What is it? Bike to work day, an event of the League of American Bicyclists, has been in existence since 1956. May is Bike month, This week is Bike week and May 16th is bike to work day. They are celebrated all of the united states.
What’s happening in Ithaca? A few people from the Finger Lakes Cycling Club and the Curb Your Car Coalition decided the time was ripe for a big Bike To Work Day event here, so we began advertising to see what kind of turnout we can get.
What can you do? Take a look at the routes on the right. Sign up for a new route or latch onto an existing one. Send an E-mail to Wayne at wgottlieb@yahoo.com telling him your route and the time you’ll be leaving. He’ll add your name to a route or make a new one. Our hope is that more people will decide to take the plunge as they see others doing it. There’s safety in numbers. Advertise. Print out the flier (See simple flier on the left) and post it around your place of employment or neighborhood. You can write a letter to the editor. They’ve already printed 2 of them and will be printing a story next week. Convince your friends to friends to ride with you.
What do we hope to accomplish? Nothing but good can come from more people cycling to work. A day of people cycling to work in itself is a good thing. In the longer term, we hope that those who try it for the first time will be inspired to continue. More bike commuters means less cars on the road. A larger bike presence means increased safety for cyclists. We are also aware of the difficulty in convincing the city to spend money on road construction that favors cyclists. The recent passage of the funding for the bike plan by the Common Council is a happy exception. Perhaps one day cyclists will have some clout in road construction decisions.
How do you prepare to take part in Bike to Work Day? It would help if you chose a route, but you don’t need to. Just ride to work. Many people will be riding to work and not even be aware of the day. If you’ve never ridden to work before, you may feel more comfortable riding with others. Most groups that I’ve talked to will be going slower than usual. Make sure your bike is in working order. Take it for a test ride to make sure everything is ok. Be safe. Wear a helmet. If you show up for a ride without a helmet, people will look at you funny. Follow the traffic laws. Be courteous to motorists. They are mostly courteous to cyclists.
What if you can’t ride to work? Not everyone can bike to work, but everyone benefits from bike commuting. You can participate by taking a bus, walking or carpooling. If you are driving you can participate by being aware of the increased bicycle traffic on that day and being patient and careful as you pass cyclists.
The website, like our whole event, is a last-minute creation, taking a while to figure out. Thanks for being patient.
On the right, in the menu, is a list of routes that cyclists might be taking to work on Friday, May 16. If none of them makes sense for you, let us know (b2w@icycle.org) and we’ll add your route. But, if at all possible, try to adapt your ride to an existing route, even if it adds a bit of extra riding. Use the “Comments” form at the bottom of each route page to add yourself to the group. Include your starting place, email address, and other info to make planning possible. By mid-week we’d like to have a list of people for each route so we can provide media with the “who” and “where.”
And, please keep us updated on your plans so that we can make them known to others.
