360 Tour Around Boulder - That's Living!
We at Metroseen are very involved in helping spread the message about using cars a little bit less everyday (especially for short commutes) and want to help encourage bike commuting and all the ways to increase its desire and safety. More than that, we ourselves love to bike! I personally love my Italian steel Bianchi road bike! I ride it with pride!
After all, this is bicycle town. Period. Leave out the pro-racers, the triathlete elitists and the hundreds of endurance athletes. That's a huge population of it's own in Boulder. What I mean is that Boulder is the most amazing bicycle-commuter-friendly town too! Yes, places such as Portland, OR and Minneapolis, MN are contenders in earning a similar title - and really, the more places crusading this same cause only makes me happier. But, unless I'm missing something, I don't believe any other town in America has been praised more often, nor has won near the amount of awards for being the awesome bicycle-friendly town that we are. The town is just buzzing with people who are in love with the idea of biking and the city officials have the right attitude toward creating fun and efficient commuting methods. Boulder has 300+ miles of bike lanes, routes, designated shoulders and paths. Now consider that Boulder is only 25.4 square miles.
Still, it surprises me how congested the city has become. Ask anyone who's been here for longer than 5 years and they'll tell you that it's at least twice as frustrating to get across town in a car as it was 5 years ago. And there they are... World Class bike paths only few feet away from almost anywhere you live. Recently, I asked a friend who lives in Denver what his impression of Boulder was, fully expecting him to to tell me what I've heard so many times from Denverites, which is that Boulderites are freaks (not my experience, by the way - go live in a major east or west coast city, then get back to me on that). No, instead, his answer was that he thought it was too congested here. Not too surprising, considering my own experience lately, but what was surprising was that he didn't know about the bike paths and the fact that you could literally spend almost an entire day circling the city with hardly ever having your wheels touch a street.
So, Boulder, here's my plea to you. Please join me and the hundreds of others who ride around Boulder every year, and come celebrate this amazing path that we have... it is such a privilege to have this and we owe it to the great people before us who helped "pave" the path for us (pardon the pun). We owe it to ourselves as taxpayers to at least take part in this fun event...
On Sunday, June 6, 2010 at Scott Carpenter Park (30th Street and Arapahoe Avenue) join us for the 13th Annual Circle Boulder By Bicycle event. This free event begins at 3 p.m. and starts and ends at Scott Carpenter Park, which also includes a celebration with food, music, prizes and fun! Through out the path there will be many stops for snacks... it's a very friendly event. A few years ago, my entire family walked away with free shirts, cycling socks and swag... so in a way, you even get paid for riding! Here's a map of both the B360 and B180 routes courtesy of Boulder's progressive government. The B360 is a 28-mile loop around almost all of Boulder and the B180 is a 16-mile route around some of Boulder. Here's the event flyer to learn more about this great community event.
Registration and leisure start for the B360 takes place between 3 and 3:30 p.m. Registration and leisure start for the B180 takes place between 3:30 and 4 p.m. The people of Boulder are also so cool when it comes to anything related to bicycling that there are people volunteering free bicycle safety checks for all participants.
What will you lose? Time from a busy schedule? Come on! It's only once a year! Out of practice, out of shape? There will be many people of all sorts of levels of experience and fitness levels right there with you. And we all cheer each other on. It's a wonderful experience with spectacuar views and it feels good.
See you there!
Mark Montalbano
