Area’s bike week to begin Monday

From staff reports
Published: May 11, 2008

The second annual “bike week” in the Charlottesville area, to include a series of events and free giveaways, starts Monday.

The festivities kick off with a ceremony at noon on Monday in front of City Hall, where Mayor Dave Norris and the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation will receive an award from the League of American Bicyclists designating Charlottesville as a “bike friendly” community.

Every weekday from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., residents can get free bike helmets, lights and other accessories outside the Albemarle County Office Building. ACCT will also be raffling off a bike.

“We want to spread the word about all the health, environmental and economic benefits of bicycling,” said Zachary Shahan, the executive director of ACCT, “and to reward people already biking for transportation purposes.”

The organization will be sponsoring a group bike ride from downtown to Fashion Square mall on Tuesday and from Alderman Library at the University of Virginia to Barracks Road Shopping Center on Wednesday. There will also be a family bike ride on Saturday.

Community Bikes will be hosting a “bike-in movie” and cookout on Friday evening.

Finally, there will be a competition on Friday between the city government, county government and SNL Financial to see which employer can have the greatest percentage of its employees bike to work.

For more information on the events, visit http://www.transportationchoice.org/BikeWeek2008.html.