El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

On Saturday, October 7, over 45 people attended the screening of The Street Project , a documentary about making our streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians. The free event was sponsored by El Cerrito Stollers & Rollers (now EC/RA Walk & Roll), El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee, Bike East Bay and hosted by Rialto Cinemas Cerrito.  The 52-minute documentary was followed by presentations by Steve Price of El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers (now EC/RA Walk & Roll); Howdy Goudey of the El Cerrito Environmental Quality Committee; Jarrett Mullen, El Cerrito's Sustainable Transportation Program Manager; and Robert Prinz of Bike East Bay. Immediately afterward, participants met for lunch and lively group discussions at Tigon Vietnamese Restaurant. Attendees were excited to learn more about safe streets for walkers and bikers and El Cerrito’s future multimodal transportation plans.  If you missed The Street Project showing at Rialto Cinemas Cerrito, you can watch it

By Steve Price My wife Janet and I rode our e-bikes 14 miles from our home in El Cerrito to Treasure Island in San Francisco, where we rode on an autonomous electric shuttle called the Loop for a 20-minute loop around the northern end of the island. After that we took our bikes on the new Treasure Island Ferry across the bay to the Ferry Terminal in San Francisco, caught a BART train, and rode home (in between, we had a beer at Woods Beer and Wine Co. in the 1939 World's Fair terminal) The Loop shuttle is not fully autonomous — we had a friendly, informative operator in the vehicle with us. Nevertheless the vehicle did navigate the streets on its own: steering, stopping, and going to predetermined boarding locations. It is capable of traveling at up to 15 mph. Our operator said that the vehicle runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on a single charge. (He works for Beep, Inc., an autonomous mobility solution company.) The service is a pilot that ends in April 2024, and the San Francisco Tra

By Steve Price Last month I attended the two-day Micromobility America Conference 2023 at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, California. It's the biggest international micromobility conference, held twice a year. (Earlier in the year it was held in Amsterdam.) To get to it, I bicycled about 20 minutes along the Bay Trail, enjoying stunning views of San Francisco Bay along the way. The Craneway Pavilion is a restored Ford Motor Plant overlooking the Bay where Model Ts and Model As were manufactured early last century. Various reports peg the global market for electric micromobility as growing at between 12.5% to 17% CAGR (compound annual growth rate). That's a lot. At the conference there was a lot to see, including presentations and panel discussions on two stages plus exhibit spaces where a fascinating selection of small electric vehicles were on display. The manufacturers answered questions about their products as well as allowed attendees to test drive them around the outsi

Little Hill Lounge , one of the world’s great cocktail lounges, is a valuable (and fun!) gathering spot for El Cerritans and Richmond Annex residents. Before, bike parking was a challenge; the nearest rack was a half-block away, and the business next door prohibited cyclists from locking up on their railing. At the request of the Little Hill’s manager and owners, the city of El Cerrito installed two bike racks on the sidewalk out front.  As you can see in the photograph above, the racks are near the entrance; there's no missing them on your way in or out. According to the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals standards, Essentials of Bike Parking , bike racks should be visible from and no further than 50 feet of building entrances that they serve. They also should be arrayed in the furniture zone; that's the region of the sidewalk next to the curb where street trees, street lamps, postboxes, benches, and other street "furniture" is located out of the way