Back to the Basics: A Banner Year for Bikes

When I named Human-Powered Explorer, I had a broad environmental focus in mind. But this is the nut: sustainable, healthy, low-impact transportation and enjoyment of the outdoors. It's a quaint little vision, but it accomplishes a broad range of goals -- pollution prevention, resource and land conservation, reconnection to the environment, exercise, recreation -- and that's why it appeals to me. Embracing human-powered exploration where possible goes a long way toward improving our own quality of life and those of our neighbors, particularly in a sprawling metropolis like the Bay Area. Here's a story on Oakland's efforts in 2012 and beyond to improve its bicycle network and potentially emerge as a national leader in bike infrastructure.

"A Banner Year for Bikes"

An innovative bike lane and more than forty miles of new bikeways are in store for Oakland.

By Nate Seltenrich

In September 2010, the League of American Bicyclists recognized Oakland as a Bronze-Level Bicycle Friendly Community, along with 140 others across the country. This was all well and good, but not quite good enough. The following January, in an interview with the website Oakland North, Jason Patton, the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian program manager, announced that 2011 would be "the biggest year ever for implementing new bikeways in Oakland." Yet 2011 might turn out to be nothing compared to 2012.

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