In the 1996 photo below, the daughter of Bicycling Monterey’s founder is holding a T-shirt from the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s 2nd annual celebration of bicycling, May 16, 1996. Beginning in 1995, TAMC observed Bike Day. Later it became Bike Week, and since 2014, Bike Month. 

For Bike Month 2023, Bicycling Monterey invited the public’s responses to a Questionnaire for all people who bike, whether they bike a little or a lot. Details: https://bikemonterey.org/what-makes-biking-better-or-worse-for-you.html

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With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 came a cancellation of many of the usual Bike Month activities. Some organizations referred to below will still be offering activities for Bike Month; contact them directly to learn about any scheduled activities.

The info below has not been updated since 2019. 

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• In the Monterey Bay Tri-County region, to find Bike Month activities and events, check with local resources including (but not limited to): in San Benito County, the Council of Governments; in Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission; and for Monterey County, see Bike Month activities and resources listed below, and also check with the Transportation Agency for Monterey County.

• Elsewhere in California, check with local partners of the California Bicycle Coalition about Bike Month happenings across California.

• Elsewhere in the USA, the League of American Bicyclists has Bike Month resources for many locations.

  Nationwide, May is also celebrated as Bicycle Safety Month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, California Office of Traffic Safety, California Highway Patrol, and many others. Click here to learn more.

To learn more about Bicycling Monterey and ways to get

involved in making every month Bike Month, click here.

Monterey County

Bike Month 2019

A variety of Monterey County Bike Month activities for 2019 are listed below. For updates in subsequent years, check with the organizers referred to. Questions?  Phone Bicycling Monterey.

1. May 1, 2019 completes the 10th year of the Bicycling Monterey site and projects, a grassroots volunteer effort for a decade. Click here to learn more. For a brief history, including how Bicycling Monterey got started, click here. 

   

2. Month of May 2019 (and year-round): Master Calendar for Bicycling Monterey County
   

   Monterey Off Road Cycling Association (MORCA) and Velo Club Monterey (VCM) helpfully auto-feed their calendars into Bicycling Monterey’s Master Calendar, which also includes items Bicycling Monterey puts on the calendar—including some that other people have submitted to the Master Calendar.

   To find still more activities for Bike Month, you may wish to check with organizations and individuals in Bicycling Monterey’s 33-section directory of Monterey County bicycling resources / bike community leaders to see what they’re up to.

3. May 1, 2019: Advocate for bicycling by attending the Transportation Agency for Monterey County’s regular meeting of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Advisory Committee. These meetings are open to the public. Your participation is needed and appreciated.

   Bicycling Monterey’s tips about the meetings: https://bikemonterey.org/monthly-meetings-tamc-bicycle-pedestrian-facilities-advisory-committee-public-welcome.html

   Notice all the empty spots in committee membership? Impact: The interests of people who bike and walk in those areas of Monterey County are not being optimally represented at the meetings. Visit a meeting to check out what the committee does. Maybe you’ll end up deciding to volunteer to serve on the committee (and in some cases, your employer may pay you to attend). Even if you don’t become a committee member, you’re welcome to attend the meetings anytime.

   You may be already be too busy doing any of a multitude of bicycling advocacy tasks to attend TAMC’s bike-ped committee meetings. Or maybe you are eager to give input to TAMC but just can’t make it to any Wednesday eve meetings. If the latter is the case, contact TAMC about other ways to stay in touch with the committee’s work and to provide your input. Contact TAMC — habla español. http://www.tamcmonterey.org/contact/staff/.

4. May 2019  includes Safe Streets Demonstrations in Marina and Seaside plus bike or walk to school breakfast and prizes at some schools.

   Safe Streets Demonstrations are scheduled for Seaside, May 1-13; and for Marina, May 14-28. Also, a May 1, 7:30-8 a.m. event with project staff on-site will be held at Martin Luther King, Jr. School of the Arts in Seaside. On May 6, 15, 16, free breakfast and prizes will be offered to students at three schools if they walk or bike to school: May 6, Martin Luther King, Jr. School of the Arts; May 15, Crumpton Elementary; and May 16, Marina Vista Elementary. For more information, contact project staff: Ariana Green of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County, ariana@tamcmonterey.org – 831-775-4403; or visit the related webpage of TAMC contractor Ecology Action of Santa Cruz: http://ecoact.org/planningmonterey/.

   For related info on this site, see “Safe Routes to School” in section 19 of Bicycling Monterey’s 33-section directory of Monterey County bicycling resources / bike community leaders . For some Safe Routes to School history at Martin Luther King in Seaside, and elsewhere, and a variety of bicycling support for local elementary, middle, and high schools, click here for Bicycling Monterey’s Bike to School compilation, then scroll to Schools in Monterey County: Support for Kids Who Bike.

5. May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 2019 (and year-round): HER Helmet Thursdays 10-50% discounts for people who bike.

   Biking benefits HER / Mother Earth and strengthens the economy too. HER Helmet Thursdays is a long-term ecology-economy sustainability project to encourage biking. There are hundreds of HER Helmet Thursdays participating businesses and organizations in 18 Monterey County cities and unincorporated communities. They include Big Sur, Carmel and Carmel Valley, Castroville, Corral de Tierra, Gonzales, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Moss Landing, Pacific Grove, Pajaro, Salinas, San Ardo, Sand City, Seaside, and Soledad. 

   If you’re outside Monterey County and would like to start a HER Helmet Thursdays Project where you live, click here, then scroll to Catch the Vision.
   

6. May 3, 2019: Pacific Grove Bike Night. For tips, see https://bikemonterey.org/bike-pacific-grove.html

7. May 8, 2019 (and year-round resources):  Bike To School Day. See bike to school resources for elementary, middle, and high school, and also for college students.

8. May 8, 2019: Twilight Ride at Laguna Seca.
   

9. May 13-19, 2019 (and resources for year-round): Bike to Work Week.

   

10. May 14, 2019: Velo Club Monterey Adopt-A-Highway Bike Path Cleanup, beginning about 1 p.m., following VCM’s usual Tuesday “No Real Job” ride. Email veloclub@vcmonterey.org if you can help. Visit vcmonterey.org to learn more about Velo Club Monterey, “Pedaling the Monterey Peninsula and the Central Coast since 1968.”

    

11. May 15, 2019: Amgen Tour of California Stage 4 Men’s Start

    

12. May 18, 2019 (and resources for year-round):  Bike to Shop Day.

     Learn about the history of Bike to Shop Day, as well as some Monterey County places to shop that offer HER Helmet Thursdays discounts. The post also highlights our Shopping by Bike tips.
    
    

13. May 24-26, 2019: California Roots Festival with Valet Bicycle Parking.
    

14. May 25-June 1, 2019 (and year-round): Bike to worship.

    Bike to church, mosque, satsang, synagogue, or other house of faith.

    (Say you attend the Church of the Great Outdoors? Gotcha covered all over bikemonterey.org!)

15. May 27, 2019: Velo Club Monterey’s Gizdich Ranch Pie Ride.

    Learn more about VCM rides: http://www.vcmonterey.org/newvcm/local-rides/. Email veloclub@vcmonterey.org with questions, including to confirm whether this group ride is right for you. Visit vcmonterey.org for group ride etiquette (http://www.vcmonterey.org/newvcm/group-ride-cycling-etiquette/) and to learn more about Velo Club Monterey, “Pedaling the Monterey Peninsula and the Central Coast since 1968.”
    

16. May 1-31, 2019: second annual Bike Walk Challenge, Transportation Agency for Monterey County.
    Bike Walk Challenge Poster SPANISH v2
    Bike Walk Challenge Poster v4 ENGLISH

BIKE MONTH BONUS: Play a Bicycling Monterey game. See International Guessing Game: Language resources in Spanish and other tongues, plus Guess-Their-Country Game. Wherever you ride—and whether you’re from Australia, China, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, or elsewhere on the planet—Happy Bike Month!

Here’s a throwback to a League of American Bicyclists Bike Month series on #WhyIRide Bike Month—a story from Monterey County: http://bikeleague.org/content/whyiride-seeing-world-anew

Looking for Bike League certified League Cycling Instructors (LCIs) in Monterey County?  Click here.

If you find the Bicycling Monterey website

and other Bicycling Monterey projects of value,

please make a contribution in any amount.

Click here for ways to contribute plus FAQs.

Thank you. 

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History buffs: Curious to see some past Monterey County Bike Month celebrations? Click here for 2012-2017. For 2018, Bike Month activities were the same as those included in the 2019 post above, with some exceptions. (1) In 2019, new activities include Pacific Grove Bike Night and Marina and Seaside Safe Streets Demonstrations. (2) In 2018, two activities took place that are not recurring in 2019: a ceremony on May 4, 2018, Paso de peatones en Castroville cruce ceremonial / “Castroville Crosswalk” Ceremonial Crossing (Castroville Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossing; and (2) a normally annual event “Woodstock of Triathlon,” Wildflower Triathlon Experience was held May 4-6, 2018, but the 2019 triathlon was postponed to 2020.