Alternative Housing Bike Tour (UC Davis Campus)

This is a ticket for the Alternative Housing: Four Davis Eco-Villages Bike Tour on the UC Davis Campus

On this bike tour we’ll look at four radically different models of ecological community, all within two miles of one another in Davis CA. We’ll start by renting bikes at the UCD Bike Barn, and will first visit the Domes, a student-built alternative community dating to the 1970s. Then we’ll move on to West Village, a new zero-net-energy neighborhood for 3,000+ students, faculty, and staff that opened its doors in 2010, designed in the style of a European eco-district. Next we’ll examine Village Homes, after 40 years still North America’s pre-eminent example of a sustainable suburban neighborhood. Village Homes features edible landscapes, community gardens, greenways, passive solar design of homes, on-site drainage, narrow streets, community spaces, and many other design innovations. The community is in the process of updating its landscapes for the 21st century to improve water efficiency, habitat value, and use of native species. Finally, we’ll stop at Muir Commons, America’s first designed-from-scratch cohousing community. Along the way we’ll check out Davis’ award-winning bike infrastructure, including bicycle roundabouts, underpasses, overpasses, grade-separated bike lanes, and traffic lights. During the tour we’ll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each model of eco-village, and see what we can learn for our own work.