Discounts

Become an AS&R member and get discounts at local bike shops and businesses!

Blue Heron Bikes: 10% off parts and accessories.

Marie Bowser Acupuncture: 30% off your first visit.

Bikes on Solano: 10% off labor, parts and accessories.

Quad Republic Skate Co. 5% off SKATES, 10% off parts & accessories.

Offers are valid to members of Albany Strollers & Rollers and their households. Tell your friends!
Contact us with questions.

Events

Mar
21
Wed
San Pablo Avenue Improvement Organizing Meeting: El Cerrito, Albany and Richmond @ Elevation 66
Mar 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

(photo credit – BikeEastBay)

Join Bike East Bay supporters in your neighborhood to learn about options for bikeways and transit on San Pablo Avenue.

Share your vision for the corridor and get organized for kicking off advocacy.

Bike East Bay is kicking off a campaign for continuous bike lanes on San Pablo Avenue, the major transit and commercial boulevard from Oakland north to Hercules. A safer and more comfortable San Pablo Avenue will connect neighborhoods from east to west and all along the corridor for everyone who bikes, walks, drives, or takes transit.
March 21st, 2018 6:00 PM   through   7:00 PM
10082 San Pablo Avenue
Elevation 66
El Cerrito, CA 94530

(This event is organized and hosted by BikeEastBay who request you RSVP.)

This meeting is at a perfect time for you to attend and then head to AS&R’s Meeting at 7:30!

Jun
7
Thu
Central Ave I-80 Underpass Improvement Community Workshop @ El Cerrito Council Chambers
Jun 7 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Do you bike or walk on Central Avenue under I-80 to reach the places you enjoy?
Would you like to help make it easier and safer to do so?
The Central Avenue / Interstate 80 (I-80) underpass in Richmond leads to a lot of great places—the San Francisco Bay Trail, Point Isabel Dog Park, Costco and the Richmond Marina, to name a few.
CalTrans District 4 wants your ideas on how to transform the underpass into a high-quality pedestrian and bicycle connection!

Current Underpass

Help improve your biking and walking experience in the East Bay!
Join us at the Community Workshop to share ideas on the project design. We will discuss safety features, lighting, wayfinding and other design elements.

 

 

It could look like this!!

WHO:
You! Residents, cyclists and walkers in Richmond, El Cerrito, Albany (Pierce Street and West Albany residents, that means you!!) and beyond.

For more information, go to http://www.dot.ca.gov/d4/transplanning/i-80central.html

Sep
13
Thu
BMX/MTB Park and Albany Hill trails on Parks & Rec Meeting Agenda @ Albany City Hall
Sep 13 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
This item was written by Parks & Rec Commissioner Bryan Marten:

Want a fun bike park like Dirt World in Richmond? Support this project at an Albany Parks & Rec meeting and/or write a letter!

On September 13th, a course/park designer will pitch several plans for a proposed mountain bike/BMX bike park in Albany. Commissioners will benefit from input and feedback from the public, especially supporters like you, to help decide which plan, if any, to advance to the City Council. Proposed location is adjacent to Pierce St Park – just below it, to the west on Cleveland St. Early discussions described a MTB component around the perimeter space and a BMX component at the interior. The designer said he likes to design with different riding abilities in mind on the same course (very easy, medium, challenging) and to provide different price points for features, their materials, etc. He has designed and built Richmond’s new Dirt World and many other bike parks.
Here is the Design and Estimate Proposal.
Any input – in person or even in writing – you can provide (even just “looks great!” or “our family would use this!” will be helpful).

Separately, input is sought for what may be the final design review for the new and improved trails at Albany Hill Park. Here are the 90% Plans.
*New ADA trail at the top parallel to the ridge line
*Improvements to existing trails at the north
*Improved, re-landscaped access points to the park where Jackson and Madison dead-end
*Stairs plus a bulbout in the SE corner where Taft hits Hillside
The city has received the monarch roosting report it commissioned and is taking its results and recent community input to limit impacts to trees near monarch habitat. Some commissioners including myself (Bryan Marten) want to also use that information to move forward with choosing a select few trees to remove to improve views of the bay, bird habitat at the mud flats, etc. This involves the city approaching the large land owner at the SW corner of the hill which the city has said it will do.

This is the full agenda for the meeting.

BMX/MTB parks are great fun and recreation for kids, teens and adults!

Editor’s note: AS&R member and P&R Commissioner Bryan Marten will not be able to attend this meeting so if any of you can attend or at least write a letter about either of these projects, that will be extremely helpful.
PLEASE WRITE LETTERS OF SUPPORT to Albany Staff Liaison Chelle Putzer at cputzer@albanyca.org and request that she send your letter to all members of Albany’s Parks & Rec Commission. Thanks!
Mar
24
Sun
FREE Family Cycling Workshop – Bring your kids…Volunteers needed! @ Cornell Elementary School
Mar 24 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Join Bike East Bay’s certified instructors and AS&R friends & neighbors for a day of fun games, safety drills, skills building, and a neighborhood ride. This workshop is for kids who are able to ride a bike and ready to take to the paths and roadways with their parents (suggested grade range 2nd-6th).
The event includes instruction on fitting a helmet, performing a bike safety check, communicating with other road users, riding in a straight line and avoiding obstacles,  as well as navigating safely through intersections, all while playing fun games!

We will be debuting the new Youth Versions of our Check for Bikes clings and stickers so you can pick some up here!!

We will also bring our bike teeter-totters and end the class with a group ride around the neighborhood together!  All minors must be accompanied by an adult to participate, both with their own working bikes and helmets. Each child will receive a free reflective vest.

AS&R will have an information table to talk to parents & kids about riding around the Albany area. You can pick up some great “Check for Bikes” clings and bumper stickers, as well as reflective leg & arm bands for safer biking.

The event is FREE but you must pre-register so for more information and to register please go here.
Hope to see you there!!

WE NEED SOME VOLUNTEERS TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESS!
We’re seeking 2-3 people to help out at the family cycling workshop.
9:30-10:15 to help with set up and checking in of participants, while instructors get a feel for the participants and check bikes out mechanically.
9:30-12:45 to speak to kids & parents about bike stuff, and help with packing up.
Contact Britt at bthesen@gmail.com if you can help out!

Nov
5
Tue
Berkeley San Pablo Ave Traffic Safety Walk
Nov 5 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Join Walk Bike Berkeley members, District 2 Berkeley City Council Candidate Terry Taplin, Transportation Commissioners, and others to discuss road safety challenges and opportunities on San Pablo Avenue.
Remember, what is done in Berkeley will have an impact on Albany’s stretch of San Pablo!

Meet at Dwight & San Pablo, walk to University Ave (7 blocks)
RSVP: info@walkbikeberkeley.org

WHY SAN PABLO?

  • San Pablo from Dwight to University is the highest priority street segment to fix in Berkeley’s draft Pedestrian Plan, based on safety and equity needs

  • Just 14% of Berkeley’s street miles account for 93% of pedestrian fatalities & severe injuries

  • Berkeley’s busy, arterial streets are the most dangerous for people walking and biking

  • Alameda County, including Albany, is planning the future of the San Pablo Avenue Corridor

    IF YOU WANT TO WALK OR BIKE TO THE START FROM ALBANY, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT AND PROPOSED STARTING TIME & PLACE IN “COMMENTS”

Feb
6
Tue
Kains/Adams Bicycle Blvds Strategy Meeting @ Zoom
Feb 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The Adams/Kains bike project is in the County’s and City’s plans for addressing alternative transportation along the San Pablo Ave Corridor in Albany. As the pilot project approaches the 1 year mark it has gone well in many ways and is valued infrastructure to help the City meet its climate goals and help people get around with fewer cars or no cars now that the state’s and city’s zoning has been changed to allow any housing big or small to have zero parking spaces. One sticking point with the city has been the parking direction. The pilot program has reported no collisions on Adams/Kains. Many blocks in Berkeley for ~50 years have had the same traffic flow as we have now on Adams/Kains where public data shows no injury accidents have been reported in the ~9 years since data has been collected. Literature opposed to the Adams/Kains project warned of the extreme dangers to residents, delayed emergency response and promised “chaos and carnage” if it was implemented but we have seen none of that. People who helped distribute that literature have said at public meetings “things are fine the way they’ve always been” while ignoring the city’s climate goals and new zoning that removes off-street parking requirements.

“Houston, we have no problem!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yet despite all of this data for Albany and Berkeley streets, the City of Albany has said from the beginning that it eventually plans to ticket people parking in the contraflow direction and has made no indication that it plans to do like it does with so many other laws on the books – de-prioritize enforcement.  Since cars in the pilot project still only enter from one direction into each block that would mean half the cars on each block ticketed or forced to make 3-point turns on narrow, congested streets.
Aside from the city’s parking issue, some drivers still aren’t aware of the internal two-way driving patterns – aren’t aware that cars can go both directions within each block.  And all cyclists aren’t aware of the Bicycle Blvds as an option. Both of these issues are exacerbated by the fact that navigation apps don’t send cars that are already on Adams/Kains in the new direction and they actually divert cyclists around Adams/Kains in the new direction!
Additional signage (two-way arrows on the road) and updated mapping apps showing current legal patterns would help awareness. These are crucial for north-south travel along the San Pablo corridor and must be saved!
The Bicycle Blvds may go to Council as early as May, so AS&R needs to prepare a strategy for proposals for adjustments to Adams/Kains in case the city does decide to go forward with ticketing half the cars on the block with the current traffic flow. At our most recent General Membership Meeting last week, we set the evening of Tuesday February 6 for a Zoom brainstorming discussion about this important project. This is literally Albany’s only Bicycle Boulevard (yes, other streets may be marked with that name but have no supporting infrastructure) so please SAVE THIS DATE TO HELP SAVE THE BICYCLE BOULEVARDS!
We will send a Zoom link to the GREENways list.
Please RSVP or send any questions to amy@albanystrollroll.org .