Bike-to-Work/Bike-to-Class Day: April
22
The University City Bicycle Issues Forum
invites residents, students and employees to take part
in Bike-to-Work/Bike-to-Class Day Thursday, April 22.
Bike-to-Work/Bike-to-Class
Day is being held to illustrate that bicycles offer an
efficient
way to get around University City, particularly during
such events as Penn Relays as thousands of competitors
and fans pour into University City April 22-24, and normal
vehicular travel gives way to traffic jams, long commutes
and short tempers.
To encourage
bike use, Bike-to-Work/Bike-to-Class Day will feature
free, daylong guarded bike parking at
four University City locations with refreshments and goodie
bags for the first 300 participants. Folks can view demonstrations
on bike safety and the correct usage of a SEPTA bus bike
rack as well as sign up for drawings for one of three free
used bikes.
The four bike parking areas, staffed with
UCD ambassadors as well as volunteers from the Bicycle
Coalition of Greater Philadelphia and Neighborhood
Bike Works, will be open from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. Around
50 spaces apiece will be available at University Square,
36th and Sanson Sts.; International House, 37th and
Chestnut Sts.; and the Fresh Grocer parking deck, 4100
Walnut St. More than 100 bicycles can be accommodated at
Jon M. Huntsman Hall, on Walnut Street between 37th and
38th Sts.
Cyclists using any of the guarded parking
areas are invited to enjoy complimentary morning refreshments
that include bottled water, Tastykakes and pretzels, donated
by area merchants and the UCD.
Cyclists
can also register to win one of two used bicycles, one
donated by Neighborhood Bike
Works (NBW), 3916 Locust Walk, and the other by Firehouse
Bike Shop, 50th and Baltimore, or one of two admissions
to any NBW adult classes on bike repair or urban riding.
Free goodie bags containing the PennDOT Bicycle Drivers
Manual, a Philadelphia bike map, key chain, pencil and
a Share the Road campaign sticker will also be given out.
Penn Public Safety Bike Patrol
Officers will demonstrate on-bike policing skills and maneuvers
starting at 12:30 p.m. at University Square, where from
noon to 1 p.m. SEPTA personnel will
show how to use the exterior bike racks featured on many
of the new city buses.
At 1 p.m., at the Penn Bookstore, Patricia
Vance, author of Intimate Bicycle Tours of Philadelphia,
and a research specialist in the hematology department,
School of Medicine, will give a talk about her new book
and sign copies.
Also that
day, which is the national celebration of Earth Day,
the forum will host an informational table
at the Earth Day fair on campus. The fair, scheduled
from 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on College Green, is sponsored by
the Penn Environmental Group to raise awareness of global
environmental issues and showcases earth-friendly alternatives.
'We
feel that Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to encourage
commuters who may ordinarily
use
automobiles to bike in that day," said John Madera of the
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and chairman
of the Bicycle Issues Forum.
Organized to promote the routine use of
bicycles for urban transportation, the forum is comprised
of representatives from the UCD, Penn, the Bicycle Coalition
of Greater Philadelphia, Neighborhood Bike Works, and the
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
For more information and a map showing
the guarded parking locations, go to www.share-the-road.org.
--University
City Bicycle Issues Forum