Freedom. Exhilaration. Adrenaline. Saving the planet while being economical. Whether you are riding to the library, racing down Temple City Boulevard or anywhere in between, biking is the best way to travel locally. One group at school that wants to ride that trend is Bike Club.
Bike Club believes that biking can bring excitement to everyone. The club’s major goals are to promote safe biking and involve its members with communal bike trips to places such as the Santa Fe Dam and Huntington Beach.
Capitalizing on scenic regional bike routes, club members bravely take to the streets in groups of ten to fifteen. Last year’s trip to the Santa Fe Dam, in particular, was a great bonding experience for the club.
“I had to stop once in a while to let everyone catch up, but it was a pretty fun and easy ride,” Junior Jerry Lee said. “During lunch we got to eat together. It was pretty nice to get to know new people and talk to friends.”
Still, cycling is most popular as an individual sport. Many students travel to school every morning and lock their bikes in the school’s bike racks, and one of Bike Club’s goals is to inspire more people to ditch the morning car commute and bike to school. Doing so would reduce traffic on Lemon, diminish air pollution and promote cardio exercise, not to mention save your parents fifteen minutes every day.
The city is doing its job in promoting safe biking too. The growing biking culture in Temple City influenced the city’s construction plan, the Bicycle Master Plan, which includes blueprints for a renovated Temple City decked with safer, wider bike paths, lanes and routes. By 2020, the city envisions a Class I bike path, separated from traffic, along Eaton Wash, Class II bike lanes running concurrent with thoroughfares such as Rosemead Blvd., Las Tunas Drive and Temple City Blvd. and Class III bike routes along minor streets.
“I think it’s a fantastic way to recognize that cyclists share the road,” Bike Club Vice President Junior Sarah Wright said. “Hopefully, it will encourage people to bike
more often.”
Ultimately, biking is a relatively easy and practical method of transportation, but as with all vehicles, safety is always the primary concern. So whether you are racing down the LA River emphatically or casually riding to the park, always wear a helmet, be aware of others and take the safest route. In other words, never take your safety for granted, no matter how free, exhilarated and pumped with adrenaline you are.