Living Car Free - Relocation to Santa Rosa - time to go car free ?

The company I'm working for is pulling resources back to Santa Rosa to help it ride out the recession.

If I participate in this, it means relocating from Scotland to sunny California, so I'm thinking it would be a great time for a lifestyle change and to sell and not replace my 9 year old car.
I found a link to the cycle networks in town and a few posts to MTB routes in the surrounding hills.
http://www.sctainfo.org/Bike_Main_fi...santa_rosa.pdf

Anyone offer or point me towards advice on the everyday practicalities of living car free in Santa Rosa - Sonoma ?
Should I be worried about social attitude to non car ownership and drivers reaction to cyclists on the open roads in general within the US ?

Thanks,

Donald.

The company I'm working for is pulling resources back to Santa Rosa to help it ride out the recession.

If I participate in this, it means relocating from Scotland to sunny California, so I'm thinking it would be a great time for a lifestyle change and to sell and not replace my 9 year old car.
I found a link to the cycle networks in town and a few posts to MTB routes in the surrounding hills.
http://www.sctainfo.org/Bike_Main_files/pdf/santa_rosa.pdf

Anyone offer or point me towards advice on the everyday practicalities of living car free in Santa Rosa - Sonoma ?
Should I be worried about social attitude to non car ownership and drivers reaction to cyclists on the open roads in general within the US ?

Thanks,

Donald.


Santa Rosa is pretty bike friendly and getting more so. (IMHO). Check out bikesonoma.org also, but the transit agency site you looked at has a good map.

A lot of how succesfull living car free is going to be is where you work and live. There is a big difference in the safety of different routes. There are some class 1 trails and I am lucky that most of my commute is on them. Saying that, I still have a car.

The weather here is usally pretty wet in the winter and if it doesn't rain the lows in the morning can be below freezing. It's still probably warmer than Scotland. The summers, falls and springs have great weather. There's also great mountain biking locally if you're into that.

Also, downtown santa rosa has some great pubs:thumb:

good luck,

Jeff

Santa Rosa (and Sonoma County) is one of the best cycling areas in the USA. I am a San Francisco native and have pedaled all over Sonoma County, and you could live there for decades and not get tired of riding a bike around there. I have visited the 50 states of the USA and 40+ other countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia, and it doesn't get much better than Sonoma County. The city of Santa Rosa is surrounded by lots of hills, but much of the city is fairly flat so it's not bad to get from A to B in town. Also, if you want to go to San Francisco or Marin County, it is an easy bus ride on Golden Gate transit with service several times per hour much of the day. Also, you can easily rent a car for reasonable rates for the occasions when you want to so somewhere beyond bicycle range that is not served by public transit.

Thanks, I going to give it a go :thumb:
The occasional car hire for occasional weekends further afield seems like a better use of money than maintaining and insuring a car full time.

I've had a look at YouTube at CXSR races and the MTB trails in Annadel, which look ideal especially considering that they so close to town.

The work would be in Fountaingrove - so if anything I will probably miss my current 12 mile commute, and have to do a loop to add in extra distance.

I will have a preview trip for 4 days before I commit to the move, so I will pack my Ritchey Breakaway Cross bike, which splits in half for easy air transport, and spend a couple days exploring some the surrounding roads and trails.

The move would be start in November - so I will start in the wet/CX season : guess if I can survive the first winter the rest will be a breeze.

The recreational road riding is great here, I guess I'm spoiled;). I work on Fountain grove, hope you don't mind climbing, it's a pretty good hill. I usually come up the back way on my commute.

I don't think Santa Rosa has Zip car like San Francisco does. It's a membership that you can use their pool of cars hourly or daily. The "Smart Train" was voted in but it will be at least 5 years before that happens. It will go from Larkspur (near the golden gate bridge but not across it) to Cloverdale which is North of SR. There is also going to be a parallel bike path.

SR definitely has a great bike community. Also, I think in the future it will only be better.

PM me when you come out. Maybe we could go for a ride.

Jeff

Don't have any advice but just have to say "you lucky b******"!

Good luck, and enjoy the weather!

Santa Rosa is pretty bike friendly and getting more so. (IMHO). Check out bikesonoma.org also, but the transit agency site you looked at has a good map.

A lot of how succesfull living car free is going to be is where you work and live. There is a big difference in the safety of different routes. There are some class 1 trails and I am lucky that most of my commute is on them. Saying that, I still have a car.

The weather here is usally pretty wet in the winter and if it doesn't rain the lows in the morning can be below freezing. It's still probably warmer than Scotland. The summers, falls and springs have great weather. There's also great mountain biking locally if you're into that.

Also, downtown santa rosa has some great pubs:thumb:

good luck,

Jeff

He's Absolutely Right!!! ( I happen to work at one of those pubs downtown :lol: Third Street Aleworks ring any bells?) We have regular Pub Crawls (via bicycle) to Sebastopol, to a great spot called Hop Monk...
Here's a litte site I threw together with info on the rides...
http://thesyndicate.pnn.com/3950-the-front-page

I have been car free for two years here in Santa Rosa, and only just recently bought a truck... The city is constantly expanding the bike lane network.
Parts of town are great to ride in, and others can be scary. ( Narrow roads, blind corners etc...) It's all about route planning!
I happen to be lucky. My commute consists of less than a mile of bike lane before I hit the Santa Rosa Creek Prince Greenway (MUP)... That takes me all the way downtown to work on 3rd street.
You are likely to recognize any one of my many 'cycles' in the downtown area...

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/inthe10ring/003.jpg
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j112/inthe10ring/IMG_0742.jpg

We have some great bike shops in town, and a pretty good number of die-hard bikers. Talk to some roadies out in the hills during the summertime, and you'll find people from all over the world have come to vacation and ride in Sonoma (and surrounding) Counties...

Next time your'e in town, stop in and lemme buy you a beer!:cheers:

If you ever need to borrow a car in Santa Rosa, you're welcome to use my wagon, I never use that thing anymore!

Any updates?

If I still lived in Santa Rosa, I would definitely be riding my bike virtually everywhere.

East Hill

ive lived in santa rosa for 13 years now, its a pretty good place to ride your bike, but i'd definatly get some mirrors on your bike too cause theres lots of cars also.

All going well, sometime in the next month, I should have a half week preview trip to have a look around - and decide if I would be happy with living (/can afford to live) in the Santa Rosa area.

I'm thinking I should pack my split frame Moulton bike on the plane and fit in ride or two. :)
( with a big reminder on the handle bars - to cycle on the wrong i.e. right side of the road )

I'm thinking I should pack my split frame Moulton bike on the plane and fit in ride or two. :)



Sounds like an excellent idea to me!

East Hill

Although I wouldn't call Santa Rosa bike "friendly", the Bicycle Coalition here is making some progress in that direction. It's certainly flat enough, and the weather is pretty temperate year-round. I've been car-free in Santa Rosa for years- it's easy!