Ojai Coalition Peddles Freewheeling Lifestyle

The 20 bicycles are painted a lurid yellow, have all but one gear removed and sport a small official-looking sign explaining their purpose.

Yet the day after the Ojai Bicycle Coalition sprinkled the refurbished bikes around town for free use by residents and tourists, only a handful could be found.

But organizers of the Ojai Community Yellow Bike Program are unconcerned.

“You can’t steal something [that is] free,” said Karen Fay, program coordinator. “It’s a social experiment. You would be foolish to think you could control the outcome of this sort of thing. It’s a beginning.”

The modest idea is seen by Fay and her freewheeling cohorts as the precursor to something much bigger: an alternative transportation program to get people out of their cars.

Even though only six bikes could be readily seen Friday, the concept is already working on a small scale.

On Thursday, the program’s inaugural day, downtown bookstore owner Bobby Houston, 40, drove into town as usual from his country ranch to run a few errands. He spotted a yellow bike resting near his usual parking spot and hopped on.

“I went to the bank, [then] I picked up takeout food and a video,” he said. “I was thrilled to death. I passed somebody else on a yellow bike and we waved . . . I finally feel like I’m living in Europe--if you squint your eyes.”

Houston flipped up a sign on the bike that read “In Use” while inside each store. Upon finishing his errands, he simply left the bike where he found it and drove home.

“It’s what we’re all striving for--convenience,” Fay said. “You can park outside the store.”

Multiply Houston’s experience hundreds of times and you have the beginning of unclogged streets, cleaner air and the retention of Ojai’s village-like atmosphere, boosters say.

“When a town is bicycle [and] pedestrian friendly, then people enjoy strolling and looking around,” said Suza Francina, coalition spokeswoman. “Studies show business goes up and home values increase.”

The genesis of the program occurred last September with the founding of the Ojai Bicycle Coalition, which was formed to promote bicycling in the city. At the same time, the city was making a commitment to clear its streets of some of the estimated 20,000 cars a day that pass through Ojai, said Fay, who is also a member of the Planning Commission.

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The Ojai Yellow Bike program is modeled on similar schemes that began in Europe and have spread to almost a dozen American cities including Fresno, Portland and Tucson with varying degrees of success. Indeed, the Ojai Valley Inn has provided guests with courtesy bikes for years, Fay said.

In Ojai, inmates of the county’s nearby honor farm recondition and repair bicycles for the program that are found by police and go unclaimed. Others are donated at valley fire stations. A variety of nonprofit groups have contributed money, time or materials to get the program off the ground.

A disclaimer on each bike eliminates liability problems. Even though the program is aimed at getting adults out of their cars, children are permitted to ride, although state law requires them to don a helmet. The program does not provide helmets to riders.

So far, the experiment is getting good reviews by residents and tourists alike.

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Livia Smoquina, 40, of Ojai sees the program providing a sense of community that is missing when cars dominate the streets.

“It’s the exact opposite of the Internet,” she said. “It’s slowing [life] down.”

Jim Namimoto, 50, who is visiting the Ojai Valley from Torrance with family and friends, was similarly impressed after taking a spin around Libbey Park.

“It’s a nice idea,” he said. But the specter of bike theft was on his mind when he added, “I don’t think you could do this in L.A. though.”

Bike stealing is the issue uppermost in almost everybody’s minds, except those in the coalition, Fay said.

The bicycles’ color and lack of gears is an attempt to limit their desirability. If the homeless or other needy people end up taking them, well, so what, Francina said. The group eventually plans to flood the streets with up to 100 bikes, which should overcome any losses by dint of sheer numbers.

Besides, Fay said, the absence of bicycles should be taken as an indicator of the program’s success rather than its failure.

“If I ever come down here and see 50 bikes, I’ll know people don’t want the program,” she said.