WTNH Channel 8 video of the event:
For Your Health, For the Climate, Leave Your Car at Home May 19
Contacts: Kevin Sullivan – CT DEEP/BikeWalkCT 860-424-3275
Jay Stange – Transport Hartford 917-601-3165
Paige Lawrence – CTrides 860-263-5778
Bike West Hartford – bikewesthartfordinc@gmail.com
Barbara Glassman Dell – Old State House – barbara.Dell@ctdemocracycenter.org
Greater Hartford – A third of vehicle miles traveled in Connecticut are trips less than 10 miles. Half of those are less than 5 miles. Join a May 19 Bike to Work Day ride for your health, for the climate, and to ease congestion on our roads by trading out one of those short car trips for a fun Friday bike ride.
State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes will join members of BikeWalkCT, Bike West Hartford, CTrides, and the Center for Latino Progress’ BiCi Co. and Transport Hartford staff for a group ride beginning at 7 am. Participants should gather at 6:45 am at the BiCi Co. West community bike shop (616 New Park Avenue) in West Hartford.
The public and media are invited to join this four-mile Friday group ride to Connecticut’s Old State House at 800 Main Street in Downtown Hartford. The proposed route, which may change subject to safety considerations, is here.
Coffee and pastries will be provided at the BiCi Co. West ride start point. Participants will be available to provide comments at a media event at the Old State House at the end of the ride. CTtransit will be bringing a bus and doing a bikes-on-bus demo and tabling, too.
The West Hartford-Hartford group ride is just one of many planned throughout the state. Anyone can organize a Bike to Work Day 2023 ride with neighbors and co-workers, who can log the miles for this ride in the CTrides Drive Less CT Climate Challenge, which continues through May 31.
CT DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes: “Vehicle exhaust continues to be the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions and asthma-causing air pollution in our state, so we encourage all Connecticut residents to look at their own travel habits and explore new ways to commute and travel greener by joining Bike to Work Day and the CTrides Climate Challenge.”
Jay Stange of Transport Hartford: “Transportation produces 40 percent of all Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Connecticut. We can take a big, fun bite out of those harmful pollutants by choosing our bike instead of reaching for our car keys.”