El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

El Cerrito is blessed with multiple transportation options. Here's another: It's now possible to travel in a comfortable commercial FlixBus bus from Del Norte BART all the way to Union Station or UCLA in Los Angeles — and beyond. FlixBus started in Germany in 2013 and is now in 15 countries, and the company expanded into the United States in 2018: "Our goal at FlixBus is to convince more people to take the bus as opposed to their own vehicles. It’s time to ditch the car!" FlixBus buses have Wifi and power outlets and the tickets can be bought online at a fraction of the cost of an airline ticket. Some may remember the Bolt Bus run by Greyhound for inexpensive travel to Los Angeles. Bolt Bus did not survive the pandemic. Flix North America Inc. is now the parent company of Greyhound Lines, Inc. and FlixBus Inc. creating an extended intercity bus network. Go FlixBus and leave the driving to someone else.  — Steve Price

Weaning ourselves off America's near-total addiction to automobile travel for all trips is not a lifestyle choice, it's a necessity. Most people don't understand the gravity of the problem or lack the political will to act. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently issued dark warnings in its Sixth Assessment Report about the direction the planet is heading. “Almost half of the world’s population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change. In the last decade, deaths from floods, droughts and storms were 15 times higher in highly vulnerable regions,“  the authors wrote. “There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.” The above figure from the IPCC report shows how future generations will experience a quickly warming planet. That disparity between rich countries and poor will only increase as the climate deteriorates. If that is not compelling enough, think about the future of the yo...

Big kudos to the City of El Cerrito for installing new, usable bike racks on the sidewalk in front of the restaurants Tashi Delek, Antojitos Guatemaltecos, and the 514 Lounge on San Pablo Avenue (south of Potrero).  “There was a row of businesses with no nearby bicycle parking and plenty of available public space to install racks,” explains Jarrett Mullen, El Cerrito’s senior sustainable transportation planner. “We’re happy to support local businesses and hope the bike racks make it a bit easier to pop in and grab a bite.”  A usable bike rack is one that meets minimum standards for safety, security, and accessibility. El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers will highlight commendable bike parking that meets best practices in this newsletter going forward. There are eight parking spaces per car in the United States. Yet while bike riders are paying customers at local businesses, they rarely find secure bicycle parking when they arrive. Usable bicycle parking is not expensive overhea...

By Janet Byron When Steve and I decided to head to Southern California to visit family and friends to see the wildflowers at Anza-Borrego State Park, we relied on a variety of modes of transportation: train, bus, car, foot, plane, BART, and Lyft. To get from El Cerrito to Los Angeles Union Station, we took a Lyft to the Amtrak station in Emeryville and boarded the Coast Starlight train. At 10 to 12 hours it's a long ride, but virtually every moment is enjoyable and stress free. The only holdup was a delay to remove a tree on the tracks up ahead — comparable to a backup on I-880 or the 405 but minus the traffic anxiety. We were able to read, catch up on email, and, mostly, look out the window at the incredibly green and verdant hills, waterlogged farms in Monterey County, swollen sloughs (with otters!), and dramatic coastline at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Above, I caught Steve just as we were passing a ghost town in wetlands south of the Dumbarton Bridge. We walked a few blocks fro...

By Steve Price and Janet Byron   On April 16, El Cerrito Strollers & Rollers will lead an outing from El Cerrito Plaza BART to the Bay Trail. We'll travel via El Cerrito and Richmond Annex streets and the Sacramento Street pedestrian bridge over I-80. On the Bay Trail, we'll continue to Armistice Brewery in Richmond. (It's about 8-9 miles roundtrip). We’ll explore the possibilities for improving this little-known route to the Bay Trail to make it safer and more accessible for walkers and cyclists. El Cerritans have dreamed of a safe bicycling route to the Bay Trail for decades. A bike lane down Central Avenue would be challenging given the narrow and busy right-of-way of the street. An alternative route along Cerrito Creek would be scenic if a safer crossing of San Pablo Avenue could be worked out, but that wouldn't be very accessible for our neighbors in the Richmond Annex. And then both routes would have to deal with the complicated intersection at I-80 and Centra...

ECS&R members share their car-lite adventures By Janet Byron When my husband, Steve Price, and I decided to try out the car-free lifestyle (after his Nissan Leaf was totaled), I said that it would only work if we never didn’t do something because we didn’t own a car. I know, that’s a lot of double negatives, but what it meant for us is that we would always figure out a way to do what we wanted or needed to and never fall back on “We can’t because we don’t own a car.” For me, getting out of town for weekend hikes is especially important.  Steve and I decided to call up Doherty’s Truck and Auto Rental on San Pablo Avenue across from City Hall to see what they had available. We were in luck! They had a car for us, available for a good price. We had also checked the GIG app on our phones and a few cars were available nearby, but renting one for that day would have cost more. We were happy to reserve a car with Doherty’s. Steve and Janet on the trail Steve and I left our condo on S...

Governments and car manufacturers are touting electric vehicles (EVs) as the wonder antidote to climate change. However, EVs will need abundant mined lithium, a key component of EV batteries. A recent report by the Climate and Community Project at the University of California, Davis, “ Achieving Zero Emissions with More Mobility and Less Mining , ” calls into question whether mining lithium will be able to meet the urgent need to address climate change. The report challenges the hope that lithium mined in large quantities can steer America clear of structural changes to the built landscape, confirming the suspicions of new urbanists.  Lithium is an essential component of car batteries, and there is presently no replacement for it. It is mined from both hard rock and from below-ground brine. Both require significant landscape disturbance either from open-pit mines or from large evaporation ponds. Lawsuits by indigenous peoples and environmentalists is a given. Although research con...