The South Bay Bicycle Trail is a 22-mile paved path that runs from Will Rogers State Beach to Torrance County Beach. Most of the trail is on the beach, although a few sections are on city streets. The trail connects to all the piers and the Strand in Venice Beach. Bicyclists, joggers, skaters, wheelchair riders, and pedestrians all share the trail, which is 14 feet wide (in most places) with a smooth asphalt or concrete surface. Its busy, but we never saw anyone collide.
Several rental stands along the trail offer bicycles, rollerskates, and rollerblades. A few have three-wheel recumbent bikes. If youve got a little leg strength, recumbent bikes are a lot of fun. Most of the shop owners will let you try out the bike before you rent it, so feel free to experiment.
We traveled most of the trail with a manual wheelchair and a skateboard. (Skateboards arent exactly permitted everywhere, but we figured its not 30-something women who get ticketed.) For the most part, the trip was smooth sailing, although we encountered a few obstacles:
Stairs between the Manhattan Beach section of the trail and Hermosa Beach. If you are traveling down the coast from Manhattan Beach, the stairs are on the ocean side and a residential street is directly ahead. Go straight onto the street and look for the alley between the tenth and eleventh houses. The alley is steep and cluttered with planter boxes. If you are traveling up the coast from Hermosa Beach, turn around when you reach the stairs, go back ten houses, and look for the alley.
Narrow sidewalk in Redondo Beach. Just south of Hermosa Beach, the trail detours to a commercial street with fast-moving traffic. The sidewalk is very narrowtoo narrow for most electric and some manual chairsand the bike lane on the street feels pretty scary because of the traffic. You might prefer to go a few blocks inland to a friendlier street, then rejoin the trail at the Redondo Pier.
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