{"id":235613,"date":"2012-06-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/bike-month-activities-yield-record-breaking-results\/"},"modified":"2012-06-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T07:00:00","slug":"bike-month-activities-yield-record-breaking-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/bike-month-activities-yield-record-breaking-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike Month activities yield record-breaking results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 8,500 local residents counted county-wide biking on Bike to Work Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Ashley Mackin | Noticias del centro<\/strong><\/p>\n

On May 1, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC), along with local elected officials and representatives from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), declared May as Bike Month in San Diego.<\/p>\n

County Supervisor Greg Cox gave SDCBC a proclamation designating May as Bike To Work Month in San Diego and at the same time, voiced his support of biking to work year-round.<\/p>\n

Also encouraging bicyclists to ride on a regular basis, SDCBC Executive Director Andy Hanshaw said, \u201cWe are excited to have the opportunity to bring greater awareness to the benefits of bicycling and encourage people of all ages and abilities to join the ride [with Bike to Work Month].\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanshaw identified a number of benefits to bicycling, including exercise and having a clean gas-saving mode of transportation, as well as the fact that San Diego weather makes bicycling suitable all year round.<\/p>\n

District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria cited a statistic that 40 percent of vehicle trips are two miles or less. \u201cCan you imagine what we could accomplish if we would simply substitute many of those trips for bicycle rides, instead? We could make a significant impact on the quality of life in our neighborhoods. \u2026 It would be a tremendous thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Bike<\/a>
(left to right) District Eight Councilmember David Alvarez, San Diego Association of Governments Chair Jerome Stocks, District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria, County Supervisor Greg Cox, and San Diego County Bike Coalition Executive Director Andy Hanshaw, at the Bike Month kickoff. (Photo by Ashley Mackin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

District Eight Councilmember David Alvarez said he rides a bicycle to City Hall because driving to work would put him in that same statistic. \u201cI do live \u2026 less than two miles away from where I work,\u201d he said, adding that he rides his bicycle often, including to work. Alvarez also told the crowd that sometimes he leaves for work at the same time as a nearby trolley, and he often gets to City Hall first.<\/p>\n

Gloria said as a city councilmember, issues surrounding parking make up the majority of complaints. \u201cIf I can just get more folks to ride bikes I could solve the parking problem \u2026\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t need massive parking structures, we just need more bicycles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaime Ortiz, a SDCBC volunteer, said riding a bike on a daily basis is easy. \u201cI think the important thing to remember when your talking about bicycling as a commuting option is that it\u2019s a part of your life,\u201d she said. \u201cYou wear what you wear in your car. … You don\u2019t have to be dressed in any particular fashion or any particular attire to jump on your bike.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to wear spandex \u2026 you can be comfortable, you can wear jeans and have beautiful hair and you can wear makeup, you can look good on a bike and also get around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On Bike to Work Day, SANDAG-sponsored \u201cpit stops,\u201d where volunteers dispensed shirts and snacks, yielded record-breaking results.<\/p>\n

A SANDAG press release stated, \u201cMore than 7,000 bicyclists stopped at the 78 pit stops that have reported in so far. Last year saw a record 6,000 cyclists checking in at the stops. In all, there were 85 pit stops around the county on Friday, May 18. … Additionally, pit-stop volunteers counted 2,500 cyclists who pedaled by, opting not to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Martin, a principal planner for SANDAG was quoted in the release, \u201cIt is probably a combination of things, from high gas prices to a healthier outlook on life. Many people look upon bicycling as a way of putting a little money back into their pockets each time they realize they don\u2019t have to fill the car with gas, they don\u2019t have to pay parking fees and tolls, and they don\u2019t have to make car repairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanshaw thinks the activities and support found during Bike Month will encourage people to ride bikes all year, which is what organizers intended. \u201cThe idea [behind Bike to Work Day] is they develop confidence and the skills to get out there and try it more and we want to see people do it as much as they can to help our traffic, environment and save money,\u201d Hanshaw said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 8,500 local residents counted county-wide biking on Bike to Work Day By Ashley Mackin | Downtown News On May 1, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC), along with local elected officials and representatives from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), declared May as Bike Month in San Diego. County Supervisor Greg Cox […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Bike Month activities yield record-breaking results","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}