To Mark Bixby, riding a bike was about more than feeling the wind in his hair.
To him, biking was an adventure and a way to bring people together. Like the time in 1985, when he rode his bike 3,000 miles across the United States with his friend, Andy Merrill, to meet people along the way who you would miss driving a car.
Bixby was involved in a variety of community projects, but he may be best known for his advocacy of bicycling and championing issues to make Long Beach the most bike-friendly city in the nation. He helped create the city’s Bicycle Master Plan and founded the Long Beach Bike Festival.
When the Long Beach harbor commission decided to build a successor to the Gerald Desmond Bridge, he was a leading advocate to build a bike-pedestrian path on the new span. Unfortunately, Bixby, a member of the Long Beach’s founding Bixby family, was killed on March 16, 2011, in the crash of a twin-engine Beechcraft King air turboprop plane at Long Beach Airport. Four other people on board also died; one, Mike Jensen, survived.
The plane had been bound for Salt Lake City, where Bixby and his friends were going for a skiing vacation.
Former state Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal then used her influence as the chair of the Transportation Committee to lead the Legislature to pass a resolution in 2012 designating the bicycle and pedestrian path on the Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge as the Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle Pedestrian Path.
“It was my honor to take this through the Legislature,” said Lowenthal, who is now a member of the Long Beach harbor commission. “Mark Bixby was a doer, a true hero in the history of Long Beach.”
The Gerald Desmond Replacement Bridge will open to vehicle traffic Monday morning, Oct. 5.
But when the Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle-Pedestrian Path will open remains uncertain, according to Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach.
“We will have a dedication ceremony for the Bixby Path within a couple of months, but we don’t know yet exactly when the path will be open for the public,” Cordero said.
One issue is the forthcoming demolition of the old Gerald Desmond Bridge, which, in some places is only about 2 feet away from the new bridge, which could cause safety issues for people riding bikes or walking on the Bixby path.
“We want to make sure the bike-pedestrian path is as safe as possible before we open it up to the public,” Cordero said.
Another issue is the construction of a bicycle trail connector bridge that will link the Bixby Memorial Bicycle-Pedestrian Path to the city’s bicycle network. That bridge will cross over the eastbound Ocean Boulevard connector ramp and Pico Avenue off-ramp from the new bridge for better access.
Before the connector bridge is built, cyclists and pedestrians would use a 12-foot-wide route that has lanes for the public to go from the Ocean Boulevard-Pico Avenue intersection on the east side of the Port of Long Beach over the new bridge to Terminal Island and back, a distance of nearly 2 miles.
Three observation decks along the main span will provide scenic overlooks of the city, the Port of Long Beach and, on a clear day, Catalina Island. The Bixby path is on the south side of the new bridge. Nine informational signs will tell cyclists and pedestrians about the history of the Port of Long Beach, the new bridge and Bixby himself.
Members of the Bixby family said in interviews this week that they happy the bridge is finally opening on Monday, even if the path honoring their relative will not.
“We’re just thrilled that the bicycle-pedestrian path is named in honor of Mark,” said his mother, Betsy Bixby Steen, from her home in Tucson, Arizona. “Mark was such a humble, modest person. He never looked for personal recognition. He just wanted to make things better. If he were here now, he would be totally surprised by his name on that path.”
Bixby Steen also recalled the last day she saw Bixby in 2011.
“He was so excited because the bicycle-pedestrian project was moving ahead,” she said. “Two days later, he was killed in the plane crash.”
Cordero, who was a member of the harbor commission in 2011, said he encouraged Bixby to make a presentation for the bike-pedestrian project to the full commission on March 14 of that year. There had been some pushback, Cordero said, from the staff about the cost of the project.
“The meeting with the commission went well,” Cordero said. “Mark called me the next night to thank me for my support. The next day, he died in the plane crash.”
Cordero said the bicycle-pedestrian path would not have been approved if it had not been for Bixby’s involvement.
Jean Bixby Smith, Bixby’s aunt, said the family will celebrate his legacy at the dedication ceremony, “although it will be very sad, to say the least, that he won’t be there with us.
“He would have been thrilled,” she added, “although he never sought personal recognition for his many volunteer projects.”
Theresa Bixby said one of Mark’s favorite quotes was from Claude Herve, a French journalist who cycled around the world with his wife.
“To travel by bicycle is a humble way to get close to people,” Herve said. “It is a way of saying we are passing through with no thought of invasion or conquest, only the simple will to share a part of the road.”
Theresa Bixby, Mark Bixby’s widow, said that’s what her late husband’s life was all about.
“It was about sharing a part of his road,” she said. “His thirst for knowledge, his sense of adventure, his compassion for family, friends and community all had one thing in common: he wanted to bring you along for the ride, to learn from you and know more about you, and most importantly, to make a new friend.”
I was honored to be one of Bixby’s friends. We met for the first time as members of the Leadership Long Beach Class of 1996. He was one of the most extraordinary people I’ve met in my many years in Long Beach.
It seemed like he could do anything he set his mind to:
He was an athlete, a computer nerd, a handyman and an astute businessman. He was the youngest president of the Long Beach Rotary Club. He helped create Rotary Centennial Park. He chaired the YMCA Camping Services Board. He was an avid surfer who also loved sailing. He worked as an emergency medical technician and as a gondolier during the summer for Gondola Getaway.
And, of course, he loved biking.
One time, I told him he ought to run for mayor. He responded in his usual modest way.
“Oh, no, that’s for others,” he said. “I just want to get things done and help people and the city in any way I can.”
Bixby’s enduring slogan was, “Go big or go home.”
That spirit lives on in the Mark Bixby Memorial Bicycle-Pedestrian Path, alongside Long Beach’s spectacular new bridge. I can’t wait for it to open so I can walk the walk that Mark Bixby envisioned.
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Rich Archbold: Mark Bixby loved biking and bringing you along for the ride - Long Beach Press Telegram
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