This week's seminar, sponsored by the Institute of Transportation
Studies at UC Davis, is as follows:

SPEAKER: Ted Buehler

TITLE: MS Student, Transportation Technology and Policy, UC Davis

WHERE: 1065 Kemper

WHEN: Friday, December 8 from 2:00-3:00

SUBJECT: Bicycling in Davis , CA : an analysis of civic bicycle
policy from 1955 to 2005.



ABSTRACT: Davis , California is the only place where ordinary
Americans can and will use a bicycle for their daily travel needs. To
document the emergence and sustenance of the circumstances that
created this condition, I interviewed key participants, reviewed
historical planning and policy documents, and reviewed historic news
articles. Findings were consistent with popular interpretations of
Davis 's bicycling history, with high bicycle usage since inception of
the university, formation of a bicycle advocacy group in the mid
1960s, passage of legislation and experimentation in bikeway design,
followed by a long period of building from a standardized templates.
In the 1990s, bicycle usage began to fall, as a result of both
internal and external factors. The presentation will analyze the
causes and results of these phenomena over the 50 year span, outline
questions and issues for the future, and address how current problems
can be addressed in the context of Davis 's unique successes in the past.



BIOGRAPHY: Ted's main interests are how we can restructure the built
environment to enable ecologically sustainable lifestyles without
detracting from our quality of life. Bicycles as transportation are a
classic element of this problem-bicycles allow people to travel
without using fossil fuels, without creating noise and air pollution,
and minimizing personal travel costs and public road expenditures.
Yet, even though the financial benefits can be enormous, bicycling is
rarely seriously considered as a viable mode. Only 0.4% of Americans
bicycle to work, and the issues surrounding bicycles as a
transportation choice are chronically under-studied.



The largest barrier to bicycling is, of course, modern land use and
transportation systems that make it impossible, illegal, or suicidal
for most Americans to use a bicycle for daily travel. But, the
"solutions" are less clear--we don't really know what the requirements
are to retrofit American cities in a way that it is possible, legal,
safe and even attractive to do bike. These questions brought Ted to
Davis , California , where there is a sizeable population that bikes,
and where we can learn what conditions are necessary for ordinary
Americans to bicycle.



A native of St. Paul , MN , Ted has been an ecologist and an urban
planner in previous academic and career pursuits. In 1998 he founded
the UBC Bike Co-op in Vancouver , Canada , which hosts one of the
largest public bike shops and public bike fleets in North America .
Since coming to Davis he co-founded the Bike Church and the student
chapter of the American Planning Association. His current research is
a six-city study of bicycling behavior, perceptions and attitudes.



We hope you will be able to join us and no reservations are needed.



A campus map showing seminar bldg. location is at
http://www.cevs.ucdavis.edu/map/map_detail.cfm?assetInfo=76



Kemper is shown on the map just west of Bainer Hall.