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Help make the CA DMV bicycle friendly!

Bicycling is inexpensive, healthy, and the most efficient form of transportation around.

Please write to California Governor Gavin Newsom and encourage him to make all California DMV offices truly friendly to bicyclists. Below is the email I sent him at https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/. Alas I could not send along pictures in the form based email submission but here are some pictures from my recent DMV visit. 

At the DMV in Santa Clara:


Their lonely and isolated wheel bender rack is flush against a wall so the center section that bends your wheel cannot even be used:


Luckily with COVID there are lots of guards and staff outside at their entrance so they watched my bike next to the front door while I was inside:


Locking my commuter/shopping bike to an outdoor bike rack is a big pain and risky -- it is much easier to roll it inside with me. I tend to only shop where I can bring my bike inside because I bike everywhere and use my bike as my shopping cart. Most places do not have good bike parking.

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Dear Governor Newsom,

Today I bicycled to my local DMV to get a RealID. It is really tough for bicyclists at the DMV. The bicycle rack was in an odd place, badly designed (a wheel-bender rack that was shoved against a wall so that didn't even work), and leaves my bike and all its attachments -- lights, tool bag, pump, speaker, and other necessary attachments -- all exposed to theft. I've had my lights stolen twice after parking my bike at grocery stores. Other people have had their bicycle seats stolen. Do you need to dismantle your car each time you park it?

California DMVs could really benefit from first class bicycle parking like cars get first class parking. The best parking for bikes is to just bring them inside with you -- they are just like a stroller and many people consider their bikes their babies. 

The next best are electronic bike lockers like those from BikeLink (https://www.bikelink.org/).  Outdoor racks are not that good -- like leaving the doors on your car open all the time while you are parked. Would you do that on a regular basis?

Could you change our California government bicycle policies to let bikes inside as much as possible and when that is not possible make sure bicycles have bike lockers to park in at all our California state offices?

Cars carry tons of heavy metal to keep them and their contents secure. This wastes megatons of fuel and creates megatons of CO2 powering climate change. Bikes are super efficient and prevent climate change but lack safe and secure weatherproof parking at most locations.

We need to shift people away from cars and providing safe bike parking would help. Many people still need drivers licenses for identification purposes and need to visit DMVs.

So can you make bike parking weatherproof, safe and secure for bicyclists at DMV offices? And big enough to fit all sorts of bikes including those with panniers that carry stuff people need? Then do this for all other state offices too.

Thanks!

Sincerely,

Tim

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