Just a quick thank you to those who spoke at last Friday’s Bike-to-Work Day here in Providence including two opportunistic Providence Mayoral candidates who saw an open microphone and wasted no time getting to it. Thanks to you all:
Mayor David Cicilline
John Robitaille – Candidate for Governor
Ken Block – Candidate for Governor
David Gifford – Head of RI Department of Health
Angel Tavares – Candidate for Mayor of Providence
John Lombardi – Candidate for Mayor of Providence
Mark Dieterich – Executive Director of RI Bicycle Coalition
U.S. Open Cycling is raffling off a Breezer Zig 7 folding commuter bike tomorrow as part of Bike-to-Work Day.
An arm’s length of tickets is $10. Ticket sales will run all day at the WW I Monument and the drawing will be immediately preceding What Cheer? Brigade’s performance at 5:30.
Funds raised go to support the continued operations of the not-for-profit U.S. Open Cycling, who deliver their Cycle-for-Health program in elementary schools state wide as part of their mission is to reduce obesity by helping people integrate bicycling for fun fitness and transportation into their daily activities.
The East Bay Bike Train will be pulling out of Independence Park in Bristol at just after 6am tomorrow, yikes! If you are like me and enjoy those extra few minutes in bed, we are going to have a live update of the bike train position. Check out the map below of real time position data:
I did a quick test of the system this morning and everything seem to be working. Hope to see you bright and early tomorrow morning. Let’s hope for more weather like today!
Once again we are proud to be offer commuters bike trains to the downtown bike towork day morning program. This year we have trips departing from Lincoln, Bristol, and South Kingstown led by experienced bicycle commuters.
The Lincoln train departs from the Visitor Center on I-295 at 6:30am, has plenty of parking adjacent a monitored parking lot, and a RIPTA stop if you would like to make a multi-modal commute. This route follows the Blackstone Valley Bike Path to it’s end, and then streets to downtown Providence.
The train leaving Bristol follows the east bay bike oath and offers many opportunities for commuters to join the train along the path. This trip departs at 6:15am, see the attached map below with time estimates of the trip.
Lastly, Anj will be leading a trip from Washington county that is a mixture of streets and the Washington secondary bike path. This trip is also convenient for west Warwick and Coventry commuters to join or make a multi-modal commute.
See map below for full route maps and anticipated stops/schedules along each route.
What a great day! Yes, it started out drizzly – but that was expected. (It just wouldn’t be B2WD without some precipitation.) But it quickly dried out and turned glorious. Throughout the course of the day, hundreds of people came by. The award for the longest bike commute goes to the hero from Westerly whose name I don’t remember… for everyone else, If you were there, here’s what you saw:
Special thanks to
- Dick Durishin of U.S. Open Cycling Foundation for providing 4 pop-up tents and general organization
- Sally Turner, Rhode Island’s Queen of Public Relations, who must do it for love ’cause we sure didn’t pay her much
- Steve Church. Unsung hero. ‘Nuff said.
- Frank DiPrete, one of RI’s important yet underappreciated bicycle boosters, helped with setup and breakdown
- The Providence Foundation and RIDOT for providing funding.
See you next year – but remember, the PBC oh-so-humbly suggests that EVERY day can be Bike-to-Work Day! To make it easier to start, we will continue to have “Bike Trains” headed into the city every week! Find the pertinent info elsewhere on this website.
Thanks to our awesome volunteers, we are now able to offer a sixth Bicycle Train for B2WD tomorrow. A number of people requested some help getting in from Pawtucket and now we will do just this. If you are coming from this direction and don’t want to head farther west to join our Blackstone Bikeway Train, then hop aboard our on-road train heading into Providence.
Bike to Work Day is just a week away. Your help is needed to spread the word around town(s)! You can download and print a copy of the B2WD poster and handbill or they can be picked up at Legend Bicycle on Brook Street for you to distribute at your regular (or irregular) haunts. When Legend is closed on Monday and Tuesday, you can get posters and handbills at Red 5 Sports Group, 269 S. Main, 2nd floor, between 10 am and 4 pm.
