Bike Fest offers information to community, students

Sustain Mizzou sponsored the event, with funding from GetAbout Columbia.

By Kristin Torres

Published April 18, 2008

The start of spring signals the perfect time to hop on a bike, and MU environmental awareness group Sustain Mizzou has launched Bike Fest just in time — aiming to educate students about bike safety issues while advocating and encouraging the switch to alternative transportation.

Partially funded by the GetAbout Columbia program, Sustain Mizzou joined forces with several community organizations to organize the event, which has been held once before; organizers said they hope to make it an annual event. PedNet, the MU Police Department, the Columbia Fire Department and the MU Wellness Resource Center, among others, set up booths in Lowry Mall on Wednesday to provide students tips and education about bike maintenance, safety and other bike-related topics. A scenic bike ride through the Columbia trail system and free informational classes also were held Thursday, which will be available again on the April 24.

Walt's Bike Shop employee Lindsay Parsons said the store's mission this Bike Fest was to put educational safety information in the hands of Columbia's bicyclists.

"Our booth was concentrating on statistics involved with helmet safety," she said.

Parsons said she hopes after Bike Fest she'll see an increase in safe bike practices around town.

"Personally, after I talked to so many people admitting to not wearing a helmet, I hope I'll see a lot more people around campus and downtown wearing one," she said. "You only get one chance."

She said she provided information to would-be bicyclists looking to get in on Columbia's thriving bike scene for a number of reasons.

"I would say half and half of the people were really hardcore bikers who spend a lot of time on their bikes and then people who want to get into it," she said.

Newcomers are interested in experiencing new ways to explore Columbia and enjoy downtown by getting there car-free, she said.

Robert Johnson of GetAbout Columbia said he wants to teach bicyclists to do just that, whether they see themselves as veteran riders who know the ropes of the roads or if they're just getting acquainted with commuting by bike. He said there's always room to get educated.

On Thursday, Johnson taught a 45-minute class about commuting safely. He shared a few of his own experiences about getting started as a sidewalk bicyclist to gradually becoming into a full-fledged street rider with a bike decked out for all his needs as a car-free commuter.

"When I first started out, I would ride on sidewalks," he said, adding that many bicyclists start out the same way.

But riding on the sidewalks isn't as safe as some assume it to be, he said.

"I did some research on sidewalk biking and I found out, 'Oh. That's not what I want to be doing,'" he said.

But Johnson said it takes a bit of bravery to get out on the road, too.

"People are scared," he said. "They think they're going to get hit by a car."

Whether a bicyclist leisurely rides around campus trying to get to class or commutes exclusively by bike, Johnson's presentation provided a grab bag of advice and education.

He drove home the point that bicyclists should recognize that once on a bike, the rules change.

"They're not pedestrians. They're vehicles," he said.

Attendee Sarah Kertz, a native of Chicago who recently moved to Columbia, said she decided to come to Johnson's information session to become more familiar with Columbia's bike laws.

"Coming from a big, traffic-congested place like Chicago, it's going to be different biking here," she said. "Columbia is by far way more friendly to its bikers, but at the same time there's always going to be that misunderstanding between motorists and cyclists."

Johnson had some words of advice for those trying to alleviate that tension.

"You can't stand on a mountain and say, 'I'm a vehicle, too, damn it!' and then break all the bike laws in Columbia," he said.

Part of the problem, Johnson said, is though parents urge their teenagers to devote hours to driver education, there's not much pressure to devote the same kind of attention to learning how to properly use a bicycle.

"People don't put any effort into riding it properly," he said. "A few hours of education can make them better bicyclists."

Sustain Mizzou President Ben Datema said in an e-mail he hopes Bike Fest will encourage riders of all skill levels to commute by bike while keeping safe.

"These are all incredibly simple things to learn that can be incredibly useful in keeping you safe and making sure you have an enjoyable ride," he said.