Exit133

January 22, 2015 · Exit133

2015 Will Be the "Year of the Bike" in Tacoma

2015 is the year of the sheep (we know you Monkeyshines fans knew that). We knew that. Now Downtown On the Go and the Tacoma cycling community are launching an effort to make it the Year of the Bike as well. And you can help.

As the number of cyclists in town has gradually increased, Downtown On the Go is excited to finally announce:

2015 is the Year of the Bike in Tacoma.

We will kick-off the Year of the Bike on Feb. 12 with a free screening of the bicycle documentary AfterMass: Bicycling in a Post-Critical Mass Portland, followed by a Q&A style discussion about Tacoma’s bicycle community. Details about this event can be found on our website here.

They're giving you three ways you can get involved in making 2015 the #YearOfTheBike:

1. Ride Your Bike! Bike to school, bike to a friend’s house, bike to the coffee shop, bike anywhere. Ride by yourself or ride in a group. It doesn’t have to be far or difficult. Find and share ride ideas at Bike253.com

2. Make Your Voice Heard. Tell our City Council that you want a city built for bikes. Citizens’ Forums are held every second Tuesday of the month at the Tacoma Municipal Building and give you an open-mic opportunity to speak directly to your elected city officials.

3. Be a Bicycle Ambassador. Downtown On the Go is looking for active members of the biking community to help grow the number of people on bikes in Tacoma. To get involved, call us at 253-682-1739, or send us an email at dotg@tacomachamber.org.

If you don't use your bike to get around town on a regular basis, this might be the year to start. You could start small with a trip to the grocery store, or a weekend ride, and maybe work your way up to bike commuting. If you need a little extra incentive beyond the fresh air, exercise, and environmental benefits, the Bike to a Business program offers some good deals when you ride your bike to participating businesses. Bike to Pacific Brewing in January, and get a $1 off your first pint. Bike to Hop Coffee at the Harmon Tap Room in February, and get $0.50 off your beverage order.

If you're a woman who already bikes, or who wants to start, the VeloFemmes group offers an array of events and opportunities to meet and cycle with other women. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for their email list.

And everyone can keep an eye out for organized rides and other events to get involved in at bike253.com, and watch for Year of the Bike posters to pop up around town. On the social media networks, look out for #Bike253 and #YearOfTheBike posts to stay in the loop - and if you've got your own thoughts to share on making Tacoma bike-friendly, add the hashtag to join the conversation with other local cyclists.

This should be a fun year to be on two wheels.

Filed under: Transportation, Biking, Get Involved

5 comments

  • RHTCCComedyfan January 24, 2015

    I had a heart attack earlier this year (my heart functions now at a meager 25% efficiency) though now I cycle around 18 miles per day,5 days per week. What I learned in the cardio rehab class was that the people in this country are facing a cardiovascular epidemic with about half the population eventually dying of cardiovascular disease due to our bad American habits like our poor high chloresterol red meat,fast foot,prepared foods,restaurant food diets,our sedentary (lack of exercise) lifestyle,anger problems and stress.I am but in my mid 50's of age. Also I learned that humanity is destroying itself and most other species on this Earth due to our unsustainable greedy lifestyles,excessive populations,unsustainable resource and energy consumption,pollution,CO2 emissions etc called the Anthropocene the new era that we have mistakinley created. As a animal species our stunning success to dominate the Planet and its resources has a ugly ultimately self destructive side to it and this is in the near term not millenia or many hundreds of years away. If we follow our current habits and lifestyles we stupidly will self destruct as a country,as a species and take most of the species on Earth into extinction. This is no joke nor delusion.It's dead serious.I am not pulling your leg. It's like a danger like the rise of Nazism,the Japanese WW2 empire and World War 2 except that it is 100 times or 1,000 times more serious of a problem. If we do nothing we will all condemn our childrens future,betray most life on Earth,betray our country,be traitors just to obtain selfish wealth. I don't know about you but I am no traitor.I care about my county,I care about life on Earth,I care for the future. The greatest generation was considered the WW2 Generation.However the truly greatest generation could be us if we care.The WW2 Generation could be proud of us or they could be ashamed of us. See the video TEDxCanberra - Will Steffen - The Anthropocene on Youtube And a great book on the Anthropocence from Elizabeth Kolbert called the Sixth Extinction. This has shown me that only a suicidal fool or a suicidal foolish society would consider ICE personal motor vehicles as reasonable form of mass human transportation considering what those machines are doing to our Earth's environment. This was a unwise choice,very clever but unwise. For transporting large heavy goods they can be reasonable with limitations. Goods should preferably be made locally. Basically the Interstate highway system is a monster of a societal unsustainable mistake For our society and world global civilizations to survive we are going to have to adapt like using more environmentally friendly transporation like bicycles,velomobiles or other Human powered (maybe hybrid electric vehicles) (it's heart healthy too). Walking works too but it's not anywhere as efficient as cycling We will need to develop car free cities as well or change them to car free. See the Video Occupy All Streets The Role of Carfree Cities in a More Sustainable World on Youtube I have often wondered why Albert Einstein never owned a car and instead rode a bicycle People addicted to Methamphetamine or Heroin are little different that those that are Motor Vehicle dependant/addicted.The difference is that the Motor Vehicle dependant addicted (most of the population) are much more destructive to the environment. I hate to burst many peoples bubble but riding a bicycle or Human powered vehicle is far more wise

    • Carlos January 30, 2015

      Geez, buddy....too bad the heart attack didn't take. You're a bore.

    • thackerspeed February 2, 2015

      "People addicted to Methamphetamine or Heroin are little different that those that are Motor Vehicle dependant/addicted.The difference is that the Motor Vehicle dependant addicted (most of the population) are much more destructive to the environment. If we follow our current habits and lifestyles we stupidly will self destruct as a country,as a species and take most of the species on Earth into extinction. It’s like a danger like the rise of Nazism,the Japanese WW2 empire and World War 2 except that it is 100 times or 1,000 times more serious of a problem."---RHTCCComedyfan You may be sincere in your motives, but such misleading and harmful rhetoric, is sincerely bad thinking. In your la-di-da future picture of Tacoma, as a quaint hamlet of pre-industrial supermen connected by walking trails and bicycle paths, the prospect of gloom and doom is too despairing to seriously contemplate. Any ragged motorized cavalry could pick the day and time to flatten you and your Chinese made bicycle into a municipal sewer cover.

  • RHTCCComedyFan January 24, 2015

    Sorry for my numerous spelling mistakes in my previous post (I was tired).You get my drift though

  • Garrett January 25, 2015

    The Year of the Bike: I love it. Every city had its re-birth; c'mon Tacoma, get on your bikes!