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First Annual Ron Bishop Lake Merritt Memorial Ride

Name: First Annual Ron Bishop Lake Merritt Memorial Ride
Start: 2015-05-23T09:00:00-07:00
End: 2015-05-23T09:45:00-07:00
Location: Oakland City Hall

May 23, 2015 @ 9:00 am - 9:45 am

L-R: Tom Ayres, Dionysos Maskaleris, Martin Krieg, Outgoing Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan, Mary Ann Blackwell,
Valerie Winemiller, John Erickson, Chris Erickson. Behind camera, Floyd Quan

Ron Bishop, at Lake Merrit with Bay Bridge, Treasure and Angel Islands in background.
Technically a tidal lagoon, Lake Merritt defines the downtown landscape of Oakland,
covering 150 acres in the city center, ringed with parkland, paths, and residential neighborhoods.

We will ride the 3-mile Lake Merritt loop on our first annual celebration of Mr. Bike Oakland, Ron Bishop‘s life. Ron used the bandstand at the upper end of the lake, near the historic Grand Lake Theater, to stage many of the rides he and Mary Ann Blackwell did with the Bay Area Easy Riders Bike Touring group they had formed. A lap of the lake that always followed was made possible by the 12th Street dam bikeway Ron had been instrumental in bringing about.

Ron used his professional skills, public speaking talent and political connections to point his beloved city in the direction of it being the safe bike haven it is more and more becoming today. Ron knew the treasure awaiting cyclists in its hills and along its waterfront needed to be made both bikeable and accessible. It was this that he and NBG Director, Martin Krieg saw in their mind’s eyes as they biked this emerald jewel in the center of the City of Oakland.

In the big picture, the two of them also used Lake Merritt’s enchanted pathways to think out loud about Oakland’s important part in the coast-to-coast bike road, the National Bicycle Greenway, at BikeRoute.com.

This bridge at the end of the lake closest to the Bay was largely the brainchild of Ron Bishop who championed it tirelessly. It allows walkers and cyclists to go around Lake Merritt without engaging with vehicles.

This award winning photo, called Portals Onto the Lake, was shot by Ken Katz, a cyclist friend of Ron’s and unofficial photographer for the Bay Area Easy Riders Touring Group.