Hasti's Relationship with Her Bicycle

I remember at a young age when I first learned the trick to getting on my bike using the street curb. I grew up at the end of a cul-de-sac with no drive through traffic. So all the kids in my neighborhood would play in the street in front of our houses. I would bike as fast as I could then stand on the seat and coast around like an acrobat. As a child, almost everything was fun and games. In my mind, my bike was a toy. It wasn't until I began biking with a purpose, getting from point A to point B, that I realized the value of my bike.

When I travel, my favorite way to explore a new area is by bicycle... 

Paris was the first place I experienced a bike sharing program. There are numerous stations around the city where you can pick up or drop off rental bikes (14,000 bicycles and 1,230 stations). I'm excited San Francisco and Palo Alto recently added similar bike sharing stations!

Barcelona also has a bike sharing system; however, it was locals only since you needed to have a residential address to rent out the bikes on the street. We rented cruisers through a bike shop and coasted by the beach!

Biking around the Grand Canyon with my cousins is one of my most memorable bike rides. The weather in Arizona is so unpredictable. Towards the end of the bike ride, the clouds rolled in and it began pouring for a brief moment. It was exhilarating to cool off in the rain after biking in the heat!

As a freshman at UCSC, I was intimidated by the terrain  and didn't think it would be practical to bring my bike. I brought my bike to Santa Cruz Winter quarter of my Freshman year, and began to discover new routes and new areas of campus. Getting around campus and town became much more exciting and enjoyable.

My first 3 years at Santa Cruz, I never wore a helmet. I loved the wind flowing through my hair and didn't think twice about protecting my head. Biking home from campus, I take Bay Street. I rarely need to pedal, since the hill is so steep. After I found out Bay Street has several intersections with the highest number of bicycle-car collisions in Santa Cruz, I felt differently biking around with a helmet. All of a sudden, when I became aware of how often "accidents" happen on my route home, wearing a helmet made me feel comfortable biking.

Currently, I take the bike shuttle to campus, which drops off at one of the highest point on campus at Science Hill. This makes is easy to cruise downhill to wherever I need to go. My favorite and most frequent route in Santa Cruz is West Cliff. I love biking along the coast and anytime I need some fresh air, I'll head to my favorite scenic route.