B. Carfree

Well, as a resident of Davis from 1980-2001, I can say with absolute certainty that cycling in Davis did not peak in the '90s. In fact, bicycles became so scarce that my family (and that of my sister-in-law) became known as "the bike family" simply because we refused to let go of the past and continued to meet all of our transportation desires by bike. While no one was documenting the number of people cycling (Why would we, we thought it would never end.), it likely reached its peak in the early- or mid-80s and fell dramatically from there. I guess one could look through the U.C. Davis construction records and just note when things like the multi-story parking garage replaced the intramural field north of the M.U. (student commons) went in and estimate the peak of the bike as at least five years prior. When the bike was the dominant means of transportation in Davis, the few parking lots on campus were mostly empty. Bike parking, on the other hand, was a real problem.

I've spent far too much time wondering what went wrong a quarter century ago in Davis. There were several things in play, including:
1. Gas got quite cheap. Cars got bigger.
2. Tuition came to the U.C., so poor students who were working our way through college went from the norm to a rarity. Suddenly, all the undergrads had cars that were paid for by their parents. (Okay, not all, but certainly there was a large increase.)
3. The city adopted a densification plan that created lots of high-density zones of residential/retail mashed together. The result was an unprecedented uptick in car density at these locations. There were so many of these created that there was no way to avoid them and they did indeed increase the perception of danger for cyclists.
4. Both the City and University police departments abandoned their previous zero-tolerance traffic enforcement policies.
5. Because of increased traffic in East Sacramento, more people were choosing to live in Davis and commute to work in Sacramento by car, turning it into more of a bedroom community with a university than a college town. This also led to increases in housing prices in Davis that likely caused many lower income newcomers and students to live in other cities and drive in. (I also spent many of my years living in Davis and working in Sacramento, as did many of my friends. However, we just rode our bikes to work; it's not like it's very far between those cities.)

Interestingly, while the bikes were disappearing from Davis, the city multiplied its bike-specific infrastructure by several-fold with a particular focus on bike paths. So, we had the perverse situation where it was built, and they not only didn't come, they disappeared.

Personally, I think the loss of traffic enforcement was the biggest change. Thankfully, the city cops are taking some small steps to begin enforcing traffic laws again. However, once a cultural change takes place, it can be hard to reverse. For instance, if you visit U.C. Davis today, you will see almost the same number of bikes in the racks at 3:00 A.M. as in the middle of the day. This is because people now drive to campus and use a bike for short trips on campus, so they just store it there. I suspect this is why Davis still shows decent, although low compared to its peak, numbers of people who claim to be riding. Sure, they're riding, but not for the main part of their trip. One will also see a sizeable contingent of folks arrive at the campus and other sites in town with their bikes on their cars, a sight that was unheard of when the population actually rode their bikes to get around.