Come downtown for the grand opening celebration and a family bike ride on Saturday, April 23rd. The fun starts at 11:00 am. Meet at the downtown Promenade.
Long Beach will inaugurate two separated bikeways—one along Broadway, the other along 3rd Street—designed to provide a pleasant, new way for the entire family to cycle when in downtown Long Beach.
The official ceremony will be held at noon.
Click to enlarge the map. Click to enlarge the Grand Opening poster for more details.
Imagine an extensive, country-wide network of routes for cyclists. Such a network could identify routes of amazing beauty or interest, for example, and could identify routes that cyclists might prefer over other highways, taking into consideration traffic volume, topography, etc.
Lovers of cycling adventure are pushing for the creation of an extensive, nationwide, numbered route system. Back in 1976, during the Bicentennial, two numbered cycling routes were identified in the eastern U.S. Since then, Adventure Cycling Association has created maps identifying many dozens of suggested cyclist routes around the entire country. Go to its web site to learn about the project underway to fund further development of the U.S. Bicycle Route System.
Friends Laura and Russ lived in Long Beach, California until last August. Since then they have been on the road, on a cycling adventure they call pathlesspedaled.com. They are now in Tennessee. The amazing route Laura and Russ have cycled during the past twelve months does not have a number… yet.
At the same time, the City of Long Beach is implementing its own numbered system of recommended cycling routes. Some of the numbered Long Beach Bikeways will guide us along separated facilities, and others will suggest routes along existing roads that the cyclist may prefer. Much is happening these days—locally, nationally, and in many other parts of the world—as ever increasing numbers of people embrace cycling as a serious transportation option.
During the past year, we see Bikeway signs posted here and there across town.
Each Long Beach Bikeway route is assigned a number. Some signs also have arrows or destination information. How might we make use of these new traffic tools?
Local cyclist Peter Dopulos—no ties to the City of Long Beach nor to Long Beach Cyclists—has been cycling newly posted bikeways. Over time, Peter has been describing what he has observed and felt while cycling the routes he has explored so far. To read his interesting descriptions, full of discovery, see www.everythinglongbeach.com/lb/long-beach-bikeways/.
Peter visited Long Beach Cyclists during a recent monthly meeting to share what he has observed and learned. It was wonderful to hear Peter’s stories and sense his enthusiasm as he explores routes on his bike, without initially knowing where a new route will lead him.
What Long Beach Cyclists knows from our ongoing interactions with City planners and engineers is that many cycling-related projects are being contemplated or sketched out, and some are already being implemented. City staff developed a detailed list of preliminary route options. However, City engineers in turn are making adjustments, based on road widths, traffic flow and other considerations. Someday not too far off it would be good to have in hand an excellent map for cyclists indicating all of the eventual numbered bikeways.
Lacking a map of bikeways already posted no doubt has made Peter Dopulos’ adventure of sniffing out the where to’s all the more fun for him.
