Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Loving Long Beach, Part ll

Charlie Gandy and John Simpson, Trikke
On Friday, April 1st, TrikkeWorld Magazine met with Charlie Gandy, in the mayor's office, to talk about Trikkifying Long Beach. That story will unfold in TrikkeWorld Magazine in the months to come.

I had arranged for Trikke Tech to bring down from Buellton, a Pon-e for everyone to ride, or should I say have a blast with. Trikke Tech just happens to be unleashing their new model Pon-e's this month, which are the lithium powered Trikkes. We were flying through the new bike lanes that Long Beach is unveiling in a few weeks. These lanes are such a gift for all who currently fight for sidewalk space.

I am not a full throttle gal, but I was racing to keep up with the guys. We flew east-bound through bike lanes that access Broadway to First street to Junipero, to horrors, a descent down one very steep hill to the beach!

I never realized how much fun it is to be terrified and thrilled all at the same time. My inner-child really had a full play day on the Pon-e. If only people could try these things...

We followed the lanes all the way through Belmont Shore, on the new Sharrow lanes. There will be fewer accidents between bikes and side-walkers, especially here in Belmont Shore.

Long Beach is a very forward thinking city, and it is thinking green.  Prediction --  there are going to be a lot of Trikkes tooling around my favorite City-by-the-Sea in time for summer.

And thankfully, we will have safe new lanes to take us where needed  for exercise or a quick stop at the market. My favorite, the corridor that runs from Alamitos to the LA River bike trail, and back. It used to be a difficult trek on a trikke with no other location but the sidewalk to ride on.


Thank you, Long Beach for making the sidewalks and streets safer for bikes and Trikkes! And thank you, Charlie Gandy for being the newest Trikke advocate!