Foto Friday: Beach Side Bike Ride

San Diego is a beautiful city, but accessing its many resources is a challenge in part due to its many natural and man-made barriers. Part of the focus of the Beach Side Bike Ride was to showcase the route to the beach from the Old Town Transit Center. We wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to ride to the beach and have a great experience without the added stress of driving to the beach and looking for limited vehicle parking.

San Diego’s many natural barriers for bicycling include our many urban canyons, rivers and creeks, and our mesas and valleys. The man-made barriers include our ever-expanding freeways that empty high speed vehicle traffic onto our neighborhood streets. Building a world-class bicycling city means we will eventually have a truly connected and accessible city. I hope that the Beach Side Bike Ride showcased how easy and accessible the beach was, at least from Old Town, and the work that needs to be done to make riding to the beach normal and safe for everyone. I hope you consider repeating the ride on your own and with friends, and then patronizing the many local businesses both in Old Town and in our many beach communities.

Below are a few photos taken on the day of the ride. You may view all of them on our flickr page.

Beach Side Bike Ride - 2015

Beach Side Bike Ride - 2015

Beach Side Bike Ride - 2015

Photo by Brooklyn Bicycles
Photo by Brooklyn Bicycles

Beach Side Bike Ride - 2015

Beach Side Bike Ride - 2015

A final photo: three vehicle parking spots can park 100 bicycles owned by 100 hungry bicycle owners.

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Thanks to the hundreds of you that showed up to ride earlier this month to participate in the inaugural Beach Side Bike Ride. Much thanks to Casa de Reyes for being incredible hosts and providing a great space for people to mingle and dine. Thank you to BikeSD member Bill Lusk for recommending Old Town be the start of the ride. Thank you to all our volunteers, including Charlie Sears from The Awarewolfs for being the event photographer, and to our ride and registration volunteers for making this such a great event: Erik, Heather, Patti, Brent, Omar, Andy, Lisi, Kristin, Jay, Sharon, Aire, and Paul.