Due to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, many bicycle advocacy organizations, including the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), and SF Bike are "turning on a dime" so to speak, and rescheduling the usual Bike Month activities to the Fall of this year. With the health and safety of our entire community in mind, the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition is planning to follow suit with the League in "shifting" Bike to Work Day to September 22 to coincide with World Car-Free Day. As May is still Bike Month, FCBC is still encouraging "socially-distanced" bicycle riding during May for essential transportation and for exercise as an important health related activity during the shelter-in-place order, and will be continue to promote socially-distanced bicycling through various social media channels. We would like to encourage bicyclists to support local small businesses, especially local food establishments (and our local bike shops!) during these challenging times by riding your bike for curb-side pick-up when available. FCBC will be reaching out to local small businesses in an effort to encourage them to be more "bicycle friendly" during the time of Covid, so we hope this opportunity will pay off in the long run!
And for those unfamiliar with World Car-Free Day, read on, and "Ride On!"
A Car-Free Day encourages motorists to give up their cars for a day. Organized events are held in some cities and countries. September 22 is World Car Free Day. According to The Washington Post, the event promotes improvement of mass transit, cycling and walking, and the development of communities where jobs are closer to home and where shopping is within walking distance. Studies showed that for short trips in cities, one can reach more quickly using a bicycle rather than using a car.
The events, which vary by location, give motorists and commuters an idea of their locality with fewer cars. While projects along these lines had taken place from time to time on an ad hoc basis starting with the 1973 oil crisis, it was only in October 1994 that a structured call for such projects was issued in a keynote speech by Eric Britton at the International Ciudades Accessibles (Accessible Cities) Conference held in Toledo (Spain). Within two years the first Days were organized in Reykjavik(Iceland), Bath (United Kingdom) and La Rochelle (France), and the informal World Car Free Days Consortium was organized in 1995 to support Car-Free Days worldwide. The first national campaign was inaugurated in Britain by the Environmental Transport Association in 1997, the French followed suit in 1998 as In town, without my car! and was established as a Europe-wide initiative by the European Commission in 2000. In the same year the Commission enlarged the program to a full European Mobility Week which now is the major focus of the Commission, with the Car-Free Day part of a greater new mobility whole. Also in 2000, car free days went global with a World Carfree Day program launched by Carbusters, now World Carfree Network, and in the same year the Earth Car Free Day collaborative program of the Earth Day Network and the World Car Free Days collaborative.
Fresno County Bicycle Coalition
