It’s not a bad day for a bike ride. I personally took up cycling about a year ago and I can’t think of a better feeling than coasting down a street with the sights of the seasons and a cool breeze. As the weather is rapidly changing, I don’t have much time to enjoy my bike for much longer; I’ll admit I am a little scared of braving the Cleveland winter on bike, but that doesn’t mean there are no other ways to lower my impact on the environment through travel.
Car pooling and public transportation are great ways to do this during the winter, and yes it may seem like a pain having to rely on co-workers and buses to get you where you’re going, but like I mentioned in my earlier blog posts: sustainability takes effort, and it will also have to take patience. We are all fed up with gas prices and the price to own a car; more and more it seems like owning a car is a depreciating investment. Try to cut the cost of owning a vehicle down by knowing what’s in walking distance and public transportation distance, car pool when you can, and dig the that bike out of the back of your garage.
Cleveland is emerging as a bike friendly city; organizations like the Cleveland Heights Bicycle Coalition are creating a voice for cyclists around the city and beginning a movement for all ages. Have you seen how many bike lanes that have been added around Cleveland in the past couple years, the bike road signs, the “share the road” bumper stickers? Biking was once a lost mode of transportation but now with the known advantages of biking it should soon be a common theme in Cleveland. So please, don’t honk at the cyclists on the side of the road, share the road, they are doing their part to keep this city sustainable which means they are also helping you, join the movement, start peddling.
Some cool things happening this week in the city and region:
CH bicycle coalition is hosting an informational meeting on biking as a form of transportation tonight, October 18th at Fairmount Presbyterian Church at 7 p.m. Complimentary CH bike maps will be available as well as information on what other cities are doing with bicycles and urban transportation
The Dead Ride II is a community event on Saturday, October 22. The ride is a zombie costume party as well as a bike tour of the Tremont neighborhood. Registration and the start of the bike tour is at Lincoln Park Pub from 3:30 to 7 p.m. and continues with other events until 1 a.m.
Sarah Wean says
Correction: Tonight’s Transportation in the Heights Forum will be at 7 pm at Forest Hill Presbyterian Church, 3031 Monticello Blvd., at the corner of Lee. (NOT Fairmount Presb)