By Lookout Staff

May 2, 2024 -- Santa Monica is celebrating Bike Month this May with a series of activities that promote safety and tout the major upgrades made to the city's growing network of bicycle lanes.

The activities kick off Saturday with a bicycle safety workshop and include a community ride, a mass family bike ride for kids and bicycle maintenance classes.

They also include Bike It! Walk It! Bus It! Week for teachers and students at various participating schools next Monday through Friday.

During Bike month, the City is celebrating safety upgrades completed since 2020 that expanded the Beach Bike Trail and added protective bike lanes along stretches of 23rd Street, Pico Boulevard, Ocean Avenue and 17th Street.

Upcoming projects will add four protected bikeways that will complete or begin construction in the coming year.

“Santa Monica’s growing network of protected bike lanes provides the foundation to build a healthier, more sustainable city by reducing emissions,” said Department of Transportation Director Anuj Gupta.

“We are known for our strong biking community, and I’m looking forward to seeing cyclists of all ages exploring our city this Bike Month."

According to the City's 2022 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, transportation emissions account for 69 percent of citywide emissions.

"Every bicycle trip is another step towards meeting the city’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan goal of reducing emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2030," City officials said.

Bike Month comes as the number of "injury-causing crashes" involving cyclists has plummeted -- from some 150 in 2012 to 72 this year, according to data provided by the City.

Bicyclists and motorists involved in serious crashes since 2010 have both been almost equally at fault.

Of the 72 fatal and severe injury (FSI) crashes between January 1, 2010 and November 16, 2023, the cyclist was determined to be at fault in 26 of the crashes and the motorist in 31.

Santa Monica police have been staging bicycle and pedestrian safety operations -- including one this Friday -- at "locations where pedestrian and bike collisions are prevalent."

Police officials remind bicyclists that they must follow similar traffic laws as motorists, must travel in the same direction of traffic and have the same requirements as any slow moving vehicle.

They should also avoid riding too close to parked cars and use available bike lanes unless making a left turn, passing or approaching a place where a right turn is allowed.

Bicyclists must yield the right-of-way to pedestrians within marked crosswalks or within unmarked crosswalks at intersections. All cyclists should always wear a helmet, while those under 18 years of age must wear them by law.

For more information about Bike Month, click here.