Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Bay Area to Celebrate Bike-to-Work Day May 15

Pedal Power Promotes Clean Air and Congestion Relief

CONTACT:

Ursula Vogler
510.817.5785

John Goodwin
510.817.5862

OAKLAND, Calif., May 12, 2003...Opening a new front in its continuing battle against traffic congestion and air pollution, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will team up with local bicycle coalitions, RIDES for Bay Area Commuters Inc., city and county governments, corporate sponsors and hundreds of volunteers to host Bike-to-Work Day 2003 on Thursday, May 15 at more than 150 sites across the nine-county region. The daylong celebration marks the Bay Area’s ninth Bike-to-Work Day and is being held in conjunction with California Bike Commute Week, which begins today and continues through Friday.

"The whole idea behind Bike-to-Work Day," said MTC Chair and Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey, "is to make it fun and easy for people to give bike commuting a try. Once they’ve tried it, we expect a lot of folks will make every day a bike-to-work day."

A key element in making it fun and easy to participate in Bike-to-Work Day is the establishment of more than 150 "energizer stations" at strategic locations around the Bay Area on Thursday morning. Most energizer stations will provide free beverages, snacks and other refreshments to participating riders. Select energizer stations will lay out more elaborate spreads. Bike commuters who stop by the energizer station near City Hall in downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. will be treated to a complete pancake breakfast.

"This will be the tenth straight year we’ve served breakfast to bike riders in downtown Oakland," said Robert Raburn of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, who is serving as Alameda County coordinator for Bike-to-Work Day. " We got started on Bike-to-Work Day even before it became a regional event. And it’s not just breakfast — the downtown Oakland station will have all-day attended valet bike parking so riders don’t have to worry about bringing a lock or finding an available rack."

In addition to free food and drinks, Bike-to-Work Day participants can win prizes and collect giveaways donated by event sponsors. Riders who fill out an official Bike-to-Work Day 2003 registration form will be eligible to win the grand prize of a $750 gift certificate redeemable at any Bay Area bike shop. Online registration is now available at MTC’s <www.511.org> Web site. Paper registration forms will be available at many Bike-to-Work Day energizer stations on Thursday morning.

"Bicycling is a viable commute option for literally hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents," observed Kinsey. "More than a million people in the Bay Area live within five miles of their workplace, which is considered an ideal distance for bike commuting. If every one of these people rides a bike to work on May 15, we’ll take more than 600,000 vehicles off the road plus tons of tailpipe emissions out of the air."

Currently some 36,000 Bay Area residents use a bicycle as their primary means of getting to work. Thousands more occasionally commute to work by bike.

"Bike-to-Work Day has a proven record of getting cars off the road and pollution out of the air," said Solano Napa Commuter Information program director Elizabeth Richards, who is coordinating Bike-to-Work Day activities in both Solano and Napa counties this year. "Over the years we’ve seen quite a few people become regular bicycle commuters after making their first ride to work on Bike-to-Work Day."

For more information on Bike-to-Work Day 2003, just call 511 and use the voice-activated system to ask for bicycling information at the first menu prompt. Or go to MTC’s <www.511.org> Web site and click on the bicycling icon.

MTC is the regional transportation planning, financing, and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

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Note to editors: A complete of list of county Bike-to-Work Day coordinators is listed below, along with contact information for each county coordinator. An updated list of "energizer station" locations can be found in the Bike-to-Work Day section of MTC's <www.511.org>Web site.

Attachment 1

Bike-to-Work Day 2003 County Coordinators

Alameda County
Coordinator Robert Raburn
Organization East Bay Bicycle Coalition
Phone 510.530.3444
E-mail robertraburn@csi.com

Contra Costa County
Coordinator Corinne Dutra-Roberts
Organization Contra Costa Commute
Alternative Network
Phone 925.407.0354
E-mail corinne@cccan.org

Marin County
Coordinator Deb Hubsmith
Organization Marin County Bicycle
Coalition
Phone 415.456.3469, Ext. 1
E-mail deb@marinbike.org

Napa County
Coordinator Elizabeth Richards
Organization Solano Napa Commuter
Information
Phone 707.427.5109
E-mail erichards@sta-snci.com

San Francisco County
Coordinator Manish Champsee
Organization San Francisco Bicycle
Coalition
Phone 415.431.2453, Ext. 16
E-mail manish@sfbike.org

San Mateo County
Coordinator David Nelson
Organization Peninsula Traffic Congestion
Relief Alliance
Phone 650.994.7924
E-mail david@commute.org

Santa Clara County
Coordinator Samantha Swan
Organization Valley Transportation
Authority
Phone 408.321.5525
E-mail samantha.swan@vta.org

Sonoma County
Coordinator Ted White
Organization Sonoma County Bicycle
Coalition
Phone 707.824.6824
E-mail ted@igc.org

Coordinator Steve Schmitz
Organization Sonoma County Transit
Phone 707.585.7516
E-mail steven@sctransit.com

Solano County
Coordinator Elizabeth Richards
Organization Solano Napa Commuter
Information
Phone 707.427.5109
E-mail erichards@sta-snci.com

Regional Bicycle Advocacy Coalition
(REBAC represents all Bay Area bicycle coalitions)
Contact: Deb Hubsmith
Phone: 415.456.3469, Ext. 1
E-mail: deb@marinbike.org

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