Instructor: Kevin Karplus
Location: Cowell 223
Time: Mon Wed 3:30-4:40 (plus on-road times, to be arranged)
Credits: 3
First meeting: Wednesday 2 April.
Web site: http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/~karplus/bike/cowell-152/index.html

This 3-credit course focuses on the bicycle as transportation---design of safe, effective bicycle facilities and programs. We'll cover topics such as

• accident statistics,
• traffic law,
• facility design standards,
• bike parking,
• transit,
• education,
• enforcement,
• planning.

This course will be a study of transportation policy and engineering as it concerns bicyclists. There are no academic prerequisites, but students are expected to be seriously interested in bicycles as transportation and to be able to write coherently. The on-bike field component of the class requires competent cycling skills, but special provisions can be made for students with disabilities that do not permit them to cycle.

The course will consist of reading, classroom discussion, observations in the field, and individual or group reports on specific issues in the local area (the reports may be observation studies, opinion surveys, plans for new projects, analyses of existing conditions, and so forth). I am compiling a list of possible projects--students and non-students are welcome to add to the list. Ideally, papers will be submitted electronically so that they can be published on the World-Wide Web.

I intend to teach the Effective Cycling Road 1 course before the field studies. Passing the EC Road 1 written and road tests is required before undertaking a field study and is a requirement for passing the course. (Note: special arrangements can be made for disabled students unable to bicycle.)

Students will be evaluated on class participation and the final project report---possibly on some homework, if I can figure out some meaningful exercises. Attendance in class and for the on-road field trips is required. Missing more than 1 class will require special arrangements for make-up work in order to pass.

Students are required to turn in notes on the reading, to ensure that they read actively. The notes will be evaluated primarily for their existence, not for their content, though thoughtful comments on the reading are more interesting to me than rote copying and are likely to elicit favorable comments in the evaluation. Students will also be expected to read and participate in various local and international e-mail discussions, particularly

• santa-cruz-bikes@cycling.org
• facilities-n-planning@cycling.org

• bikepeople@cycling.org
• caboforum@cycling.org
• cbc@cycling.org
• safety-n-education@cycling.org

I don't anticipate having any exams, though I reserve the right to add some if it seems pedagogically appropriate.

Class will meet twice a week. In addition there will be at least four required 2- to 3-hour on-bike safety skills or field study meetings, whose scheduling will depend on student schedules. Most likely times are weekends or Friday afternoons.

Students will be expected to ride their own bicycles for the field studies, though special provisions could be made for students who are medically unable to ride bicycles.

The primary reading materials will be

• John Forester's Bicycle Transportation: A handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers. This is the only book the comes close to be a possible textbook in the field. The book is at times too dogmatic--Forester has a very strong opposition to special bikeways and has some convincing arguments, but he tends to belabor the point. (Note: Forester objects to my use of the word "dogmatic" in describing his text---his objection is well-founded, but I have not come up with a better word yet.)

  Forester's book is for sale at Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust Street.

• Caltrans's Highway Design Manual, Chapter 1000. This manual is the most commonly used guide for traffic engineers and bikeway planners in California, and is the most comprehensive and most recently updated of the various government guides to bikeway designs. It provides a very different view of the issues than Forester's book.
  Chapter 1000 is on-line, but without the pictures.

  Chapter 1000 will be provided as part of a course reader, available from the campus copy center in the Communications Building.

  Gail Payne's Guide to Bicycle Funding in California, which lists forty local, state, and federal funding sources and gives a description of the process for applying for each. This book is not required, but is recommended for anyone seriously interested in bike planning or advocacy in California. More projects are shaped by funding than by any other single influence.

  Gail Payne's guide is available directly from the Planning and Conservation League.

  John Allen's Street Smarts. This cheap pamphlet is the best quick guide to safe cycling practices, and will be required reading before the field observations are attempted. I have ordered copies directly from the publisher, Bicycling magazine, and will provide them to the class at cost.

  Effective Cycling Road 1 student notebook This student notebook is a required part of the Effective Cycling course and are available only to certified Effective Cycling Instructors. I will provide them at cost to the class.

  Seidler Productions' Effective Cycling video. This video teaches some emergency bike handling skills and the basics of traffic engineering. It is part of the Effective Cycling course and viewing of it is required before the on-road practice or road test.

  If necessary, I will put my copy on reserve at the McHenry Library Media Center, but I hope everyone will see it in class.

  Some of Jeanne LePage's 3 bike-education videos filmed in Santa Cruz (and possibly others) will be shown for discussion on bike-education efforts. I will try to make these available at McHenry Library also, but do not have my own copies.

  California Vehicle Code, either hardcopy or http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html The on-line version is quicker to search for specific laws, but harder to carry around.

Here is a week-by-week outline of what I hope the course will cover, including a tentative reading schedule (BT refers to Forester's Bicycle Transportation):

1. Course overview: goals, structure, e-mail discussion groups, discuss possible projects. Elementary safety training: read Street Smarts, see Effective Cycling video, practice riding skills. Some historical perspective (BT, Chap. 3).
2. Bicycle accidents: theory and statistics (BT, Chaps. 1,2,4,5)
3. Bicycle law (relevant portions of California Vehicle Code and BT, Chaps. 7,23,28). [Probable guest lecturer: Alan Wachtel]
4. Effects of cyclists on traffic, bicycle traffic flow, bicycle speed (BT, Chaps 6,8,9,10,11, possibly supplemented with material from Whitt and Wilson's Bicycling Science. [Probable guest lecturer: John Forester]
5. Facility design standards (Caltrans Highway Design Manual, Chap. 10, BT: Chaps 13,24,25,26)
6. Facility design continued---field studies. Choose projects.
7. Bikes and transit, bike parking (BT: 19,20,27, Santa Cruz bike-parking ordinance, policies of northern California transit agencies, SCCRTC bike parking grant program, maybe advertising material by manufacturers of bike parking devices). Possible field observations. Start serious work on final projects.
8. Education programs: Jeanne LePage's videos, new materials from the League of American Bicyclists' Effective Cycling Program, possible presentation by Community Traffic Safety Coalition. (BT 12,15, 29)
9. Other government roles: Law Enforcement (BT 23); planning: possible presentation by Julie Munnerlyn, SCCRTC bike coordinator (BT 18, 21, 22); funding (portions of Guide to Bicycle Funding)
10. Finish projects, allow for overrun of class discussions.