1940: San Diego County’s First Bicycle Advocacy Group is Established

Before Southern California had bicycle advocacy organizations, the organization that advocated on behalf of cyclists and promoted cycling in the U.S. was the American Youth Hostels (AYH), now called Hostelling International.

In 1940, San Diego County got its first youth hostel established in Oceanside, six years after the first American Youth Hostel was established in Northfield, MA. The purpose of the AYH was to “facilitate youth travel in order to extend education to fields outside the classroom and promote national and international friendliness.”

In Southern California, as was the case around the country, the AYH promoted bicycle touring. The tours varied in length from a single overnight to multi-day trips. San Diego’s AYH branch also promoted tours to Mexico which organizers thought would aid in  national defense. This sentiment was echoed in a San Diego Union article from 1941 which stated,

“Leaders believe youth hosteling play an important part in national defense because it helps conserve health, makes ‘man power’ popular as a means of locomotion, saving tires, gas and autos, develops emergency messengers, cyclists, hikers and skiers who can go places autos cannot and develops the arts of self sufficiency, particularly in caring for one’s self in the open.”

The AYH organized rides and tours every month all around San Diego County and beyond. The AYH’s monthly newsletter, “Trailways”, describes a 35 mile ride to El Cajon Valley held in 1947 where a nearby poultry ranch “showed the amazed city children the wonders of modern hatching, butchering and machine picking of feathers.” In another trip held in December 1947, the AYH organized a day trip to Tijuana and Rosarito. Riders were advised to bring lunch, 50 cents to pay for transporting the bicycle to and from the border.

The AYH Visit a San Diego farm. Photo from HI-San Diego archives.
AYH cyclists posing at a Rosarito beach in Mexico. Photo from HI-San Diego archives.

The tours were designed to appeal to all groups of people. A letter dated July 12, 1948, from the AYH and sent to “playground directors” stated as much and encouraged inviting as many diverse groups as possible,

“It is found that in cycling, the energies of young people and old people are most effectively neutralized and there is maximum compatibility between sexes and divergent age groups.”

The AYH encouraged and promoted inclusiveness in their tours. Photo from HI-San Diego archives.
The AYH encouraged and promoted inclusiveness in their tours. Photo from HI-San Diego archives.

Many of the photographs documenting all the various trips organized and promoted by the AYH show a wide group of people enjoying the benefits and joys of cycling. What is impressive is how all of this was accomplished in a time before social media, copiers or even printers. Most of the promotional material was hand drawn and typewritten and then distributed.