Yesterday was Bike to Work Day.

Unfortunately, most people don’t ride their bikes to work. For the most part, it’s done on an infrequent basis—if at all.

Travelin’ Local, as well as many advocates for bicycling, alternative energy, transportation, community activists, and national bicycling organizations hope to change that.

If you biked to work yesterday, and were able to stop at many of the pit stops provided by local business’ and governments, good conversations about bikes were in abundance, goodie bags were to be had, the patrons provided a lot of important information and hosted free refreshments as well.

The first stop for my pit stop tour was at Helen’s Cycles.

Here is Mike whom I met and enjoyed our bicycling friendly conversation. He said that by 7:30 am, 25 people had already stopped by to chat.

The pit stop hours were from 6:00am to 9am.

As you can see in the photo, Helen’s Cycles had a nice little spread for any lucky biker who stopped by.

With a location right on Broadway’s bike lane, it’s a popular spot. I received a $5.00 off coupon for Helen’s Cycles, so I’ll definitely be coming back to make a purchase.

Hey I like to shop! Especially for free……:)

My next pit stop was at the REI store in Santa Monica.

They had a grab bag full of goodies which they were providing to bicycle riders. We talked briefly about riders having to be very cautious of parked cars on Broadway.

If you ride bikes on the street, here’s an issue that some riders and car drivers don’t consider, but should:

A bike lane is a traffic lane on a road. Would you stand in the middle of the road and have a conversation? How about opening a car door with traffic coming?

Obviously you wouldn’t. So please be considerate of the bicyclists using the lane. Look before you open your car door.

My final pit stop of the day was at Santa Monica City Hall.

Santa Monica is a forward thinking city. In fact, it was recently awarded the Bronze by the League of American Bicyclists.

Santa Monica is active in trying to encourage more bike riders. They recently added more bike racks to several areas close to the Third Street Promenade, and have more planned. However, there’s much more education, advocacy, and work yet to be done:

There are 130 miles of arterial streets in Santa Monica. Bike lanes are designated on 13 total miles of roadway. Of these, 3.78 miles of designated bike lanes are on arterial streets. That means less than 3% of Santa Monica’s arterial streets have bike lanes, a figure which falls short of the city’s 35% target for 2010.  In addition to designated bike lanes, there is one bike path that is 3.11 miles long and 20 bike routes covering 18.78 miles.

On the plus side, the Bike Valet Service at Pier Saturday Night Concert Series and Sunday Farmers’ Market and other city events parked over 16,000 bikes in 2007, getting cars off the road and improving convenience of biking around town.  Source: City of Santa Monica.

With events like Bike to Work Day, cities become more eco-friendly, bike issues advance to the forefront of people’s thinking, and they become more aware to the general public. Who knows, while enjoying the fresh air and getting your heart pumping, using your “pedal power” when Travelin’ Local where you live, helps you to smell the roses as you exercise and save the planet.

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