Like most of you (I’d guess), my family and I love to travel.  You see new places, meet new people and stoke up on new adventures. One of the things I enjoy is the chance to check out transportation facilities in other communities, especially the walking and biking kind, and see how the locals use them.

Headin’ south

Last week was no exception. My wife, son and I headed south to spend a few days with my father and stepmother in Vero Beach, Florida, followed by a couple of days at Disney World. Even though it’s been a relatively mild winter here on the Front Range, we enjoyed taking in some sun, tasting the salt water from a boogie board and feeling the humidity while catching up with family.

Look at them all

Part of the fun was to walk around the community where my dad and stepmother live, Sea Oaks, to check out the transportation infrastructure and travel behaviors. I was impressed. Lots of bikes!

Between the homes, pools, tennis courts, gym and beach club, a lot of folks were making their short trips (within a mile or two) by bicycle. Check out all the bikes we saw corralled when we walked over to boogie board and all the bikes we saw at the tennis club when we went there for lunch. Great stuff!

It just felt calm

What I noticed, but more importantly FELT, was that having so many bikes there in the mix helps slow things down. While I didn’t ride, I did walk on several occasions and I could see that motorists would slow down, sometimes to a creep, and almost always give bicyclists a wide birth.

It was great to see several seniors, many in their 70s and 80s, and clusters of visiting grandkids comfortably riding along at their own pace and saying hello with a smile on their face, not worried about a side swipe or a left hook. Bikes were part of the culture and it was a pleasant place to be!

I look forward to our next visit to spend more time with family and soak up some more of the Sea Oaks bike culture. Looking further ahead, I sure hope I can jump on my cruiser for many of my trips when I’m 79, like my dad. Here he is heading out on a short hop with his grandson Teegan running alongside him.

Happy almost 80th, Dad. Pedal on!