More Healthy Cycling? Meet the Regents!

It is really easy

Tuesday February 6, 2018. The Regents Health Services Committee is meeting at UCLA. The time: 12:15 pm in the new Luskin Conference Center (agenda). This is a sub-committee of the UC Regents tasked to guide the UC Health system. During public comment, the Bicycle Academy will highlight the need for our state-wide health provider to address its automotive bias and to assert more clearly, in actions and in words, that cycling is good for you. We no longer can afford to ignore what public health experts are teaching us about the health benefits of active transportation. Please join us for this event, and share how you want this health system to improve its attitude towards active modes of transport. 

We will remind the Regents and the experts present that a bicycle friendly health system 

1. offers significant financial benefits because for a self-insured employer a healthier workforce means real savings
2. offers a low cost yet highly effective way to improve population health, well-being and disease prevention in the community

We will also remind the Regents and the experts 

1. that in spite of wide-spread anxieties about bicycle use, obesity and its attendant co-morbidities are a far bigger public health hazard than cycling injuries
2. that the lack of active living options is responsible for a large part of our fast growing health expenditure
3. that guidance from the highest level of the organisation is required, comparable to the surgeon generals warning about smoking, 
4. that the established division between transport planning and health policies effectively prevents accessing the multiple benefits (health, sustainability, community) of the medical device with two wheels
5. that other health systems (NHS, Canada) have developed guidance that requires medical offices and hospitals to prioritize active modes, and to collaborate with local authorities to achieve a street network that can safely accommodate active modes
6. that the League of American Bicyclists offers a program that can certify a Hospital as a Bicycle Friendly Business
7. that there is a large unmet demand for CDC accredited Diabetes Prevention Programs with an emphasis on safe and confident cycling, or similar "Cycling on Prescription" programs
8. that this innovative program is very much of the Golden State, that it should be spearheaded by an academic health center, and that it should be initiated right here, on the most healthy campus of the system (etc)

We will ask the Regents to adopt motion to convene a working group of UC Health, UC Sustainability and UC Marketing and bicycle experts or advocacy groups, to design a UC branded bicycle rack that would serve to assert and advertise UC Health's support for active modes. Once a health system manages to put its logo on a bike rack, great things happen.

Did it ever occur to you how weird it is that your medical office offers plenty of car parking, and nothing for bikes? Were you ever looking for a staircase in a medical office but only found the elevator? Did you ever feel your doctor should assert more firmly the health benefits of active transportation? Then the Regents committee should hear from you. 

Our proposal has already received a good amount of support. Regent Lansing, the chair of the committee, has expressed interest. Dr Stobo, Executive Vice President of UC Health, expressed interest in the financial savings that a healthier workforce would mean for UC as a self-insured employer. He did not object to the proposal to share this with the regents and the experts. Even the good folks from AARP, who have shown great leadership in healthy transport issues, expressed support. This committee is a sympathetic and powerful forum. Because we are looking for an explicit medical acknowledgement of the benefits of active modes, the issue exceeds the level of facilities management and requires an rarely seen level of collaboration between health policy and transport planning at the highest level. We hope that the Regents can establish some guidance for the entire UC Health system to recognize the bicycle as a cheap and effective medical device. A medical office without bicycle parking really does send the wrong message. And a location webpage with advertises valet parking for cars, but is quiet about walking, cycling and transit routes, should not be difficult to remedy, once the regents have given the necessary guidance. 

We hope to see you on Tuesday. A few more talking points are here.

Update: Public comment has been recorded and is available here https://youtu.be/BdT5KkY5ZJk?t=140

UCLA Athletes as bicycle advocates

This is an invitation for UCLA Athletes to join us for the meeting of the UC Regents Health Services Committee at UCLA on the 6th of February 2018. The meeting of Bruins, of Athletes and the Health System, is a meeting of giants. Because UCLA is really about our athletes, and about the campus health business. Five hospitals and 160 medical offices throughout LA county, the budget of UCLA Health actually exceeds that of the rest of the campus, that little world-class university we also call UCLA.

Driving to UCLA

Remember how much our best athletes love the bicycle. Of course they would love to see more people cycling. A few images to do the talking:

Bill Walton jumped on his bicycle to get that famous haircut in Westwood

Bill Walton next to his sculpture with bicycle

Kareem Abdul Jabbar

Kareem as Grand Marshall for the 1979 Bike-a-Thon, Marina del Rey

And, yes, the wooden Bike, aka "The Coach" (?)

So when the UC Regents Health Services Committee meets at UCLA on the 6th of February 2018, this is a great opportunity to remind them that our athletes are watching how they bring this great tradition of cycling to all the medical establishments the UC system provides throughout California. Because a medical office or a hospital should be optimized for healthy modes of getting around, modes that are healthy for our bodies and healthy for our environment. 

And if you don't quite know what to say to the Regents, here is some language that may come in handy

We applaud the sustainability effort underway for the UC Health system, which is led by Paul Watkins of the UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica. But the bicycle has not yet received the attention it naturally deserves in a medical context. Bicycles are wonderfully effective in preventing disease, improving health and achieving sustainability in our communities. A comprehensive program which includes staff, patients, but also negotiations with local agencies in charge of transport planning, is beyond the scope of the current effort. A broader initiative is urgently needed to reap the manifold benefits an increase in active transportation will bring. Its natural starting point are the UC Health campus locations and countless UC branded medical offices throughout California. In our vision UC Health is committed to improve its communities, creating instances of bicycle perfection in a geography that urgently needs more of them.

Given a broad body of scientific evidence, the Executive Vice President of UC Health should issue a declaration about the medical benefits of active transportation. Such policy guidance would lead the way for UC Health to become a more bicycle perfect institution throughout the state. The design of a UC Health branded bicycle rack, complete with a health related message, may be a suitable first step to assert and market this insight.

Public health experts tell us that automobilitis and the lack of physical activity account for a large proportion of poor health in our communities. Now is the time for UC Health to devote resources to liberate our communities from our sickening addiction to cars. An academic health center is a natural leader for such a broad effort. The state of California is the right place for this. This committee can make this happen. 

We support the proposal developed by the UCLA Bicycle Academy that lists a number of concrete steps through which a culture of health and sustainability can be generated. For those who have grown up to believe that the car is the only safe place on our roads, this proposal may seem scandalous. But the true scandal would be a UC Health system that fails to decisively support and encourage active transportation.

(See also: https://bicycleacademy.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-abc-123-of-bicycle-friendly-health.html)

The ABC 123 of a Bicycle Friendly Health System

Some steps towards a UC Health system that decisively supports and encourages active transportation.

• A design-guide for a UC Health branded bike rack in collaboration with UC marketing (color, design, health message on rack, placement according to APBP) 
• Review and improve access and attractiveness of staircases for all premises
• Evaluate the financial benefit for UC as a self-insured employer if more employees use active modes for their commute
• Pay staff  who commute by bike 10 cents for every mile cycled
• Normalize cycling and transit options on all "directions and parking" webpages which consistently assume that everybody drives 
• Create media opportunities for UC Leadership to be shown with a bicycle
• Evaluate improved productivity and work satisfaction if more staff uses active modes for the commute
• Conduct an annual Blessing of the Bicycles ceremony 
• Apply for certification as Bicycle Friendly Business through the League of American Bicyclists (Precedent: Seattle Childrens Hospital, etc)
• Offer CDC accredited Diabetes Prevention Programs which emphasize safe and confident cycling education
• Encourage development of "Cycling on Prescription" programs
• Develop a Public Service Announcement Campaign: "Surgeon General's Warning: Driving causes Obesity and Diabetes, Start Cycling now to Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health." (Preecedent: Cyclists are always Fragile campaign by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
• Create the position of a Sustainable Transport Improver at each medical campus
• Engage with local agencies to improve transportation infrastructure for active modes in the communities were UC Health operates. Bring the voice of medical experts to the planning process
• Offer and advertise free bicycle valet parking at all locations that provide valet parking for cars
• Ensure that Capital Programs reviews all current and new off-campus premises for active transportation improvements

Because these interventions touch many different parts of the organisation, this proposals requires strong leadership.

Book Review: Strategic Plan

The email from Scott Waugh arrived yesterday. The executive vice chancellor asked us to look at the strategic plan for UCLA, the recommendations for the same to be precise. And so we did.

The process falls into five sections, each with a committee and a substantial report, and plenty of recommendations. I started with the section on Civic Engagement.  H-i-g-h-l-y   r-e-c-o-m-m-e-n-d-e-d.  V-e-r-y.  It is an extended meditation on the Chancellor's demand that UCLA must make a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles. The report reminds us how the other team in LA  has achieved an admirable track record on neighborhood engagement, while the community programs UCLA had initiated after the LA riots were silently dropped after a few years. The report contains some very clear language about a confusing and inefficient hierarchy, especially surrounding the so-called Office for Community and Government Relations, which, for the bicycle advocate, always felt deeply conflicted and ineffectual. The report suggest a new position of a Vice Chancellor for Community Engagement who would have the resources and the authority to facilitate the much needed connection between the campus and the community. The report envisions community relations that are bi-lateral, a constant give-and-take, and never top-down. It gives short shrift to the arrogance of academia that would consider itself as the bringer of all things nice to the community which does not know what it needs. It also highlights the unique responsibility of UCLA, being the only elite public university which is located smack in the middle of a global megalopolis. Bingo. Let's run with this!

Mind you, all this lofty talk is not goody-two-shoes stuff: The back-end is made of hard-boiled marketing considerations, brand surveys, and the need to shore up political support for public education. The ivory tower campus is no longer a viable proposition in an American city and an American society that needs a great deal of urgent fixing. There is talk of integrating disparate initiatives, of formally acknowledging student and staff involvement in such initiatives, and the interdisciplinary challenges posed by realities that do not neatly fall into disciplinary terrains. Like the bicycle which challenges the co-operation of urban planning, public health, sustainability, diabetes prevention, transport engineering and behavioral psychology.  

Thanks, folks! From the handle-bar of our bikes we have identified very much the same shortcomings in the current strategic engagement and in the organization chart of our campus. But our short proposal, long proposal goes further. Because the bicycle is the unacknowledged purveyor of healthy living, our proposal had a closer look at UCLA Health, the big bear on our campus . Yes, there are many many many doctors and nurses in the system who do what they can to fix what they can. Imagine what they could achieve with the support from the top as envisioned here!

One report does not list the people which make up its committee, but from the available composition of the committees, we are hearing a whole lot of silence from one entire half of the campus. The bigger half, mind you. UCLA Health, previously known as the UCLA Health System, is hard to find here. Paul Staton, their Chief Financial Officer, is listed as a member of the committee on Institutional Effectiveness. And there are faculty from the Medical School participating. But reading through those reports, it is evident that UCLA Health is boxing far below its real weight. The missing voice of a major health care provider in the region marks a worrisome disconnection. Perhaps Mrs Spisso, President of UCLA Health, should look into this. Or is there a secret plan for the UCLA Health to opt out from the community engagement vision outlined here? To be sure, the bi-annual accounting exercise called "Community Health Needs Assessment", required by the IRS to secure the tax-exempt status of the hospital, is miles, light-years behind the strategic vision of how the campus should make a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles.

Managerial formulas will not make a difference in the civic life of LA

The "Healthy Behaviors" project, presented as part of the Research Innovation section, is a superb example how campus and community can come together. It includes a reference to an entity called "UCLA Medical Center" (p 13), which is the 520 bed hospital located on campus. But it fails to note the staggering opportunities of community outreach afforded by the network of 160 plus UCLA Health medical offices located in the LA County, - even if the locations of these offices precisely mirror the map of affluence in our region. "Healthy Behaviors" has evidently been written without the benefit of engaged feedback from UCLA Health. The uncanny silence from UCLA Health threatens to derail this very laudable effort. There must be no opt-out from making a difference in the civic life of Los Angeles.

Thanks, fellow Bruins! Great work! But why was all this good stuff kept in a drawer since July? Yes to more institutional agility. Improving access to campus for those who would not drive has suddenly become much easier, and it should have been easier 6 months ago. 

• When presenting community partnerships, try to avoid the false impression that UCLA is located in the city of Los Angeles. Those on two wheels learn very quickly that UCLA is located in a complex network of municipalities, districts and agencies, from Beverly Hills to the Veterans Administration, from Santa Monica to Culver City, from LA County to CD5, from West Hollywood to the National Cemetery Administration. The problems associated with this regional complexity are addressed in our short proposal, long proposal 
• When talking about housing, environmental justice, education, please do include transportation
• And thank you for envisioning DTUCLA close to a station of the purple line. These details do count! 

UCLA in Downtown: Campus and city agree: Best to ignore the scandalous bicycle infrastructure around UCLA

Provision for those who would walk or ride a bike to UCLA is, well, bad. Scandalously bad. It would be a nice project to quantify the damage done to the environment and the health of our communities by those planning decisions in the region around UCLA that have favored cars and ignored sustainable modes. But even before these figures are on the table, one would expect that the conversations between campus and elected officials during the annual UCLA in Downtown event would touch on the need to improve non-motorized access to campus. Not so. Campus and city agree: Best to ignore the scandalous bicycle infrastructure around UCLA.

To make up for this omission, we have attended the evening reception UCLA Day in Downtown LA at LA City Hall. An impressive building, a beautiful evening. We handed out some reminders to those who forget (and forget yet again) all about the surprising benefits of non-motorized transportation. Here is the batch of custom colored bicycle badges for the occasion.

custom colored bicycle badges

One lady would not touch our offering, she apparently fell from a bike as a child. But many attendees proudly displayed our bike badges as the evening progressed. One alumni remembered his father in law who had a bike shop, the other had his fiancee who is a keen cyclists. Still another arrived on a bicycle. The servers transmitted urgent demands from the kitchen where the badges were in high demand. They all supported the idea that a world class university which promotes an agenda that challenges itself to make a real difference in the local community can ill afford to stay silent on the benefits of bikes. Specially when talking to elected officials and planners.

Alumni

Chancellor Gene Block

Chancellor Gene Block

Paul Koretz

Alumni

We also brought a few playing cards.

But not the standard Bicycle Cards®. Our cards are specialized bicycle advocacy cards, cheat sheets with some of the questions that deserve attention when thinking about the place of UCLA in its community.
Our cards were ♠ spades ♠ only, because ♠ spades ♠ is what it takes to get bike lanes built.

Finally, for the latter part of the proceedings, when the assembly honored its advocates, we found a few bicycle bells in the our advocacy tool box. They rang out happily when the audience applauded, reminding all, yet again, that a campus that fails to get involved with healthy and sustainable modes of transportation is a poor campus indeed.