City Bike Skills 101 & Atlanta Local Park Tour
On March 28, 2026, 13 participants gathered at Touch the Earth, Georgia State University’s outdoor program, for an invigorating and educational local park bike tour. Situated in the heart of Atlanta, the commonly cited woes of students include long commutes in traffic, invasive road work, and unreliable public transit. A bicycle presents a low-cost, earth-friendly, healthy alternative to the daily slog by car.
We hit the streets for a group ride through ‘the city in the trees.’ With spring beginning to sprout, Atlanta’s dogwoods, cherry blossoms, and red buds were in full bloom. Participants rode as a group under blue skies and soft pastel petals, practicing traffic hand signals, maintaining space on the road, and merging between different styles of bike infrastructure.
We visited Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, just a mile from our campus. Participants remarked on the breadth of community resources and the green space it maintains for inner-city kids to play in. Then, we visited Atlanta’s oldest public park: Oakland Cemetery. Participants marveled at the lush foliage and ‘grandma’ trees. We found a tulip poplar that we could only hug all the way around with a team of 3! One of our foraging-inclined leaders pointed out a blueberry bush that would soon bear fruit and a native persimmon tree that would bear generous globes of orange in the fall. Two participants, fast friends after commiserating over pervasive car sounds in the city, made plans to visit this park for a weekday lunch. They said they had no idea we had such a lovely garden within walking/biking distance from campus.
After stopping for coffee and pastries, we visited Grant Park, which boasts the oldest trees in Atlanta. We took to the grass for a roll and to lounge in the sun for a bit before guiding the participants down the best shared bike streets and protected lanes south of campus. Once back at Touch the Earth, participants returned their bikes and were free to go, but many stuck around to chat about bike lanes and bike shopping with our leaders.
As an avid cyclist and National Park Trust Ambassador, this trip was incredibly fulfilling. I saw participants grow considerably in their cycling confidence and proficiency with city biking safety skills, as we all enjoyed a crisp Spring morning exploring Atlanta’s local parks.
