Don’t Miss Out On Colorado Bike To Work Day

Photo cred: codot.gov

Boulder is known as a very fit town—in fact, we’ve been voted fittest and most beautiful in the country more than once. Part of the reason for that is our bicycle culture. We host bigtime races like the erstwhile Red Zinger and Coors Classics, we have bike shops and cycling culture everywhere, and we have an intricate and thoroughly widespread network of bike lanes and bike paths. In green-loving Boulder, alternative forms of the daily commute are part of the culture.

While being known as a fit town, Boulder is also well known for its conscious mindfulness and its dedication to preserving our beautiful environment. After all, we’re regularly blessed with over three hundred sunny days out of the year, and Boulder is structured and built for bicycles (arguably, it’s easier to bike regularly in Boulder than to drive. Don’t believe me? Just try parking downtown, like, ever). Whether Boulderites bike daily without even owning a car, or go for the weekend warrior lifestyle, the bicycle is a favorite mode of transportation across the entire city (and county).

Which is why the Colorado Department of Transportation, in cahoots with Go Boulder and most recently Boulder’s very own Community Cycles, celebrates all of the month of June as Bike To Work month, with one special June day for the celebratory county wide event called Bike To Work Day. This year, 2019, Bike To Work Day is June 26th.

Bike to Work Day

GO Boulder is an organization dedicated to encouraging Boulder and beyond into the many forms of alternative transportation. They’ve been around for a long time, sponsoring Bike To Work Day and showing Boulderites how to ditch their (especially single occupancy) car and enjoy the many robust programs Boulder boasts instead, like RTD buses, walking programs, and of course biking. (The GO in GO Boulder stands for Good Options, not just “go.” Clever, eh?)

Bike to Work Day has been a fun and popular event for several years now, but the number of participants has been rising and rising, with last year’s event clocking in at about thirty thousand (including Denver, that is)! Wow! When you commute by bicycle to work on Wednesday morning, a few things to keep in mind: first, you should definitely register.

Though the event is, as always, free, it’s important for the organizers to get a commuter headcount, because they’ll then be able to calculate the effect on the carbon footprint from the day. Second, have a list of the stations handy (here’s a pretty comprehensive one) so you can be sure to take advantage of the free breakfast, raffles, contests, and swag. The breakfast stations are open from 6:30 am till 9 (it’s supposed to be a real commute, people), so get out there early!

Bike to Work Month

There have been several ways to participate in biking (and walking) to work through the whole month of June—it has been the dedicated month for the alternative commute, and it’s been a hoot.

But the culminating event is the 26th, where all the practices of biking to work during Bike To Work month turn into a big morning party, across the city and county of Boulder, and even extends to our urban neighbors in Denver.

So if your work commute takes you to Denver, you’ll want to explore the extended bike paths that run all the way to Westminster, and did you know that all the Boulder-To-Denver commuter buses have bike racks?

Boulder & Biking

Community Cycles has been a proud partner and stellar organizer of Bike To Work day and month in recent years, and they bring their love of bikes and wide community building to the table in June (as indeed they do all throughout the year). It was largely Community Cycles that expanded the popular Bike to Work Day into a whole month, once they began organizing the event.

Boulder is a premier bicycling town, and Community Cycles is right there to teach about repairs, fitness, rules and law, and to share their love of bikes as well as the vehicles themselves to the entire community of Boulder. Definitely make Community Cycles one of your breakfast stops on Boulder Bike To Work Day —you won’t regret it.

Boulder’s Bike Paths

You can’t shake a stick in Boulder without hitting a bike path, whether it’s a special lane on the side of the road, a paved path that’s for multiple uses, or a dedicated trail only for bikes, and it’s easy to see why: the entire Boulder Valley has more than three hundred miles of paths that bikes can use.

Over three hundred! That shows you what a bike town Boulder is: can you imagine the city planning that went into this vast network of bike-friendly road? It’s a phenomenal achievement, and Bike To Work Day (and of course the rest of the month, and let’s face it, all year) is an extra special way to celebrate the many ways Boulderites can use these miles and miles of paths.

Where to Get Your Swag

You won’t be able to ride your bike two feet Wednesday between 6:30 and 9 am without running into a breakfast station. I’m not even kidding—there are way too many Boulder stations to list here, from your favorite food places like Whole Foods, Lucky’s, Moe’s Bagels, the Dushanbe Teahouse, and Spruce Confections, but businesses across Boulder and into Gunbarrel have booths planned, as do business parks, plazas, and all across campus.

Of course, you’ll want to make sure you hit Community Cycles and Full Cycle, and don’t forget: if your commute takes you into Longmont or Lafayette or Louisville, you’ll not want for stations there too.

So what are you waiting for, Boulder? Strap on your helmet, don your spandex shorts, fill that water bottle, clip your shoes in, and let’s bike to work! Don’t forget to register, so that your contribution to reducing our city’s carbon footprint gets added to the data collected on the day. That’s June 26th, 2019. I’ll see you out there, Boulder!

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Jennifer Zukowski

Jennifer Zukowski

Jenn Zuko is adjunct faculty at DU, MSU Denver, and Regis University. She teaches courses in writing; literature; visual, performing, and martial arts; body language and stage combat. She is the author of Stage Combat: Fisticuffs, Stunts, and Swordplay for Theatre and Film, and “I Do My Own Stunts”. She can be seen performing on stage and in classrooms in the Boulder/Denver area, and online at Daily Cross-Swords, YourBoulder, and Writers’ HQ. She tweets at @bonzuko.
Jennifer Zukowski

Jennifer Zukowski

Jenn Zuko is adjunct faculty at DU, MSU Denver, and Regis University. She teaches courses in writing; literature; visual, performing, and martial arts; body language and stage combat. She is the author of Stage Combat: Fisticuffs, Stunts, and Swordplay for Theatre and Film, and “I Do My Own Stunts”. She can be seen performing on stage and in classrooms in the Boulder/Denver area, and online at Daily Cross-Swords, YourBoulder, and Writers’ HQ. She tweets at @bonzuko.

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