Georgia Tech Alumnus Biking 7,500 Miles Across Los Angeles

Using mathematical formulas, engineering principles, and a curiosity for exploration, a Georgia Tech alumnus is on a path to biking every public street in Los Angeles, covering more than 7,500 miles.  

Marc Papakyriakou began cycling after joining the Georgia Tech Triathlon Club while pursuing his doctorate in mechanical engineering. From his first ride on the Silver Comet Trail to weekend biking trips at Stone Mountain, he discovered that his newfound hobby could lead him to places he might not otherwise explore.   

“This showed me the distances it was possible to move by bike, and how it can bring you to a wide range of beautiful places,” Papakyriakou said. “I learned to love how bikes made exploration of the surrounding world so effortless, how you didn’t even need to venture too far to see new things. Often, you could discover things hidden in plain sight right in your own neighborhood.” 

After graduating in 2021, Papakyriakou moved to Pasadena, California. It didn’t take him long to bike each square mile of the suburb. By 2023, as the two wheels of his 1989 Trek 400 carried him into new areas, he began to toy with the idea of riding every street in the city. By November 2024, he had fully committed to it.   

Just as he did when crafting routes from Buckhead to Bankhead while living in Atlanta, Papakyriakou used math in his search for the most efficient way to cover large areas. He used distance formulas to recognize riding patterns, which led to the realization that the streets of Los Angeles could be modeled as a mathematical graph to solve the route inspection problem.  

Planning is only part of his journey, which has come to be known as “The Project.” He has now completed nearly 85% of the route, often forced to deviate from his mathematical approach due to environmental factors such as road closures and construction. Putting his degree into practice, he performs his own bike maintenance and likens caring for the frame to the upkeep of tools required to complete a lab experiment.  

Navigating each hurdle, Papakyriakou is reminded that he is charting his own course, but it’s not a new feeling for the Tech graduate.  

“Beyond a certain point, there is no blueprint. When trying to find details on riding in specific areas or streets, there’s often no prior knowledge that I can use as a base. I’m effectively creating my own system and approach to venturing into unknown territory. But, instead of being purely daunting, it was also exciting. Because dealing with the uncharted and presenting what I find to the world is exactly the sort of thing my Ph.D. has prepared me for,” he said.  

That same excitement motivates Papakyriakou each time he prepares to traverse a new street or area.  

“Curiosity is the driving force behind the project, because I will see areas on the map and simply be curious about what’s there. When I identify where I’ve decided to ride that day, I will look up the neighborhood, find out where its name came from, what its history is, when it was annexed into the city, and what its function and role in the city is. In a way, I’m doing a literature review of the area to supplement the experience of riding around,” he said.  

All roads lead back to Georgia Tech in some ways. Papakyriakou uses an app called Wandrer.earth, which he downloaded in 2019, to track his progress. It wasn’t until he began his LA adventure that he realized the app was created by fellow Yellow Jacket alumnus Craig Durkin.  

As word spreads about his journey, Papakyriakou has engaged with local safe-street advocates and enjoys sharing his experience regarding safety and bike infrastructure with fellow riders. He hopes that his project can “inspire positive changes in the surrounding built environment.”