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
14
Wed
San Pablo Avenue Organizing Meeting: North Berkeley (and Albany) @ Farm Burger
Mar 14 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Bike East Bay is working for continuous bike lanes on San Pablo Avenue, as part of a safer street for everyone who bikes, walks, drives, or takes transit.

(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.

WHERE:

1313 Ninth Street
Farm Burger
Berkeley, 94710

WHEN:  March 14th, 2018 6:00 PM   through   7:00 PM

(This event is organized and hosted by BikeEastBay, who request you RSVP to participate)

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!

May
30
Wed
Solano Avenue Complete Streets Walk & Workshop @ Flowerland & Community Center
May 30 @ 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Do you want Solano Avenue to be more walkable, bikeable and safe for all?
The City of Albany is developing a Complete Streets and Corridor Revitalization Plan for Solano Avenue from Masonic Avenue to Tulare Avenue to create an active main street environment. An extensive community engagement process will be deployed to identify ideas and strategies to:
Improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists
Enhance access to transit
Promote a cohesive streetscape
Support local economic activity

The outcome will be a plan with Complete Streets designs for roadway, sidewalk and intersection changes that support all modes and users of all ages and abilities, builds foot traffic for local businesses, encourages interaction in public spaces, and adds vibrancy to the community.

Let’s make mid-Solano even more bike friendly!

The first public input event includes a walk along a few blocks of Solano to observe what is in place, and then a workshop at the Albany Community Center to generate ideas and collect concerns for the project. Refreshments will be provided at the Workshop.
Participate in this site walk and/or workshop to share your ideas of how this avenue could be safer and more comfortable for you and your family.

5:00pm – 6:00pm – Walking Assessment of Solano Avenue – Meet in front of Flowerland (1330 Solano Avenue)
6:00pm – 8:30pm – Community Design Workshop – Albany Community Center (1247 Marin Ave.)
To follow this project further, go to www.solanocompletestreets.org
May
25
Sat
“Pints With Purpose” – $1 from every pint or flight ALL DAY goes to AS&R “Bike Bike Rack” at Wildcard Brewing! @ Wildcard Brewing
May 25 @ 12:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Wildcard Brewing has one of Albany’s newest Bike Bike Racks – come try it out and raise money for AS&R!

We’re excited to have brand new local business Wildcard Brewing partner with Albany Strollers & Rollers on “Pints With Purpose,” their community fundraiser in which they help out local non-profits.

Hoist a pint or flight with us and help fund Albany’s newest bike rack at one of its newest businesses!

In this Bike Month activity, $1 FROM EVERY PINT OR FLIGHT THAT YOU BUY ALL DAY WILL HELP AS&R FUND A BRAND NEW “BIKE BIKE RACK” FOR WILDCARD CUSTOMERS!

Since we’re anticipating lots of you riding over, we’ll have our Bicycle Valet Parking racks set up right out front for you and your families.  Racks will be unattended (we’ll be inside) so please bring your bike locks.
Yes, Wildcard is family friendly (they have non-alcoholic beverages including craft root beer, New York seltzer and lemon flavored sparkling water, plus plenty of games) and you can bring or order food in to go with your beer!
They even welcome leashed dogs!
Feel free to bring lunch, dinner or snacks from your favorite restaurants on Solano or San Pablo Avenues, too!
Support those who support us – hope to see you there as Bike Month winds down!!

We’ll have two of these racks right out front for your parking convenience. Please bring your bike locks – they will be visible from inside, but unattended.
Photo courtesy Mark Altenberg

Thanks to one of Albany’s newest businesses for raising money for a new Bike Bike Rack right out front!

Jul
14
Sun
Urban Cycling 101 Classroom Workshop in Albany! @ Albany Library
Jul 14 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Come on down and learn how to ride a bike more safely – and have more fun!

Do you or someone you know want to ride more but don’t feel confident enough?

Here’s a FREE bicycle skills class, courtesy of Bike East Bay…and it’s RIGHT HERE IN ALBANY!!

Learn basic rules of the road, how to share the road with cars on busy streets, how to equip your bicycle, lock your bike, fit your helmet, and avoid crashes by riding predictably, visibly, and communicating with other road users by your actions and signals. Every workshop has the same content so you only need to attend once. For adults and teens, no bike needed.

Attending this or any of our other classroom workshops qualifies you to also sign up for one of Bike East Bay’s free “Day 2” on-the-bike road classes and earn a free set of bike lights!

Class is FREE but please register here.

Jul
27
Sat
Urban Cycling 101 Classroom Workshop in Albany! @ Albany Library
Jul 27 @ 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Come on down and learn how to ride a bike more safely – and have more fun!

Do you or someone you know want to ride more but don’t feel confident enough?

Here’s a FREE bicycle skills class, courtesy of Bike East Bay…and it’s RIGHT HERE IN ALBANY!!

Learn basic rules of the road, how to share the road with cars on busy streets, how to equip your bicycle, lock your bike, fit your helmet, and avoid crashes by riding predictably, visibly, and communicating with other road users by your actions and signals. Every workshop has the same content so you only need to attend once. For adults and teens, no bike needed.

Attending this or any of our other classroom workshops qualifies you to also sign up for one of Bike East Bay’s free “Day 2” on-the-bike road classes and earn a free set of bike lights!

Class is FREE but please register here.

Jul
28
Sun
Urban Cycling 101 Day 2: On the Road @ University Village
Jul 28 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Come on down and learn how to ride a bike more safely – and have more fun!

Do you or anyone you know want to ride more but don’t feel confident enough?
Here’s a FREE bicycle skills class, courtesy of Bike East Bay, and it’s right here in Albany!
Join Bike East Bay for a half day of bike riding! This is the second part of Urban Cycling 101 (these are the two first day events.) We’ll cover on-road, on-your-bike practice sessions, working in small groups with our certified instructors to improve your handling skills, learn crash-avoidance maneuvers, and ability to bike confidently on any street. Laws and best practices particular to Albany and nearby neighborhoods will be covered.
Every attendee will receive a free set of bike lights!!!
A functional bike and helmet are required, drinks and snacks provided. (The idea is to have attended an Urban Cycling 101 Day 1:One of these two Classroom courses first. If you were not able but still want to attend this class, please email Robert Prinz and he can make other arrangements.)

The class is FREE but please register on the Bike East Bay Website.

Sep
10
Sun
Solano Stroll – Volunteers Needed – AHS MTB Team & AS&R providing Free Bicycle Valet Parking + info table! @ Solano Stroll Bicycle Valet Parking Lot
Sep 10 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

The AHS Mountain Biking Team is leading the Bicycle Valet Parking at the Solano Stroll – will you lend a hand?

Free Bicycle Valet Parking will again be featured at the Solano Stroll, but with a new twist: the Albany High School Mountain Biking Team will be taking the lead for this important service, using Albany Strollers & Rollers’ specialized racks! The new location will be on Key Route Blvd just north of Solano Avenue –  it’s near the Greenway so we’re expecting lots of drop-ins so it’s sure to be busy!!

As usual, AS&R will also have an information table near the lot where we (YOU!) will talk about and answer questions about active transportation stuff!

WE NEED YOU TO MAKE THIS A SUCCESS!

Bikes, Bikes, Bikes!! 300 + of them coming to the Solano Stroll! Please help the AHS MTB Team park them all! Photo courtesy Nick Pilch

The AHS MTB team could use additional volunteers, so if you’d like to help park bikes (we have parked 300 bikes in the past!!)  or volunteer at AS&R’s info table, please contact Amy Smolens .
This is a great gig for kids, too, as long as they are strong enough to roll a bike. If students need volunteer-hours, this is perfect!

VOLUNTEERS (the first 12 to commit) WHO WORK AT LEAST A 4-HR SHIFT AT EITHER LOCATION WILL GET FREE LUNCH PROVIDED BY SUPPORTING SOLANO AVENUE RESTAURANT !!

AS&R Super-Volunteer Lynn Eve Komaromi takes a well-earned lunch break – thanks, Bua Luang! Please join Lynn Eve and your AS&R neighbors in volunteering!

Some sponsoring businesses may also provide gifts or coupons for our volunteers, too – stay tuned!

Volunteer hours run from 9am-5:30pm so it’s easy to pick a shift that works for you! Please let Amy know if you would prefer to help with the Valet Parking, the Info Table or either one, and if you have time preferences or are flexible.

Since 1974 Solano Avenue and the cities of Albany and Berkeley have hosted the Solano Avenue Stroll, the East Bay’s largest street festival! The Solano Avenue Association , AS&R and Check for Bikes invite you to see what makes Solano Avenue a wonderful place. The Stroll features over five hundred vendors including 50 entertainers (there’s always great music!,) 50 food booths, 150 government and non-profit agencies, 150 juried hand-crafters, a 75 entry parade, state of the art mechanical rides and much more!

Come visit AS&R at our information table then enjoy a great stroll up Solano!
Or better yet, volunteer a few hours with your neighbors before strolling!

230,000 participants and event guests visit from all over the west coast so that’s where YOU come in – many of them ride their bikes, so we need people to help park them in our lots. Lots of them want to talk about cycling and walking around the area, and they want to talk to YOU!
AS&R’s supporting sponsor, Floor Dimensions has donated a long Red Carpet to lead passers-by to our information table and Bicycle Valet Parking lot!

See you soon!

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 .