This year the rain held off and we had a
fantastic turn out. We had gifts for everyone who
stopped by and enjoyed the chance to meet fellow cyclists.
Click here to
view the photos.
Bike to Work and School Day Middletown was sponsored
by Transportation Alternatives with support from the
Central Connecticut
Bicycle Alliance,
Pip Printing, and
Wesleyan
University's Center for Community Partnerships and Human
Resources Department.
Click
here to
download the full pdf version of the Bike to Work and School
Day poster.
To the Bike to Work Committee:
A few weeks have passed since Hartford's first Bike to Work Week
and I wanted to let you all know how it went and to thank
everyone for their hard work.
We had a total of 11 Bike To Work breakfast events that week,
spanning a large area of our region. Something over 130 people
attended one of the events or "wrote-in" their participation in
the week's events. That number was somewhat disappointing to
me, but I think it is due primarily to the terrible weather on
Friday that held down attendance at the Hartford event. Judging
by my own company, I know a lot of people rode in during the
week but just not on Friday. A great job by David Westcott who
organized the Hartford event with a contingent of DEP folks, and
by Anne Hayes representing Travelers (as sponsor). Karen
Pasquale did a terrific job at the Farmington event, and Tracy
Newmark and Tony Cherolis likewise in East Hartford. Thanks to
David Balzer for organizing a first time event at the DOT in
Newington.
One great success for Bike to Work was the initiation of a
Middletown event, which was the fruit of the labors of Beth
Emery, Shawn
Hill, John
Elmore,
Shane Grant,
Ron Krom,
Tim Roaix,
Jennifer Saines, Stephen Devoto, and
Catherine Johnson and a group called Transportation Alternatives
of Middletown. They had 35 attendees at their event, phenomenal
for a debut effort. I hope the Middletown group and CCBA can
work closely together - clearly there is a constituency there
for improving bike access.
Special thanks to Sandy Fry for her many contributions. Sandy
did a tremendous amount of the organizing - especially notable
was selecting and ordering those great water bottles that were
this year's giveaway. Sandy also put together the kits for all
of the events, a large effort.
Although we called it Bike to Work Week, we folded in some other
activities that are worthy of mention. The Bike Rally at the
Capitol was a great success in several ways. We had a great
crowd (maybe 75-100), we had media coverage, and we had several
friendly legislators who spoke about various cycling initiatives
in the works. Most importantly, I think it was a sign that
slowly, the powers that be are starting to 'get it" about the
need for better cycling conditions. (The week after the rally,
West Hartford legislators Beth Bye and Jonathan Harris bike to
work. Beth is a regular). Thanks to Martha Page and Sandy Fry
for putting together the rally on fairly short notice.
Some other BTW Week notables: Our Bike to Dinner at the
Prospect Cafe was quite enjoyable, I hope to have a few more
this summer. Pass on any ideas for bike accessible, reasonably
priced joint east of the river. And Sandy Fry was interviewed
by WFSB TV on Bike to Work.
Finally, thanks to all of the volunteers who showed up at the
various events and helped make all this happen. Please pass
this along to those who are not on the copy list of the e-mail
and let them know that we appreciate their efforts,
Sincerely,
Alan
