Well hello! Yes, this is my first blog post in about three months. There aren’t any more posts planned to follow this one, though I do plan on writing again. As all of you surely experience the frustration from the snail’s pace of progress in this region, writing about it every day can devolve in to the harsh criticisms I began writing in November and December. That is not what this blog is supposed to be about, so I needed to take a break and remember that riding a bike is fun. Writing about riding bikes is supposed to be fun, and when it wasn’t fun anymore I needed to take a step back to rebalance my thoughts.
That brings us to today because I have some very exciting news. The past 8 years the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County have hosted a Bike to Work Day event for city and county employees. For this year’s 9th installment they have partnered with RED Development to host the event at CityScape and opened the event to the public set to take place on April 22nd.
The ride will begin at Park Central Mall (3121 North 3rd Avenue; between the Thomas and Osborn Light Rail Stations) and culminate at CityScape (2 East Jefferson Street) where Central Avenue will be closed and valet bike parking will be provided. If you register for the event, breakfast items will be provided by Chloe’s Corner and you do not have to participate in the official ride itself to be registered; you may commute straight from home to CityScape and meet there. Riders will leave Park Central at 7:30 and plan to arrive Downtown around 7:50 where Mayor Stanton is expected to speak.
Even if you do not wish to or are too late to register, please join us on the ride! One of the great opportunities of making this a public event is to demonstrate the support for cycling as a legitimate form of transportation in Phoenix. By blowing up the event (300 participants are expected, I’d LOVE to double that!) we can make this statement in a very public and productive way to city leaders.
What: Bike to Work Day
When: April 22nd 7:00 – 8:30 AM
Where: Park Central Mall to CityScape
Who: Maricopa County, City of Phoenix, Valley Metro, RED Development, and YOU
Why: Because riding bikes is awesome!
Phoenix Bike Blog 