If you’ve ever set foot outside of your dorm, apartment or lecture hall, it should be painfully obvious that bikes make up an integral part of the Davis community. You’d be hard-pressed to find any spot in the city without a skirmish line of bikes perched outside.
What sets this month apart is that there will be an ongoing series of events in which several groups throughout Davis will be holding various activities and events supporting and encouraging biking around the city.
According to the League of American Bicyclists, Bike Month has been a national event that has been going on for the past 55 years. The League touted the month as “the perfect time for new or returning riders to get back on the saddle and ride their bike to work.”
According to the League’s website, Bike Month was originally intended to promote the sale of bicycles, but in the years since has been more focused on safe cycling and promoting the act of bicycling itself.
A press release from the city of Davis states that the events scheduled for Bike Month will promote the “positive health, social and environmental impacts of bicycling.”
In tandem with the festivities, Davis will also be taking part in a Million Mile May challenge in which the community will be encouraged to use bicycles to run errands and commute.
On the website mayisbikemonth.com, participants can sign up to log their bike miles, win prizes and track the number of pounds of CO2 and other pollutants that are prevented from being released into the atmosphere by biking rather than using other forms of transportation.
Davis will be joined by the rest of the Sacramento region in the colossal effort to log a million bike miles. A kickoff event will be held in Sacramento today starting at 11 a.m. at Fremont Park between Q and 16th Street. Davis will have its own events peppered throughout the month.
If you don’t have a bike but are eager to participate in the month’s events, consider attending the bike auction on May 5 hosted by TAPS. The auction will take place on campus at the West Entry Parking Structure from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On May 16, there will be a Bike Picnic at Central Park, located on Third and C Street, and on the next day, the Chamber of Commerce will hold a Celebrate Davis event at the community park on F and Covell.
Davis Loopalooza will be a family-oriented event in which families can ride a 12-mile circuit, visiting various booths and collecting stamps in passports given out at the start of the bike loop. The event will take place on May 6 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The month’s festivities will be rounded out by the Tour de Cluck on May 26. The event is funded by the Davis Farm to School Connection and will feature a Tour de Cluck Fowl Food Fair at the Davis Farmers Market. Later in the day, a chicken coop crawl will be held throughout various Davis neighborhoods.
Further information and tickets will be available on tourdecluck.org.
If you’re interested in the information above or would like to look into more events, visit cityofdavis.org. Events involving the entire Sacramento region can be located in the events section of mayisbikemonth.com.
ANDREW POH can be reached at city@theaggie.org.
