If you love to bike, you'll love Davis.
The California city, located 11 miles west of Sacramento, has long been known for its progressive approach to transportation and its love for all things bike. Davis has more bikes than cars, operates two bicycle advisory committees and employs two full-time bike coordinators, and has bike lanes on 95-percent of its major streets. It's innovative approach and long-term commitment to creating and maintaining bicycle-friendly infrastructure and policy has led many to hail the city as the number one bike friendly communities in the United States.
"I don't know about number one," John Berg, Chair of the Davis Bicycle Advisory Committee, told Wired.com. "But we are a leader."
Part of what has placed Davis on the cutting edge of progressive bike policy is that it started early. "We've been doing this for a long time," Berg says. "We opened our original bike lanes in 1967." But at that time, California didn't share Davis' enthusiasm for bike lanes, arguing that they were against the law. So Davis went to the state legislature and fought to have the laws changed. Later, when the California Department of Transportation began developing its own statewide bicycling guidelines, it looked to Davis as a model.
Since then, the city has implemented a series of bike friendly innovations that other cities should look to for inspiration. It's built bike-only roundabouts, bike signal heads to improve traffic flow and detection technology that increases efficiency and safety.
Innovation has been supported by strong and consistent funding. The League of American Bicyclists says that Davis budgets $100,000 a year for bike path maintenance and has spent $14 million dollars on bike projects in the last 10 years. That comes out to $215 for each of the city's 65,000 residents. "Our budget isn't huge," Berg says. "But we work effectively with what we have."
Demographics have also worked to Davis' advantage. "Being a college town is a big benefit for us," Berg says. "The central (UC) campus is closed to cars, so if students want to get around bikes are really their best bet." He adds that today most of Davis' new residential developments are designed to include bike infrastructure, which eliminates the need to spend big money later on retrofits.
Davis' commitment to bikes hasn't gone unnoticed. It is one of only three cities to have achieved a platinum designation on the League of American Bicyclists ranking of bike friendly communities (.pdf), and is regularly cited as a model for how bike policy can enhance quality of life. In 2005, Davis was ranked as one of the top 25 top cities to live well by Forbes magazine.
But Berg admits that its not all perfect. He says the city is struggling to accommodate bikers in its congested downtown core, and that the percentage of city residents using bikes as their primary mode of transport has dropped as new arrivals from Sacramento settle into the area. "Newcomers love the idea of moving into a community where everyone bikes, but then they need to get into their cars everyday to drive," he says.
And while the city might be progressive, it's facing the same financial realities as every other community, and Berg admits that there hasn't been lots of money to go around. He's hopeful though, that economic stimulus dollars will make a difference.
"I'm feeling optimistic about where things are going," he says. "We're already starting to see some effects, and I think there will be money there for us to dedicate to transit projects."
Photo: Flickr/kate at yer ownrisk
