Bike Buzz: Summer 2025 News from Bicycling Monterey

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Gracias to the first 2025 supporters
of this grassroots volunteer effort.

This edition of Bike Buzz, which includes items relevant throughout the USA, is brief. While there may be occasional updates to this edition, the best way to catch more news this summer is to follow @bikemonterey on Mastodon. (Need tips on using Mastodon? See social media section of Bicycling Monterey’s Contact page.) As a chief information officer of a Monterey County transportation agency posted on Mastodon on July 6, 2025: “Change isn’t easy. And transformational change requires perseverance and dedication. It doesn’t have to be fanatical. Honestly medium-level relentless will do.”

“Laws, Skills, Safety” info, Summer 2025 updates

• Bicycling Monterey’s list of “Resources on Riding Skills, Bike Laws, and Safety” was updated July 20, with additional updates August 1.
• That list, as we mentioned on Mastodon on Aug 1, https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114955484025430346, includes resources we have created, as well as resources from others. Among the latter is a new bilingual (Spanish-English) resource for truck drivers from League of American Bicyclists that is dedicated in memory of Sarah Debbink Langenkamp.
• On our Tool Kit page are various items to share, including two California bike law summaries, in English and Spanish, also updated July 20. The English version includes a special note about stop signs (for those who—as we do—advocate for a new law in California to allow stop as yield).
• Why share our posters? Here are two examples, from July 18 #BikeNite discussions on Mastodon: https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114877768936288487 / https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114877920474555058

How to advocate for biking! Summer 2025 updates.

“Bicycling ADVOCACY: What you can do — locally and throughout USA” now features, at the top of that web page, a new bullet list of current resources. It includes where to report a bikeway maintenance need, bike-related meetings, bilingual glossary of transportation terms, how to participate in advocacy actions, how to find local bike advocacy partners, bilingual bike audit tool kit, bikeway design guide, bike parking resources, and more. Although the info below that bullet list has not been updated, you may enjoy skimming it also, simply to enjoy the 84-photo gallery of people who benefit from bike advocacy!

“Eye on Infrastructure: Salinas”

The picture below, and more, were photographed by a teen who has an eye on bicycling infrastructure in the Monterey County seat and its largest city, Salinas. To check out his photos—click here.

SAVE THE DATES: 

Sunday, September 21, 2025
11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Sun Day at Window on the Bay

Saturday, October 4, 2025
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 
Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day

Sunday, October 12, 2025
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Ciclovía Salinas

Note that the 2025 Ciclovía Salinas date has been changed from Oct 5 to Oct 12.

August 8-17, 2025 is renowned as Monterey Car Week. See our thoughts, plus 2024 Car Week photos: Reflecting on Monterey Car Week. And watch out for the many additional big trucks hauling cars in Monterey County! See safety tips below, including a poster from Cycling Savvy on “The 6 Things You Need to Know” to stay clear of a truck’s danger zones.

Bicycling in Pebble Beach is temporarily restricted Saturday and Sunday, August 16-17. Also, although not restricted August 11-15, Pebble Beach Company does not recommend biking inside Pebble Beach on those five dates as well. More on biking Pebble Beach.

The poster below is courtesy of https://cyclingsavvy.org/what-cyclists-need-to-know-about-trucks/. ¡Gracias!

Greenfield & South County: Bike Resource Event

If you follow Bicycling Monterey on Mastodon, you’ve likely seen the following—as well as other news and advisories, such as this about bike community (click here) and this about local bike shops (click here):

ONLINE: June 24, 12-1pm (Pac time) free League of American Bicyclists aka Bike League webinar on organizing inclusive bike events. Registration required. https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114701558760656122

MONTEREY BAY: July 11 registration deadline for Aug 1-3 League Cycling Instructor (LCI) seminar in Santa Cruz. https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114701396475398416 / https://bikemonterey.org/aug-2025-league-cycling-instructor-seminar-in-santa-cruz.html

EAST COAST: July 7-25 is indie-rock duo Illiterate Light’s #RoadToNewport Folk Festival (NFF is July 23-25). We’ve never been, but those of you who go are likely aware Newport has been showing us up here in Monterey County by having some bike-powered stages for their music festival. (We’d love to see Cali Roots, Monterey Jazz, etc. follow their lead!) Details: https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114700484697807901

NATIONWIDE: Were you at a public gathering on Flag Day, June 14? If so, were you able to bike or bike-and-ride there, like these folks? https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114690932199441897

Juneteenth is observed nationwide on June 19, and on Saturday, June 14, the Monterey County Black Caucus organized a 2025 Juneteenth celebration in Seaside. For a local example of Black American history, see “On Juneteenth or any day, bike to history.”

SUPPORT LOCAL BIKE SHOPS!

As we posted on Mastodon, reasons we value local, independent Monterey County Weekly / Monterey County Now include their bicycling-related reports! That includes reports by Sloan Campi on May 29 and June 19, and by David Schmalz on July 3—all about three new bike shops and/or bicycle rental businesses: https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114803874161230459.

Monterey County’s local bike shops include a new one in Marina, with grand opening scheduled for the first week of July: Cycle House Bikes. We appreciate that one of their goals is cycling education.

We consider education vital to creating a more bike-friendly world. ICYMI, among our resources: Riding skills, bike laws, and safety tips. Whether you have a bike-related business or just want to share education, advocacy, and other resources about biking, visit our Tool Kit page to make use of minis, bilingual bike law summaries, and other info.

ADVOCATE FOR BIKING—in Monterey County, elsewhere in California, and throughout North America. Tips at the top of the following page are current: https://bikemonterey.org/resources/bicycle-advocacy-what-you-can-do

CALBIKE: Bicycling Monterey continues to serve on the California Bicycle Coalition’s Policy Advisory Council—advocating for Active Transportation funding, and more. We encourage checking out CalBike’s News section, including “CalBike’s Legislative Agenda at the Halfway Point,” a June update from California Bicycle Coalition’s Policy Director Jared Sanchez: https://www.calbike.org/calbikes-legislative-agenda-at-the-halfway-point/.

For Monterey County residents. 
“I was in prison, and you visited me.”

If those words strike a chord for you, perhaps you’d like to “visit” some incarcerated Monterey County teens June 21. How? By purchasing and dropping off socks or other allowable items that Bicycling Monterey can take as gifts for boys in biker’s ed class June 21 at the Probation Department Youth Center. If interested, please phone us promptly to arrange dropping off gifts no later than June 20. Kindly note: No red, blue, or sports insignia. Alternatives to socks: Jigsaw puzzles, yarn for knitting, paperback books (nonviolent, positive content). And you bet, bike themed would be cool, but not essential. Number of gifts needed: 12-15 (consider teaming up with friends). 

On June 20, we posted on Mastodon “This is how bike community works!” Here’s why:

Something that made our heart sing that day was receiving a photo of a Salinas Valley dad who’d had no bicycle, now riding our old Giant hybrid, which we were no longer using. https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114719981111715959 And likewise, other of his family members who’d had no bikes are now enjoying the used bicycles donated by a Carmel resident who contacted Bicycling Monterey because her family had bikes they were no longer using. (She called us after finding our post https://bikemonterey.org/where-to-donate-bicycles-in-monterey-county.html, and we were happy to connect her with an appropriate recipient.) If you have more bikes than you need, feel free to contact us.

Questions about Bicycling Monterey’s current projects and activities? Please phone us. Also: Let us know if you’d be interested in attending, hosting, donating to expenses of, or otherwise supporting a class in Monterey County on bike-friendly / bike-safe driving.

Not least in importance among Bicycling Monterey projects is direct outreach by bike! Our own time out pedaling is what refuels our passion for bike advocacy. Anytime an illness or injury waylays one from cycling a while, it rekindles the strong awareness: Biking brings joy! —

Pedaling in rural https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114430859554647076
and urban https://sfba.social/@bikemonterey/114459290436384029 areas.

Joy is one of the many benefits of biking! Thank you for your interest and support for Bicycling Monterey’s mission of inspiring and empowering more people to bike.

Additional donors are needed to support the work of the site and projects, a grassroots volunteer effort now in its 17th year. See how to donate, and FAQs: https://bikemonterey.org/about/financial-donations.

Our gratitude to the first donors of 2025
(January 1 through August 28):

• Ben Kuo
• Beverly Jean Sadler
• Evelyn Contreras and Mateos Lozano
• John McCarthy, Esq.
• José Rentería
• Juan Carlos Alvarez
• Kathleen Jones – Pedal Pusher
• Martin Dehmler
• Martin Dehmler Fine Cabinetmaking
• Michael Kohlman
• Michael Theriault
• Nancy Baker
• Nathan Pierce
• Pebble Beach Company
• Rebecca Castillo
• Sam Winter

Happy Summertime!