20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 30-AUGUST 5, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com reductions in speed can significantly improve crash outcomes by reducing the likelihood of fatal or life-altering injuries.” Lynch says that 90 percent of the drivers she encounters while bike commuting are kind and conscientious, providing her with the state-mandated three-foot buffer zone, or changing lanes to avoid cyclists when it’s possible, which is also a state law. “I love these drivers and I appreciate them,” Lynch says. “But then you get this other 5 to 10 percent who are jerks who endanger my life and the lives of other people.” In one recent example, she says a passing driver abruptly yelled “Boo!” at her, startling Lynch. “They don’t realize they could make someone lose their balance or fall but people do this because they think it’s fun or silly,” Lynch says. “I don’t know what they think. They don’t think. They don’t think about the potential impact.” To help curb the number of avoidable crashes between cyclists and cars, Lynch says education is the key starting at a young age—think bicycle or pedestrian ed, not just driver’s ed. “It’s a life skill,” says Lynch. “I’d love to see more of that education in the schools.” She teaches bike safety in various capacities, including for the Monterey County Probation Department Youth Center Bicycle Repair and Safety Class, which she founded in 2012. Her most basic advice to youth and anyone riding a bike, electric or otherwise, includes being “visible and predictable.” “It’s not required by law, but bright clothing doesn’t hurt,” Lynch says. “And being predictable means using your arm signals to turn.” Being visible and predictable is a decades-long practice and mantra for Frank Henderson, a Marina resident and friend of Lynch, who has commuted by bike to his job at Hartnell College, a roughly 20-mile round trip, rain or shine, for 30 years. He started using the fitness tracking app Strava about 12 years ago and has logged approximately 67,000 miles so far. “I usually ride about 5,000 to 6,000 miles a year,” Henderson says. “And the vast majority of the miles are commuting miles.” After he got hit by a car that was turning left during his commute in 2010, Henderson decided to study bike safety to understand why the crash occurred. He learned that he had done nothing wrong, but needed to be more aware of his surroundings, among other revelations. “I learned some great information that I thought other people should know too and so that’s why I became a League of American Bicyclists instructor,” Henderson says. “A lot of people learn how to be safe through experience, and a lot of those are not good experiences, but you can also learn through education and prevent accidents before they happen.” Henderson teaches young people about bike safety and repair at the same Monterey County Probation bike class. He also helps people fix their bikes at Repair Cafes around the county. Henderson says one of the primary lessons he teaches is to behave like traffic when riding a bike because “you are part of the traffic and so you shouldn’t behave differently.” And that although most people are afraid of the traffic behind them, “usually most of the danger comes from in front of you, so you need to watch what’s in front of you more than behind you.” Being a longtime bike commuter, Henderson has an intimate understanding of some of the county’s biggest pain points for cyclists, such as Main Street in Salinas. “You’ll notice that there are two lanes for two cars and when you’re riding on a bike, you can’t ride off to one side because the motorists try to squeeze by you and you’ll end up on the curb,” he says. “And so you have to ride in the lane of traffic and of course the motorists don’t appreciate that but it’s the way the road is built that makes it the only safe way for cyclists to use that roadway.” On the flipside, Henderson says that after vehicle lanes were taken out on Alisal Street in Salinas and bike lanes were added to both sides of the street as part of the Alisal Complete Streets Project, the roadway has become much safer for cyclists. “It makes it much more walkable too because people aren’t driving so fast and swerving back and forth,” he says. “That’s one of the best examples of roadway improvements that I’ve experienced.” Henderson is particularly excited about the progress being made on FORTAG, which will help to connect disjointed bikeable areas in Marina and Seaside and make it much easier for bicyclists to get around the county. The first segment of the 28-mile project is slated for completion this fall. “I think that it’s super exciting that they’ll be linking all of the community spaces in the open space,” Henderson says. “If cyclists can just hop on a bike path and ride their bike all the way out there, I think the open space will be used a lot more and less driving will take place. If you just want some recreation, why would you drive when you could hop on your bike?” Like Lynch and Henderson, the local Vision Zero Plan has a goal to eventually eliminate traffic-related deaths and injuries by treating them as preventable events. The plan looks at Monterey County transportation through the lens of a Safe System Approach, adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which considers the functionality of the entire transportation system and stresses that all travelers, whatever the mode of transit, have a role in keeping themselves and others safe on the road. “Everyone deserves to travel safely,” the Vision Zero Plan states. “To achieve this vision, TAMC has set an ambitious and achievable goal to reduce fatal and serious injuries by 30 percent by 2030 with the ultimate goal of eliminating fatal and serious injuries “Intersections are obviously danger points.” League of American Bicyclists instructor and Marina resident Frank Henderson has commuted by bike to his job at Hartnell College, a roughly 20-mile round trip, rain or shine, for 30 years. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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