Commuters Gearing Up
Powered by sunny days and the energy rush of exercise, Sam Schultz has enjoyed his work commute for the past six years. Churning away on the pedals of his fancy imported bike, he zooms along 19 miles of roadway to his Santa Ana office while his car stays parked at home.
James Cook is a different story. The San Clemente resident is also an avid bicyclist and longs to ride to his office--even though it’s in El Segundo, about 70 miles one way. The distance doesn’t deter him as much as the safety issue. “Bikes aren’t welcome on the roads here,” he says.
Schultz and Cook are among the thousands of cyclists participating Thursday in the Southern California Bike to Work Day, an event staged to highlight the environmental, health and traffic benefits of a two-wheel commute. The pair also symbolize both the benefits and the drawbacks of bike-riding in a region noted for its weather, long commutes and love of cars.
Schultz, a 53-year-old Silverado Canyon resident, enjoys a stretch of rural roads before he has to fight through “some really hairy” roads in Irvine and Santa Ana where bullying drivers, construction and potholes complicate matters. The ride is short enough, however, that he can run the gantlet and still arrive energized for work as a materials engineer at ITT Canon.
But for the 44-year-old Cook, the bike ride to work this Thursday means strapping on his helmet by 5 a.m. to hit the darkened streets leading to Pacific Coast Highway. The morning traffic will be in full chaotic pitch long before his route crosses the Los Angeles County line. The engineer expects to arrive at his workplace, Raytheon Co., by 9 a.m.
These types of epic bicycle commutes were a daily habit for Cook a few years ago, but he abandoned the practice after too many close calls with the four-wheeled kings of the road.
“It was just too dangerous,” he said. “I love to ride. But I love my life too. I don’t have a safe path from here to there.”
The organizers of the bike commuting campaign--who include bicycle enthusiasts, environmentalists and health advocates--are well aware of the challenges they face in beating the drum for bikes in the freeway capital of the world.
Southern California commuting veers in all directions and spreads across a vast sprawl of cities on a latticework of freeways. It’s not the ideal environment for biking, to say the least. The concept has been a far easier fit in more centralized urban areas, such as San Francisco and Seattle, and in certain areas abroad, such as Japan, where 15% of commuters are on bicycles.
“It’s a tall order here, certainly,” says Jeff Lustgarten, a spokesman for the Southern California Assn. of Governments, among the event’s organizers. “It’s much like ride-sharing or the other commuting options. There are downsides and hurdles and it’s going to work for some people and not others.”
But local officials say they do have one advantage in their favor: Sunshine.
“It’s our biggest selling point,” said Michelle Mowery, a bicycle commuting organizer for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. “We get 342 good, dry days for riding every year.”
Only 1% of Southern California commuters use bicycles to get to the workplace, while 79% drive alone, according to a survey by Southern California Rideshare. That same survey showed that many cyclists will use their two-wheel mode of transportation in conjunction with public transit. About 5% of the Metrolink urban rail network riders bring their bikes along, and bicycle racks are available on most Orange County Transportation Authority buses.
For the commuters who do ride bicycles to work, the positives are profound, according to K.C. Butler, the statewide coordinator of California Bike Commute. Lower stress, better health and a brighter outlook are the short list of benefits in surveys of bike riders.
The major downside? Car drivers, of course.
Even Schultz, who speaks in glowing tones about his daily rides, gets an edge in his voice when he talks about confrontational drivers who wrongly “think they own the road.” He tells horror stories about jockeying for position with multi-ton vehicles, but then says he would never abandon his open-air commute.
“I love it,” Schultz said. “And the only time I’m late is when I get in my car. I always think I’m going to have extra time, so I push it. That’s when I don’t get there on time.”