May is C-U Bike Month, and the Cities of Champaign and Urbana are joining with MTD, the Champaign County RDC, the UIUC, and Champaign County Bikes to encourage folks in the community to encourage safe and more frequent bike transportation in our community. Bike to Work Day kicks off the month on May 1st from 7 to 10 a.m. Check out the details below:
The ninth annual C-U Bike Month kicks off with Bike to Work Day on Tuesday, May 1, 2018. That day, twelve Welcome Stations located across the Champaign, Urbana, and St. Joseph areas will be open from 7-10 a.m. offering free snacks, coffee, bicycling information, and Bike Month 2018 t-shirts to cyclists. Whether this is your first time to bike to work, or if you do it everyday, year-round, all bike commuters are invited to participate in this friendly event. Cyclists are encouraged to register online at cubikemonth.org and to check in at one of the Welcome Stations on May 1.
Welcome Station locations are listed below and viewable on this online map:
https://goo.gl/4LjaGn.Downtown Champaign (Champaign City Bldg., SE corner of Chester and Neil)
Downtown Urbana (Busey Bank parking lot, 201 W. Main St.)
Downtown St. Joseph Wheelhouse Restaurant (109 N. Main St.)
U of I Alma Mater (Green St. and Wright St.)
U of I CRCE (Northeast Corner of the building)
U of I Campus Bike Center (Pennsylvania Ave. east of Sixth St.)
U of I DRES (Stadium Dr. & Oak Street)
U of I University Lab. High School (Stoughton St. bicycle parking area)
U of I Research Park iHotel (1st & St. Mary’s at Houlihan’s)
Wolfram Research (State St. & Kirby Ave., Champaign)
Brookens Center (1776 E. Washington St., Urbana)
Champaign Public Works (702 Edgebrook Dr.)C-U Bike Month is organized by Champaign County Bikes, the City of Champaign, the City of Urbana, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, and the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission. This event is also sponsored by local bike shops, groups, and clubs; along with area businesses and organizations. All of these groups seek to encourage safe active transportation through this event. Bike to Work Day is a community-wide event that encourages residents from all over Champaign County to ride their bicycle to work.
In recent years, Bike to Work Day participants have raised money for the Kickapoo Rail Trail, a fleet of 25 bicycles for youth cycling education events, and an Earn-A-Bike Program for people in our community who need a bike for basic, reliable transportation. This year, participants can contribute to a Bike Fleet Trailer project so Champaign County Bikes can purchase and equip two trailers to store and transport our educational bike fleet to schools, parks, and the Kickapoo Rail Trail for use in skill training programs for kids, classes for adults, and group rides.
This year the Champaign-Urbana Bike Month t-shirts will be high visibility neon yellow and will feature a message/design promoting Vision Zero, a national advocacy movement seeking to establish this new safety standard for our streets and roads: Zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries among all users (pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers and passengers in motor vehicles).
Bike to Work Day is one of more than a dozen bicycle events being held across the
community during C-U Bike Month. A calendar of events is available at http://CUbikemonth.org/calendar.html.
Photo provided by Champaign-Urbana MTD