Residents of a street with low car traffic had at least twice as many acquaintances as people living on a similar street with high car traffic.

“El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk and Roll is a small team of volunteer advocates making a big impact,” Bike East Bay wrote in its announcement that we received their “Best Community Advocacy” award.

Researchers in Denmark analyzed video footage of travelers’ behavior at major intersections and found that 14 percent of bicycle riders violated basic traffic rules—lots of bicycling on sidewalks. But when separated bike lanes were present, that dropped to under 4.9 percent.

The 104-page report covers Madera Elementary School, Arlington Boulevard, Korematsu Middle School, the Ohlone Greenway, San Pablo Avenue, and El Cerrito’s proposed East Side Bicycle Boulevard.

On September 17 El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll was honored to receive Bike East Bay’s Best Community Advocacy Award at its annual Biketopia fundraiser, and on Sept. 18 we accepted a Best of El Cerrito award from the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce.

Riders of the AC Transit #7 bus organized a party to celebrate the line, which due to “Realign” now runs only once an hour!

We agreed on a run and boarded at our favorite stops, meeting each other on the bus and then riding all the way to the end of the line to share a meal together.

The Electrify Expo is a traveling road show of e-mobility that will visit eight U.S. cities this year including the Bay Area Chicago, New York, Dallas, Phoenix, and Orlando. Although automobile exhibitors had the biggest footprint, a surprisingly large area was dedicated to e-bikes, e-mopeds, e-scooters, e-trikes, electric skateboards, and even e-unicycles!

The group Richmond Street Neighborhood Association, which opposes El Cerrito’s Complete Street design for Richmond Street, claims the contentious experiences of Humboldt Street in San Mateo and Hopkins Street in Berkeley proves public opposition to bike lanes.

It is unfortunate that recent community discussions about the future of Richmond Street seem to pit the wants of seniors who are opposed to losing on-street parking against the needs of young families with children.

This notion that a single avenue of travel—the Ohlone Greenway—should satisfy all of a bicycle rider’s travel needs reveals a gross lack of understanding of the point of transportation by bicycle. Bicycle riders need to go to many local destinations that exist in many different places via a network of safe routes.

Beautiful, tree-covered Chico has lots to offer for the adventurous. We traveled by transit, Amtrak train, and bus; and rented bicycles, walked, and took a few Lyft rides around town.

My recent bikepacking trip with pals Kathleen and Michelle — a first for all three of us — was amazing! We rode almost 30 miles from El Cerrito to Samuel P. Taylor State Park, a redwood park with Lagunitas Creek running through it.

The real gem of our ride was Sarasota's Legacy Trail, a former railroad line transformed into a 19-mile, scenic multiuse path.

We need to keep showing up at public comment during El Cerrito city council meetings to let the council, staff, and community know that a range of neighbors and community members support creating a slower, safer Richmond Street for all users.

Richmond Street Neighbors Association, a group formed to oppose El Cerrito’s Richmond Street Complete Streets Improvement Project, has posted a website, Richmond Street For All. We offer evidence-based responses to the many unsubstantiated falsehoods and mischaracterizations on their website.

"It's unfair to have cities where parking is free for cars and housing is expensive for people."

Ideally, we want protected bike lanes on Richmond Street, but we stand firm that we want significant traffic calming improvements and safety improvements for bicycle travel.

Parade watchers at El Cerrito's Martin Luther King, Jr., celebration took advantage of a new bench installed by unknown volunteers on Ashbury Avenue.