Tomorrow @ 3pm: Ride to the first Sharrow in the City of SD & Malcolm X Library

12/29 UPDATE: This ride is being rescheduled to a non-stormy day. TBD.

An impromptu bike ride is being organized to visit the new sharrow--"bikes allowed full lane" marking--on Imperial Avenue in South East San Diego. This is the first sharrow in the entire City of San Diego! We hope it's a sign of things to come.


(Photo by Kathy Keehan, Executive Director of the Bike Coalition).

The SD bike community is ready for more sharrows--especially on 30th St., which is a plan being supported by businesses on 30th, the local community planning group, residents, the Executive Director of the Bike Coalition, and our City of SD City Councilmember.

The sharrow on Imperial Ave. is a bit of a mystery. Many bike advocates in San Diego expected the first sharrow to be on 30th--where there was and continues to be serious community demand and political will. It's unclear how much community demand there was/is for the Imperial Ave. sharrow or why the City chose this particular section to debut something that bike advocates in South Park, North Park, and Uptown area have long demanded.

Nevertheless, the Imperial Ave. sharrow is a good sign that traffic engineers in the the City are ready to install this clever lane-marking which reaffirms CVC 21200--cyclists, like motorists, are allowed to use the full lane when they decide it's safe to do so.

Check it out for yourself. Join the ride heading there tomorrow (Wednesday). Meet at 3pm at Rebecca's Coffeeshop at 30th & Juniper.

In addition to visiting the sharrow, the ride will also be visiting the Malcolm X Library, a block down the street.


(Illustration by Charles Lilly for The Autobiography of Malcolm X book cover).


(Muhammad Ali being photographed by his philosophical adviser Malcolm X after defeating Sonny Liston to become the world champ of his weight class. Photo by Bob Gomel).

By the way, I originally thought that sociologist Steven Spitzer coined the expression 'social dynamite,' until I read Malcolm X use it in his autobiography which I am currently reading. That expression--one of my favorites--has been used to define the mission statement of Bic Control (located to your right) since this blog started 18 months and 230 entries ago. Malcolm X had masterful mic control.