Biking in LA hasn’t always been accepting, but these gender-expansive group rides are trying to change that
From LAPublicPress.org
by
SILVERLAKE — I wasn’t going to make it to the top of this hill, not on this heavy, steel, beach cruiser bike. After riding only about 20 feet I said out loud, “I’m not gonna make it, I’ll just walk it from here.” The group bike ride started to move past me up the hill at Barnsdall Art Park. But then, a gentle voice from behind me: “I got you, I won’t leave you behind,” and someone put a hand on my back and began pushing me up the hill, using their e-bike to lighten the load.
Though the riders of the Trash Panda Cycling – Gender Expansive Ride (GXR), a group of women and gender queer cyclists that ride throughout LA County, had assured me that I would be taken care of if I joined their weekend morning ride, I’d still been apprehensive.
In the more than ten years I’ve owned my baby blue beach cruiser I had never gone more than a mile or two from home. I always rode on the sidewalk. Even for running quick errands, my parent’s preferred I drive because the roads are dangerous for cyclists — and for women.
And standing at the top of the hill at the park I realized my anxieties about my bike, the roads, and slowing down the group had almost kept me from enjoying this beautiful ride.
I had just met the riders of the GXR a few hours earlier but they had my back, literally.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
