Biking Downtown Monterey: Sidewalk riding advisories, plus Alvarado Street tips

Short link to this post: http://bit.ly/DowntownMRY

As City of Monterey’s Transportation Alternatives suggests, “For more information on bicycling in Monterey, check out the Monterey Bay Coastal Bike Path map [see maps] or Bicycling Monterey, sponsor of HER Helmet Thursdays and a great source of bicycling news, events, and local deals!”

Directions tip: To avoid biking on sidewalks of Alvarado Street (more on that below), and to avoid biking the wrong way (against traffic) on Alvarado Street, you may find yourself biking the street in downtown Monterey known as Calle Principal. For three typical routes that people who bike use to reach Alvarado Street from Calle Principal, refer to the tips just before—and in—the Bonifacio Plaza section of “Where the Plazas Are in the City of Monterey–and How to Preserve Their Charm.”

Also note that Monterey Hotel and Alvarado St. Brewery both have an entrance on Calle Principal, as well as on Alvarado Street.

And now, what’s up with

downtown Monterey’s

sidewalk riding regulations?

Whoops. Note the family biking up the Alvarado Street sidewalk. Are you biking with children too young to bike in the street on Alvarado? Hop off and walk your bicycles on the sidewalk. Why?

As mentioned in Bicycling Monterey’s “Bicycling on Sidewalks: Misconceptions and Advisories. Also: Crosswalks, and ‘What Pedestrians and Bicyclists Want Each Other to Know,'” the City of Monterey has “no bike riding on sidewalk” signs on Alvarado, and also on Calle Principal. Bicycling on sidewalks in the City of Monterey is legal in most locations, but it is prohibited in certain areas (mostly downtown) where “signs are in place giving notice thereof,” per Section 22-12 (click here).

It can be very easy to overlook the signs, which aren’t at eye level. And it makes sense that often people are confused about bike laws (click here for more examples). 

You bet, I wish every street had protected bike lanes / separated bike lanes, like the stretch of them on East Market Street, Salinas. Such infrastructure improvements are a far better solution than sometimes resorting to biking on sidewalks, which has its own dangers.

Kudos to the woman pictured for getting the kids out of the car and onto bicycles. There are so many benefits to biking. Apparently she is also savvy that CA law requires helmets for minors.

(As mentioned in Natividad Medical Center employees to youth: “Bike! It’s health-building and fun,” California law—DMV VC Section 21212—states that minors are required to wear helmets when biking.)

Monterey Police Department, as with most PDs in increasingly bike-friendly Monterey County, surely prefer education to citation about bike laws. Help them out by sharing info with your friends. Grab some posters from “Confused about bike laws,” or just share a link to this site.

For extra bike-friendly spots on Alvarado Street

—places that give HER Helmet Thursdays discounts—scroll down.

Hey, who was that musician? Read on.

Hey, his reggae is fine! Yes it is. On your bike, it’s easy to stop for unexpected treats, like finding Azi Fedoui performing August 28, 2017 on Alvarado Street. A few days earlier, Azi was recording at Wave Street Studios on Cannery Row, and my ears perked up to hear him right on Alvarado. 

Alvarado Street’s HER Helmet Thursdays spots

For a list of all HER Helmet Thursdays businesses and organizations in downtown Monterey, plus those elsewhere in the city of Monterey and throughout Monterey County (there are hundreds), go to LISTINGS, How to Get the Discounts, and FAQs about HER Helmet Thursdays.

The first of these extra bike-friendly spots on Alvarado are:

Alvarado Street Brewery

Britannia Arms

Lallapalooza

Monterey Hotel – How to get a HER Helmet Thursdays lodging discount

MYO Pure Frozen Yogurt

Petra

Plume’s

Rosine’s

Spa on the Plaza