When I got up yesterday morning and made my decision to go for a ride down the beach bike path, I guess my brain hadn't yet awakened from its slumber. Otherwise I think it would have occurred to me "Hmmm, this is the last day of a holiday weekend, the weather is beautiful, there are still a lot of tourists in town, it is going to be packed." Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me. The closer I got to the beach, the heavier traffic was getting. As I rode down Main Street in Santa Monica, cars were in competition to grab the few free spaces on the street. Others were heading to the almost-filled-to-capacity parking lots. And this was at about 9:30 AM.
The fact that the Main St. Farmers Market was also today didn't help the parking situation. For this particular market, I use the term "Farmers" loosely. You have to wander around for awhile, dodging hundreds of double-wide strollers (doesn't anybody have just one kid at a time anymore?) before you notice a few vegetable stands hidden in a far corner, obscured by hot food stands, popcorn vendors, crafts booths and pony rides. Some people claim this is the best farmers market in SM, and I guess it could be if you are trying to avoid those pesky vegetables. The Arizona market is the best in my opinion, unless you are just looking for a street fair.
When I hit the path at about 9:30, there were already a lot of people on the bike path. Notice I didn't say there were a lot of cyclists on the bike path. Oh, there were cyclists, but there were also joggers, skateboarders, inline skaters, more of the ubiquitous double-wide strollers, also the ubiquitous double-wide tourists ambling slowly three or four abreast down the path, which happens to be not more than 20 feet away from a clearly marked pedestrian path. The bike path is clearly marked "Bikes Only" about every 25 feet, though it goes ignored (they did make concessions long ago concerning inline skaters, after complaints from the skaters that the couldn't skate on the bike path, but also were not supposed to skate on the pedestrian path.
Add in many tourists on rented bikes who clearly hadn't been on a bike in a while (my first clue was noticing that some of them didn't even know they were supposed to put the kickstand in the up position before riding, so there they were, kickstand scraping on the ground every time they went around a curve) slowly wobbling down the path. On top of this, stir in the road bike racers who decided this would be a good time and place to do their training and you have a recipe for disaster. There were no major collisions that I saw, but all the elements were in place. A lot of swerving in and out of lanes trying to pass people. Skidding to a sudden stop when they were unable to do so. Groups riding slowly four across taking up both lanes of the path.
Today I was going only as far as Marina Del Rey, which is just south of Venice and not a far ride at all but today took much longer than usual. I wasn't in a hurry, though, so it was no big deal. Sometimes I take this path further down to the South Bay, going to either Manhattan Beach and sometimes Hermosa Beach. The path stretches for twenty-some miles down the coast, with a detour around the marina where you need to leave the beach briefly.
By the time of my return trip about an hour later, I could tell that the beach was going to be packed within a couple hours. There were already many people heading toward the water carrying towels, coolers, bags etc. ready to make a day of it. It wouldn't be long before the news crews would be walking the beach, preparing for their hard-hitting newscast at 6:00 by asking beach goers such questions as "Why did you decide to come to the beach today?"
Despite the fact that there were a couple of stretches where any attempt to slow down or pull off could have triggered a pileup of massive proportions, I did manage to stop and snap some photos. And who am I to complain about the path being crowded, I was there too. It was, after all, a beautiful day to go for a ride.
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