When you go out for a bike...

When you go out for a bike ride, are you tired of waiting forever for the traffic light to change?

Would you like streets to ride on that are wide enough so that you’re not competing for space with cars?

How about someplace to lock up your bike at the train station when you’re commuting to work?

These and other biking issues will be the topic of this month’s meeting of the Covina Cycle Club on Tuesday.

According to club government relations chair Mary Johnson, bicyclists can help influence cities to make them more bicycle-friendly. And Ruth Barnes, of the California Assn. of Bicycle Organizations, and Gregge Jaquez, bicycle trail planner for Los Angeles County, will be on hand to tell how.

Such cities provide “benefits to children and everybody who could ride bikes more safely,” Johnson said. Biking “saves energy and gets us out of our automobiles,” which reduces traffic.

Of course, club activities aren’t limited to activism.

“We bicycle out of the Covina Park every Saturday morning,” Johnson said. “We publish a newsletter that’s available at bicycle stores in the area. We’ve gone up to places like Ventura and Carpinteria” for overnight trips.

Johnson’s job includes getting the newsletter from CABO, to which the club belongs, keeping the members informed and organizing a program like Tuesday’s about once a year.

“It’s not a coincidence we chose May, because that’s National Bicycle Month,” she said, a point to remember for those of us still auto-bound.

“A lot of people don’t like to accommodate bicycles,” Johnson said. “They think that life is made for cars.”

But it won’t be that way for long, if the bicyclists get their way. They hope that new streets will be built with cyclists in mind.

“That’s the most efficient way of doing it, the most economic,” Johnson said.

The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. at Covina Public Library, 234 Second Ave. The public is invited and admission is free.