DANVILLE – For years, one of the Bay Area’s most popular biking destinations – the summit of Mount Diablo – was also one of its most dangerous. Last Saturday, cyclists and park officials celebrated an achievement that was a decade in the making and dramatically reduced the number of tragedies on the mountain.
They are called “bicycle passables,” narrow asphalt lanes that allow uphill cyclists to deviate from the main road on blind bends. This gives cars the opportunity to pass without crossing into the oncoming lane and sometimes into the path of downhill cyclists.
Shannon, the daughter of Danville Mayor Karen Stepper, was lucky to survive a head-on collision in 2015.
“You see all these pullouts and you see people turning and crossing,” Stepper said as she watched cyclists use the pullouts. “Obviously Shannon wouldn’t have been hit if that was the case. So you have to have someone who actually comes up with the idea.”
That someone was Al Kalin. Fed up with all the carnage, the retired Army colonel and avid cyclist formed the Mount Diablo Cyclists group to do something about it.
“We were founded in 2014 when we realized the fire department was coming through here every other week,” he said. “Cyclists were being hit — there were actual collisions — and the state parks did absolutely nothing at the time to figure out why that was happening, much less implement safety improvements.”
So a working group of cyclists in Kalin’s backyard drew up a blueprint for a pullout that apparently didn’t exist anywhere else in the world. They pushed the state to build the first three, and when those seemed to work well, a few more were gradually added here and there. Finally, in 2021, State Senator Steve Glazer pushed for $1.5 million to complete the first 45 pullouts on the mountain.
“It’s become incredibly safer,” said cyclist Linda Kwong. “And with the volume increasing over the years, it’s only gotten much better.”
Then tragedy spurred the project forward. In 2021, a legendary Diablo cyclist named Joe Shami was killed in a collision with a car. In his will, he left $125,000 to the effort, which State Parks matched. Then Kalin began fundraising at a Danville cafe and raised an incredible $750,000, giving Mount Diablo its final 22 pullouts, bringing the total to 67. A ceremony was held at the site of the pilot pullout to celebrate its completion, and Kalin’s voice cracked as he paid tribute to his friend Joe Shami’s legacy.
“Joe was my friend. Joe was your friend. Joe was 86 years young and never took no for an answer when his life was on the line. In honor of Joe’s efforts, today is ‘Joe Shami Day’ on Mount Diablo. I hereby declare it!” Kalin said to cheers from the crowd.
Although he did not receive permission from the park administration, the entire effort to create these alternative sites was a grassroots battle against bureaucracy, which Kalin says can be a little daunting at times.
“When you’re dealing with bureaucracy, you go to bed thinking, ‘Oh man, I don’t want to do that,'” he said. “But then you wake up and they say, ‘Thank you.’ And so the words of thanks helped me keep going.”
On Saturday, both the park and cyclists expressed their gratitude for making the ride to the summit a little less nerve-wracking. Collisions have been reduced by 80 percent, and others are taking notice. Kalin was recently contacted by Oregon State University to see if the pullouts would be feasible in that state. At Mount Diablo, the plan still calls for 13 pullouts, but someone else may have to raise the funds for that. Kalin said he’s afraid of what his wife might do if he tries to raise money again.
John Ramos
