Category Archives: Safe Routes for Seniors

Happy Bike Month: Week #3 Bike to Work Week Promotions & Bike to Work Day Pitstops, HandleBar Happy Hour & Kidical Mass!

Specials all week when you arrive by bike at Cafe Demitasse. All through May Free Market Bucks at the Sunday Farmer’s Market on Main Street, $1 off all food items at Gilberts El Indio, and Free rides on Big Blue Bus and METRO on Thursday #BTWD

Plus 10+ Bike to Work Day Pitstops this Thursday in Santa Monica

All the Bike Month Events are on our Bike Month Map and in our Events Calendar

Click here to sign up and add your Bike Month Event, Promotion or Bike to Work Day Pitstop or HandleBar Happy Hour #HBHH!


We’ll be joined by members of the City of Santa Monica Mobility Team to answer questions at this Thursdays #HBHH

HandleBar Happy Hour Specials:
• 5-6PM:  $5 Core Beers and $1 Off All other Draft Beer
• 6-7PM: $1 Off All Draft Beers continues for our group!

Our Happy Hours support local businesses and BuyLocalSM like Santa Monica Brew Works food service Emmy Squared Pizza


bike_local_sticker

Every week during Bike Month we get together for fun, support local businesses, and to celebrate all things bike.
Always fun, always family friendly!

Socialize, talk bikes, give input ….


Big thank you to all our Bike Month #BuyLocalSM #BikeLocalSM #HBHH venues Gilbert’s El Indio, ThömusSanta Monica Brew WorksSolidarity and last week TBD

Our next HandleBar Happy Hour is Wednesday, May 24th at Solidarity


Mayor Gleam Davis will join us to Launch the Event Riders!

Join us for a fun filled morning at Clover Park and a Community Bike Ride for all ages!

Our theme is GREEN | VERDE  for Mental Health Awareness and Bike Month
Click HERE for more about Mental Health Awareness Month

Kidical Mass: Valentine’s Day

Kidical Mass: A Multigenerational, Social Bike Ride Event. 
Family Fun for all Ages!
Other activities include gardening class, community garden tours and Pancakes! We welcome our event Partner VEO providing sit-down electric scooters and helmets during the event so people who don’t have their own bicycle can participate at no charge.

Protected Bike Lane Amendment Adopted by SM City Council

On Tuesday, October 13th, Santa Monica City Council unanimously adopted the Bike Action Plan Amendment adding protected bike lanes to the Current 2011 Bike Action Plan. We were humbled and grateful for the youth that spoke so passionately and articulately at the online meeting — despite the late hour — in support of expanding protected bike lanes and safety for our community, workers, students and visitors.

Broadway Protected Bike Lanes

We’d like to thank City Staff for their meticulous work preparing the Draft Plan and the Santa Monica City Council for their continued direction and support to expand healthy active transportation options in Santa Monica along with necessary infrastructure and safety improvements for people walking, biking, scooting or driving cars. Together – with commitments like this – we can and must continue to prioritize improving safety for all, particularly our most vulnerable road users.

You can click these links to:
View the Staff Report
Watch the meeting – scroll to item 8A under the video to jump to the item.
Visit Info page Bike Action Plan Update: Protected Bikeway Network – Project Goal
DRAFT Bike Action Plan Amendment



Also Check this out!
Ocean Avenue Project – Protected Bikeway and Expanding Outside Dining

Council Meeting May 26, Recommended Restoration of City Services?

The Staff Report released Friday, May 22nd, provides an Update on City Restructuring and Council Authorization to Restore Priority Programs in the areas below as directed by Council on May 5th, all of which we supported and many of which we specifically requested.

On the agenda for the May 5th, Santa Monica City Council meeting, devastating cuts in response to the catastrophic budget shortfalls created by the Covid-19 crisis were proposed and later approved. As we shared in previous communications, we felt (and still feel) strongly that without active and engaged Council direction these cuts will surely unwind decades of progress and community hard work toward a city where everyone can move safely, with or without a car, and where we protect our most vulnerable citizens. These are, without a doubt, unprecedented and difficult times. Difficult decisions and devastating cuts will need to be made. We must continue to demand our leaders be creative in finding solutions that maintain our city values and as many essential programs as possible as we rebuild our economy, and our community from the Covid-19 crisis. 

We are grateful that on May 5th Council directed staff to consider the following areas as priorities for continuing services, funds permitting:  

  • Food security for our most vulnerable community members through restoring funding to Meals on Wheels and the Westside Food Bank
  • Keeping people in their homes through increased support for the Preserving Our Diversity senior housing subsidy program and restoring funding to the Legal Aid Foundation 
  • Funding for youth-related programs, such as after-school programs and mental health support services
  • Resources for outdoor health, such as playgrounds and fields, including the Playground Partnership program with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District  (SMMUSD)
  • Mobility programs with an emphasis on providing safe, sustainable, affordable and accessible transportation choices
  • Sustainability with an emphasis on community resilience

We need Council to stay engaged directing the priority of creative solutions. We must insist our leaders continue to be strategic and thoughtful with “restructuring” that reduces costs and bureaucracy while retaining essential capacity to build confidently on the foundation and programs that define what we love about Santa Monica — including safe bike lanes, sustainability efforts to address climate change, after school programs, community gardens, libraries, and social services for those most in need. We are pleased to see some of these essential programs have been recommended for at least partial reinstatements. Programs like these are needed to keep neighborhood streets safe and calm, and provide ways for kids, seniors, low-income families, and car-light/carless households to keep moving.

Congestion management is only possible with these programs; when stay-at-home orders are lifted the congestion will be back in weeks, with additional drivers who used to ride transit.

Even in the most difficult of times we must retain our values and prioritize these programs or we slide backward decades, putting essential outcomes out of reach:

  • Safer Streets 
  • Climate Action & Adaptation Plan air quality and emission reduction
  • LUCE congestion mitigation and neighborhood traffic calming
  • Vehicle trip reduction necessary for new housing capacity
  • Bike Action Plan health and active trips targets
  • Pedestrian Action Plan injury and fatality reductions

This Community has worked hard to build a brighter future – a vision for an economically, environmentally, equitably and socially sustainable community.

Please join us in supporting solutions outlined in the Staff Report and ask Council to keep prioritizing creative solutions to retain more essential services and staff:  HERE

#TransportationMatters #SafeStreets

CALL TO ACTION: Email City Council on Severe Transportation Budget Cuts that Threaten our Safety

The streets we travel on make up over 20% of our city, and are one of our biggest assets. â€‹Our streets move people, goods, and services and are essential infrastructure for our economic and social recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.​ It is crucial how we manage and use this public asset, at the core of economic resilience, social equity, health and environmental sustainability.

Read our full letter HERE
#TransportationMatters #SafeStreets

How we manage our streets – or ignore them – will move us either toward environmental justice, economic recovery and climate resiliency or away from those vital community and city goals. Our goals must be prioritized, clearly, in all plans and efforts to create solutions appropriate to equitably resolve the budget crisis caused by Covid-19.

Please join us and share your support with Santa Monica City Council.
Information, email addresses and template 
can be found HERE.

While the City suffers catastrophic shortfalls, we should not use a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed to balance new budgets. Let’s be strategic and thoughtful with “restructuring” that reduces costs and bureaucracy while retaining essential capacity that builds confidently on the foundation and programs that our public roadways and investments afford us as they advance us to a vibrant and full recovery.

Use any of these images or your own to share this message on Social Media #TransportationMatters #SafeStreets