'm working on and I actually can write things in my head so when I get to work I just spit them out on paper because I arrived kind of energized I tend to be a heck of a lot more productive than the hours I have in the office so I'm not losing any time at all by taking the time to commute by bicycle the biggest deal when I first started commuting was what to bring and thinking that out and so what I did was I wrote a list of all the things I really put some thought into it before I started to commute and I and I wrote a list of all of the things I needed in terms of what clothes I wear what what sort of things I need in terms of like my calendar and my wallet and my keys and that kind of stuff and then I thought in terms of what equipment do I need spare tires tire tubes tools lights in case I have to work late you know bike light and my lunch and you think through your day and you have to be fairly conscious of okay what do I do in a day and what do I need what do I bring from home after that then you start looking to see well what are the things I can leave at work so that you know on a week and I'll drive this stuff in and it's waiting for me so I don't have to haul it on my bike so in my office over here I've got a I've got my closet I have two sport coats two slacks five shirts five ties so I'm always ready I never bring that stuff to work and then I use prestige cleaners this is a an earth-friendly cleaner and they come to my office they they they pick up your clothes they you know give you the new clothes they take your old clothes with them they come and pick up and drop off and they do this on days when I'm not even in the office he just walks in everybody knows him he walks in he comes in the closet he grabs the the old clothes and he gives it leaves the new ones and they come twice a week he comes in my case he comes on Mondays and Thursdays I don't know if you know what their other schedule is but that's a huge help to me so that's a whole that's a whole thing I don't have to worry about so on my bike just in general equipment that I have on the frame itself some basic emergency pieces of equipment so I have a bike pump I have a little pouch underneath my seat it's called a saddle pouch which I keep tire irons I keep this little it's a foldable wrench kit that has hex hex drivers screwdriver flathead basically anything that would fit your bike I have for me emergency stuff like my inhaler I have my keys I have a spare tube and I have a water bottle holder so that's just on the frame of my bike and then when I'm commuting for work I carry what would be my camelback backpack but I take the water pouch out and I put in things I need for the day so my lab notebook my flash drive I carry my lunch usually so then I don't have to buy so much food because I eat a lot of food and then I have actually here clothes and all the other stuff that I would need and I just tried to think ahead what I need how much I can bring in one trip and then carry with me just the necessities I need for that day I use panniers I have one here these fit over the back bike rack on my bicycle they can carry a little or can carry a lot they come off and on the back rack quite easily I bring all my clothes that I wear I bring food I bring a full complement of tools as I said I haven't used them but I've loaned them on occasion out to other people and I also bring work back and forth on my bicycle a lot of times if you you know you don't have enough tubes or something happens they just wait for another cyclist to come by and they'll give you tube or help you fix your bike and everybody kind of looks out for each other out there yes I bike in winter and as with any cold weather sport like skiing or something like that you layer I have I wear several a couple different layers of clothing and I usually wear a pair of wool socks and a pair of silk socks I went through several pairs of winter gloves before I start I realized that the snowboarding gloves keep my fingers the warmest while I ride it depending on where you live the round trip commute from Davis to Sacramento is about 20 to 30 miles in most cars this will burn about at least one gallon of gasoline that one gallon of gasoline will create 20 pounds of air pollution of which 19 pounds is carbon dioxide which is a greenhouse gas therefore if you're a commuter cyclist every 100 commuter cyclists will save approximately a ton of pollution every day I live in South Davis and I work in downtown Sacramento at 10th and I the commute is 13 miles and it takes a little less than an hour each way I live in South Davis it's about 14 miles from door to door takes me typically 45 to 55 minutes I live in West Davis pretty close to the junior high school over there and I work downtown at 12th and right across from Capitol Park and my bike commute takes about 55 minutes I live in downtown Davis I commute to the C Davis Medical Center on 34th and X Street and it's about 18.2 miles and it takes me just over an hour there's an aspect to riding through the country you know that's that's kind of calming and kind of gets you and kind of in touch with with nature a little bit better I was noticing this morning when I when I rode in across the cause why I was noticing all the wildlife the birds in the causeway and the wildflowers and it's just a nice thing to observe and rather than than sitting in my you know two tons of metal and fighting with other people on the highway I'm cycling along and enjoying myself and that really kind of helps set a better frame of mind for for getting into work in the morning cycling does a lot to your state of mind it allows you to be a calmer you are have a peace and harmony with yourself and that just overflows and everything permeates everything you touch work home children parenting father everything and it's very very positive to me it's kind of like I feel like I'm on church I'm at church when I'm on my bike and I'm on my bike every day three times a day so what does that mean you're you feel tranquil your peace cycling gives you energy I feel so much better when I bicycle ride I have so much more energy at work as well as patients and I have so much more energy and patients when I get home and deal with my family when I encounter other cyclists on the commute it's it's it's as if we're part of a big brotherhood people waved to each other they smile if you ever have a problem when you're when you're bike community to get a puncture in your tire people always stop and help or they at least ask if you need help and so you feel like if you ever did have a problem that you couldn't deal with you didn't have the right tool or whatever chances are pretty good within five ten minutes somebody's gonna show up anyway and most of them know how to fix problems on bikes so it's you feel pretty confident you know when you're driving on the road everybody out there is your adversary we're taught to drive defensively and we are taught to look out for the other guy because the other guy is likely to be some reckless scoff law and so we drive accordingly but that is completely different than biking to work when you commute by bicycle all the other bicyclists you are happy to see them we bike in together and talk sometimes you wave to the people that you you bike by but it's a community and we appreciate the contribution that they're making by not being in their car there's kind of there's a little bit of a code that you you don't ever first of all you never pass up a cyclist that's that's on the side of the road fixing a flat or something you always ask how you doing everything okay do you have everything everybody knows that I think it also helps just the tenor of the community you see more people you talk to more people than you would in a car commute for instance and I think that helps weave the community together in a stronger fabric than if we're all driving cars this is an opportunity to combine good health and and environmental protection and having some fun and you can't beat that combination basically your cars no benefit to you know you just sit there and get fat incidents of heart disease diabetes hypertension would drop dramatically if people could just get out of their cars and onto a bicycle biking is a joy and some great-haired old guy like me can do it and they're it's interesting because the majority of the commuters that I run into are middle-aged folks like myself and they've rediscovered biking some never left it but they've rediscovered it and there's an aspect of biking that I talked about the ability to decompress going home and work out issues on the way to work but there's an aspect of biking that takes you back to your childhood and they're just the feeling of being literally self-motivated and and moving along on a vehicle that is completely under your power and that feeling of being on a on a street with your friends on a bike it's just it's it's joyful and I think that sense of joy would enhance anyone's life this is the old route 40 bicycle path the land is owned by Caltrans which has granted the city of Davis a right to use and maintain it it is situated between interstate 80 to the south and the Union Pacific railroad tracks to the north and runs approximately three miles long you rarely see anyone using this bike path during the day and why because there's no useful access to it from the West the only access to the old route 40 bike path is from Richards Boulevard at Olive Drive the bike path continues east until it terminates just south of the intersection of County Road 32a and County Road 105 the only other access the old route 40 bike path is at mace Boulevard from ramps that attach to the on ramp and off ramp of westbound interstate 80 otherwise you're stuck between the freeway and the railroad tracks until you've biked out of town today bicycle commuters traveling east from Davis heading towards the causeway to Sacramento have no choice but to travel in close proximity to increasing automobile traffic two conditions threaten increased incidence of injury to commuting bicyclists first metering lights at the on ramps to interstate 80 have caused more and more drivers onto the frontage roads to avoid waiting in line to access the freeway many cars enter the opposing traffic lane to pass cars on County Road 32a both in the morning and evening the danger is compounded because most commuting bicyclists are biking to or from work in Sacramento during rush hour Davis cyclists who commute to Sacramento often have the sun in their eyes going both to and from work the sun is also in the eyes of drivers making it harder for them to see cyclists all of these factors increase the risk of collision between cyclists and motorists Stefan Lorenzato knows firsthand it was a early morning sun was just after sunrise and I was hit from behind by a car knocked off my bike and landed quite hard on the pavement I initially thought I had broken my hip because my I couldn't move my leg it was paralyzed that turned out to be a temporary condition but I did have to get an ambulance ride to the hospital and have to be checked out at the emergency room it's taken me about a year and a half to recover from that I'm not fully recovered from the accident yet I did tear up some muscle and have a lot of scar tissue in my hip as a result of hitting the ground hard a major factor that contributed the accident was the glare from the early morning sun on the ride to Davis there's glare in the morning as you ride towards Sacramento and there's glare in the evening when you come home riding into the sunset and the sun was the first thing that the driver mentioned when she got out of her car to come check on me her comment was oh the light is so hard this morning and again it wasn't anything that she was deliberately trying to do even good intention good-hearted people make mistakes and there's not a lot of room for mistakes between cars and bicycles the second new condition threatening increased incidence of injury to cyclists is the target development at second street near mace boulevard which was approved by voters in 2006 the draft environmental impact report for the target estimates an increase in traffic due to the project in the area of second street in mace to over 10 000 car trips per day and this will bring in drivers from outside of Davis who are not expecting the higher volume of bikes that we have on the streets for commuting Davis bicyclists this is a recipe for disaster no matter which route you take to get to the causeway there is a simple and relatively inexpensive solution though the simple remedy is this construct a bicycle ramp from the Dave Pells over crossing down to the old route 40 bike path a simple and perfect solution this is the Dave Pells over crossing prior to construction the project was found to be exempt from an environmental impact report now the Dave Pells over crossing is part of the Davis bike loop it goes over interstate 80 and its highest arc passes the old route 40 bike path then descends over the union pacific railroad tracks second street and then gently touches down on the bike path that takes you to the tunnel below fifth street that comes up at mace ranch district park access to the old route 40 bike path from the Pells over crossing would enable cyclists to remain separated from cars on bike paths throughout the entire north south and east of the city of Davis until they are well outside city limits this access to the old route 40 bike path would enable cyclists to completely bypass the new increased threat of traffic collisions in the vicinity of target and much of the increased unsafe traffic on frontage roads everyone living east of age street could access the old route 40 bike path via the Davis bicycle loop almost entirely on bike paths apart from motor vehicle traffic in october of 2007 the Davis bicycle advisory commission at the urging of Davis bicycles voted to amend the Davis bike plan to include the connector ramp from the Pells over crossing to the old route 40 bike path as a recommended capital improvement now we will need to take the next step now we need you the citizens of Davis to compel the Davis city council to provide bicycle access to the old route 40 bike path from the Pells over crossing please let your city council man or woman know that you want access to the old route 40 bike path or you can go online at www.davisbicycles.org I would say go with a friend and get a map and do the route beforehand so on a weekend go for a bike ride and just see what it's like maybe do it on the weekend first and give it a go see how that works but I think what people will find is that the what they have in their mind is a lot worse than or more difficult than what it actually turns out to be because I've done that with people where you know they've gone their first time commuting over and they said wow that was easy I think it's important to start with somebody as a partner try to you know talk to somebody that that does it and and maybe ride along with them you know their first time to try to you know just kind of get broken into it and maybe you just want to ride one way and then have somebody that you know bring you home if it seems too much you know just try it a little bit at a time and and you know even just try it one day a week and you know see if you can build up from there because I think once you start doing it you're going to want to keep doing it and you're going to want to keep doing it more than just a couple days a week a lot of people go just one way throw their bike on the bus coming home or they throw the bike on the bus coming in or or they find somebody that that is commuting by car and they can throw their bike in the back of their car one way that way you feel like it's not an overwhelming prospect to go the full distance both ways it's for anybody and so anybody can do this it's not that difficult you just gotta want to do it