January 31st at 6:00 pm, join us at Portfolio Coffee House on Fourth at Junipero for an additional opportunity to discuss interesting ideas found in Jeff Mapes’ book Pedaling Revolution.
The Long Beach Cyclists Reading Group, organized by Kevin Flaherty, meets monthly to discuss books and news of interest to the local cycling community.
Click EVENTS at the top of the page, and scroll to the January 31st calendar entry to view a map pointing to Portfolio.
Click on this must-read letter. It’s from Russ Roca. Russ writes to friends and to all those who look forward to Long Beach becoming an even better city than it already is.
Charles Gandy is the City of Long Beach Mobility Coordinator. Gandy is a nationally known cycling advocate who for the next year or two has made Long Beach home while contracted to assist the City of Long Beach in its efforts to make Long Beach a better, more livable city for all.
A League Certified Instructor (LCI) leads traffic skills courses for cyclists and other road users. Several members of Long Beach Cyclists are LCIs. Long Beach offers Traffic Skills 101 at CSULB Pyramid Annex. Click EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com web page for more details and to find out how to sign up for an upcoming course.
Russ Roca and Laura Crawford have been on a cross-country cycling adventure called Path Less Pedaled since August of 2009. They send us updates, this time from Arizona. For several years, Russ made a living here in Long Beach as the Eco-Friendly Bicycling Photographer. Daily, Russ was seen cycling here and there around Long Beach and beyond on his cargo bike—a long bike with an enormous rack to carry lots of specialized photo equipment. Many of Russ’ photographs have been featured in the District weekly and other publications. Both Russ and Laura were active participants in Long Beach Cyclists and cycling advocacy when they lived in Long Beach.
Russ and Laura, we send you a ‘hello’ from Long Beach, California! Â We miss you. We wish you continued safe travels and more wonderful adventures!
A recently received letter from a bike commuter in Long Beach:
On Sunday morning, I got on my bicycle to ride to the Farmer’s Market. I was riding down 2nd Street in Belmont Shore – in the right lane, in lane, with traffic – a right that is provided to me by California State Vehicle Code #21202 (and which also happens to be the safest place for a cyclist to travel) – when a moron of a man in a black SUV came up behind me honking, screaming and cursing me as if I was the devil incarnate and the root of all evil in the world.
Fuming over this encounter, I began to realize that the 20 or so other cyclists around me were riding on the sidewalk, in the gutter, in the wrong direction – or just about any of the other ways you could ride that would get you killed. And, it dawned on me that it’s no wonder this moron man in the SUV didn’t understand that I was riding where I was supposed to ride – because so few other people on bicycles ride in a correct and safe manner.
What’s the answer here? Let’s start with some education programs – for drivers AND cyclists. Let’s put in bicycle facilities that illustrate that cyclists belong in the street and that don’t continue to reinforce the mistaken notion that bikes be relegated to the sidewalk and beach path. Let’s stop pissing away people’s tax dollars on one-time festivals and actually do the hard work that it takes to make Long Beach the bicycle-friendly town that city representatives claim they want to create.
Contact Long Beach Cyclists for updated Traffic Skills course information. The following was published in April of 2008:
As roadways and bike trails become increasingly complex and congested, do you know all you need to know to safely ride a bicycle? Do you feel you know enough to teach your children how to ride cautiously and conspicuously while on their own? When you drive your car, are you confident on how to share the road with bicyclists?
The Long Beach Cyclists, Bikestation and the League of American Bicyclists invite you to answer YES to the above questions after attending a two-part Bicycle Education Road 1 course.
Road 1a
Who: League Cycling Instructors Chris Quint and Dominic Dougherty
What: Bicycling Street Skills, Classroom Lecture
When: April 30th, 6pm-9:30pm – (plenty of breaks)
Where: Main Library Meeting room (50 people max)
101 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, CA 90822
Prerequisite: None
Cost: FREE
Day 1 will be a classroom lecture open to anyone consisting of a PowerPoint presentation, flip-charts, hands-on, videos and lots of Q&A.
If you wish to continue on to Day 2, please sign up at the end of the class.
Road 1b
Who: League Cycling Instructors Chris Quint and Dominic Dougherty
What: Bicycling Street Skills, Bicycle Handling and Vehicular Cycling
When: May 4th, 9am-3pm – (plenty of breaks)
Where: Bikestation (15 people max)
221 E. First St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Prerequisite: Road 1a
Cost: $15 each
Bring: A bicycle and a helmet.
Road 1b will consist of parking lot drills, bike handling techniques, emergency manuevers, vehicular cycling, and some testing.
At the end of the day, those that have successfully completed the course will be presented with a certificate from the League of American Bicyclists.
Able to attend Road 1a and not Road 1b? Don’t worry! We’ll be having a lot more classes in the future. Your Road 1a attendance is good for 6 months so you can attend a Road 1b later on.
On our roadways, bikes are treated as vehicles. Simply knowing how to ride a bike is not the same as knowing how to operate a bike safely and legally.
The Bike Ed program is a set of curricula for adults and children and the certified instructors that teach it. BikeEd classes are taught across the United States by certified League Cycling Instructors (LCI).
For more information, email ddougherty(at)bikestation(dot)org
or visit http://www.bikeleague.org
 