Thousands of greater Washington-area residents will leave their cars at home today and commute to work by bicycle.
According to Eric Gilliland, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, more than 6,000 people have signed up to participate in the area celebration of national Bike to Work Day.
“Every bike that you have on the road is really one car that you don’t have on the road,” said Gilliland, whose group is sponsoring the event with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. “It’s really a great way to help congestion, and in downtown urban environments, bikes and cars travel at about the same speed.”
As part of the event, there will be 24 pit stops around the region from College Park to Arlington and D.C. proper. Each stop will provide breakfast and, in some instances, speakers and entertainment.
“Obviously, we have Route 1 running through College Park, and we understand that traffic is an issue,” said Elisa Vitale, a planner for College Park, who is the city’s point person for the event. “We’d like to encourage residents to use alternative modes of transportation such as bikes.”
In Washington, Gilliland said, Mayor Adrian Fenty, D.C. Council members and some congressmen will speak at the pit stop in Freedom Plaza around 8 a.m.
Charlie Strunk, Fairfax County’s bicycle program coordinator, said less than 1 percent of people in the county walk or bike to work on a given day. “We need to get it up over 1 percent,” he said. “It makes sense. The roads are getting crowded with traffic. Our peak hour has turned into a peak period, and it’s going to get longer as more cars are added to the network.”
Of 68 metropolitan regions in the country, the Washington area ranks third in traffic congestion and fourth “in the amount of extra time needed for a trip during rush hour,” according to WABA.
Rudi Schreiber, a member of the D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council, has been biking to work for about 27 years. He bikes nine miles round-trip from his Hillcrest home in Southeast Washington to North Capitol Street.
“Traffic is horrendous, and my commute by bicycle is shorter than the few times a year I do drive,” he said.
