Even in the 19th century folks attempting to bicycle the Berkeley campus bitterly complained of UCB’s lack of facilitation of the world’s greenest transportation mode, the bicycle. It is pathetic that only in recent years has bicycling became flatly prohibited in huge /historic Sproul plaza during the most popular times, enforced with punitive fine of $220. This is inane and among the reasons the Berkeley campus is not even in the top 100 US College campuses for being “green,” as ranked in a Sierra Club study, published in its award-winning SIERRA magazine September/October 2011. That same report puts UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis as the 6th, 7th & 8th greenest campuses nationally. (Possibly UC BERKELEY’s passion for cutting down Oaks on the campus and trees in the hills, has a bearing, too. Not to mention the fossil fueled power plant and a fleet of gross polluting hot tailpipe “service” vehicles idling and choking pedestrians as they ply the campus. UC Berkeley should ban hot tailpipe smoking on campus !!!!!!!!!!!!!, and stop busting bicyclists who simply need and want proper bike lanes somewhere near Sproul. It’s pathetic that bicycling is scarcely part of a multibillion $ campus renovation underway.) A bike/ped bridge should be in the works for the outrageously dangerous intersections of Bancroft and College, as well as Bancroft and Telegraph. Somehow ideas like that get bulldozed by cement trucks called in to create ultra-expensive and often underground car parking lots. My source on the 19th century bicycling complaints is none other than microfilmed copies of Berkeley’s Daily Californian available in the basement of Doe Library. Too bad the production of cement releases vast quantities of CO2 from the chemical and hi-temperature process cement makers use. Bicyclists do fine on a thin ribbon of paving, no need for acres and acres of ugly, planet-killing expensive cement as cars require. Worst case scenario is change will come only over some planet''s dead body.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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