A Saturday spent fighting climate change

Last Saturday, I joined a hundred or so other environmentally-minded souls for a relaxing bike tour of central San José. The Moving Planet Day bike ride was organized by local advocate, SVBC member, and KKUP on-air personality Diane Solomon, with help from SVBC, San José Bike Party, TransForm, the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, and others.

A few humans and a giant rabbit get ready for the day at Children's Discovery Museum.

The ride was part of a global movement promoted by 350.org to raise awareness about carbon emissions and climate change. In practice, it was simple: a bunch of us rode our bikes around for the day. We visited the Luna Park Chalk Festival, stopped by city hall, and took a break at Kelley Park. Everyone we passed waved hello and asked us what we were up to. It was ridiculously idyllic.

We're such dedicated advocates, we hit up city hall on a Saturday!

SVBC encourages biking on two fronts: we work to make it safer and easier to ride a bike (bike facilities), and we work to encourage people to get on a bike and give riding a try (bike culture). The Moving Planet Day bike ride was a slam dunk for the latter. We actually made people envious of us as we pedaled peacefully through the streets on a perfect Saturday. We showed people all over San José how much fun you can have on a bike! Not only that, but I burned off the calories from my kimchi-and-chipotle-laden hot dog that I bought at the chalk festival. Take that, climate change!