Some Claremont Bike News...

The new Citrus Regional Bikeway through town is pretty much complete except for a dedication ceremony. Nothing like nice smooth, fresh pavement:

view to the west along 1st Street

view to the east along Bonita Avenue

It is essentially a bike lane with a special name designation, though it does traverse the city east to west, and connects to the regional Pacific Electric Trail on Claremont's eastern boundary. If Pomona and La Verne to the west were to get on board and continue the route through, the Citrus Bikeway could become a nice additional to a regional system. The signage is pretty clever, up close it is clearly a bicycle wheel, it could be a half citrus, orange to be exact.


El Roble Intermediate School's Bike Marathon is fast approaching. This is an annual event in which the schools 8th grade students, who meet certain academic requirements, ride laps during a 24 hour period around the school track to raise funds for the Claremont Chapter of the American Red Cross. This years edition will be the 35th year of the event. Over the past 34 years more than $150,000 have been raised. The students take pledges for donations to be paid per lap. The final three practices are this week. Link to last year's event is here.


Finally, I have neither read, nor heard of any bike to work day events this year. Last year's event, co-sponsored by the city and Metro, was a very social affair, well attended, and I think everyone appreciated the effort and the chance to meet other bike commuters. Hopefully, the other two big cycling events this month, the L'etape du California and the Tour of California, have not run the coffers dry, and there will yet be a commuter event. For update see here.


Finally, finally, and speaking of L'etape du California, it will be held this approaching weekend. You can sign up any time leading up to the event, over 1300 people have done so already, and the special event jersey is sharp looking.

Citrus Regional Bikeway update...

repaving work looking north along College Avenue

The expected rain over the next couple days may end up setting things back a bit, but much progress has been made. Old paving along Bonita, College and First was torn out last week. Bonita has been repaved, and yesterday workers were in the process of repaving College and First. Striping and signage yet to come.

Bike and Transportation News Claremont...

There is a lot of cycling related news coming out of the city, (City Managers weekly report) and I will briefly list most of it here, then return at a later date for additional information on some of the more eventful ones:


First off, a workshop for the Claremont/Montclair Gold Line Extension is scheduled for Monday April 11, from 6 to 8 pm at the Alexander Hughes Center. This is slated as an opportunity to learn more about the proposed Claremont station.


Grinding of existing pavement and then repaving along the Citrus Regional Bikeway route will take place over the next couple weeks, weather permitting. The repaving is tentatively scheduled for the week of April 4. That is on 1st, College, and Bonita.


The Day of Champions will be taking place on April 23 at Sycamore Elementary School. This community event will include rides of two different lengths (unfortunately there seems to be an age limit, so families with younger, but able children, are probably out of luck), bike rodeo, a bike license station, tricycle races (for all ages), a repair and maintenance booth sponsored by Coates, track stand competition sponsored by Jax, a bmx exhibition, a barbeque, an other activities. 11 to 3 pm, could be a fun afternoon. This event is looking for additional volunteers, contact John Howland at jhowland@legalcorp.com As soon as I can find a downloadable flyer I will post it here.

Claremont has been awarded a $356,530 in Federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) funds for the implementation of a bicycle/pedestrian safety program to be implemented at each of the Claremont’s public schools (K-8) over a three-year period. These funds do not require local match and are 100% reimbursable. The City Council awarded this project at the March 22, 2011 meeting to the firm of Birge Engineering, Inc. of Upland. The purpose of this program is to significantly increase the number of students who safely ride and walk to Claremont schools. The program will be implemented through parent communication, student training (lectures, parking lot skill sessions and ride/walk along group events) as well as incentive/motivation activities. The program will also include community outreach efforts to bring all stakeholders together to ensure program effectiveness and sustainability. The goal is to create a Safe Routes to School model that can be self-sustaining after the funding has been expended.


And finally, the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park will apparently be subject to a temporary closure on May 21 for the Amgen Tour of California.

1st and Claremont realignment...

I have written about the particular intersection previously, how its alignment was a problem and safety hazard to cyclists entering Claremont via the Pacific Electric Trail to the east. I am happy to say that work is well underway with the realignment and I am looking forward to the project's completion. In fact there are changes all along 1st Street. I have already posted about the new sidewalk on the south side of the street; on the north side, new oak trees have been planted and there seems to be some additional concrete work being done. This work is all a part of the Citrus Regional Bikeway project which, when completed, will traverse the city from east to west.

view along 1st with the Claremont Blvd intersection in background,

and portion of new sidewalk on the right

the intersection itself, looking through it west along 1st. sorry, hard to see what is going on,

but curbs are being extended and lines of sight adjusted

further down along 1st and adjacent to a massive new parking structure at Pomona College. 1st is lined my majestic old oak trees, and (3) new ones have been planted along this stretch.

Citrus Regional Bikeway update...

Beginnings may not always look like much, but hopefully they presage great things. For the past couple days work along Bonita Avenue (the future Citrus Regional Bikeway) through Claremont has looked a lot like this:

Not much really, markings on the pavement, digging and utility work has signified the start of the construction phase. Bonita is already a prime route into Claremont for cyclists; once the Bikeway is complete, I expect people will be hard pressed to find a valid excuse to not ditch the car in favor of a bike ride into the Village.

Bike rack surprise...

 outside the Village Grill

on 2nd Street

Implementation projects related to the city's Bicycle Priority Zone continue. Apparently this morning is the first time I have been into the Village since last week. In those few intervening days, bike racks have sprouted throughout the area like mushrooms. They are all along Yale Avenue at corners and multiple mid-block locations. They can also be found on the side streets leading off from Yale, and in the Village West area. On the west side of Yale, between 2nd and Bonita there are seven racks alone, in five different locations. By my estimation at least 50 new racks have been installed.

 Bert & Rocky's

 Rhino Records

Some Crust Bakery

 Laemmle Theatre and 425 Lounge (new and old racks, with two more new ones in the background)

Back Abbey

In related news, the Claremont Courier is reporting that work has begun on the Citrus Regional Bikeway, which will traverse the city in a east / west direction, and connect to the Pacific Electric Trail in San Bernardino County. The Bikeway will convert Bonita Avenue, which is currently two lanes of auto traffic in each direction, into a street with one lane of auto travel and one bike lane in each direction, with a turning median. The city is hoping this project will be completed  by late April, in time for the l'Etape du California on May 7. Expect to see photos of the progress here over the next couple months. The Courier is also reporting that bike ridership has seen a 20% increase over the previous year.


As a little update, city councilman Sam Pedroza, has kindly provided a link summarizing the recent work - this week, perhaps by the end of the next week, we should see newly painted lane lines and sharrow symbols on our local streets. 

Cycling Claremont - Sustainability Dialogue recap...

The Claremont Bicycle / Pedestrian Advisory Committee presented a Sustainability Dialogue tonight and I rolled up to the front door just as they were getting underway. There were about 30 interested people in the audience, along with three presenters. Maria Tipping, engineer with the city, kicked things off with a discussion of policy changes at the State and Federal level with regard to active transportation and how these affect local jurisdictions. Following this, she was joined by Joan Presecan and Larry Scheetz, both of the advisory committee, and the dialogue turned to bicycle infrastructure enhancements within the city of Claremont, some of which we have begun to see, and others we will see in the near future. Among these enhancements are the Bike Priority Zone and, it's city council approved, extension south to Arrow Highway, the installation of sharrows within the BPZ, bicycle detection loops at all intersections with traffic signals, video detection at intersections along the proposed Citrus Regional Bikeway, installation of 100 new bike racks including at all public buildings and parks, and a look at the new Citrus Regional Bikeway connecting the cities of Claremont, La Verne, Pomona and San Dimas, along with cities in San Bernardino County along the Pacific Electric Trail. City councilman Sam Pedroza was in attendance, and as I mentioned in my last Sunday post, he seems to be an active supporter. Other members of the audience contributed with questions or comments of their own which contributed to an informative evening. There is a lot happening in this little city with regard to active transportation which, if carried out on a similar scale in a larger city would put such a city on the forefront of transportation change. As it is, I believe other cities could find much to emulate here.