The Bicycle Civil Liberties Union (BCLU) has grown out of the events 1997, where a wide spectrum of civil and human rights abuses were seen against bicyclists in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California.

In particular: the false arrests and police violence at the July 25th, 1997, San Francisco Critical Mass bicycle ride; the false arrests and false citations against activists participating in the Bike the Bridge! movement, the "copycat crimes" by police at group bicycle events and rides such as Critical Masses and the Cherry City Cycling Century in surrounding cities and counties, such as Fresno, Walnut Creek, Marin, Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda County, and others; ticketing sprees and the stalking of cyclists in Berkeley, Santa Cruz and San Francisco; mounting frustration with the inequities in urban planning which favor and subsidize the automobile and indeed force many people to drive; and the long history of human rights abuses against bicyclists, including motorist assault, police bias at crash scenes, and unsafe conditions on the roadways.

On all of these fronts, groups of individuals were working with legal teams to try to find solutions. The natural next step was to formalize our position and combine forces in order to make lasting policy changes that would educate and empower cyclists; stop the violence, harassment, and bias; and correct inequities and unfairness in transportation planning.

The BCLU is an all-volunteer effort which has numerous projects. We need your help to see them come to fruition.

Please join now in suppport of our mission (membership is free, but we always need donations), and please volunteer to help one or more of our projects succeed--or propose your own!

To volunteer, please contact Jason Meggs, BCLU Director, or page him at (510) 720-2818, facsimile (510) 486-1528.