Bike Month Is Coming. Focus: Santa Cruz

2:38 PM PDT on April 14, 2023

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Clearly there's no uniform approach to bike month within this vast and diverse state but, just as clearly, May is a great time to celebrate, educate, participate, and advocate for that beautiful machine.

How does your town/city/region mark its bikeyness in May?

Let's start with a look at Santa Cruz's plans.

It begins with a bike month challenge. Register here, ride your bike as much as you want in May, and maybe win some cool bike schwag.

You can join or form a team, maybe with your coworkers, or just "compete" as an individual. You don't have to cover a lot of miles to rack up points in this competition - it's more about getting more people out on bikes. That is, larger teams and more bike rides are the way to score big. There are cash prizes as well as locks, lights, and t-shirts to motivate people.

The Santa Cruz Bike Month site also offers tips for motivating people to ride, even if they don't feel confident about their bike knowledge. Take a look at the "learn" tab, where there are quick courses to review bike skills and knowledge, including videos.

May is also packed with bike events in Santa Cruz, including:

Several bike repair clinics and how-tos
Bike Month happy hours and coffee mornings
A free Bike Commuting 101 class, hosted by Ecology Action
Several bike rides, including a combination bike-plus-birding ride out to the Seymour Center (check out those migratory feathered friends); a community ride in Watsonville; a ride to raise funds for Girls Rock camp, and a bike ride into the forest.
Santa Cruz will also participate in the nationwide Ride of Silence on May 17 that honors those who have been taken by traffic violence. Meet at the Clocktower at 6:30 pm
Also, on May 11, many Santa Cruz schools will participate in Walk and Roll to School Day

Information about all these events can be found at the Santa Cruz Bike Month website, including registration information.

Melanie Curry @StreetsblogCal

Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry has been thinking about transportation, and how to improve conditions for bicyclists, since her early days commuting by bike to UCLA long ago. She was Managing Editor at the East Bay Express, and edited Access Magazine for the University of California Transportation Center. She also earned her Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley.

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