Thousands of Bay Area residents biked to work last week during the 14th Annual Bike to Work Day -- so many, organizers say, that the day was an unqualified success.

This year's event was held last Thursday and resulted in an "amazing turnout," with approximately 30,000 participants throughout Santa Clara County, according to Corinne Winter, executive director of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, which sponsors Bike to Work Day.

Winter said that's about twice as many people participating as last year -- all of them diverse in age and background. There were even some children with their parents biking to work, she said. They all take part to get healthy, help the environment and feel energized for the work day, organizers said.

"We have a lot of people telling us their first time biking to work was on Bike to Work Day," Winter added.

The coalition holds Bike to Work Day on the third Thursday of May each year, enlisting the help of other local groups and agencies, such as the Mountain View Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Jerri-Ann Meyer, who helped staff the Downtown Mountain View station on Thursday morning, said she has been biking to and from work -- a 10-mile commute from Mountain View to Menlo Park -- every work day for the past five years. Meyer is also a member of the Mountain View Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

Organizers counted more than 600 cyclists at the Caltrain station downtown. There were a total of seven "energizer stations," as they are called, across Mountain View that day set up to make things pleasanter for the cyclists. At each station, staff handed out coffee cake from Hobee's, Starbucks coffee, water, fruit, granola bars, cycling information and goodie bags containing gift certificates. The coalition had stations as far north as Pacifica and as far south as Morgan Hill.

Local companies helped to sponsor the event with donations like the food and coffee, and by staffing the stations with volunteers. The companies included Google, HP, Apple and Sun Microsystems.

For more information on the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, visit svbcbikes.org or call (408) 287-7259.

The Mountain View Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee meets on the last Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Conference Room, located on the second floor of Mountain View City Hall.

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