Video Credit: Brian Myers, Media Arts Center San Diego
By Brian Myers
A bicycle class in City Heights aims to build confident bike riders that commute on city streets.
Cars and bikes share the same roads and the same traffic laws that apply to automobile drivers also apply to bicycle riders. A two ton difference sets the two vehicles apart.
The risk of being struck by fast moving heavy machines has some bike riders timid to bike safely in the street with motorists and discourages others from traveling in traffic at all.
Mary Anne Lacaman attended Saturday’s class. She is engaged in a county wide effort, Live Well San Diego, to promote healthy living.
Her goal is to bike 200 miles per month.
“My friends and I are starting to ride our bikes more,” Lacaman said. “And it’s a little intimidating being in front of those cars.”
The bike class is hosted by the San Diego County Bike Coalition and the San Diego Police Department to instruct bike riders to be better prepared to travel on the road with motorists and other cyclists.
Curriculum for the class comes from bicycle education and advocacy organization the League of American Bicyclists.
Jim Baross is a certified instructor of their Smart Cycling program and leads the bike riding class.
“Bicycling is really a safe activity. It’s the motorist who are causing the deaths and mayhem,” Baross said. “We’re trying to teach folks what the rules of the road are, how to get along better in traffic, communicate with each other, and to avoid mistakes.”
The next bike riding class is scheduled for July 26 at the Copley-Price Family YMCA.