511 Contra Costa would like to congratulate Louis Sandoval, Contra Costa County’s Bicycle Commuter of the Year for 2010. Sandoval was chosen as this year’s winner by the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, an organization dedicated to promoting bicycling as an everyday means of transportation and recreation.
Mr. Sandoval is a consummate bicyclist. He commutes by bicycle to his part -time job as an adult education mathematics teacher for the West Contra Costa Unified School District. He commutes on his Bridgestone bicycle between two job locations in Richmond and San Pablo and has done so for more than 5 years. “My Bridgestone is a real beater,” Louis says. “It’s a tank of a bike, but has a real bike rack and a pannier, and does the job of carrying my books, groceries, everything, rain or shine.”
His bicycle commutes also include jaunts into Hayward to visit his mother and to take classes at Cal State East Bay. “Even at 11pm at night you can find him on the street making his way home from Hayward, via Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond,” says Raul Ramirez, a principal at WCCUSD. When needed, Louis utilizes BART to transport his trusty steed and himself around the Bay to appointments and classes. Louis says that the toughest part of bicycle commuting is not the distance, weather or the terrain “it’s the traffic that is sometimes the toughest part.”
Looking ahead, Louis says he is looking forward to riding south everyday to San Jose State University this Fall to get his own degree in biomedical engineering. His bicycle trip will travel along the Bay Trail past the Oakland Airport and across the new San Leandro Slough Bridge. From there, the Bay Trail extends down to Union City. The new San Leandro Slough Bridge is scheduled to open on Bike to Work Day this year.
