Bikes are making a better SLO. Tyler Wertenbruch knows this. Now: the simple task of educating the rest of the county.
With the continued expansion of the Bob Jones City to Sea trail, progress being made on the Connect SLO County project and increased public support for new trails, Wertenbruch sees barriers falling and the rise of the bike in SLO County benefitting everyone.
The SLO County Bike Coalition board chair recently removed his helmet, nibbled a Clif bar and slowed his roll long enough to answer our questions.
Short answer: we all need to go back to kindergarten and learn to share.
Which personal quality do you like most?
Patience – Something my mother had amazing amounts of and I feel that some rubbed off on me. Patience has allowed me to keep a level head and stay grounded through some hard problems and challenging people.
Which personal quality are you working on?
The ability to say “no,” or “not at this time.” When friends or colleagues or great causes come up, I want to help and get involved. I have taken part in some great stuff with fantastic people, but some commitments have led to stress and over-extended periods of time. I’m striving to find a balance between helping on projects and working on my own.
Which living person do you most admire?
At current it is a group of people. Over the past few years the board, staff and volunteers of the Bike Coalition and the local cycling community in SLO County has been a huge sense of inspiration for me. It is a very diverse family of individuals all connected through the bike and how the bike changes our community for the positive. Seeing the bike bring so much happiness and positive things to people around me fuels my want to contribute more.
What do you most admire in other people?
My job (IT manager) and schooling have all been very logic based and sometimes I think my brain works in flow charts and state machine diagrams. I truly admire those that have taken an idea or art form that is their passion and run with it to see where it takes them. I have not had the idea strike yet and would classify myself as art and musically challenged, but the involvement with the Bike Coalition has provided a glimpse.
How can bikes create a better SLO?
I think that bikes are already creating a better SLO. We see more and more people every day choosing to use their bike for transportation and recreation. We see great public support for more trails and changes in town so that people can ride safe and use their bikes. The bike can provide freedom, exercise, enjoyment and function and as we continue to make forward progress in our community we will see the barriers to not ride fall for more and more people. Community is so many things and having a safe environmentally friendly and truly enjoyable means of transporting yourself around town in my mind makes for a better SLO.
What does SLO need to do to become more bike friendly?
Continued change to infrastructure, and outreach to both cyclists and drivers on how to coexist. As more people choose to ride their bike we need to be creative with how we update our existing roads and paths as well as building new infrastructure. New paths like the Bob Jones City to Sea trail, Chorro Valley or Salinas River/De Anza trails are great ways to encourage families and all users to use their bikes to recreate and transport themselves around town and throughout the county. Changing the existing infrastructure with new lane stripping, bike boxes and the other more progressive tools available to our public works and planning departments to ensure that we cover all uses of our roads is equally important to ensuring the safety and enjoyment of both drivers and cyclist. At the same time we need to ensure we educate both drivers and cyclists on how to use these roads and that the laws are there to ensure everyone’s safety. We all need to think back to kindergarten and the basic concept of sharing. We are all allowed to use the roads and we need to have respect and courtesy for the law and most importantly for each other. This applies to cyclists and drivers alike and if we work towards putting both the infrastructure changes and our ability to share the space we will see huge benefits to everyone who lives in SLO County.