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Getting Around Bikes & Busses

Tuesday, 29 September 2009 13:36 Nick Veronin All About Santa Cruz - Activity & Visitor Guide
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bikeSanta Cruz is a very ecologically minded place. Combine that with students strapped for cash and you get a community particularly interested in alternative forms of transportation. Fortunately, whatever your reason—whether it be the exercise from riding a bike, the lower carbon footprint associated with public transit, or simply saving money with a carpool partner or highly efficient car—there is likely to be a local a solution for you.

BIKES
You only need to spend an hour or so in Santa Cruz to realize that it is an extremely bike-friendly place. Whether you’re a fixed gear, road bike, mountain bike or beach cruiser rider, there are plenty of bike shops and biking solutions for you.

Shops
Shops offer professional assistance with all your cycling needs. If you want to take a more do-it-yourself approach, check out the Bike Church in Santa Cruz, located at 703 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz, 425-2453. Sure, you can find a lengthy list of shops on the web, but take note of several cool spots we really liked:
.
Another Bike Shop, 2361 Mission St., (831) 427-2232, anotherbikeshop.com
Bicycle Trip, 1127 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz, (831) 427-2580, bicycletrip.com
Bicycle Shop, 1325 Mission St., Santa Cruz, (831) 454-0909  fixedgearfreak.com  (831) 454-0909
Dave's Custom Bikes, 910 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz, (831) 423-8923
The Spokesman Bicycles, 231 Cathcart St., Santa Cruz, (831) 423-5683, spokesmanbicycles.com  
Sprockets, 1420 Mission St., Santa Cruz, sprocketsbikes.com (831) 426-7623
Scotts Valley Cyclesport, 245 Mount Herman Road #J, Scotts Valley,  www.svcyclesport.com

Rider Information
Find info on bike cooperatives, bike routes, biking buddies, bike lockers and more:
-Go Green: gogreencollege.org/Bicycle/coop.html
-Commute Solutions: sccrtc.org/bike.html
-Cabrillo Bike Coop: cabrillo.edu/associations/bike/
-UCSC Bike Programs: 2.ucsc.edu/taps/bicycleprograms.html

metlogoBUSSES
So, your THAT student—the one that has to ride the bus. Hey. It’s cool. Don’t freak out about it. It’s all good. Fortunately, life’s a breeze—more or less—here when it comes to  public transit. UCSC students with a valid university ID can ride all Metro lines for free. Cabrillo students can pay a nominal fee each term to obtain a sticker that when placed on a Cabrillo ID serves as a free bus pass. Nice. Take note of other things:

-Cabrillo students and staff can get to the junior college on Metro lines 54, 55, 56, 69N, 69W, 70, 71 and 91X.
-UCSC students and staff may take Metro lines 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 27X
-Route 17 goes over the hill to San Jose, where you can connect to CalTrain to head up the San Francisco peninsula or VTA lines 180 and 181 to get to the East Bay and BART.
-Monterey-Salinas Transit has a trip planner at www.mst.org, where you can find connecting routes up and down Monterey Bay.

Shelby_CobraCARS
If you are a student or faculty at Cabrillo or UC Santa Cruz, there are many online options that can help individuals find a carpool partner. There are national sites like Share Shotgun and iCarpool that work to intuitively match riders and drivers. Craigslist is another way to find a carpool partner. There is the Facebook application Zimride, which UC Santa Cruz recommends for local college students and faculty. The locally based Commute Solutions and Go Green are also full of information on carpooling, bike routes and public transit information. UC Santa Cruz even offers discounted parking permits for those who carpool. There is also Zipcar, which offers discounts to UCSC students to share the international car-sharing company’s three cars on the UCSC campus and one car downtown. Finally, for faculty members or those students fortunate enough, there is Zenn Car, the all electric car that costs around $13,000 after tax rebates. It is perfect for getting around town on zero emissions.

-UCSC Carpooling: 2.ucsc.edu/taps/carpoolinformation.html
-Commute Solutions: commutesolutions.org
-Go Green: gogreencollege.org
-Zimride on Facebook: facebook.com/zimride
-Zipcar: zipcar.com/ucsc
-Zenn Car in Santa Cruz: thegreenstation.us
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