Skip the drive and ride for Boulder’s Walk and Bike Month

The day after thousands of pedestrians take to the streets for the Bolder Boulder, the city of Boulder will begin celebrating its 34^th annual Walk and Bike Month. The celebration will feature biking, hiking, and walking activities for the Boulder community throughout the month of June. Event planners expect it to be the most well-attended year yet.

More than 90 activities are featured for the annual event, including the extremely popular Bike to Work Day and new traveling bike maintenance classes. Some events are slightly more ridiculous, like The Great 55^th Street Egg-less Relay, in which corporate teams of three bikers and one pedestrian take turns navigating an obstacle course while balancing in their mouth a spoon filled with jelly beans. There are also family-friendly events like the Little Bikes on the Prairie ride, which will take participants on an easy trip by the South Boulder Creek.

“This is one of the most community loved events,” Marni Ratzel of Go Boulder said.

It is also one of the city’s largest free events, she said, next to the Boulder Creek Festival.

Ratzel said one of the best things about the event is that it helps those who are unsure about biking or walking or who don’t do it very much to give it a try.

“It encourages those who are thinking about it, or those who are new to the community, to [bike more],” she said.

Event organizers expect more than 8,000 people to sign up for Bike to Work Day, which will take place on June 23 this year.

“Bike to Work Day is a day when there are so many people biking that those who aren’t familiar or don’t do it that often feel a boosted level of confidence. There’s a festive sense that happens.”

The day also helps raise awareness about sharing the road and bike and pedestrian awareness, Ratzel said.

Sue Prant, fourth-time director of Walk and Bike Month, said that Boulder is known for supporting forms of transportation besides driving, much of which is due to its investment in a large bus system.

“I think boulder does a pretty good job of it,” she said. “We chose to be this way and you could choose to be this way, too! It’s all political will. If you have the will to do it, it will happen.”

The month originally began as just a week, which included Bike to Work Day. Eventually, organizers decided it needed a whole month.

“In order for every community group to get their event in, we needed to go to a month,” Prant said. “We did and it just got bigger, now a month almost isn’t big enough!”

Beginning June 1 and running all month, events for adults, children, seniors and families will take place at least once a day.

“Every year it gets bigger and better and we get more people participating,” Prant said.

Visit www.communitycycles.org to see a list of events.