His commute's a wild ride
After spending his teenage years doing daredevil skateboard tricks and his adult life as a Marine living in dangerous countries, biking 60 miles a day through Los Angeles traffic doesn't intimidate UCLA mail carrier Oscar Anchetta.
"People tell me, 'You're crazy,' but I love riding," Anchetta said. His daily commute, biking 30 miles each way between Whittier and UCLA, takes him about an hour and a half, one way – about the same amount of time it would take in a car, he figures.
For the last two and a half years, Anchetta has made it a daily habit to cruise down Washington Boulevard through nine cities by his count, including Whittier,
Pico Rivera, Montebello, Commerce, East L.A., West L.A. and Culver City. When Washington hits National Boulevard, he bikes on up until it turns into Westwood.
Somehow, Anchetta arrives on campus with energy to spare, said Mail Service Manager Ivan Martinez.
"This guy, he's so energized. We joke with him, 'You have to slow down.' He's just always ready to do all kinds of work," Martinez said. "He's our fastest mail carrier. We have to keep him busy or he'll get bored."
Even after running all over campus from building to building delivering mail, Anchetta still isn't ready to call it a day. He heads to the gym to play racquetball for three hours before tackling another hour-and-a-half of bike riding home.
"I don't think I'm nuts," Anchetta said. "I'm much healthier than other people. I don't ever need a doctor, I don't ever get the flu, and I've never missed a day of work from being sick. I'm 42, but people don't believe that I am because I don't look it yet."
He's regarded with a mixture of respect and puzzlement by his colleagues, Martinez said. "Pretty much everyone admires him, but we kind of shake our heads wondering how he does it, and why. He doesn't have to. He has a car."
Anchetta has always sought out extremes. Growing up in Montebello, he was among the groups of teens portrayed in the skater movie "Lords of Dogtown," sneaking into drought-emptied backyard pools to do stunts on his skateboard. Later, he began doing tricks on his bike, including flips in the air and launching off ramps to do flying jumps over rows of people.
"That was nerve-wracking for the people who were my guinea pigs," he recalled.
For years, he competed regularly in bicycle motocross (BMX) – one of the newest Olympic sports – and mountain biking races. He still competes in charity races. Anchetta says his 6-year-old son, Christopher, intends to follow in his footsteps.
"He likes to try everything I do. He's starting to skateboard, and he likes to play racquetball. His mom says, 'If your dad jumped off a cliff, you'd do it too,' " Anchetta said with a chuckle. "When he gets a little older I'll let him do some of the crazy tricks."
Even for people without the daredevil gene, Anchetta says biking in Los Angeles doesn't have to be intimidating. He's never been in an accident, and he says the benefits of biking are enormous.
"I stay healthy, I save money on gas, I enjoy the outdoors, and on a bike, you really get to know L.A. You get to know the shortcuts, and you have time on a bike to look around and enjoy the sights," he said. His one piece of advice? Stick to the right side of the road, not the left. "If you follow the flow of traffic,” he said, “you have a better chance of not getting hurt than if you try to go against it, where it's harder to gauge what the cars ahead are doing."
One trick he offers others is the little-known MTA
bike map.
"On the team I used to race with, for the LA Wings, one of my teammates went on to work for MTA and created a website for them that's like a MapQuest for bikers," Anchetta said. "You log on and you can figure out how much pollution you'll prevent, how much you'll save on gas, whether your route takes you to a steep hill – everything. It's great."
For more on biking in L.A., see the
MTA bike page.
