Advocacy Action Needed

At last month’s Park Blvd Community Meetings, Oakland Department of Transportation (OakDOT) finally unveiled its plans for Park Blvd. There is good news for Lower and Upper Park Blvd, proposed to have fewer travel lanes and new bike lanes, but a disappointment for Middle Park Blvd, which keep four lanes of high speed traffic and gets only spot improvements years from now.

Please let your City Councilperson know that Park Boulevard needs continuous bike lanes.

We are pushing for the road diet with bike lanes. Our strategy is to insist these bike lanes are striped as part of the 2019 project planned for Lower Park Blvd. Park Blvd should be one lane in each direction with bike lanes, slower traffic and safe pedestrian crossings, by 2019. After many years of community input and repeated calls from residents to make Park Blvd safe, it’s reassuring that OakDOT finally has a timeline for improvements. However, residents along Middle Park Blvd should not be left out, saddled with an outright dangerous street to live on for the foreseeable future. Help neighbors ask for a better design now and hold OakDOT to its pledge of keeping Oakland residents safe.

City Council contacts, talking points, and additional background.

We're Hiring

Join our small but mighty team to make a difference in Oakland and to gain hands-on experience with a dynamic nonprofit. We're currently hiring for two new positions.

The Bike Month Consultant will manage the City's biggest bike to work day events on May 10 by planning a pancake breakfast in Frank Ogawa Plaza, pedal polls, and a rocking happy hour. Read the full job description.

The Campaign & Outreach Fellow will work alongside the Board of Directors and volunteers to broaden WOBO’s outreach and visibility, refine our campaign and volunteer programs, and build our grassroots advocacy base. This part-time (10-20 hours per week) position will also help neighborhood groups implement temporary street murals as part of the City's Paint the Town pilot program. Read the full job description.

San Pablo Bike Lane Kickoff

Our friends at Bike East Bay are launching a campaign for continuous bike lanes on San Pablo Avenue, the major transit and commercial boulevard from Oakland north to Hercules. A safer and more comfortable San Pablo Avenue will connect neighborhoods from east to west and all along the corridor for everyone who bikes, walks, drives, or takes transit.

WOBO is co-hosting a campaign kickoff at Novel Brewing on 2/28 from 6-7. Join us to share your vision for this critical corridor. RSVP here.

Learn more about meetings in Emeryville, Berkeley, El Cerrito and Richmond.

Women Bike Happy Hour

Spend some quality, off-the-bike time with other women who bike (or want to bike!) over a cool drink. Any level of rider and all women, trans and femme folks are warmly welcome. Bring your bikey and bike-curious friends.

Women Bike Happy Hour is a monthly recurring event put on in partnership with Bike East Bay on the fourth Thursday of the month, 5:30-7:30 PM. Join us 2/22 at W oods Bar + Brewery in Uptown Oakland.

Get Out and Enjoy

Oakland Urban Paths will be adding a second walk this month in celebration of Lunar New Year and Oakland's Asian History. The 2-hour walk through Chinatown will begin at 10 on 2/25 in front of the Asian Branch of the Oakland Public Library and end at the Oakland Museum of California. The museum will host a celebration featuring music, food and art. Sign up in advance before it sells out! Register and Learn More.

Who rides like a girl?! We DO!

We are launching our 2018 women and bicycling workshops on Sunday, March 11 with commuting basics at Bicycle Coffee's roastery in Jack London Square.

We'll talk through the fundamentals and basic rules of the road; and squeeze in a 5-mile skill-building, confidence-boosting ride to test out some of the basic skills. We'll even visit a bikeshare space, and show you how to access other biking facilities.

The workshop is FREE for WOBO and Bike East Bay members, suggested donation of $15 for all others.

Eventbrite - Ride Like a Girl - Bike Commuting Basics

Become a Boardie

WOBO is seeking board members: How could you resist? Be a part of this amazing team of public health, urban planning, advocacy and policy, landscape architects and marketing specialists.

We're looking for talented, self-motivated folks to lead the charge on WOBO's exciting programs. Love working with community members? Got some organizing chops for events like Ride Like a Girl and WOBO Weekends? Have some mad people skills and are comfortable using contact and donor management databases? Learn more on our VolunteerMatch posting.

We'll See Ya There!

2/22 Women Bike Happy Hour @ Woods Bar

2/25 Oakland Urban Path Chinatown Walk @ Asian Branch OPL

2/28 San Pablo Continuous Bike Lane Campaign Kickoff @ Novel Brewing

3/11 Ride Like a Girl Commuting Basics @ Bicycle Coffee's roastery

3/15 Oakland Bicyclist and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

Let's Get Together!

We are gathering a team of volunteers to help run our upcoming events. Sound fun?

Sign up to help!

Become a WOBO Member today with just the click of a button! Starting at $35 per year, you get a team of policy, community and advocacy champions who will stump for safe and accessible walking and bicycling in Oakland for all.

Join Now

Twitter Highlight:

Do you agree buffered bike lanes on Lower Park Blvd (w/ 2 one block gaps at 580 and at E.18th St) are not stressful to most adults?

Quote Of The Month:

"Race culture is really screwed up in the States, and I think a lot of areas never really integrated. It wasn’t a priority for the African-American community to be into bikes, and it still isn’t. It’s just something I’m into, and I wonder, ‘Why couldn’t more people be interested in it, too?’ My philosophy is that it’s a matter of representation. People don’t see themselves in the sport so they don’t feel like it’s a thing they even want to do.”

- Ayesha McGowan, Competitive Cyclist

Don't be shy...

1330 Broadway 3rd Fl
Oakland, CA 94612
info@wobo.org