Clarissa Cabansagan prefers to travel on two wheels instead of four, and she hopes to inspire others to do the same. She’s the Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) and we sat down with her recently to catch up on the impressive work she and her team have accomplished since joining the coalition over two years ago.
Clarissa came to SVBC with close to 15 years of experience in transportation justice and immigrant rights. She previously served as the Program Director at TransForm, a Bay Area-wide mobility justice organization, where she led the advocacy team to advance transportation policies and pilot projects that center the needs of Black and Brown residents, as well as the building of affordable housing near transit. She is passionate about working with government and private partners to implement community-driven ideas.
SVBC has long been a champion for transit-oriented development. Kylli’s collaboration with SVBC on the Mission Point project aligns seamlessly with their mission to foster healthier and more just communities by making bicycling safe and accessible for everyone. By supporting efforts to create environments that prioritize biking and public transit, SVBC is helping to build a future where eco-friendly transportation options are the norm.
Q: Tell us about the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) and how the organization has grown over the years.
A: At SVBC, we are dedicated to fostering healthy communities across San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Celebrating 30 years of service, our organization includes 14 core staff, about 20 part-time bike educators and bike parking supervisors, and 11 local volunteer teams, made up of residents advocating on our behalf. These local teams blossomed during the pandemic and have become instrumental in winning bike-friendly communities. Many smaller cities and towns appreciate hearing from their own residents, making them highly effective. As an organization seeking to cover two counties, this approach not only enhances our advocacy efforts but also encourages civic engagement, allowing our members to connect directly with their council members and city staff.
We also have a fairly large bike education program with the County of Santa Clara through the Valley Transportation Authority. These classes range from basic bike repair to lessons on learning how to ride, bike safety, and even hauling your groceries by bike.
We’re making plans for a similar-sized bike education program in San Mateo County where historically we’ve had limited reach. We’re excited to invest in this level of training for adults and youth in a county that is decades behind in bike planning. This effort also includes partnering with local community-based organizations to identify and train local residents who want to become certified bike educators.
Bike parking is another important service we provide. For example, bike parking is now available at football games at the 49ers’ stadium. Every time there’s a game, there’s an option to get there without having to drive. We did the same for the Taylor Swift concert, with the added perk for our volunteer who could hear the concert from outside the stadium. We’re bringing bike parking to more local efforts like San Mateo’s Central Park summer music festival, and the Sunnyvale Urban Village Farmer’s Market.
We are excited about the different ways we are serving our communities and look forward to sharing various opportunities for our residents to get involved as we continue to grow.
Q: What are some of the trends you’re seeing in the bike community as we evolve to see more people choosing to purchase electric bikes and incorporate them into their daily lives?
A: We have been thrilled to experience the growing enthusiasm for electric bikes, with their sales now outpacing those of electric vehicles. We’ve also seen an increase in personal e-scooter travel — when folks want to save money on parking and gas, they’re buying electric scooters or e-bikes to connect to transit stations in ways that we haven’t seen in the past.
Of course, because we are in Silicon Valley, automated vehicles, automation, and AI is prevalent. What does that mean for mobility and transportation options? How do we leverage these technologies in order to encourage people to get out of their own personal automobiles and onto transit, biking, and walking, so that folks can finally live car light or car free? Those are trends that we’re closely watching because we know that is what it will take—an entire ecosystem of alternative modes of transportation—in order for people to choose a lifestyle where they’re moving more sustainably.
A decade ago, bike amenities were scarce, but today, in developments like the one where I reside in South San Francisco, we’ve adopted unbundled parking that requires payment for car parking. This shift includes bike amenities available to all residents and transit passes that were integrated into the housing development from the start.
These are policies that we, as a bike coalition, fought for when we were South San Francisco planned to densify around the transit station. We have both a housing crisis and a climate crisis. Our work is to ensure that new residents aren’t bringing their cars and the accompanying traffic and air pollution and that existing residents have a plethora of options for getting around. That’s what we’d like to see across the board as our cities in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County are starting to build in formerly underutilized plots of land particularly near transit. Wherever we can, we’re chiming in on development projects (like Mission Point) to make sure that it’s second nature for someone to be able to come with a bike or a cargo bike to ensure new developments are completely climate friendly.
We truly believe that the future is planning for biking and walking and connecting it to transit because we have such a good backbone for that on the Peninsula and in the South Bay.
Another one of our campaigns is reducing traffic incidents. In San Jose, someone is dying on our streets almost every week, and since the pandemic, we’ve only seen an uptick in traffic deaths. Our goal is to slow cars down and further protect vulnerable travelers — our cyclists and pedestrians.
On the flip side, as a result of the pandemic, we are also seeing people rediscover their local downtowns and embrace walking and biking to their destinations. That’s what we’re interested in elevating.
Q: How do projects like Mission Point help support your mission?
A: The fact that Kylli has established good community feedback has really impressed us. The process that we’ve been engaged in at Mission Point is truly different than any other project we’ve been involved in. This is the first time I have seen a developer bring community groups together to provide feedback on the development. Our SVBC local team members who live in Santa Clara have been really engaged with the project to help ensure that the bike amenities will best serve the community.
The Kylli team has been hyper-aware of the kind of nuanced needs for biking, walking, and transit, especially in a space where most developers review their checklists and aren’t doing a thorough job. Developers often make a lot of promises to the city, but at the end of the day, it’s not always done thoughtfully and with proper community input.
The fact that we, among other organizations, have a relationship with Kylli, enables us to maintain an ongoing dialogue that helps ensure the amenities they provide remain relevant for Santa Clara residents. Kylli has gone above and beyond on this project, setting a great example for other developers.
Q: What are some of the SVBC programs that have been particularly successful over the years?
A: I’d say that Bike to Wherever Days is the event that we see the most people come back to every year, and I think a lot of that has to do with its longstanding nature and our partners, who do an incredible job of promoting the event. We’ve been hosting it for 30 years, and part of the attraction is our coveted Bike to Work/Wherever Days bike bags, which are part of the swag we provide. This year, tens of thousands of individuals participated, many of whom live outside of the areas we serve, which is very exciting for us as it allows us to impact more people.
As part of Bike to Wherever Days, in 2024 we also brought back the Bay Area Bike challenge. Using the event’s app, people log their rides. Since this was the event’s 30th anniversary, we decided to set 30,000 miles as our total goal. We were very pleasantly surprised that, by the second week, participants had already met the 30,000-mile goal, and by the end of the month, more than 110,000 miles were logged. It’s truly rewarding to see this type of commitment by Bay Area residents.
We are also very proud of our volunteer program, which is very robust. It’s comprised of about 300 dedicated individuals who lead our bike rides, staff event tables, and advocate for our organization. We are immensely grateful for this vibrant and dynamic community.
Our challenge now is to keep participants engaged year-round, so cycling, e-biking, etc. become part of their daily lives.
Q: What are some of the upcoming events that cyclist enthusiasts can participate in?
A: Our Bike to the Future event and ride will be in San Jose on October 6th. This is a big fundraiser for us, and we hope the community comes out and forms their own teams to help raise support for some of our major advocacy campaigns.
This is one of our biggest events, but we also host smaller ones. Be sure to check out our website at https://bikesiliconvalley.org for more details. We really hope to see the community take advantage of these upcoming gatherings.