BARTable by bike article series

My advocacy philosophy has always been to model cycling as an everyday activity which does not require special skills or equipment. Anyone able-bodied can do it.

One of my tools is the Bay Area Bike Rides web site, which I created in the early 1990s when cycling in the Bay Area was predominantly a recreational activity. I thought it was strange that people would shove a bike in their car to drive to places like Mount Diablo or Cañada Road. I didn’t have a car, so I’d found all the ways to access those rides by transit. At the time I was also regularly leading recreational rides for diverse groups, so I set up routes which would start out on roads which new riders could handle, and continue on to some of the big loops available in the East Bay, Marin and the Peninsula. BART makes it possible to do those rides with lots of bail-out options for people who might not be up for something like the Three Bears. I’ve updated the site and the routes over the years, but the basic concept has remained the same: Whether you’re a beginning rider or a MAMIL (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra), you can get out on your bike and have a fun ride via BART.

Now, thanks to a connection with Mariana Parreiras (station access manager for BART, and Oakland BPAC commissioner), I’m going to be contributing articles to the BARTable web site on BART-accessible bike rides and events. The first one just went up, highlighting this coming Sunday’s Niles Canyon Stroll and Roll (September 22).

We’re calling the series “BARTable by bike”, and I should be producing them pretty regularly.

Hope to see you out there!