Every year, roughly 15 million bikes are thrown away in the U.S while 4,000 bikes get trashed in the Bay Area. The steel parts tumble their way into landfills and are left to decompose for decades.
But one Oakland nonprofit is gearing up to shrink those statistics, while helping locals in need find reliable transportation.
Every week, volunteers with the Bay Area Bicycle Rescue collect old and damaged bikes from people across the region and fix them up in their Oakland shop—a space filled with repair tools, deconstructed bike parts and racks upon racks of two-wheelers.
The updated bikes are then donated to individuals looking for a low-cost ride or gifted in bulk to organizations, including churches and schools.
“It’s a noble cause,” said Charlotte Hryse, acting executive director for the rescue. “We should be doing that for everything—reusing and repairing instead of buying new stuff.”
Last year, 1,204 bikes were sent to the shop and spared from becoming landfill waste. A total of 862 bikes got new homes in the community.
People can also stop by in person to either pick up or drop off bikes. The store, on 23rd Avenue, is open Thursdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 p.m., Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. and by appointment the rest of the week.
Whatever bikes aren’t donated are sold by the rescue on Craigslist for an affordable price. A used Schwinn Typhoon cruiser bike, for instance, is priced at $75, while similar models sold by others in the area go for more than $200. The sales provide 90% of the shop’s funding, according to the website.
Established in 2015, Bicycle Rescue’s efforts come as the Bay Area experiences an uptick in the number of bicyclists. The average daily bike trips per 1,000 people in the San Francisco area increased from 42 in 2019 to 65 in 2022, according to StreetLight Data, a San Francisco-based mobility analytics company.
The rescue is just one of several bike repair shops scattered across the East and South Bay. There are plenty of passionate people in the Bay Area’s biking community who dedicate their time, energy and even their money to support the cause, Hryse said.
“We are just trying to create that role within the nonprofit bike world of helping to get bikes out of the wasteland, and into the hands of organizations who are doing good work,” Hryse said.
Bikes and spare parts from Bike Rescue often are wheeled to places like The Crucible in West Oakland. The nonprofit industrial arts school has its own shop and is dedicated to helping locals repair and maintain their rides.
Shop volunteer July Tenenbaum said the space relies heavily on bike donations, and Bay Area Bike Rescue has been a consistent provider.
“We couldn’t do this without people giving us bikes,” Tenenbaum said. “(Bay Area) bike rescue does just that.”
Tenenbaum, who is an avid cyclist, said they know firsthand how a bike can change a person’s life.
Last year when Tenenbaum was a University of California, Berkeley student, their beloved bike was stolen. The bike had been a gift from Tenebaum’s mother, and they rode it every day to attend classes and run errands.
Devastated by the loss and now in need of transportation, Tenenbaum bought a cheap bike from Facebook Marketplace, then went to the Crucible’s shop to fix it, with parts donated by Bay Area Bike Rescue. They decided to build another spare bike just in case, once again using a frame and other parts from the rescue.
“They kind of gave me two bikes when you look at it,” Tenenbaum said.
Bay Area Bicycle Rescue is at 1411 23rd Ave., Oakland. Call (510) 677-8590 or visit bayareabicyclerescue.com.