National Bike to Work Day is this Friday May 16. This is an opportunity to encourage folks to consider using a bicycle instead of a car or truck for their transportation to work. For many people, bicycling to work once can demonstrate that the barriers to choosing a bicycle are not as difficult as imagined.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be some issues to figure out. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that bicycling to work everyday will work out. But for many people, it is a way to see that bicycling to work once in a while – whether that is once a week or a few times per month – can be both feasible and enjoyable.

For some, bicycling to work may not be pragmatic. What this means for each person is different because what might be feasibly bikable for one person could be out of the question for another. Since many people live quite far from their place of employment, some consider a focus on Bike to Work Day as too narrow.

One group in the Silicon Valley area of California is celebrating Bike to Shop Day as a way to encourage people to consider using a bicycle for their trips to stores selling clothes, food, art, housewares, and more. Stores are often closer than workplaces, and many shopping trips occur during leisure periods when more flexibility is available for giving utilitarian bicycling a try.

In the big picture, our cities will be better places to live if more of us choose a bicycle as our transportation vehicle more frequently. This simple viewpoint is the reason we celebrate Bike to Work Day.

In Stevens Point, a Bike to Work Day celebration will take place on the Mathias Mitchell downtown public square on Friday May 16 from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM. A coalition of organizations spearheaded by Portage County Can will be creating a fun event in celebration of bicycling. Two short rides are planned: a family ride led by Stevens Point Mayor Andrew Halverson and a city ride led by Portage County Executive Patty Dreier.

The highlight of this event will be the unveiling of Stevens Point’s Bicycle Friendly Community award. The League of American Bicyclists named Stevens Point a bronze-level BFC in October. This short ceremony is scheduled for 4:30 PM. All Poky Pedalers are particularly encouraged to attend this ceremony to show our elected officials that there is strong support for bicycling in Stevens Point.

More information about Stevens Point’s Bike to Work Day celebration can be found here. Whether you are celebrating your everyday bicycle commute, your first bicycle commute, or your decision to consider trying a bicycle commute, come to Friday’s event for a well deserved pat on the back.

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