The above trio of faith-inspired biking fashionistas knows about safe bicycle commuting.  And their bright smiles are evidence of one of the many benefits of biking: increased endorphins in your bloodstream.

This post, first published in 2011 with several subsequent updates (not updated in its entirety), includes an assortment of tips.

Below: Bobbi Kamil of Monterey on Fremont Blvd in Seaside. Bobbi bikes all over Monterey County, as well as taking her folding bike on international trips with her husband, John Ittelson.

Below: Ever since he was a little boy and the training wheels came off his first bicycle, this BMX rider in Seaside has loved biking. His dog makes a fun companion, such as on night rides like this one, where he was spotted by Marisco’s Puerto Nuevo.

Did you know? City of Seaside has the highest number of bike commuters in Monterey County, according to figures compiled from participating local cities for the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s 2011 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. (Seaside’s own Bikeways Transportation Plan is linked in this post.)

Many people are already familiar with the Seaside section of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail. Click here for some views enjoyed by intergenerational riders; some of those views are in the Seaside city limits.

You might think Salinas and South County have the corner on pedal-powered paleteros (see some of their carts in those sections of the Bicycling Monterey website). But that’s not the case! On April 29, 2016, this people-powered entrepreneur was spotted in Seaside. And the woman watching him so earnestly was delighted by the fun for her family of having his traditional service in the neighborhood. For more Monterey County cargo bikes on the Bicycling Monterey site, click here.

Where else do people bike in Seaside?

Fremont Street, like this section near Williams Avenue, home of the Monterey County Weekly offices.

To summertime’s annual Blues in the Park…

To the Seaside Boys and Girls Club–even on a rainy day….

To the Seaside Post Office at 1093 Broadway Avenue (also known as Obama Way).

To do shopping with the family–while learning bike skills….

To run errands….

To meet up for an interview….

To be rewarded with beautiful views of the Monterey Bay found along General Jim Moore Boulevard…

(And Janet Beaty and Jack Long, below, can tell you that even though that route includes significant hills, the bike lanes are terrific and the scenery is hard to beat!)

Learn more about Jack and Janet in Dennis Taylor’s 10/9/14 story in the Monterey County Herald, “Seaside couple bikes 2,300 miles to 50th reunion.”

To show my little sister how it’s done….

To go to a job site….

To teach bike skills on the Seaside City Hall lawn….To learn bike skills, at the Seaside Police Activities League (PAL) Bike Fair….

To support community activities….

To attend a special event….

To meet up with a traffic engineer and discuss infrastructure needs….

To help keep the peace…

.

To take the kids to the beach….

To the Seaside office of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, where there’s bike parking at the door…

To bike out to do the banking….

Kirsten Bachofner puts her growing bike skills to the test…

in a Stryder event in July 2012.  Kirsten is the daughter of Seaside Mayor Felix Bachofner, who–along with his wife, Sat–is an avid bicyclist.  It won’t be too long before their one-year-old son, Lucian, is out of a parent’s carrier, for he’s now starting to pedal his own tricycle.  Sat decided to sell her car and now walks and bikes almost exclusively–an excellent roll model for her children!

Below, a May 2013 update on little Kirsten and family: They are shown here on a City of Monterey section of the 2013 Intergenerational Ride route, which also included the Seaside section of the Monterey Bay Coastal Trail.

Mom/ Sat and Dad/Felix Bachofner had pedaled Kirsten and Lucian from their Seaside home to the Intergenerational Ride’s departure point at Fort Ord Dunes State Park, and in this photo were about to reach the ride destination point, Custom House Plaza, Monterey.

Frequently biking the streets of Seaside and Monterey

are Del Rey Oaks resident Susan Ragsdale-Cronin and family.

Want to stand out like Susan and her kids? See “More Bicycle Safety:  High Visibility.”

Wondering about a Seaside bicycle license/registration?  Residents of the City of Seaside can swing by the Seaside Fire Station, 1635 Broadway Avenue, Seaside and purchase a bicycle license for one dollar ($1). Such a deal!  Why register your bike?  Having it registered is a good idea in case of theft.  (Also see this site’s bicycle security tips.)  The Seaside Fire Department provides public education on bicycle safety.  (Also see CA Bike Laws and Personal Safety on this site.)

Sustainable Seaside

At a Sustainable Seaside meeting–such as the one on Bicycling Monterey’s calendar on April 26, 2016–you may just meet people who are ready to join forces with you to help make a more bike-friendly Seaside.

Here’s just one idea:  Help get Safe Routes to School maps together for Seaside schools–like they have in our neighboring county of San Benito–so bike racks like those pictured below at one Seaside school will get more use….

Get acquainted with biking mom Susan Ragsdale-Cronin and other cyclists and sustainable transportation enthusiasts at a Sustainable Seaside meeting.  Usual meeting location is the Peace Resource Center, 1364 Fremont Boulevard, Seaside; bike-there tips and bike-and-ride tips later in this post.

Help make a more bike-friendly Seaside and Monterey County!

1. At the bottom of this post is information about Seaside’s Bikeways Transportation Plan. Included above it is a 10/21/16 update about infrastructure improvements coming for Broadway Avenue, between Fremont and Del Monte.
2. Consider attending a Traffic Advisory Committee meeting to show municipal leaders your support for making Seaside more bike-friendly, and to offer helpful input. While agendas for any month may not include specifically bike-related topics, pedestrian and other topics will likely also be of interest to many people who bike Seaside. Questions? Contact assistant city engineer and staff liaison Leslie Llantero (email preferred).  Meetings are usually the third Tuesday of the month from 5-6 p.m. and are held at the Seaside City Hall conference room. Agendas are posted online (click here).
3. Want better bicycle parking, bike lanes, and other infrastructure needs for Seaside?  Learn some of the most effective ways to help make infrastructure better. See a few Seaside infrastructure notes at end of this post.
4. Don’t know if it’s legal to bike sidewalks in Seaside? As of 9/23/14, it still is. And as with all sidewalk riding, there are pros and cons, as outlined in Bicycling Monterey’s section “Riding Skills, Bike Safety, and CA Bike Laws–Tips for children, teens, and adults.”  You may also wish to refer to my 7/10/14 comments on this 7/9/14 Monterey County Weekly story by the Weekly’s Kera Abraham, a Seaside resident herself.
5. Bike laws and bike safety are an important part of the mix in a bike-friendly place!  English and Spanish speakers alike are often unaware of laws and safety guidelines.  And due to a limited supply of Spanish-language bike resources–and that lack of awareness about what is available–many local cyclists who speak Spanish only are particularly missing out on knowledge of California bicycle laws, bike safety info, tips on biking with children, and other helpful information.  Hispanic / Latino residents make up 39.6% of the population in Seaside, and  countywide, comprise nearly 54% of the population.  (Here are the last census figures.)  Help get the word out to local residents, including the 55% of Monterey County students who speak Spanish as their primary language at home.

Biking to a Sustainable Seaside meeting

Sustainable Seaside’s priorities include water, nature, parks, and energy–all areas where bicycling can help. If you aren’t biking already, come to the meeting anyway. You may leave with new inspiration to consider biking–whether occasionally for nearby errands, daily for a lengthy commute, or when you want a fun way to celebrate with loved ones on special occasions.

If you are doing the bike-and-ride using an MST bus, refer to the Peace Resource Center’s “How to find us” page regarding the MST bus lines that serve this address.

Get inspired for night riding—and avoid a possible ticket on that return trip after nightfall.  Charge up your bike’s headlight. For the rear of your bike, a reflector is required, at minimum.  See 21201 (d), items 1-4 for further night riding requirements. (Requirements in Spanish are not available on the DMV website but are available in this PDF Leyes de ciclismo de CA – Laws for bicyclists in CA (Spanish, English) – Summary. For more Spanish resources, see  Bicycling Monterey’s Spanish resources compilation.

Here are some bike-there tips, coming from the Monterey Bay Coastal (Bike/Multi-Use) Trail:

From the bike path at Roberts Lake, the Peace Resource Center is less than a 1.5  mile bike ride.

Leaving the bike path at Roberts Lake/Embassy Suites (Del Monte Ave and Canyon del Rey Blvd intersection), cross Del Monte  and go up Canyon Del Rey.  At that point, here are two possible options:

(Option 1) To go through residential neighborhoods, take Canyon Del Rey a short distance until you come to Sonoma.  Make a LEFT on Sonoma, then a RIGHT onto Trinity.  Continue on Trinity to Trinity Park; just after the park, Fishwife will be on your left.  Cross Fremont Street and head north; Peace Resource Center will soon be on your right.

Or, (Option 2) continue on Canyon Del Rey all the way to Fremont Blvd; you’ll see Walgreen’s your left, and you’ll also spot Safeway across Fremont Blvd, on your far right.  Make a left onto busy Fremont Blvd (wear high-visibility apparel and exercise extra caution).  Several blocks down, on your left-hand side, you’ll see the sign for Fishwife on your left, near the corner of Fremont and Trinity. Continue  on Fremont past that landmark restaurant; you’ll soon see the Peace Resource Center on your right.

Sustainable Seaside’s annual Sustainable Living Tour added a bike feature in 2015.

Special thanks to Susan Ragsdale-Cronin for facilitating the new bike component of this popular annual tour.  Ariana Green, Transportation Agency for Monterey County bicycle and pedestrian coordinator and Bernard Green answered questions about planned bicycle and pedestrian projects around the area, including West Broadway, FORTAG, and some aspects of the  forthcoming North Fremont bike lanes. Bernard, a Bike League certified instructor, was also available for anyone interested in safe bicycle commuting road drills, a preview of sorts for road skills classes.

Scroll below poster for the HER Helmet Thursdays spots!

Update: Above, spotted on 11/26/13, someone had been stenciling on Fremont. Hey, Rick and Leslie: Larger stencils are needed. 🙂

Below, Rick Riedl, an associate civil engineer for the City of Seaside, at a Nov 12, 2013 Monterey County bike community potluck welcoming California Bicycle Coalition leaders. (Left to right: Rick Riedl, Megan Tolbert, Jon Wolf.)

Seaside municipal leaders want to make the city more bike-friendly, and budget cuts make that more challenging than ever!  Consider attending a Traffic Advisory Committee meeting  to show your support and share ideas.

How about new signs of a bicycling friendly Seaside?

If you know of one-way streets in Seaside where a “one-way, bikes excepted” sign could be helpful to cyclists in the neighborhood (e.g., Kenneth Street), please contact me or provide the names of such streets in a comment to this post.  For a photo of such a sign, go to the end of “Signs of a Bicycling Friendly Monterey County.” 

Other ideas:  “Share the road” signs on Noche Buena, and “Bikes may use full lane” signs on Broadway and Fremont would help make a more bike-friendly city!

City staff indicated there is a $50 application fee to have such a sign considered.  Contact Leslie Llantero, Assistant Engineer for the City to learn more.  You are also welcome to contact me to share ideas.

For more about Seaside bicycle infrastructure, see Kera Abraham’s May 10, 2007 story in the Monterey County Weekly. (Kera is a bike commuter and resident of Seaside whose workplace is in Seaside too.)

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2018 update: Seaside’s West Broadway Urban Village – Plus Seaside places that reward people who show “bikes mean business!”

Update, 10/21/16: “Broadway Avenue lane reduction gets $3.7 million from state,”
by Jim Johnson, Monterey Herald.

Bicycling advocacy often requires patience, including when it comes to infrastructure improvements. Tip of the helmet to bike advocates who volunteer via the Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, as well as all others who help to improve biking in Seaside.

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City of Seaside

Bikeways Transportation Plan

Visit the City of Seaside website for any updated info. The below was excerpted from their Planning Division webpage and was current as of 11/26/13.

Bikeways Transportation Plan

“The purpose of the City’s Bicycle Transportation Plan is to establish a system of bikeways within the City that connect with and complete the region’s bikeway system.  In addition to serving the needs of existing City residents, anticipated growth on the former Fort Ord military base, including the California State University – Monterey Bay campus, will bring a significant number of new residents, employees and students to the community who will require safe and efficient bicycle transportation to and from businesses, schools and residential neighborhoods. Bikeways that connect residential neighborhoods with businesses, schools and services within the City are crucial to the health and vitality of the Seaside community.

“Download the 2007 Bicycle Transportation Plan (14 MB) to learn more about planned bicycle routes and facilities, or simply download the Plan’s map of existing and planned bikeways to find out where they are located throughout the City.”

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The first HER Helmet Thursdays spots in Seaside

Seaside HER Helmet Thursdays poster as of 4 April 2016

For any updates, refer to the Quick Reference Guide on the Listings/FAQs page.

1. Baan Thai

2. Bayonet Bar & Grill at Bayonet Black Horse

3. Breakfast Club

4. Embassy Suites by Hilton Monterey Bay

5. Erik’s DeliCafé

6. Fishwife

7. Jose’s Mexican
   Note:  bike rack was added in 2018, on north side of building (to left of entrance).
   

8. Mariscos Puerto Nuevo

   Note: Since the photo below was taken, Marisco’s has new bicycle racks, and benches, right out front.

   

9. Monterey Donut

10. MYO Pure Frozen Yogurt

    

11. The Oven Pizzeria

12. Silver Tide Bar & Grill at Embassy Suites

13. Silver Tide Coffee & Trading at Embassy Suites

14.  Taqueria Zarape

Seaside’s Turtle Bay taqueria—a HER Helmet Thursdays participant since 2009— closed in 2020 and will be missed by visitors and locals alike.