Thursday, December 10: Holiday Joy Ride at Panama 66

Wheel Wreaths and Ornamented Handlebars To Light Up 5th Annual Holiday Joy Ride
San Diego Bike Coalition to honor 2015 Golden Gear award winners

SAN DIEGO, December 9, 2015 – Lighting up the streets tomorrow night, the San Diego County Bike Coalition will spread holiday cheer at its 5th annual Holiday Joy Ride before recognizing its Golden Gear award winners for their two-wheeled dedication in 2015.

The fifth-annual, family-friendly ride will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Balboa Park at Panama 66. The spectacle of bikers encourages festive costumes for the tinsel-wrapped, light-strung, two-wheeled parade.

The ride will conclude at 6:30 p.m. with a celebration at Panama 66 to recognize top bicycle achievements of 2015 and honor five recipients of the Bike Coalition’s Golden Gear Awards. The only regional bike advocacy organization, the Bike Coalition awards recipients who went above and beyond to make San Diego County bike friendly in the past year.

2015 Golden Gear award winners include:
Volunteer of the Year: Mike Samyn, Alpine resident, for being the first to show up and the last to go home with admirable enthusiasm and passion for everything bikes
Advocate of the Year: Monique Lopez, South Park resident, for her tireless dedication and community involvement to improve bike safety and accessibility in the region for all people, particularly urban communities south of the I-8 freeway
Public Partner of the Year: City of National City for making groundbreaking improvements to the city’s infrastructure and implementing its first Safe Routes to School program to encourage children to walk and pedal to school
Community Partner of the Year: REI for its commitment to the outdoors and supporting bicycling organizations and eventsREI is also a founding sponsor of the Bike Coalition’s annual ride across the Coronado-San Diego bridge, Bike the Bay
Bike-Friendly Business of the Year: TREK Bicycle Superstore for its dedicated nationwide to supporting bicycling and locally supports the Bike Coaltion.  It’s local San Diego store in the company’s largest dealer in the country

“We had a significant year for bikes in 2015, including a record-breaking Bike the Bay in August and increased momentum for local bike projects. Residents want safe communities for themselves and their children, and we saw this bring people together across the county,” says Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the Bike Coalition. “Today’s celebration recognizes the people supporting our vision for making San Diego a safe place for anyone who chooses two wheels instead of four.”

Regional bike lovers can expect more momentum toward this biketastic goal in 2016 as the Bike Coalition has plans to bring back the city’s beloved CicloSDias; an open-streets celebration for people to rediscover their neighborhood up close and personal, instead of from behind the window of a car.

To purchase tickets to the Holiday Joy Ride on Thursday, December 10, please click here. To learn more about or join the San Diego County Bike Coalition, visit http://www.sdbikecoalition.org/.

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San Diego County Bike Coalition (SDCBC) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for and protects the rights of all people who ride bicycles. They promote bicycling as a mainstream, safe and enjoyable form of transportation and recreation. For more information, go to www.sdbikecoalition.org.

CicloSDias: Hillcrest & Banker's Hill Open Streets on Sunday

CicloSDias is back! For the third time, San Diego is closing 2 miles of streets to vehicular traffic so people can walk, bike, roll, scoot, and skate freely on our city streets. The first two events were incredible, with thousands of pedestrians and bikes taking to the streets for the first CicloSDias that ran from Downtown through South Park, North Park, and ending in City Heights and the second one which closed major corridors in Pacific Beach. This time around, the streets run in Bankers Hill and Hillcrest, which also means easier bike access to Balboa Park. The open streets event is free and open to all ages and abilities and runs from 10am-3pm. For more information, check out the website here.

May 21: Bike Coalition Picnic @ Crown Point

Bike Coalition Member Picnic
Saturday, May 31st at 11:00 AM
Crown Point Park
1759-1799 Moorland Dr , San Diego, CA

This is open to members and people interested in Bike Coalition Activities.
SEE INVITE AND RSVP HERE. 

Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 30

From SANDAG:

Bike to Work Day is Friday, May 30

As you are likely aware, Bike to Work Day was postponed to Friday, May 30 due to disruptions caused by the recent wildfires. We hope that you will join thousands of San Diegans and bike to work on Bike to Work Day, Friday, May 30.

With more than 1,340 miles of bikeways in the San Diego region, biking will get you where you want to go. Participating in Bike to Work 2014 is a great way to save money, get fit, and be environmentally friendly. That morning, stop by one of 97 pit stops to pick up a FREE Bike to Work Day t-shirt and refuel with free snacks and plenty of encouragement.

Get ready to ride. Bike to Work Month is a great time to refresh your bicycle safety skills. Practice these helpful tips every time you ride:

• Plan your trip in advance. Visit the new San Diego Regional Interactive Bike Map.
• Stay alert and aware of vehicles around you.
• Use caution and appropriate hand signals when stopping and making turns.
• Obey all traffic laws.
• If it’s been a while since you rode, visit a local bike shop and get a tune-up.
• Watch for sharrows. Sharrows are a guide to help you position yourself safely in the travel lane. Ride in the same direction of traffic.
• Stay out of the “door zone” – ride at least a door's width away from parked cars. If necessary, position yourself in the center of the traffic lane to stay approximately three feet away from parked cars.

Register for Bike to Work Day and log your bike trips in TripTracker to be automatically entered to win one of many great prizes, including the grand prize – a new bicycle! Every time you bike to work and log your trips in May, you will be entered into weekly prize drawings throughout Bike to Work Month. You can log your Bike to Work trips through Friday, June 6 to be eligible for the grand prize.

Visit the iCommute bike webpage for more helpful tips. To register for Bike to work Day, log trips, or for more information, visit 511sd.com/iCommute or call 511 and say “iCommute.”

Let’s ride!
The iCommute Bike to Work Team

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Vulnerable Road User Proposal Passes Unanimously in State Transportation Committee

I've been a little focused on other things lately and just never really got this site off the ground. But, I've been thinking how easy it should be to document my little bike adventures and the process of Darren and Nova building a bike and all this craziness in the city about Decobike failing and bike infrastructure holds and pushes. So I won't get ahead of myself, but this just came through in email from the California Bicycle Coalition and it's a good place to restart with my posts. Tonight we had a big step forward for the Vulnerable Road user bill you have supported. AB 2398 (unofficially) unanimously passed the Transportation Committee 11-0. Because of you. Thank you for taking action. We have redirected the petition to also send to Senator Mark DeSaulnier and the Governor - which is where the bill could get dicey. As Gov. Brown proved with the Three Feet for Safety Act by putting it off for six years, he does not want new laws to enforce. We need to show him that protecting all road users is vital for the health and safety of all California communities. Share our petition with a friend with this URL: chn.ge/1i9Km07. Be sure to tag us in any social media post and use the hashtag #bikeCA! Finally, we can only have victories like this because of the support of our members. Join, renew, or donate today to help us be an even stronger force enabling more people to bicycle for the health, safety, and prosperity of all Californians. Thanks again for your support, Ryan Price California Bicycle Coalition