Manhattan Beach Celebrates Bike to Work Week

Raul Saenz bikes to work nearly every morning. On Thursday, he saw the following things: caution tape, rabbits running across a creek and birds he'd never seen before.

"It's a great adventure every day," he said.

The hour-long bike commute to Santa Monica is one of the reasons he moved to Manhattan Beach.

He joined other bicycle enthusiasts Thursday at Shade hotel in Manhattan Beach to celebrate Bike to Work Week. With their bikes parked outside the lounge, the riders talked about how biking has always been a part of their lives and continues to be.

Bike to Work Week, which is a national event, holds particular meaning for the South Bay Bicycle Coalition (SBBC), which organized the Shade event.

Ann Hemplemann, a coalition board member, said last year's Bike to Work week  spurred the group's formation and soon organizers had grants from the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. The group is working with officials in Lawndale, Gardena, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and El Segundo.

The aim is to create a network of bike paths through these cities to help encourage more people to ride.

"[Los Angeles County] is so dense," Hemplemann said. "We really need help to get biking to be realistic."

Almost all of Saenz's bike ride is on dedicated paths and routes. Thursday was the first day he had ridden on surface streets since he moved to the area nearly two years ago. He doesn't always ride, though it's usually somewhere between one and five days a week.

"You get a level of intimacy because you're not going very fast," he said. "Cycling allows that."

Manhattan Beach is working hard to encourage more people to ride like Saenz, said Sona Kalapura, the city's environmental programs manager. The city already has a bike master plan that was formulated in 2005 and would like to integrate that with the efforts of the SBBC.

"We want to [add bike lanes] with the least amount of burden on our residents," she said.

When bike lanes are installed, they are done so while streets are being resurfaced to save money and reduce disruptions.

Manhattan Beach Councilman Wayne Powell rode to Thursday's event. He said that as part of the city's effort to go green, city employees are encouraged to bike to work. The city also works with local businesses as much as it can to get them to see the enviromental benefits and other advantages of having employees pedal to work.

"To the extent that we can reduce energy consumption, it not only saves the environment, it saves the city money," Powell said.

 Saenz is pleased with the efforts of the SBBC and other  advocacy groups. "I'm a beneficiary of what a group like this is all about," he said.