Caleb Zimmerschied Valadez is a freelance writer. He can be reached at calzimval@gmail.com.

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City officials in Davis and Emeryville found a way to make their communities happier, safer, and cleaner while also reducing carbon emissions: They made it easier to bike. And while both cities have momentum and geography in their favor, advocates and officials say cities with limited resources and political will can also reduce car dependency.  

“As a country, we have subsidized car culture,” said Trish Price, the president of Bike Davis, a bike advocacy organization in Davis. “It’s important to make sure people understand that this is not natural — it was developed intentionally. If we want to change car culture, we’re going to have to change it intentionally.”

Decades ago, Davis residents changed the conversation

Davis has prioritized biking infrastructure for so long that it’s now known as the Biking Capital of the United States. Jennifer Donofrio, the city’s senior transportation planner, said there are no paths strictly for bicycles in Davis. But the city is designed around shared-use paths — whether that’s driving, cycling, walking, or using scooters.

“The point is to provide options,” said Donofrio. “People can choose to get around however they prefer.”

Davis’ biking culture is tied to the University of California, Davis, which butts up against the city. In the 60s, UC Davis Chancellor Emil M. Mrak had a vision for the campus as a biking-centric place with no motor vehicles at all. But once you left the campus, Davis itself was still a car-centric community.

In 1964, a group of professors took a trip to the Netherlands, already famous for its cycling culture, to figure out what might work in Davis. Donofrio said that the professors went to the Davis City Council with a petition to add bike lanes on all main streets in Davis. The council rejected the petition because it wanted to drive more automobile traffic to downtown Davis by building more parking.

The professors didn’t give up: They created a citizen advisory group, continued to circulate the petition, and their ideas gained momentum. In 1966, pro-bicycle candidates won seats on the city council in a landslide. Soon after, Davis added the first official bike lane in the United States.

Davis committed to maintaining its cycling-centric culture. As of today, 95% of Davis’ primary roads have bike lanes. It’s the only city in California rated platinum by The League of American Cyclists, joining the ranks of Portland, OR, Boulder, CO, Fort Collins, CO, and Madison, WI.

Emeryville leans into its strengths

Davis has the historical momentum, but Emeryville is nipping at its heels. Nestled between Oakland and Berkeley, Emeryville is about a square mile in total.

“Imagine if you cut out the downtown of a large city and made that its own city,” said Emeryville Public Works Director Mohamed Alaoui.

Alaoui argued that larger cities have a harder time rethinking infrastructure due to their size and the momentum of internal bureaucracy. Emeryville’s small size allowed officials to be nimbler and come up with a plan for complete redevelopment in 2023.

“As a city, we are committed to designing transportation systems that reflect our goals of a livable, safe, and vibrant community,” said LaTanya Bellow, Emeryville city manager. “Our approach to biking infrastructure is intentional. It’s about creating safe, inclusive options that reduce barriers and give people real choices in how they move through the city.”

Emeryville is dense and includes large-scale commercial properties, urban developments, and housing. City planners must be efficient with their space, which gives walking and biking an immediate advantage over cars. “We’ve taken that to heart and developed a really aggressive active transportation plan that covers the majority of the city with bike lanes,” said Alaoui.

John Bauters, a former Emeryville mayor sometimes dubbed America’s Bike Mayor and longtime environmental justice advocate, says this freedom also helps the city mitigate climate change.

“I think one of the big ways in which we can realize carbon reduction is by improving access to public transit and also giving people a choice,” said Bauters. “We need to change the conversation away from bicycling as a recreational activity to something that is a sustainable transportation option, but people don’t think of it that way because we prioritize the movement of motor vehicles.”

Building with limited resources and political will

But what about cities that don’t have Davis’ historical momentum or Emeryville’s unique geography?

Davis’ Donofrio argued that becoming a biking oasis starts with having bike-friendly policies. Every new development in Davis must include bike infrastructure. This helps ensure cyclists can safely and quickly reach the places they want to bike to as the city expands. Also key, of course, is council support.

“If the policy leadership makes it clear what they want and they support staff through the necessary steps needed to execute the vision, you can see things streamline and start to happen,” said Mohamed Alaoui, Emeryville’s public works director.

Many of Emeryville’s lanes are fully protected, which appeals to more casual bikers. Alaoui said this is crucial to winning over people who aren’t “hardcore bikers.” But to really drive biking culture, he said, city officials must take it a step further — from safety to comfort.

Donofrio agreed. “You have to normalize biking and walking,” she said. “It can’t just be something you see people in spandex doing. It has to be easy to get to places by bike, and it has to be more efficient and faster than driving.”

Strong, direct community engagement plays a big role in getting support for new projects in both cities. Bike Davis introduces Davis residents to cycling as a primary means of transportation, teaching them how to be safe and understand the rules of the road.

“For building a bike culture, the biggest thing is just making it fun,” said Trish Price, the group’s president. She said that could be as simple as a morning commute or an organized monthly ride through the city. These projects and programs can become a reinforcing loop. The more people start to bike, the more support city officials get for biking-friendly infrastructure projects.

“What I would do, and have done, is find those other people in your community, and then just start doing it,” she said. “Bike to work; bike your kids to school. People will see and be curious and come and ask. Model it and be willing to talk to people about what you’re doing and what they can do.”

It helps that Davis has lots of biking events. UC Davis has classes about bike education. Bike Davis also takes community members on rides, introducing them to the bike paths and making sure they understand the rules of biking in Davis. The organization also helps people with things like basic maintenance and addressing flats. This can be especially helpful for students who may come from countries with very different traffic laws or who are completely new to biking.

Bauters said that he would start by identifying something that officials can deliver completely, as opposed to doing a few things here and there. He prioritized safety when overseeing the sustainable streetscapes program in Emeryville, identifying risky intersections and crosswalks and making it a goal to improve these areas.

“When you have limited resources and limited political will, why not do the things that result in the greatest amount of safety improved?” said Bauters. “Once people felt safer, more people wanted to use our streets, and that generated more political will, and other politicians became less scared of prioritizing these kinds of changes.”