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Community Corner

Bike Week LA Rides Into Hollywood

A week of bicycle-related activities are planned for the week, including Bike to Work Day on Thursday.

On Monday morning, Scott van Sooy planned to ride his bike to work, as he does several times each week. But this Monday, he was joined by some extra bikers on the road.

Bike Week LA, a week of bicycle-related events throughout the region, begins today. Among the highlights of the week are a Blessing of the Bikes at Good Samaritan Hospital on Tuesday at 8 a.m. and a Downtown LA bike ride leaving from Union Station on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

Thursday is the big day of the week with Bike to Work Day. Many area public transit systems will offer free rides for people who board with bikes or bike helmets. In Hollywood, Metro will host a pit stop at the Hollywood and Vine Red Line Station from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. offering refreshments and public transportation information to anyone who stops by.

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Van Sooy has a fairly easy commute from his West Hollywood home near the Pavilions grocery store to his work close to Hollywood on Larchmont Boulevard at Rosewood Avenue. He can cover the four miles from home to work in 20 to 25 minutes by car, 30 minutes by bike.

If he drives, he takes San Vicente to Beverly to Larchmont. On days he rides, he takes the bike lanes along Santa Monica Boulevard until it ends, then cuts down to Willoughby until he gets to Vine and then takes various side streets to get to work.

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The reason he takes different routes for car and bicycle is that Beverly can be very busy and narrows when it gets to the Wilshire Country Club area. By contrast, Willoughby is not too busy and has stop lights at all the major intersections.

Since he works as a landscape architect for Land Images, he does not have to wear a coat and tie for work, so he rides in the clothes he works in. “It’s a short enough ride and it’s basically flat, so that I don’t get sweaty,” van Sooy said.

What he has to do during his work day determines if he rides or drives. If his work requires him to go out of the office to meet a client, then he drives.

But he relishes the days he gets to ride his bike to work. “My day goes better when I ride to work,” said van Sooy, a Kansas City native who moved here from the Bay Area in 2004.

The bike ride home is something he looks forward to even more. “It’s a way of relieving pressure and stress from the work day,” he said. “It can get frustrating to be stuck in traffic which just adds to the pressure from the work day. But biking helps you let go of all that.”

What happens if he bikes to work but it is raining when he gets off? “I just get wet,” he said, shrugging.  

Van Sooy was a typical biker as a kid, he said, riding to school often and to friends' houses. But once he got his driver’s license, the bike was a thing of the past.

About 15 years ago, he saw a retro bike that looked like the Schwinn bike he had growing up. Nostalgia kicked in and he ended up buying it. Soon he was riding all over the Bay Area.

These days, he serves on West Hollywood’s recently formed Bicycle Task Force, which is charged with figuring ways to get people out of their cars and onto their bikes.

“Being a landscaper, I deal with issues of urban planning a lot,” he said. “And accommodating bikes is something that’s very important for cities.” 

For people contemplating biking to work, he suggests first doing a trail ride on the weekend. “Sometimes the most direct route via car is not the best route to take on a bike,” he said. “Take some time. Explore other routes when you’re not in a hurry.”

He also advices people not to feel pressured to ride to work every day. “Just do it when it’s convenient,” he said.

Finally, he said to relax and enjoy the ride. “One thing is that cool about riding your bike is you see streets and alleys you wouldn’t get to see otherwise,” he said. “I’ve seen things on a bike people never notice if they’re speeding by in a car.”

Related:

: Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge and others hold a press conference to help promote Bike Week L.A., which begins today.

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