An estimated 1,800 people participated in the most recent San Jose Bike Party on Friday, May 16. The bike ride began on Hedding Street, which features green buffered bike lanes that were installed last July. Photo: Andrew Boone
Tomorrow, San Jose voters will choose which of the candidates running for mayor, or for five of the city’s ten council seats, will proceed to run-off elections in November. San Jose’s growing bicycle advocacy community has put the spotlight on which candidates have made commitments to a bike-friendlier city, and many candidates have responded by courting the increasingly influential “bike vote.”
Six prominent candidates, or their representatives, spoke to the crowd at the San Jose Bike Party on May 16 to tout their pro-bike credentials: Don Gagliardi, Sam Liccardo, Dave Cortese, Pierluigi Oliverio, Kathy Sutherland, and Susan Marsland. The San Jose Bike Party, the Bay Area’s first Bike Party, rolls out on the third Friday of every month and attracts about 1,000 to 4,000 participants.
To help voters determine which candidates would do the most to improve conditions for walking and bicycling in San Jose, I helped to moderate a volunteer initiative called I Walk I Bike I Vote, which used a questionnaire to evaluate and endorse candidates. Richard Masoner at Cyclelicious has also published endorsements based on traffic safety and bicycling issues and includes his own predictions for the June 3 primary election.
San Jose Bike Party gathers at San Jose City Hall in August 2010. Photo: Andrew Boone
The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC), which promotes improvements for bicycling in San Jose and elsewhere in the South Bay and on the SF Peninsula, can’t issue endorsements for candidates. The group is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which prohibits it from “directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office”, according to IRS rules.
This is the first time in eight years that San Jose voters will choose a new Mayor. Chuck Reed was elected in 2006 — when cycling activity in San Jose, especially downtown, was lower and before San Jose Bike Party even existed — a large cycling constituency has since emerged and is expected to be influential city-wide, but especially among downtown residents who tend to walk and ride bicycles more often.
“We’ve managed to get most of the city leadership to bike party, especially in the early days, to ensure that it would form in a way that wouldn’t be divisive and instead be a positive thing,” said SVBC Executive Director Corinne Winter. “A lot of the city leadership, when they experience a larger bike party — they understand the size of that constituency and the demand to get better bicycle facilities.”
For each of the six public offices to be determined on June 3 — Mayor and City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 — the top-two vote receivers will proceed to a run-off election on November 4, unless any candidate receives at least 50% of the votes cast.