May might be fine for the rest of the country, but local bicycling advocate Mike Ridgeway wants September to be bike month in Lancaster County.
Ridgeway, whose Dream Ride organization organizes charity rides and bike safety classes, will be approaching officials in the next few weeks seeking recognition of a September bike month. More importantly, Ridgeway is making September a month for biking with a series of bicycling events.
Ridgeway maintains September is the best time to recognize cycling, and the busiest month for riding in the area. He plans to end the month with a bike summit, likely to be held in the city’s Southern Market Center, to get cyclists together to talk about bike issues and how to encourage cycling.
“After all the summer riding, isn’t it a great time to get people together,” he said of the timing.
Ridgeway is planning:
• Safety classes for new or returning cyclists to teach them the rules of the road, how to ride in traffic and commuting tips. Free, adult classes will be in the Cycle Smart Bicycling Education Center, in the parking lot of the Toys R Us store, 1430 Harrisburg Pike, on Tuesdays and Thursdays in September, from 6-9 p.m. Classes are rain or shine and participants need to wear helmets.
Classes for families with children will be held there on Wednesday evenings.
“We’re answering the call that there is a concern that people are not riding their bikes safely,” he said.
• A ribbon-cutting on the expanded, painted and signed Bicycle Education Center, at the Toys R Us store, on Sept. 17.
• Public presentations on global climate change at Camp Andrews, on Silver Spring Road in Drumore Township, on Sept. 22 as riders from the New York-Washington, D.C., Climate Ride roll into Lancaster County.
• A special Share the Ride Challenge that will allow bicycle commuters to record their miles and provide them with a chance to win prizes from the Air Quality Partnership of the Susquehanna Valley. Commuters will be able to register beginning Monday through the Cycle Smart Web site, at DreamRideProjects.org.
Details are still being developed for the bicycle summit. Information about the event will be available on the DreamRideProjects.org website.
