May… a great month for cycling in Long Beach

May 11th — If you wish to volunteer as a Course Marshal during the Tour of Long Beach (Saturday morning, May 14th), contact Stacey.Toda@longbeach.gov (or phone 562 570-5027). Orientation for Course Marshals will take place Wednesday, May 11th, at 7:00 pm at CSULB. Proceeds from the Tour of Long Beach benefit Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach.

May 11th — Free, second Wednesdays, 11:00 am-1:00 pm, you are encouraged to take advantage of free Bike Safety Checks at CSULB, courtesy of Jax Bicycles.

May 13th — Free, the Family Fun Fest will take place Friday, 5:00-9:00 pm in the lawn area of the Pike at Rainbow Harbor. This includes live music, cycling stunts, a fixed gear competition, and vendors.

May 14th — Preregistration is required for the Tour of Long Beach (that benefits Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach). Three rides: A 9:00 am, 4-mile family fun ride at Marina Green Park (540 E. Shoreline Drive)… also a 31-mile leisurely circuit around the entire city… also a 61-mile Metric Century.

May 14th — Free, the Finish Line Festival, 9:00 am-4:00 pm. in the Rainbow Harbor area. Children’s activity area, bike safety and education booths, live music, food, and vendors.

May 18th — Free, Traffic Skills 101 at CSULB, Wednesday evening class session, 6:00-8:00 pm. Followed by the free 3-hour Saturday morning on-road training session. Preregistration required. Click EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com page for more information, or click here.

May 19th — Free, Thursday morning Bike-to-Work-Day Pit Stops, one at CSULB, the other at Long Beach City Hall Civic Center Plaza. Refreshments, freebies and bike safety checks.

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MichaelB, May 9th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Education, event, ride

Long Beach Bikeways Opening Celebration — April 23

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.

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MichaelB, April 18th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current News, ride

Moving Long Beach, join the conversation — April 7

Participate in an important interactive group dialogue about bicycle-friendly “Living Streets” in Long Beach.

The event is free, but you’ll need to RSVP by Wednesday evening, April 6th.

For details, click on the postage stamp to the right. To RSVP, contact Allan Crawford at allancrawford@bikeablecommunities.org.

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MichaelB, April 1st 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in advocacy, meeting

Bixby Park—Saturday, March 19

See you at Bixby Park for an easy, family-oriented neighborhood bike ride on Saturday, March 19th, departing at 10:00 am.

Then, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, also at Bixby Park, join the community workshop to update the Long Beach Bicycle Master Plan. Your suggestions and observations will be noted by staff of the Department of Public Works.

Bixby Park is located between Cherry and Junipero, and between Ocean Blvd. and Broadway.

If the opportunity to participate in a fun bike ride and to provide City planners with your input about cycling infrastructure isn’t incentive enough… here’s one more goodie to sweeten the pot: There will be free Mc’Coffee.

It occurs to us that this Saturday you could enjoy a particularly Buzzy Day in a coffee-tasting way. We suggest that you buy various cups of coffee at several of our favorite local cafés (including coffee from Hot Java and from the Park Pantry—both across the street from Bixby Park—and from Portfolio Coffeehouse on Fourth at Junipero)… and then enjoy some free McCoffee as part of the community workshop. After the workshop, you could then cycle over to Sipology #2 on Broadway at Temple… and then cycle around the rest of the day to a dozen other great, locally-owned cafés. No… wait… you should NOT sip that much coffee in one day. Better to do your coffee tasting little by little. So… scratch the Buzzy Day idea. This Saturday, would you care for some McCoffee?

The final Bicycle Master Plan Update community meeting will take place at the Mark Twain Library (1401 E. Anaheim), Wednesday, March 23rd, 6:00-8:00 pm.

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MichaelB, March 16th 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in advocacy, ride

Request for input to Bicycle Master Plan update

Attend an upcoming public meeting to provide your input regarding cycling in Long Beach. The Long Beach Department of Public Works is holding meetings in many neighborhoods to solicit input about updating the Bicycle Master Plan.

The City has scheduled nine public sessions to request input during January, February and March. Also, the City will sponsor free bike rides prior to five of those public meetings.

To view details (dates, times, locations) about meetings 1-5, click on the LEFT. (Bicycle Master Plan workshops at Lowell Elementary School, First Congregational Church, Silverado Park, Coolidge Park and Los Altos Library.)

To view details (dates, times, locations) about meetings 6-9, click on the RIGHT. (Bicycle Master Plan workshops at El Dorado Park, Bixby Knolls, Bixby Park and Mark Twain Library.)

To view details about free bike rides starting at Lowell Elementary School and Silverado Park, click on the LEFT.

To view details about free bike rides starting at El Dorado Park, Bixby Knolls and Bixby Park, click on the RIGHT.

For more information, contact Courtney Aguirre at (562) 570-6667.

Courtney.Aguirre@LongBeach.Gov.

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MichaelB, January 21st 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in advocacy, meeting, ride

Traffic Skills for Cyclists, Wednesday Dec. 15

Now is a great time to sign up for the next, free, two-session Traffic Skills 101 course. Participants meet at the CSULB Pyramid Annex for one evening classroom session, then meet once again on their bicycles the following weekend for several daylight hours of practice and sharing of observations while cycling legally and safely in traffic. Instructors are LCI certified.

You need to sign up online in advance. Go to EDUCATION at the top of the longbeachcyclists.com web page for details, for schedule, and for the registration link. The next in-class session is Wednesday, December 15th at 6:00 pm.

There are many good reasons to take the Traffic Skills 101 course. It’s smart to know your road rights and responsibilities, and to always cycle safely and legally. Another great reason to take the course is that it is a prerequesite for serving as a board member of Long Beach Cyclists—you are encouraged to consider becoming one of the organization’s leaders in coming months. Our first board was elected in March of 2010; soon perhaps a new group of individuals will want to lead our organization. Step up and make it happen.

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MichaelB, December 6th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Education, advocacy

Huntington Beach now has the HuBBA Bike News

Congratulations go out to folks in Huntington Beach who have worked to improve cycling infrastructure and conditions in that city. Jim Powers and Dan Hazard are cofounders of HuBBA—Huntington Beach Bicycle Advocates. HuBBA Bike News will keep us informed of progress for vehicular cyclists in that city.

Like Long Beach, Huntington Beach has been awarded the ‘bronze level’ for bicycle friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) in Washington D.C.  The LAB recognizes that significant bicycle-friendly improvements are in place or are underway in both Long Beach and in Huntington Beach. 

Is it too much to hope that more and more cities across California chose to make themselves increasingly supportive of safe, vehicular cycling as a transportation choice?

Upcoming HuBBA activities serving the Huntington Beach area include Street Cycling Skills classes at the end of October. (Like our monthly Traffic Skills 101 program taught at CSULB Pyramid Annex, the HuBBA program follows the vehicular cycling curriculum promoted by the League of American Bicyclists in Washington D.C.). Go to HuBBA Bike News, or click EDUCATION at the top of the Long Beach Cyclists dot com page and see dates, times, and the how-to to enroll in an upcoming, two-part cycling safety course—now either in Long Beach or in Huntington Beach.

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MichaelB, October 13th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in advocacy

Gearing up for Green Port Festival

LBC is collaborating with Port of Long Beach

On October 2, 2010 we will be hosting several bike related activities at Green Port Festival.  The festival is an open house for Long Beach residents to see what goes on within the Port.  Exhibits, displays, train, bike and boat tours, plus food and entertainment will be in store for attendants! and it’s all FREE!  To be as ‘green’ as possible, POLB is asking everyone to walk, bike or bus into the event.  That’s we we come in!  We will be offering bike tours into the port from the Promenade near ocean and Pine , we will also be guides for the inner port tour and offering free bike valet once you are ready to park it for a while!  Join us!

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bmckeever, September 13th 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Current News, event, ride

Rosscottinc dot com—The System #146

Rosscott is a cartoonist who is also a cyclist. What a great combination!  We are very pleased that he has given Long Beach Cyclists permission to reprint this The System cartoon. 

The System is a humorous and insightful series of panels often dealing with cycling issues—especially as they relate to urban cycling and commuting to work—and to traffic-related issues in general, and to the work place, and to other aspects of contemporary life.

To see more of Rosscott’s work, go to www.rosscottinc.com.

To be sure, NO cyclist should ever run a red light. We encourage all cyclists to cycle safely, legally and responsibly. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to take the free Traffic Safety 101 course, taught at CSULB Pyramid Annex (with follow-up practice time on Long Beach streets to put vehicular cycling concepts into practice). Click EDUCATION at the top of the page for fall semester dates and sign-up information.

1 Comment

MichaelB, September 3rd 2010 | Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Education

Long Beach Bikeways—Where to? What are they like?

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.

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LBCyclists, August 21st 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Education, advocacy
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