Signs of a Bicycling Friendly Monterey County

These photos were taken at various Monterey County locations.  And they all say the same thing:  this is a bicycling friendly place.

Looking for evidence?  The signs are everywhere!  Want tips on these and other local bikeways?  Click here.

You’ll also see the Tips for Bicycling Monterey County signs

at many bike-friendly locations throughout the county!

Watch for this new sign, too, at participating HER Helmet Thursdays locations:

Visitors

If you live out of the area and wish you could ride your bike in such a bicycling friendly place, come visit us!  BYOB (bring your own bike) or rent one here.   Tips for Tourists Bicycling Monterey County will help make your cycling visit more fun.  And when you return to your home, maybe you’ll have a renewed commitment not only to bike more at home, too, but to also help your own municipality copy bicycling’s Best of Monterey County.

And for those very fortunate visitors who live in communities that are even more bike friendly, please post a comment here and let us know some of the things you have at home that you’d love to see for cyclists here in Monterey County.  Thank you.

Locals

Although most local cyclists look forward to continued improvements in bike infrastructure, it’s easy to take for granted how much is already in place—signage, bike paths, bike racks, bike maps, and more—to help make it safer and easier to bike here.  These things may seem small to some, for it’s easy to forget that they don’t exist everywhere.

I am grateful to live where more is being done every year to create an even more cycling friendly county.

Here’s one idea for something that, to my knowledge, would be new to MoCo:  some “One Way, Bikes Excepted” or “Wrong Way, Bikes Excepted” signs, like the one pictured below.

To Monterey County municipal leaders…

a special greeting, to acknowledge your wonderful work that has led to the signs pictured above.  Muchos gracias!

Below is the new sign that is on my wish list to be added at appropriate locations throughout our county.

Possibilities for use of this sign in MoCo might include Scenic Drive, Carmel.  Another location might be New Monterey, as a young woman who lives up a steep hill there told me that a “One-Way, Bikes Excepted” sign would save her a lot of time and promote her biking to and from her job down on Alvarado Street.

Other MoCo cyclists may wish to suggest additional spots, either by commenting below or by contacting municipal leaders directly.   Who to contact?  Start with Kaki Chen, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the Transportation Agency of Monterey County.

Curious about the Monterey County General Bikeways Plan?  Check it out here. And as reported on this site, the City of Monterey has adopted their 2009 Bike Plan.

Where can you see this “bikes excepted”  sign?

The photo of this particular “WRONG WAY, BIKES EXCEPTED” sign was taken along the south side of the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Preserve, Newport Beach, California.  The trail is part of the Mountains to the Sea Biking and Hiking Trail.

Photo provided courtesy of  The Cycling Dude. ( http://www.cyclingdude.com )

You’ll find that same message on signs in bike-friendly places around the USA and other parts of the world.

Coming soon to a Monterey County bikeway near you?

Hope so!