Santa Monica Spoke strives to encourage healthy, active transportation and to inspire people of all ages to ride bikes more often, and more safely. Founded in 2009, Santa Monica Spoke was launched as the first local chapter of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) and remains a strong partner to them as well as the California Bicycle Coalition. Santa Monica Spoke is a proud member of the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance, a collaborative that promotes the implementation of “Vision Zero”—a proven Swedish vision for decreasing preventable traffic deaths to zero per year, even as a city’s population grows—through successful initiatives and inventions.
Santa Monica Spoke has long been a leading collaborative partner with other organizations and local government to promote and implement the city’s Bike Action Plan and the recent Bike Action Plan Amendment, the Pedestrian Action Plan, and the city’s Complete Streets policies. For the past several years, they have helped drive the construction of a Michigan Avenue Neighborhood Greenway (MANGo)—a protected bike lane network that includes the Broadway corridor and ongoing expansion on 17th—with the goal of creating a citywide active mobility network of safe, shared street space that connects the community and its visitors to key destinations like schools and improves accessibility within the Pico neighborhood.
This May, in honor of both Bike Month and Mental Health Awareness Month, Santa Monica Spoke is once again celebrating with “Kidical Mass,” a family friendly neighborhood bike ride for all ages, with a pancake breakfast, art activities, a community garden tour, and reminders of local mental health resources offered by many participating community organizations. Hosting activities like Kidical Mass is just one of the many ways Santa Monica Spoke works beyond cycling to empower and seek equity for everyone in the community.
