Bike Summer lets L.A. put mettle to pedal

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Bike Summer lets L.A. put mettle to pedal

Organizers hoping to raise awareness

By Gordon Smith
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 12, 2005

LOS ANGELES – The city of cars is experiencing the summer of bikes.

Choking on nearly 2 million motor vehicles, the nation's worst traffic congestion and some of its worst smog, Los Angeles would seem an unlikely place for bicycle activists to stage the seventh annual Bike Summer.

Still, if your goal is to encourage bicycle use, stage offbeat cycling events ranging from a men's leg-shaving night to a women's Korean spa ride, and generally try to raise public awareness of all things bicycle, why not carry your flag, as it were, to the enemy's doorstep?

"If the purpose of Bike Summer is to (draw attention to) all the benefits of bicycling, there's no better place to do it than in what's been ordained as the capital of car culture," said Matt Benjamin, 31, planning director for the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, which is helping to organize the event.

Stretching from June 3 to July 4, Bike Summer is a loosely connected series of workshops, advocacy sessions, parties and group rides of all sorts – including an overnight ride from Los Angeles to San Diego this Thursday and Friday. Previous Bike Summers have been held in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and other cities.

As part of the Los Angeles event, organizers hope to highlight the city's growing bike culture as well as the interdependence of biking and mass transit.

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