Reference Links
We've curated on-line resources to help our supporters understand the local and global context for our work.
We've curated on-line resources to help our supporters understand the local and global context for our work.
Here are some of the prominent local and other noteworthy organizations who work on the climate, safety, and equity aspects of "safe streets."
Petaluma Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC): advises the City on active transportation projects and plans.
Bike Petaluma: "strives to create a community where people of all ages and abilities can enjoy bicycling."
Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition: "promote bicycling for transportation and recreation."
Petaluma Wheelmen: Petaluma's all-gender cycling club.
Daily Acts: Petaluma-based, Earth-inspired. "Take heart, take action."
Cool Petaluma: "building a planet-friendly community, block by block."
The Coolest Show: podcast, "Conversations that reimagine a world where we all thrive"
more to come...
Some of the best collections of bike-related videos are those provided by Bicycle Dutch, Streetfilms, and Not Just Bikes:
Austin: The Most Bike-Friendly City in Texas: A Streetfilms video
Biking Montreal: Montreal’s Newest Bicycling Infrastructure Dazzles! A Streetfilms video. Montreal has a complete and integrated network of protected bike lanes and bike paths, with benefits for cyclists, pedestrians, local businesses. “Everybody rides bikes here!” This is what success looks like. And they have real winter!
Cycling Copenhagen Through North American Eyes: In 2010, one thousand bike advocates, government official, and transportation experts from around the world met in Copenhagen for the Velo-City Global Conference. This video captures comments on the experience of cycling in Copenhagen. A Streetfilms video
Cycling for Sustainable Cities, a CalBike presentation by the authors of the book by the same name. (Start at 4:15. See 1:03:35 and 1:07:43 for examples of people-scaled streets)
Cycling in the US from a Dutch Perspective: “Cycling doesn’t really seem to be taken seriously. It’s something children do. Or those who haven’t really grown up.” Great perspective on the world that is familiar to us!
Dutch Cycling: Against a backdrop of inviting street scenes, this video lists the many benefits of cycling. A Bicycle Dutch video.
Groningen: The World’s Cycling City: A Streetfilms video
How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths: “The Netherlands’ problems are not unique; their solutions shouldn’t be either." We’re only 50 years behind, but an alternative to our car culture is possible. 6-1/2-minute video. A Bicycle Dutch video
How The Netherlands cycles 15 billion kilometers a year (In Dutch, with English subtitles)
How to Build a City Around Bikes, Fast: How to Make a Bike-Friendly City A Bloomberg CityLab video. Highlights the success of Seville, Spain in becoming a cycling city.
Livable Streets: The Magic Bullet of Road Design: Narrower Lane Widths — references AASHTO’s "Green Book”
Nijmegen: The City That Tamed Cars So People Can Walk & Bike Where They Please: A Streetfilms video. The population of Nijmegen is about equal to the population of Santa Rosa
Not Just Bikes: a Youtube channel full of interesting observations and illustrations
Oakland’s Open Streets Offer Optimal Outside Oases: A Streetfilms video. A glimpse at the 10 miles of local streets (as of May 2020) closed to motorized traffic
Protected Bike Lanes and More: An excellent 8-minute primer on the many types of possible bike lanes and intersection treatments. Great use of animation! It ends with the hopeful note that “…it is possible to make cycling safe in the United States”
Protected Intersections for Bicyclists (animation video)
Shared Space: Dutch Shopping Streets and Woonerfs Explained: This video is Chapter 3 in a series by the Urban Cycling Institute
The Spectacular Success of Montreal’s Car-Free Streets: The title gives it away!
Utrecht: Planning for People & Bikes, Not Cars: A Streetfilms video
Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can) A Not Just Bikes video that beautifully explains that “…a [well-maintained] network of safe bicycle lanes is the single biggest predictor for the level of cycling in any city in the world., significantly more important than any other metric including culture, distance, hills, and weather”
Why Protected Bike Lanes are More Valuable than Parking Spaces tells the story of New York City’s pioneering use of protected bike lanes starting in 2007. “The way we look at the health of bike lanes and our bike network, is how many women and children are using the lanes”
Why We Cycle takes a ride with specialists from a variety of disciplines and with ordinary cyclists to uncover some hidden effects of cycling on people, on societies, and on the organization of cities
Books, articles, blogs, etc.
Building the Cycling City – The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett (Island Press, 2018)
Copenhagenize: The Definitive Guide to Global Bicycle Urbanism, by Mikael Colville-Andersen (Island Press, 2018)
Cycling for Sustainable Cities, edited by Ralph Buehler and John Pucher (MIT Press, 2021). Looks at cycling developments in NY, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Portland, and Seville. The authors give a good overview in this Youtube video.
SPIN: Resources for mobility planners
Strong Towns: Founded by Chuck Marohn, a self-described “recovering engineer,” Strong Towns seeks to reverse the auto-centric, sprawl-inducing development patterns that have guided urban development in post-WW2 America. The site offers articles, podcasts, information resources, and more on subjects related to transportation, urban design, municipal financing, and more.
The True Cost of Car Ownership, by Lloyd Alter (Treehugger, January 2021)
Unraveling the Cycling City: A free online course on planning for Bicycle Urbanism. The course “…bundles the state-of-the-art knowledge that emerges from research and practice on the Dutch cycling system.” Offered by University of Amsterdam.
Urban Springtime: A good overview of bicycle urbanism
★Quick Build: City of Atlanta “Tactical Urbanism Guide.” March 2022
★Quick Build: “Quick Build Projects for Small Towns, Rural and Suburban Contexts” – A well-done 70-slide presentation by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) explaining the Quick Build process and highlighting examples from small cities in the U.S.
★Quick Build: Quick Builds for Better Streets: A New Project Delivery Model for U.S. Cities. People for Bikes. 24 pages, 2016
★Quick Build: CalBike Quick-Build Guide -- How to Build Safer Streets Quickly and Affordably: A 77-page pdf put out by the California Bicycle Coalition. Also condensed into a 4-page Quick-Build Brochure (“Quick-Build Bikeway Networks for Safer Streets”)
★Quick Build: Community-Led Demonstration Project Policy + Guide. City of Burlington, VT. Includes sample forms (Permit Application, Release of Liability, Recap Worksheet, Project Feedback Form, and more). 50 pages, 2018
★Quick Build: City of Burlington (VT) Quick Build Design and Materials Standards: guide put out by Burlington Public Works “…intended to help Burlington build safer streets for everyone – quickly.” Excellent presentation of design elements (eg: chicanes, vehicular pinch points, bike boxes, etc). 80 pages
★Quick Build: Tactical Urbanists’ Guide to Materials and Design v1.0. The Street Plans Collaborative. Emphasis on the individual tools and elements (eg: delineator posts, armadillos, galvanized steel planters, paints, striping materials, etc.). Also lots of case studies. Annoying online reader. 2016
AASHTO Geometric Design of Highways and Streets 2018: For use by and benefit of traffic engineers only. It’s $409.99 on Amazon.
Bicycle Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System (U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
California Transportation Plan 2040 – Integrating California’s Transportation Future, Caltrans (June 2016)
ChangeLab Solutions: What are Complete Streets? and Policies at the Local Level
City of Santa Rosa’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update 2018 (March 2019)
City Ratings: People for Bikes rates cities in the U.S. and worldwide for their degree of bike-friendliness, akin to a “walk score.”
NACTO Designing for All Ages and Abilities – Contextual Guidance for High-Comfort Bicycle Facilities
NACTO Oregon Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines (2000) Simple drawings showing recommended configurations for residential streets
NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide. NACTO is the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
NACTO Urban Street Design Guide and Urban Bikeway Design Guide
Neighborhood Street Design Guidelines – An Oregon Guide to Reducing Street Widths (November 2000)
Pedestrian Safety Guide and Countermeasure Selection System (U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
People for Bikes reference library. Statistics, reports
Plan Bay Area 2050 Implementation Plan Briefs (October 2021). Published by Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Among the 12 “transportation strategies” are these: Strategy T8: Build a Complete Streets network and Strategy T9: Advance regional Vision Zero policy through street design and reduced speeds.
SCTA Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan (May 2008, updated 2014)
Separated Bike Lane Planning and Design Guide (U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration)
Smart Mobility 2010 -- A Call to Action for the New Decade, Caltrans (February 2010)
Sonoma County Shift Low Carbon Transportation Action Plan (SCTA, 2018)
Sonoma County Travel Behavior Study presented by Fehr and Peers at the December 9, 2019 SCTA/RCPA Board of Directors meeting
Top 100 U.S. Cycling Cities – U.S. Bicycling Trends 2021 Update – streetlightdata.com uses cellphone location data to visualize bike patterns across North America.
Toward An Active California – State Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, Caltrans (May 2017)
Wyandotte County, Kansas Complete Streets ppt presentation. Some great visual examples!
Wyandotte County, Kansas Complete Streets ppt presentation. Some great visual examples!