CityStories / City Profiles / Medium Cities / Santa Clarita, California
Population: 151, 088
- Comprehensive recycling
- Restaurant waste composting
- Bike- and pedestrian-friendly
Photo Credit: Wikipedia Community
Santa Clarita, California
July 2010 Update: Santa Clarita has been named a 2010 Smarter City for Energy. Read the article.
The city diverts 54 percent of its waste from the landfill, and even offers curbside pickup to recycle manure!
In 2006, it introduced its pilot food waste recycling program and more than 70 restaurants participated, resulting in nearly 2,000 tons of food that were composted rather than added to the landfill. It also offers free carpet recycling by drop-off.
In June 2008, the City of Santa Clarita approved the Non-Motorized Transportation Plan to make the city more bikeable and walkable with connected trails and pedestrian enhancements, including a network of unique pedestrian walkways and bridges called paseos. Later in 2008, the city received a federal grant for Safe Routes to School, a plan to develop safe ways for elementary and middle school children to walk and bike to school.
The city is also recently joined the Community Energy Partnership in Southern California, which works to bring effective energy efficiency programs to participating communities.
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Santa Clarita Municipal Resources
Click here for information on the Community Energy Partnership (CEP), a coalition working toward effective energy efficiency programs in the seven participating Southern California cities.
Click here for information on energy efficiency rebates available to Southern California residents.
NYC's Residential Recycling Program
Live in NYC and wonder what you can recycle and how? This guide will help.
NYC's Residential Recycling Program
Live in NYC and wonder what you can recycle and how? This guide will help.
Transportation: Bicycling
Cities for Cycling: National Association of City Transportation Officials project to catalog, promote and implement the world's best bicycle transportation practices in American municipalities. Includes several best practices sheets.
Cycling in the Netherlands: Guide to bicycling policies in the Netherlands (pdf)
Fietsberaad: Dutch cycling knowledge center
Bikeability: UK Cycling Proficiency Test
"At the Frontiers of Cycling: Policy Innovations in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany." World Transport Policy and Practice, Vol. 13, No. 3, December 2007, pp. 8-57
"How to Get More Bicyclists on the Road: To Boost Urban Bicycling, Figure Out What Women Want." Linda Baker. Scientific American, October 2009.
Bikes Belong: Research Resources
Designing Cities for Bicycle Transportation
Chicago Bike Lane Design Guide (pdf)
Los Angeles Bike Plan Draft, Chapter 5: Technical Design Handbook (pdf)
Minneapolis Bicycle Facility Manual (pdf)
New City York Street Design Manual
New York City's Ninth Avenue Bicycle Path and Complete Street, for ITE (pdf)
Portland Bikeway Design Best Practices, Appendix D
San Francisco Bicycle Plan Update: Supplemental Design Guidelines (pdf)
San Francisco Shared Markings Study (pdf)
London Cycling Design Standards, Transport for London (UK)
Cycling Guidelines and Practical Details Issue 2, Sustrans (UK)
Collection of Cycle Concepts, Danish Road Directorate (Denmark)
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