Colorado Bike To Work Day is next week

Coloradans, remember that Wednesday, June 27 is Colorado Bike To Work Day. The Denver Post reports on Denver area bike commuters.

About 17,000 people across the state commute by bike, according to a 2000 U.S. Census Bureau survey. June is Bike to Work Month, culminating in Bike to Work Day on June 27, and organizers are hoping to see those numbers grow.

Last year, 20,490 riders participated in Bike to Work Day in the metro area, and more are expected this year, said event coordinator Sarah Carroll of the Denver Regional Council of Governments.

Those who did participate in last year’s event typically had a commute similar to the Browns’ of nearly 10 miles one way.

The goal of the day is not only to ease congestion and reduce the number of miles traveled by car, but also to get more people to realize that commuting by bicycle is not as daunting a task as it may seem, Carroll said. Other bike commuters agreed that getting up the nerve to ride is the first step.

“The hardness is just that it takes a little more preparation,” said Dan Grunig, longtime bicycle commuter and executive director of Bicycle Colorado, an advocacy group for bicyclists across the state that has about 5,000 members.

Cyclists in the 2006 event rode to work on average 9.2 days the three months following the event, compared with 0.5 days per month before participating in the day.

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