Yesterday I instructed a Traffic Skills 101 course in Redding, California, along with Pete Hollingsworth and Peter Massoletti, who are from Chico. We had nine participants including the course host Sara Sundquist, Safe Route to School Coordinator for Healthy Shasta. On Friday I rode around downtown Redding, laying out the road skills portion of the course. I stayed with Anne and Jeff Thomas who are part of the Redding cycling community, which is strong and passionate. Saturday we had good weather for the course, almost a spring day. After the morning classroom and schoolyard parking lot drills, we rode to Grilla Bites for lunch, then around and around through various intersection with left turns, straights, and right turns, all while occupying the lane. Then we rode to Sundial Bridge, for the road experiences along the way and just for the fun of it.
Photos on PicasaWeb, including some of bike facilities in Redding from the day before.
I used to live in Redding and Whiskeytown in the 1970’s and it was interesting to see how it has changed. There are some great new bike facilities, the Sundial Bridge, the Sacramento River Trail, the Downtown to Dana multi-use trail across the river, the Cypress Street Bridge with new bike lanes. But there is also a lot more traffic, as Redding has grown tremendously during the time. The mountains are still close on the horizon: Lassen, Shasta, and Shasta Bally, and I remember them fondly.
On Friday I also visited my friends Bob and Carol Grom who live in Redding. I’ve not seen them in about 10 years. Bob and I took a walk in the Clover Creek open space near their house, and then we all had a light lunch and talked for quite a while. Bob is working on rehabilitating an interesting classic recumbent bike.
I got to Redding on Amtrak, got around on my Brompton folding bike, caught a ride back to Chico with Pete and Peter, and caught Amtrak back to Sacramento. And slept most of today!
Dan Allison 
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