Bay Area Celebrates Bike to Work Day

Bike to Work Day kicked off with a bang all over the Bay Area with mayoral speeches, ribbon cuttings, and lots of snacks. Early counts by Bike East Bay found more than 19,000 riders stopped by an "energizer station" this morning in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. That's a thirty percent increase from six years ago, a steadily growing number.

Energizer stations offered snacks, information, goodie bags, free reflectors, and sometimes free bike tune-ups.

San Francisco saw plenty of action, including a mayoral speech promising big things. See coverage at Streetsblog San Francisco.

Fremont celebrated a new raised cycletrack and protected intersection leading to the BART station.

The Silicon Valley Bike Coalition led several bike rides to help people get to work and also to talk about what's happening to improve biking in those areas. One of the rides started at the Redwood City Caltrain station and explored the possibilities of a bike and pedestrian trail along the Dunbarton Bridge. Another kicked off with a speech by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, then followed the Guadalupe River trail to celebrate San Jose's Better Bikeways program. Other bike rides just formed, because... there were a lot of bike riders out there today.

Several participants and volunteers talked about how they started riding their bikes because of Bike to Work Day. Sometimes all it takes is a big, fun event that everyone wants to participate in for people to find out that a bike commute can be easier than they think.

In Oakland, the A's mascot Stomper even got on a bike--which really calls for some deep skills. Tell me people weren't excited about that.

By the way, among the goodies people got in those Bike to Work Day bags--at least in the East Bay--were free tickets to an Athletics game. Go A's!

All kinds of riders participated, including kids and a few doggies. They came on city bikes, fancy road bikes, e-bikes, bike-share bikes, even scooters and.... a group bike.

And Bike to Work Day isn't over yet. Look for a "Bike Away From Work" party near you:

• In San Francisco
• In the East Bay: lots of options, including one on the Capitol Corridor
• In the Silicon Valley: Three options--Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, or Redwood City

And, if you're not in the Bay Area, there's still time. Most of the rest of California and the nation will celebrate Bike to Work Day next week.