Metro Bike Share hosts free bike ride for Women's History Month in Downtown L.A.

Bikers assemble in front of Los Angeles Plaza Park on the Metro Bike Share Women's History Community Ride this rainy morning in Downtown Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday, March 11, 2023. (Akemi Rico | The Corsair)

A biker on the Metro Bike Share Women's History Community Ride stops to read the captions on the exhibit featuring Biddy Mason at the Biddy Mason Memorial Park in Downtown Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday, March 11, 2023. (Akemi Rico | The Corsair)

Kimberly Fisher, Senior Marketing Coordinator for Outreach, explains the route we will be taking on the Metro Bike Share Women's History Community Ride this rainy morning in Downtown Los Angeles, Calif. on Saturday, March 11, 2023. (Akemi Rico | The Corsair)

Over the rainy weekend, Metro Bike Share hosted a Women’s History community bike ride that was free to all who reserved their spot. Attendees met in Lot B at Union Station by the Metro Bike Share station where they were able to borrow their choice of classic or electric bikes.

The overcast weather left the city laying under a layer of mist, but that did not stop Olivia Mowry from enjoying the ride.

“It didn’t affect us at all. It didn’t hold us back,” Mowry said about the rain.

The tour, which consisted of five Metro employees and eight riders, started across the street from Union Station at Los Angeles Plaza Park. The group then headed west to the Biddy Mason Memorial.

The next stops included California Market Center built by African American female architect Norma Merrick Sklarek, and the Herald-Examiner Building designed by Julia Morgan, the first licensed female architect in California.

To end their historic trek, the group visited Hotel Figueroa, originally the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). The building was funded and built by women as a safe haven for traveling women in 1926 when it was considered dangerous to travel without chaperones.

Mowry found the event through Metro Bike Share’s Instagram and explained that she used to be an avid bike rider but had “lost her funk.”

“I was looking for a way to kind of get back into it and this was the perfect event,” Mowry said. “It was a melding of all the things I love, which is women’s history, bikes, and learning more about L.A.”

All bike riders in attendance earned a free 30-day pass for Metro Bike Share, and anyone looking for more facts on the landmarks they visited was directed to Metro’s website where they can find more information on each location.

Metro Bike Share hosts bike rides, each with different themes, regularly throughout the year. Their goal is to organize two events a month if the weather permits.

“I live in this area, I am very familiar with it,” said Lilly Nie, an L.A. local. “But most of the sights we went to I had either never known about or sort of just passed by without knowing the history.”

Anyone looking to recreate this women’s history adventure throughout Downtown L.A. can visit Metro Bike Share’s website. Future events and bike rides are posted on Metro Bike Share’s Instagram.

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