Pedaling for Bikepaths in Pomona

All these years later and Pomona still doesn't have a bike path system. This despite the fact that two planning students at Cal Poly Pomona designed one many years ago. Heck, Pomona doesn't even have a bike path anywhere that I can see besides a stretch on Bonita that is the tail end of the Citrus Bikeway. Big and I have been doing a lot of biking in Pomona lately and the problem is always how to best get anywhere outside of our little pocket of Lincoln Park.

How hard can it be to get a can of paint and do bikepaths along Palomares, Orange Grove and Arrow Highway. Thus connecting Pomona bike paths to the Claremont bike paths. And all of this is good for Pomona business, by the way. On a recent ride, we got pizza at Valentino's as a reward on our way home.

I've come to the conclusion that bikepaths in Pomona may never happen. If they were going to, it would have happened while Darryl Grigsby was here, but it didn't and now he is gone. I am sure there's a meeting scheduled somewhere soon in Pomona to talk about the bike paths, but meetings and talking don't do any good when you and your Pomona kid are looking for the best bike path to ride around, about or out of town. It's gotten to the point where we ride the treacherous streets of Pomona to Claremont in order to ride on a bike path in Claremont. What is ironic is how many more bike riders I see on the streets of Pomona than in Claremont, yet no bike paths in sight. Like I always say, it's the cheap fixes where Pomona fails, and fails miserably.

This Saturday morning, being the first of the month, is the monthly Ride Around Pomona event. If you are interested in safely riding around Pomona for a day, check it out:

Otherwise, if anyone has paint of any color they can donate to the City of Pomona for that fantasy rainbow bike path in the sky, well do it already. But whatever you do, don't get your hopes up that Pomona will ever get it together to actually build that citywide bike path that magically turns around our economy and keeps us and our dollars close to home. It's too inexpensive, common sensical and too obviously the right thing to do for them to ever just do it. So we are on our own, so be safe out there and always wear your helmet!